What were some of your favorite YA books that were written recently? How do they compare to what the intended audience thought?
Teen groups from around the country nominate what they deem the best books published in the previous year, and these nominations can go on to become the Teens' Top Ten, hosted by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). From August 15 through October 15, readers ages 12-18 can vote online for their favorites. YALSA will share the results in the Fall, and we'll be sure to forward the winners.
We've rounded up this year's 25 nominees in the list below for you to peruse! Which would you choose?
All My Rage
by Sabaa Tahir
Lahore, Pakistan. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start. Juniper, California. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding. Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah's health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. When Sal's attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth--and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.
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Alone Out Here
by Riley Redgate
When the president's daughter--eighteen-year-old Leigh Chen--ends up on the only ship escaping a dying earth, she and a group of teenagers must grapple with the challenges of what it will take to survive as the last remnants of humanity.
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Blackwater
by Jeannette Arroyo & Ren Graham
Set in the haunted town of Blackwater, Maine, two boys fall for each other as they dig for clues to a paranormal mystery. Tony Price is a popular high school track star and occasional delinquent aching for his dad's attention and approval. Eli Hirsch is a quiet boy with a chronic autoimmune disorder that has ravaged his health and social life. What happens when these two become unlikely friends (and a whole lot more ...) in the spooky town of Blackwater, Maine? Werewolf curses, unsavory interactions with the quarterback of the football team, a ghostly fisherman haunting the harbor, and tons of high school drama.
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Crumbs
by Danie Sterling
Ray, a young seer struggling with her powers, discovers first love and friendship in her town's magic bakery.
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Dig Two Graves
by Gretchen McNeil
While at a girls' empowerment camp, high school pariah Neve and her new best friend Diane joke about killing each other's bullies, and soon after returning home, Neve finds herself being blackmailed into committing murder.
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Don't Look Back: a Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey from Sudan to America
by Achut Deng & Keely Hutton
In this story of unimaginable hardship and selfless bravery, of tormenting physical pain and amazing emotional resistance and the unbreakable bonds of friendship and family, a former refugee recounts her 1,000-mile journey to finally find a life, instead of merely surviving.
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Five Survive
by Holly Jackson
Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend and her older brother, his perfect girlfriend, a friend from school, and a guy Red wishes was more than a friend. When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead. With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be forced to light and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night.
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Gallant
by V.E. Schwab
Olivia Prior has grown up at the grim Merilance School for Girls with no past except for her one treasure, her mother's journal. So when a letter arrives inviting her to come home to ruinous manor Gallant, she seizes the opportunity to find out about her family.
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The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea
by Axie Oh
In this retelling of the Korean legend The Tale of Shim Cheong, sixteen-year-old Mina is swept away to the Spirit Realm, where, assisted by a motley crew of demons, gods, and lesser spirits, she sets out to awaken the sleeping Sea God and save her homeland and family from deadly storms.
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Gleanings: Stories from Arc of a Scythe
by Neal Shusterman
A collection of stories that span the time when humans live in a world without hunger, disease, or death and Scythes act as the living instruments of population control.
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Gold Mountain
by Betty Yee
Fifteen-year-old Tam Ling Fan disguises herself as her twin brother, journeys from her village in China to California, and works as a laborer on the Transcontinental Railroad -- where she faces danger on multiple fronts -- to earn the money her family desperately needs.
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I Must Betray You
by Ruta Sepetys
Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe. Cristian risks everything to unmask the truth behind the regime, give voice to fellow Romanians, and expose to the world what is happening in his country.
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Icebreaker
by Hannah Grace
Anastasia Allen has worked her entire life for a shot at Team USA. It looks like everything is going according to plan when she gets a full scholarship to the University of California, Maple Hills, and lands a place on their competitive figure skating team. Nothing will stand in her way, not even the captain of the hockey team, Nate Hawkins. Nate's focus as team captain is on keeping his team on the ice. Which is tricky when a facilities mishap means they are forced to share a rink with the figure skating team--including Anastasia, who clearly can't stand him. But when Anastasia's skating partner faces an uncertain future, she may have to look to Nate to take her shot.
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The Ivory Key
by Akshaya Raman
Since the murder of the maharani of Ashoka--the country that controls all magic--the relationships between the royal siblings have fractured. At only 18, Vira has ascended to the throne, a role few in her council believe her capable of. Meanwhile, her twin brother, Ronak, is plotting to break free from a tactful marriage and taking their half-brother, Kaleb, (wrongfully imprisoned for the maharani's assassination) with him. The siblings' unease comes to a head when their sister Riya returns to the palace after two years of running with a group of rebels. As Ashoka's quarry runs out of magic, the only option left is to find fragments of an old map leading to an ivory key rumored to unlock the lost quarries of Ashoka. Legend or not, all the siblings want a piece of it.
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Lakelore
by Anna-Maria McLemore
Everyone who lives near the lake knows the stories about the world underneath it, an ethereal landscape rumored to be half-air, half-water. But Bastián Silvano and Lore Garcia are the only ones who've been there. Bastián grew up both above the lake and in the otherworldly space beneath it. Lore's only seen the world under the lake once, but that one encounter changed their life and their fate. Then the lines between air and water begin to blur. The world under the lake drifts above the surface. If Bastián and Lore don't want it bringing their secrets to the surface with it, they have to stop it, and to do that, they have to work together. There's just one problem: Bastián and Lore haven't spoken in seven years, and working together means trusting each other with the very things they're trying to hide.
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The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School
by Sonora Reyes
Sixteen-year-old Mexican American Yami Flores starts Catholic school, determined to keep her brother out of trouble and keep herself closeted, but her priorities shift when Yami discovers that her openly gay classmate Bo is also annoyingly cute.
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Lia & Beckett's Abracadabra
by Amy Noelle Parks
Seventeen-year-old Lia Sawyer teams up with Beckett--one of the charming Blackwell boys, the latest generation of a rival magic family--to win a stage magic contest and out-con the bad guys.
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Lightlark
by Alex Aster
Every 100 years the island of Lightlark appears. Its purpose: to host the Centennial, a deadly game that only the rulers of six realms are invited to play. The Centennial offers the six rulers one final chance to break the curses that have plagued their realms for centuries. Each realm's curse is uniquely wicked. To destroy the curses, one ruler must die. Isla Crown is the ruler of Wilding, a realm of temptresses cursed to kill anyone they fall in love with. To succeed at the Centennial, Isla must lie, cheat, and betray, even as love complicates everything.
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Messy Roots: a Graphic Memoir of an Wuhanese American
by Laura Gao
Seamlessly toggling between past and present, this funny graphic memoir follows a queer Chinese American's immigration to Texas where she just wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why she is attracted to girls.
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A Million Quiet Revolutions
by Robin Gow
Two seventeen-year-old trans boys in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, struggling to understand themselves and their love for each other, are inspired by an online story about trans soldiers who fell in love during the American Revolution.
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My Sister's Big Fat Indian Wedding
by Sajni Patel
Gifted violinist Zurika Damani tries to juggle the obligations of her sister's extravagant wedding week while secretly preparing for a prominent music contest all while trying to dodge her family's matchmaking schemes.
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Nothing Burns as Bright as You
by Ashley Woodfolk
A novel in verse that captures the unbalanced experience of an all-consuming love between two unnamed, queer, Black teen girls who move rapidly from strangerhood into a protective best friendship before becoming dysfunctional lovers and mutually destructive partners in crime.
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Nothing More to Tell
by Karen McManus
Brynn Gallagher uses her internship at a new true crime show to investigate the unsolved murder of her favorite teacher, uncovering secrets about her school, her teacher, and her ex-best friend in the process.
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The Rumor Game
by Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra
At Foxham Prep, a posh private school for Washington, D.C.'s elite, a single rumor has the power to ruin a life. Bryn used to have it all―the perfect boyfriend, a bright future in politics, and even popularity thanks to her best friend, cheer captain Cora. Then one mistake sparked a scandal that burned it all to the ground. Now it's the start of a new school year and the spotlight has shifted: It’s geeky Georgie, newly hot after a summer makeover, whose name is on everyone's lips. When a rumor ignites, Georgie rockets up the school's social hierarchy, pitting her and Cora against each other. It grants her Foxham stardom, but it also makes her a target. As the rumors grow and morph, blazing like wildfire through the school’s social media, all three girls’ lives begin to unravel.
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Some Mistakes Were Made
by Kristin Dwyer
Ellis and Easton have been inseparable since childhood. But when a rash decision throws Ellis's life--and her relationship with Easton--into chaos she's forced to move halfway across the country, far from everything she's ever known. Now Ellis hasn't spoken to Easton in a year, and maybe it's better that way; maybe eventually the Easton shaped hole in her heart will heal. But when Easton's mother invites her home for a celebration, Ellis finds herself tangled up in the web of heartache, betrayal, and anger she left behind and with the boy she never stopped loving.
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About the Author
Kristen is a Youth Services Librarian and has been working at EPL since 2013. She is a wannabe gardener who loves movies, the night sky, and avoiding the claws of her cat. Her reading interests tend toward short stories, as well as novels that are a blend of eerie, insightful, and magical.