BFYA2020 – The Hub

2020 Best Fiction for Young Adults List Announced

The official titles of YALSA’s 2020 Best Fiction for Young Adults (BFYA) list have been announced.

The list consists of 71 titles which were posted and discussed in blogposts on The Hub. View the full list here. The top ten titles were selected after receiving feedback at the BFYA Teen Feedback Session that took place at ALA’s 2020 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia.

The top ten titles are:

The Field Guide to the North American Teenager. By Ben Philippe. HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray. $18.99 (9780062824110).
Girls on the Verge. By Sharon Biggs Waller. Holt. $17.99 (9781250151698).
Heroine. By Mindy McGinnis. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen. $17.99 (9780062847195).
Like a Love Story. By Abdi Nazemian. HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray. $17.99 (9780062839367).
Lovely War. By Julie Berry. Viking. $18.99 (9780451469939).
On the Come Up. By Angie Thomas. HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray. $18.99 (9780062498564).
Patron Saints of Nothing. By Randy Ribay. Penguin/Kokila. $17.99 (9780525554912).
Pet. By Akwaeke Emezi. Random/Make Me a World. $17.99 (9780525647072).
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them. By Junauda Petrus. Dutton. $17.99 (9780525555483).
With the Fire on High. By Elizabeth Acevedo. HarperTeen. $17.99 (9780062662835).

The suggestion form for the 2021 Best Fiction for Young Adults list is open. If you’d like to suggest a title to the blogging team for consideration as a nominee, please fill out the form.

A huge thank you goes out to the BFYA blogging team for all the hard work and time they put into curating this great list. Thank you!

Members of the 2020 Best Fiction for Young Adults Blogging Team are: Coordinator, Kimmie DePinto, High Plains Library District, Greeley, CO; Jodi Kruse R.A. Long High School Library, Longview, WA; Michael Fleming, Juanita High School, Kirkland, WA; Isaiah West, Alexandria Library, Alexandria, VA; Molly Dettmann, Norman North High School, Norman, OK; Alicia Abdul, Albany High School, Albany, NY; Laura Giunta Garden City Public Library, Garden City, NY; Stephanie Charlefour, Keene, NH; Barbara, CA; Audrey Hopkins, Oak Lawn Public Library, Dallas, TX; Ness Shortley, Horton Middle School, Pittsboro, NC; Molly Wetta, Santa Barbara Public Library, Santa Barbara, CA; and with the help of administrative assistant Molly Moore, Bishop, GA.

#BFYA2020 Teen Feedback Session at Midwinter 2020 in Philadelphia

This year the American Library Association will be holding its Mid-Winter Conference in Philadelphia and YALSA will be holding a Teen Feedback Session for the Best Fiction for Young Adults committee.

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Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, December 13 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Knopf Books for Young Readers / Random House
Publication Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1524720964

In 2380, Tyler Jones, graduating cadet of Aurora Academy, rescues Aurora, a girl who has been in cryo-sleep for over 200 years and wakes with new, mysterious powers. Along with a squad of misfits from Aurora Academy, they go on a mission to uncover the truth about Aurora and what happened to Octavia, the colony Aurora had been heading to over 200 years ago.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, December 13 Edition

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Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
Katherine Tegen Books / HarperCollins
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0062748379

If you could save someone you loved, would you? That is the premise of Opposite of Always with an added Groundhog Day twist. Jack has no idea he is going to fall for Kate until he meets her at a party while he is doing a college visit. Her charm and sense of humor provides the antidote Jack needs to get over his crush on Jillian–one of his best friends who also happens to be dating Franny, his other best friend and basketball phenom. Things get complicated when Kate begins acting shady and Jack discovers that she suffers from sickle cell anemia, the life-threatening disease that ultimately kills her. . .over and over. Each time Kate dies, Jack is thrown back in time to the party when they met and is given the opportunity to try and save her, but with each changed decision he discovers there are changed consequences.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, December 6 Edition

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Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy
Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0062473073

Sweet Pea DiMarco’s been through a lot of change recently: Her bestie dumped her, her dad came out, and her parents got divorced. In a misguided effort to keep her life stable, Sweet Pea’s dad moves into a nearly identical home two doors down. The choices she makes when she takes over her elderly neighbor’s advice column will shake everything up. But will things change for the better, or for worse?

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 29 Edition

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 22 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Michigan vs. The Boys by Carrie S. Allen
Kids Can Press / Hachette
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1525301483

Michigan loves hockey and is looking forward to playing this upcoming year as co-captain for her high school’s women’s hockey team. She is a strong and dedicated teammate and is devastated once she learns her school’s hockey team is being eliminated due to funding issues within her school district. With the girls’ team being disbanded and her friends and old teammates scattering, she elects to try out for the boys’ team instead.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 22 Edition

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 15 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis
Tor Teen / Macmillan
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1250299703

Clementine’s first time working at the welcome house leads to a murder. Knowing what would be in store her older sister, Aster, along with three other girls decide to make their escape which might be certain death because all of the girls who work in welcome houses are branded and used for only one thing. Escape is not an option. As they band together to journey out of Arketta, a treacherous road lies ahead.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 15 Edition

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Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All by Laura Ruby
Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0062317643

On the tail end of the Great Depression and into World War II, Frankie and her younger sister, Toni, are left at an orphanage in Chicago by their father as secrets are revealed through the eyes of a ghost girl named Pearl watching and narrating a tale of heartbreak, tragedy, and hope.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 8 Edition

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 1 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Bérubé
Sourcebooks Fire / Sourcebooks
Publication Date: August 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1492671015

Skye’s sister, Deirdre, is just a little socially awkward with her imaginary kingdoms and insistence that Skye continue to play along as the Queen of Swords. Deirdre’s mysterious disappearance coupled with the arrival of monsters that promise to reunite the sisters unleashes events that Skye spill over onto Skye’s new friends in ways that can no longer remain hidden

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, November 1 Edition

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, October 25 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Best Fiction for Young Adults nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg
Henry Holt and Company / Macmillan
Publication Date: May 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-1250293855

Ana is a Fantasist, one of seven hybrid princesses who inhabit The Kingdom. Since the main purpose behind her creation is to “please” humanity, her murder of the young man with whom she is obsessed raises questions about her humanity as well as the violent, bizarre behavior of some of the other park inhabitants.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2020) Nominees Round Up, October 25 Edition