Each quarter, the Selected Lists teams compile the titles that have been officially nominated to date. These books have been suggested by the team or through the title suggestion form, read by multiple members of the team, and received approval to be designated an official nomination. At the end of the year, the final list of nominations and each Selected List’s Top Ten will be chosen from these titles.
Amari and the Night Brothers. By B.B. Alston. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (9781725418295).
Amari knows her brother isn’t dead. A briefcase in his closet leads her to a magical world—and the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, the place Quinton was working when he disappeared. Amari must use all her smarts and her heart to find out what really happened.
Artie and the Wolf Moon. By Olivia Stephens. Lerner Publishing Group/Graphic Universe, $16.99 (9781728420202).
After Artie finds out her mother is a werewolf and that she lost her father to vampires, she must then battle vampires to save her friends and new wolf family while trying to practice her own potential wolf abilities.
Before the Ever After. By Jacqueline Woodson. 2020. Penguin Random House/Nancy Paulsen Books, $17.99 (9780399545436).
Being the son of Zachariah 44, football star, has always felt like a dream to ZJ. But recently it’s been more like a nightmare, with his dad’s headaches, memory problems, and dramatic mood changes defining life in their house.
Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms. By Crystal Fraiser. Art by Val Wise. Lettering by Oscar O. Jupiter. Oni Press, $14.95 (9781620109557).
Smart, antisocial Annie is pressured by her mom and college counselor to join the cheerleading squad. To her surprise, not only does she enjoy the sport, but she also rekindles a friendship (and maybe more) with BeBe, who is experiencing support but also microaggressions as the state’s first trans cheerleader.
Cool for the Summer. By Dahlia Adler. Macmillan/Wednesday Books, $18.99 (9781250765826).
When Lara returns to her hometown after a surprising summer fling in the Outer Banks, she’s even more shocked that the most popular guy in school is suddenly interested in her. Everyone expects her to be interested in him, too, but she can’t forget about what happened last summer.
The Girl from the Sea. By Molly Knox Ostertag. Scholastic/Graphix, $14.99 (9781338540581).
Teenage Morgan is ready to leave her island home and start living her real life. One summer Morgan meets Keltie, a mysterious girl from the sea, and starts keeping secrets.
The Great Godden. By Meg Rosoff. Candlewick Press, $17.99 (9781536215854).
Two American brothers, Kit and Hugo, arrive to shake up the mood of a family’s wistful summer-long vacation away from London. Hugo acts as the thoughtful, silent foil to his heartthrob brother who forms a complicated romantic web full of relationships both seen and hidden.
In the Shadow of the Fallen Towers: The seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years after the 9/11 attacks. By Don Brown. Etch/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $19.99 (9780358223573).
Beautifully illustrated review of the events on 9/11 and the far-reaching effects of that terrible day.
Love is a Revolution. By Renée Watson. Bloomsbury/Bloomsbury YA, $18.99 (9781547600601).
Nala is learning about love – most importantly, how important it is to love yourself. Her relationship with her cousin-sister-friend Imani is strained, and Nala can’t stop lying and pretending she’s something she’s not to the boy she likes. In the Harlem heat, Nala has to figure out her best path.
My Epic Spring Break (Up). By Kristin Rockaway. Penguin Random House/Underlined, $9.99 (9780593180112)
When Ashley’s carefully planned spring break that was supposed to be focused on winning the NYC Hackathon takes an expected turn, she must decide what she wants. Is it her crush that she has nothing in common with? Or her longtime friend she is starting to see as something more?
Poison Ivy: Thorns. By Kody Keplinger. Art by Sara Kipin. DC Comics, $16.99 (9781401298425).
Pamela Isley is keeping secrets, including what’s really going on in her family’s creepy mansion late at night. When a cute goth girl comes into Pamela’s life, it seems like there’s hope for a real connection, but it also sets in motion a series of dangerous occurrences.
The Power of Style: How Fashion and Beauty Are Being Used to Reclaim Cultures. By Christian Allaire. Annick Press, $19.95 (9781773214900).
Authored by the Fashion and Style Writer for Vogue, this look at current elements of style focuses on social justice, culture, and politics, and their connection to how under-represented communities use fashion to proudly claim these identities.
Prom House. By Chelsea Mueller. Delacorte Press/ Underline, $9.99 (9780593180051).
When a group of ten friends decide to keep the party going after their Prom by renting a house on the Jersey Shore and they end up murdered one by one, which one is behind it all and who will make it out alive?
Recommended for You. By Laura Silverman. 2020, Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry Books, $17.99 (9781534474192).
Shoshanna Greenberg loves working at her local indie bookstore—and knows her love of books and readers will help her win the store’s holiday bookselling contest. Only one person stands in her way: new employee Jake Kaplan, who rubs Shoshanna the wrong way. But the more they get to know each other, the more they realize that they aren’t so annoying after all.
Rivals. By Tommy Greenwald. Abrams/Amulet Books, $17.99 (9781419748271).
Walthorne takes their basketball seriously, so when rivaling North and South middle schools play each other, the competition gets fierce. Student-reporter Alfie Jenks provides commentary on the matchups as well as the controversies off the court. Teams will have to learn whether morality is more important than winning.
Slingshot. By Mercedes Helnwein. Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Publishing Group, $18.99 (9781250253002).
Grace is miserable — stuck at a second-rate boarding school in the swamps of Florida, feeling like no one in her life understands her — when she stops the new boy from getting beat up and everything changes in this angst-ridden, funny, and dark coming-of-age tale.
Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf. By Hayley Krischer. 2020, Penguin Random House/Razorbill, $18.99 (9780593114117).
Ali is thrilled when her longtime crush Sean pays attention to her at a party, until things go horribly wrong. She knows what happened wasn’t right, but then popular Blythe, Sean’s friend, befriends her and defends his actions. Is it genuine, or is Blythe trying to keep her quiet?
Sunny Song Will Never Be Famous. By Suzanne Park. Sourcebooks/Sourcebooks Fire, $10.99 (9781728209425).
Sunny Song is an aspiring influencer, but those plans are derailed when she accidentally makes an inappropriate livestream. Her parents respond by sending Sunny to a technology detox camp at a working farm. Will Sunny be able to decide between the cute farm boy or her desire to go viral?
The Taking of Jake Livingston. By Ryan Douglass. Penguin Random House/ G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, $17.99 (9781984812537).
Haunted by the ghost of Sawyer, a school shooter, 16-year-old medium Jake Livingston must defeat Sawyer before he kills again.
Too Bright To See. By Kyle Lukoff. Penguin Random House / Dial Books for Young Readers, $16.99 (9780593111154).
Bug has always been a bit odd. The 11-year-old lives in a haunted house. But when Bug’s beloved uncle dies and starts haunting the home he used to live in, Bug seeks to figure out why—and ends up unraveling an even bigger mystery.
Want to suggest a title? The Title Suggestion Form is open!
Want a printable version of this round-up? Download the Fall nominations round-up.
Want to see them all so far? Here are the Spring and Summer round-ups.
