Tag: AA2019

Announcing YALSA’s 2019 Selected Lists/A 2020 Update

Our 2019 Amazing Audiobooks, Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, Great Graphic Novels for Teens, and Best Fiction for Young Adults lists are now completed! (BFYA will announce their top ten after the teen feedback session at ALA Midwinter in Seattle.) Also, if you’re interested in titles from past lists, please check out our Teen Bookfinder App! Check out the lists now as PDFs below or listed individually on the YALSA site.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, November 14 Edition

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas, narrated by Phoebe Strole
Listening Library
Publication Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525595625

The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas follows the story of Monica who believes years after a series of events that left five cheerleaders dead, including her sister, that justice may have not been served. As she begins delve into the complexities of the cheerleader’s deaths, she finds herself discovering the true meaning of family, friendship, and even love.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, November 7 Edition

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, narrated by Stephanie Hsu
Hachette Audio
Publication Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-549-19715-4 

In The Astonishing Color of After, Leigh finds solace following her mother’s suicide in her belief that her mother has returned as a red bird. Following clues left by the bird Leigh convinces her father to take her to Taiwan to meet her mother’s parents, who she has never met.  Once there, the bird continues to help Leigh uncover more clues about her mother and possibly help Leigh understand what caused her mother’s depression and eventual suicide.  Interspersed throughout the book are flashbacks to Leigh’s relationship with her best friend Axel and her passion for art.
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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 24 Edition

Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld
Audio published by Listening Library
Publication Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525589778

Orphan Monster Spy by debut novelist Matt Killeen is a suspenseful thriller set in WWII Germany about a orphaned Jewish girl-turned-spy. As the daughter of an unmarried stage actress, Sarah’s childhood was filled with theatre and music—until the Third Reich came to power. Suddenly, her mother’s Jewish heritage puts their lives in danger, even with Sarah’s blond hair and blue eyes. After her mother is shot at a Nazi roadblock, Sarah sacrifices her one chance for escape by using her acting abilities to save the life of a British spy. Soon, Sarah is enmeshed in his mission to stop the development of a bomb with “enough destructive power to flatten a city”. She must go undercover at a Nazi boarding school for girls and befriend the daughter of a Nazi physicist. Sarah soon realizes that surviving amongst the “little Aryan monsters” is as dangerous as her directive to gain entry to the physicists home, gather intel, and do whatever she can to thwart the development of the first nuclear weapon.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 17 Edition

The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik by David Arnold, narrated by Michael Crouch
Audio published by Books on Tape, Listening Library
Publication Date: May 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525625698

Noah’s about to start his senior year of high school, and he’s got his whole life figured out; except it isn’t the life that Noah wants anymore. He is a star swimmer, but he doesn’t want to swim in college, so he is faking an injury to get out of swimming this season. Then, one night at a party he tells a near-stranger that his life feels like a sweater that no longer fits. Noah goes home drunk after that same stranger attempts to hypnotize him. Then, Noah’s life changes – his friends now want to go to different colleges, his mom has a scar that he’s never noticed, everything is just slightly off. The only things that haven’t changed are his strange fascinations – a YouTube video, a photograph, and an old man with a goiter. Noah ends up on an emotional, and physical, journey to find out why his fascinations have stayed the same when nothing else has.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 10 Edition

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Mass,  narrated by Julia Whelan
Audio Published by Listening Library
Publication date: August 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525595410

I have never been a fan of DC Comics, home of the Batman universe.  While my fellow second graders idolized Adam West from the campy 1960s television show featuring the Caped Crusader, I was small but my scorn was huge; the only Batman movie I have seen more than a half hour of is the Lego version.  Similarly, while I know the teens who talk to me about their favorite books clamor for more Sarah J. Maas, I have to admit I have only read (listened to) one title, as a professional assignment.  So I popped the first disc of Catwoman: Soulstealer, written by Sarah J. Maas and narrated by Julia Whelan, into my car CD player with minimal expectations; it was the only new audiobook I had with me for a long drive.   What I discovered was a production that had me sitting at the gas pump with the car running for an extra minute or two, just to get to the end of a chapter.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 3 Edition

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman, narrated by Sunil Malhotra, Michael Crouch, and Nicole Lewis
Audio Published by Listening Library
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525636274

I Have Lost my Way by Gayle Forman follows the story of three young adults: Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel in New York City who have each lost something or someone who was inherit to their identity. Brought together by an accident, their stories are woven together and their losses and secrets are slowly revealed to one another through the course of a single day. The story is told from each of the characters’ perspective.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, September 26 Edition

My Name is Victoria by Lucy Worsley, narrated by Henrietta Meira
Candlewick on Brilliance Audio
Publication Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN:978-1543687385 

“My Name is Victoria” follows the life of Miss V. Conroy who befriends the young princess Victoria under the stringent and ever watchful Kensington system. Through the novel, Miss V. and Princess Victoria’s relationship evolves from a early childhood to young adulthood exploring friendship, trust, betrayal, love, politics, and family ties.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, September 12 edition

After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay, narrated by Ramon De Ocampo and J. B. Adkins
Audio Published by Listening Library
Publication Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1984828422 

Bunny and Nasir used to be best friends, but that was until Nasir found out his friend was leaving their public school to attend a nearby private school on a basketball scholarship. Bunny misses Nasir too, but is focused on his dream of playing professional basketball, mainly with the goal of earning enough money to take care of his family financially. With Bunny gone, Nasir starts spending more time with his cousin Wallace. Nasir learns that Wallace and his Grandmother are being evicted and can’t help but feel that everyone is willing to help his former basketball star best friend, but not his struggling cousin. As Wallace becomes more desperate to stop his eviction, he starts making bets on Bunny’s basketball games. With odds high in Bunny’s favor, if he lost one game, Wallace would have enough money to stay in his apartment. Nasir feels guilty that he cannot do more for Wallace, guilty enough to ask Bunny to throw a game?

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, September 5 Edition

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, narrated by Fiona Hardingham
HarperAudio
Publication Date: June 26, 2018
ISBN: 9780062841667

My Plain Jane, the second (standalone) title in the Lady Janes series by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows, is a tongue-in-cheek, supernatural spoof of Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel, Jane Eyre. In this retelling, our titular heroine, Jane, can see dead people. In fact, she’s what’s known in the ghosthunting world as a Beacon–ghosts are drawn to her and will do anything she asks of them. While Jane enjoys getting to hang out with her (unfortunately deceased) childhood BFF, Helen Burns, she does not want anyone to know about her secret ability. Jane’s (living) best friend, Miss Charlotte Bronte herself, sees great things for Jane, and is dismayed when Jane decides to take up a position as a governess at Thornfield rather than work for the exciting Society for the Relocation of Wayward Ghosts with Charlotte’s brother Alexander.

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