Category: Booklists

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2024) Featured Review: Their Vicious Games by Joelle Wellington

  • Their Vicious Games
  • by Joelle Wellington
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
  • Release date: July 25, 2023
  • ISBN: 9781665922425

Adina is different from her classmates at the elite Edgewater Academy, where she is a scholarship recipient, in a number of ways. When a fight ensues with her former friend, Adina loses her spot at Yale and prospects for her future. That is until she receives an invitation to the Finish, a competition held by the wealthy and influential Remington Family. However, the competition turns out to be less about refinery and business acumen and more a battle to the death. 

Where Squid Game meets The Bachelor, this thriller will keep readers on their toes. The plot is fast paced and the characters are realized and ruthless, making it hard to not be drawn in, wondering what will happen next. The heart of the story explores wealth and privilege and is sure to engage readers. 

Readers who enjoy thrillers, strong female characters, and a little bit of gore will devour this title.  Recommend this title for fans of The Hunger Games, All of Us Villains, or The Culling by Steven dos Santos.

– Kaitlin Malixi

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: April 18, 2023
Release Date: April 18, 2023
Release Date: March 18, 2023
Release Date: April 11, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2024) Featured Review: Firebird by Sunmi

  • Firebird
  • by Sunmi
  • Publisher: HarperAlley / HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication Date: July 18, 2023
  • ISBN-13: 9780062981516

Caroline Kim is just trying to survive sophomore year; the “whatever” year of high school. But when she signs up for a peer tutoring program and meets beautiful, charismatic senior Kimberly Park-Ocampo, sophomore year becomes a little more exciting. As the relationship between Caroline and Kim deepens, Caroline finds herself questioning her sexuality, gender identity, relationship with her parents, and what exactly she wants from her future in this sensitive slice-of-life tale. 

Firebird presents a sapphic twist on high school romance tropes as the shy and studious Caroline falls for the popular Kim, in a story that evokes both classic American rom-coms and shojo manga. Unlike traditional romances, however, the story feels open-ended and allows Caroline’s gender identity and sexuality to remain realistically uncertain avenues for future exploration. The art is mostly black and white with occasional dramatic splashes of red, and the loose and expressive linework gives a sense of intimacy that suits the introspective themes of the book.

As a complex coming-of-age story with a sketchy, black and white art style, Firebird feels like a descendant of Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki’s Skim. Hand Firebird to readers who love slice-of-life manga with LGBTQ+ themes and traditional shōjo artistic devices like Yuhki Kamatani’s Our Dreams at Dusk. Readers who appreciated the diversity of Asian experiences and inclusion of Korean language dialog in Harmony Becker’s Himawari House will also find similar themes here. Pair Firebird with Deb JJ Lee’s In Limbo for teens interested in explorations of the Korean-American experience and complicated parent-child relationships. 

-Meg Bowie

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: January 24, 2023
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Release: April 4, 2023
Release: April 18, 2024

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2024) Featured Review: Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

  • Warrior Girl Unearthed
  • by Angeline Boulley
  • Narrated by Isabella Star LeBlanc
  • Macmillian Audio | Macmillan Young Listeners
  • Publication Date: May 2, 2023
  • ISBN: 9781250877277

Perry Firekeeper-Birch just wants to enjoy her summer. But when a close call with a bear causes her to have a car accident she is forced to complete an internship at her tribe’s museum. There she learns about NAGPRA and repatriation (or lack thereof) of ancestors from a local university. She and her friends embark on a journey to bring their ancestors home by any means necessary. All the while, Native girls are going missing under mysterious circumstances, which is an issue that is all but ignored by the authorities. Warrior Girl Unearthed is a heartfelt story full of mystery and intrigue with realistic depictions of issues faced by indigenous people.

Isabella Star LeBlanc’s narration masterfully brings the story to life with her pronunciation of Ojibwe language and her captivating tone. The narration enhances the story by providing readers with an authentic voice depicting the native language spoken by the tribe as well as the reservation accent and code switching. 
This book is perfect for readers who enjoy authors such as Angie Thomas, Courtney Summers, Darcie Little Badger, or E. Lockhart. Those who enjoyed Boulley’s debut novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, will enjoy this story as well.

– Haley Shaw

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: January 31, 2023
Release Date: November 1, 2022
Release Date: November 29, 2022
Release Date: February 7, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2024) Feature Review: The Q by Amy Tintera

  • The Q
  • by Amy Tintera
  • Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
  • Imprint: Penguin Random House
  • Release date: November 8, 2022
  • ISBN: 9780593486177

The son of a candidate for President of the USA, Lennon,  is kidnapped and dropped inside the infamous Q, an area that used to be Austin, but is now enclosed by a wall and all occupants contained inside are plagued with a virus that attacks internal organs.

When Lennon lands via parachute into the Q, he is nervous for what will happen to him inside this unknown walled compound. For those inside, like Maisie, born inside the Q, why has this person been dropped into their protected environment and what does this mean for their safety? What follows is an escape adventure through gang-run territories, murderous mechanical birds, bomb-dropping drones, and major fight scenes. 

Readers who enjoy survival, rival gangs and family legacy stories will quickly absorb this story. Highly recommended for fans of Survive the Dome by Kosoko Jackson and The Getaway by Lamar Giles

-Jessica Lorentz Smith

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: September 6, 2022
Release Date: January 24, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2024) Featured Review: Promise Boys by Nick Brooks

  • Promise Boys
  • by Nick Brooks
  • Narrated by Renier Cortes, Christopher Hampton, Alfred Vines, and a full cast
  • Macmillan Audio| Macmillan Young Listeners
  • Publication Date: January 31, 2023
  • ISBN: 9781250877253

The Urban Promise Prep School is determined to create responsible, upstanding, college-bound young men out of all of its students. Principle Moore, the founder of the school, says that following the school’s unyielding discipline is what it takes to escape the violence of the students’ neighborhoods and to make it to college.  When Moore, a beloved pillar of the city of Washington D.C. turns up murdered in the school, three detention students are immediately suspects. J.B., Trey and Ramón. Each maintain that there is no way they could have committed the crime, no matter how much it may look like they did. The students and their friends are soon working together to discover who really murdered Principle Moore and why.

Nick Brooks has written a compelling mystery that will appeal to lots of different readers. The short chapters and constant change in point of view helps create urgency in the plot making this a fast read, even for reluctant readers. This is produced to great effect in the audiobook due to a full cast of narrators and sound effects. Readers who love crime or mystery and gravitate toward the television version of One of Us is Lying, the books of Karen McManus or Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s Ace of Spades will enjoy Promise Boys.

-Natalie LaRocque

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: November 11, 2022
Release Date: November 29, 2022
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Release Date: November 1, 2022

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers (#QP2024) Feature Review: Funeral Girl by Emma Ohland

  • Funeral Girl
  • by Emma Ohland
  • Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
  • Imprint: Lerner Publishing Group
  • Release date: September 6, 2022
  • ISBN: 9781728458007

Georgia’s parents run a funeral home so she is surrounded by the dead. It seems only natural that she can also communicate with ghosts by simply touching a corpse.

Initially this ability seems to give Georgia purpose as she can honor one last request from the dead before they cross over. But eventually, one of Georgia’s classmates dies unexpectedly and enters the funeral home. She is torn over if she should reach out to this body and risk learning the truth. What would readers do if confronted with the same situation?

Readers who are curious about life-after-death and interested in ghosts and ghost hunting will find this title appealing. Additional recommendations include Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson, Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren, and Invisible Ghosts by Robyn Schneider.

– Jessica Lorentz Smith

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: November 8, 2022
Release Date: January 24, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2024) Featured Review: Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest

  • I Kick and I Fly
  • by Ruchira Gupta
  • Publisher: Scholastic Press
  • Release date: April 18, 2023
  • ISBN: 9781338825091

Effie is a high school senior with a lot on her mind. Not only is she trying to decide which college she wants to attend next year, but she is crushing on the nice boy from class and she has to deal with the frustrating ableist administration at her high school. Effie has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, and her school doesn’t even have a working automatic door button.

Effie’s senior year is fraught with challenges and big changes, but also filled with lovely friendships and fierce bravery. Effie visits different college campuses to determine where she wants to attend, but unlike her friends, she must also determine how accessible each college is for wheelchair users and take that into account during her decision making process. Additionally, her mom is taking a step back with the hope it encourages Effie to advocate for herself to help prepare her for college, all while Effie is just trying to participate in fun senior year activities with her friends. This is a thoughtful #ownvoices story.

Teen readers who enjoy stories about finding their voice, getting ready for college or a sweet romance should pick this up. Where You See Yourself would make a great choice for those who enjoyed You, Me, and Our Heartstrings by Melissa See and for readers who want to learn more about advocacy for people with disabilities. This book would pair well with Judith Huemann’s memoir Rolling Warrior: The incredible, sometimes awkward, true story of a rebel girl on wheels who helped spark a revolution.

– Allison Riggs

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: March 28, 2023
Release Date: April 11, 2023
Release Date: May 2, 2023
Release Date: March 14, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.
The Best Fiction for Young Adults Committee appreciates teen feedback as members evaluate the nominated titles. Teen librarians are encouraged to share the List of Potential Nominees under consideration with their patrons and solicit feedback using the link: https://bit.ly/BFYA24TeenFB

Great Graphic Novels (#GGN2024) Featured Review: Season of the Bruja by Aaron Durán and Sara Soler

  • Season of the Bruja, vol. 1
  • by Aaron Durán and Sara Soler
  • Publisher: Oni Press
  • Publication Date: January 24, 2023
  • ISBN-13: ‎978-1549308161

Raised by her grandmother and paranormal family friends, Althalia is one of the last brujas and is being taught to control her magic and maintain her culture. Her life drastically shifts when it turns out that the church who has persecuted her people for centuries now knows of her and her grandmother. Althalia must go through the trials of learning to control her power as her grandmother wishes, while uncovering family secrets and a vast array of emotions in the process.

Season of the Bruja, vol. 1 is a fast-paced and action-packed graphic story with a center of family, friendship, and culture. It has exorcisms, Chupacabra’s, and were-coyotes–oh my! But the magic enhances the storytelling without overwhelming it, and character emotions still shine through.

Those who are interested in the magic and paranormal combined with everyday life should read Kelly Thompson’s Sabrina The Teenage Witch comics. For those who want more of the action, look for the new comic adaptation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Jordie Bellaire and Dan Mora. For teens who want more Latine representation in witchcraft, pick up Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas or the Brooklyn Brujas series by Zoraida Córdova.

—Cheyenne Sons

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: February 14, 2023
Release Date: March 14, 2023
Release Date: May 2, 2023
Release Date: June 27, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2024) Featured Review: Some Kind of Hate byy Sarah Darer Littman

  • Some Kind of Hate
  • by Sarah Darer Littman 
  • Narrated by Michael Crouch and Andrew Eiden 
  • Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc. | Blackstone Publishing
  • Publication Date: November 1, 2022
  • ISBN:  9798212170697

Declan knew his future was in baseball until he unexpectedly, and permanently, injured his arm. In the vacuum of this loss, Declan scrabbles to find his place and it is in a local white supremacist group where he finds others with the same level of rage. While everyone in Declan’s life struggles to understand how he got to this place, none are as confused or upset as his long-time best friend, Jake, who also happens to be Jewish. As Declan’s actions get scarier and scarier, Jake struggles with how to stop Declan before he does something irreversible.  

Dual narrators, Michael Crouch and Andrew Eiden, give clear voice to Jake and Declan (respectively) by showing how insidious hate groups can be and the struggle of combatting hate in unexpected places in life. Eiden ensures that Declan’s quick descent into extremism feels authentic and compelling. Crouch’s reflections on Jake’s frustrations push readers to these same spaces. Together, the narrators give passion to Darer Littman’s important and timely story. 

This audiobook pairs perfectly with Isaac Bloom’s The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen, Why We Fly by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal, and books by John Feinstein. 

 -Sarah Carpenter 

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: January 31, 2023
Release Date: November 11, 2022
Release Date: November 29, 2022
Release Date: March 7, 2023

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination. 

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.

Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers (#QP2024) Feature Review: Chaos Theory by Nic Stone

  • Chaos Theory
  • by Nic Stone
  • Publisher: Penguin Random House
  • Imprint: Crown Books for Young Readers
  • Release date: February 28, 2023
  • ISBN: 9780593307700

Andy Criddle is at a party and drunkenly texts his ex-girlfriend: or so he thought.  Instead, he mistakenly texts Shelbi Augustine, a quiet classmate from school. Andy gets behind the wheel, receives a DUI, and must serve community service as a result. Andy and Shelbi’s paths cross again when they meet at the soup kitchen where Andy decides to volunteer. As time goes on their relationship deepens, but Shelbi is determined to stay in “just friends” territory only. Stone addresses self-harm, substance abuse, and mental illness in this novel.

Andy and Shelbi have been through “stuff”, as many teen readers have. Teen readers will find several things that they can relate to as they are reading this novel. Text messages are included through the novel, making it easy to navigate because large blocks of text are broken up by the text message conversations. Stone addresses the reader at the beginning and end of the novel, furthering the conversation around mental illness and the stigma that is often involved. 

Teens who cope with mental illness and/or support someone they care for who is struggling will appreciate this title. Readers should also look at Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert, Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

– Katie Guzan

Other Nominated Titles

Release Date: April 4, 2023
Release Date: September 6, 2022

The Selected Lists teams read throughout the year in search of the best titles published in their respective categories. Once a book is suggested (either internally or through the title suggestion form), it must pass through a review process to be designated an official nomination.

Each week, the teams feature a review of one of the officially nominated titles. Additional titles to receive this designation are listed as well. At year’s end, the team will curate a final list from all nominated titles and select a Top Ten.