Young Adult
THE BEAST PLAYER by Nahoko Uehashi
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Elin’s mother has always cared for the water serpents, the Toda. She is the best Toda doctor in all of Aluhan. But when the most powerful Toda mysteriously die, Elin’s mother is blamed and sentenced to death. After failing to rescue her mother, Elin flees and takes refuge with a beekeeper in a neighboring territory. There she learns of her own gift of communication with the Toda, of her mother’s connection with the mystical Ahlyo people, and of her own place in the civil war between the country of her birth and the country where she found refuge.
An award-winning novel with masterful world-building, THE BEAST PLAYER will appeal to YA fantasy fans despite the protagonist’s youth (age 10 at the novel’s start). For graphic novel fans, there are manga and an anime TV series!
A SPY IN THE HOUSE by Y.S. Lee
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Mary Yang should have been hanged. She would have been–in fact–had the headmistresses of Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls not been interested in her promising skills and personality. Because more than an Academy, Miss Scrimshaw’s is a cover for a feminist spy ring called the Agency. And at 17, Mary (now under the pseudonym of Mary Quinn) is ready for her first assignment. She infiltrates the household of wealthy merchant as a companion for his vapid daughter in the hopes of finding clues as to the whereabouts of missing cargo ships. It is supposed to be an easy job for a beginning agent. But Mary and her supervisors didn’t count on the presence of a charismatic (and persistent) young man. Or on the fact that this particular job has a connection to Mary’s long-buried past….
A fun Victorian mystery with crossover appeal for teens and adults, A SPY IN THE HOUSE is the first in THE AGENCY series. Lee has a PhD in Victorian literature and culture, and her credentials show in her meticulous world-building. Recommend to readers who (like me!) enjoy a touch of romance in their mysteries.
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott and LITTLE WOMEN (2019)
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In 1860s Massachusetts, four sisters and the boy next door grow up from a childhood of wild imagination and adventure to an adulthood of loss, love, and hope.
So I may be the only American white girl who was not a fan of LITTLE WOMEN as a kid. I mean, I liked most of the first half (the original Book One) but I never, never, never forgave Amy for burning Jo’s book. And I got very bored by Book Two, and also annoyed that Laurie married Amy (because again, SHE BURNED JO’S BOOK) and also super-super-annoyed that Jo married some random middle-aged German guy she just met because just because she was kind of lonely….
But I think that Greta Gerwig either read my childhood mind, or was also me as a child, because her adaptation was everything I wanted it to be. Florence Pugh made me like Amy. Genuinely understand and like her. The chaos of every scene must have been a nightmare to film, but it created such a joyful sense of community and family and connection between the four girls. I was mad at Amy for burning Jo’s book, but I was also mad at Jo for not noticing how much Amy looked up to her and wanted to spend time with her. And I loved the two-pronged solution to the “random German guy” problem: first, introducing him at the beginning of the film so he doesn’t come out of nowhere, and second, crafting an ending where Jo morphs with real-life Alcott, who didn’t believe women (including her character Jo) should have to get married (as she didn’t) but was forced to marry Jo off in the end to make it palatable to contemporary readers. In the film, you can take some delight in the unbelievable, silly, head-over-heels, love-at-first-sight ending because the director has hinted that it’s a fantasy and that the real Jo that you’ve known and loved is actually off somewhere, self-confident and content, living her dreams, publishing her books, and creating this fairytale ending for us to enjoy and for her to roll her eyes at.
P.S. I should note that I actually enjoy much more of Book Two as an adult. Especially now that I have kids. Especially that scene where Meg and John are trying to get their son to go to sleep and John ends up passed out in bed with his kid and Alcott remarks that trying to get a two year old to go to sleep is more exhausting than an entire day of work. Yeah. That. I read that part out loud to my husband. It’s somehow both comforting and discouraging to know that in 200 years of parenthood, nothing has changed….
THE FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN TEENAGER by Ben Philippe
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Norris isn’t thrilled about the move from Montreal to Texas. For one thing, he’s a Black French Canadian–three types of people that American TV has taught him definitely do not fit in. Unless you like to be the butt of jokes. Which Norris does not.
For another thing, Texas is hot. Like hell in July hot. Norris can’t get through a school day without sweating through at least three shirts, and it’s January.
But Norris has one thing to hold on to: the Whistler. If he can earn enough money by Spring Break, he can fly up to British Colombia, meet his best friend, and ski the Whistler like he’s done every spring break for his whole life. Until then, he’ll keep his head down and count down the days until he can escape.
His plans begin to turn awry when he meets an incredibly awkward hockey player-wannabe, a cheerleader named Madison (because of course her name is Madison), and a budding photographer and serial truant named Aarti who for some reason makes his stomach do somersaults. Could it be possible to grow attached to this hellscape after all?
A book to make you laugh out loud. Norris’s voice is honest and hilarious. His observations about American teenagers are on point, and the friends he makes are as quirky and delightful as he is. Great read for fans of humorous YA realistic fiction.
TWEET CUTE by Emma Lord
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When Jack sees that the burger franchise Big League Burgers had ripped off his family cafe’s signature sandwich (complete with secret ingredient) he can’t contain his anger. So he let’s it out. On the company’s Twitter.
When Girl Cheesing’s tweet goes viral, Pepper’s mom demands that she take over the BLB corporate Twitter and let loose some of her signature snark on the small sandwich shop. Pepper feels icky about it, but how can she say no to her mom?
When Jack and Pepper realize that they’re the ones behind the avatars of their parents business feud, they decide to turn the Twitter war into a friendly competition: no holding back, nothing off limits. What they don’t realize is that they’ve been chatting for months under assumed names on a school social media account. And between their anonymous hostility on Twitter, their anonymous honesty on Weazel, and the inconvenient blossoming of a friendship–and something more–IRL, things are about to get complicated.
I LOVED this rom com. Read the whole thing in one sitting. It’s fun and escapist, but also has deeper threads that make you think about family, loyalty vs. personal integrity, and the different ways we interact with one another when we have the freedom (and sometimes constraint) of anonymity online. Highly recommend to readers of YA realistic fiction who are looking for something deep but not heavy.
WE ARE OKAY by Nina LaCour
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Marin wishes Mabel weren’t coming to visit. She meant to leave her old life completely when she left California. She was supposed to start anew at college. And even though she hasn’t been entirely successful at hiding her grief, at least her new roommate didn’t know the old Marin. Whereas Mabel knows her far too well. What will she think when she sees Marin’s blank white walls, her empty bulletin board? Though she hasn’t spoken to Mabel in months–not since the day she found out her grandfather’s secrets–she knows Mabel will see right through her the minute she walks through the door. And when she does, Marin knows the tragic past she’s been trying to escape will drown her.
Though quiet in plot, this novel is loud in emotion. A deserved Printz Award winner, WE ARE OKAY bathes the reader in an authentic experience of grief and growth, of changing friendships, families, and relationships. Persistent story questions about the nature of the past tragedy provide enough suspense to keep readers turning pages even as the action of the plot itself is gentle and contained. I would highly recommend this book to fans of emotional YA realistic fiction. It’s an exceptional one.
A HEART IN A BODY IN THE WORLD by Deb Caletti
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Annabelle starts running and doesn’t stop. She runs out of her hometown in Washington State and keeps running. She’s not going to stop until she reaches Washington D.C. In a panic, Annabelle’s mother sends her grandfather in an RV to bring Annabelle home. But her grandfather understands why she’s running and decides instead to come along for the ride. Soon, Annabelle’s brother and her friends got on board, starting a social media campaign to raise money and awareness. Because they were all affected by the tragedy. They understand why Annabelle wants–needs–to run. And soon the rest of the country will too.
Heartbreaking and powerful, this novel is difficult to put down. The immediacy of the third person/present tense narration complements the flashbacks Annabelle experiences. While it would have been easy to feel stuck in Annabelle’s head for most of the book, the third person narration helps with that as well, providing a bit of distance. Ultimately it is the suspense of the unknown tragedy in the past that propels the book forward to its message at the end–a speech that could have seemed didactic except that it comes so authentically from Annabelle’s voice and experiences throughout the novel. This is a book that will stick with me. Recommended to teens who enjoy realistic fiction with a TW: gun violence and abusive relationships.
THE POET X by Elizabeth Acevedo
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Xiomara’s mother wanted to be a nun. She wanted to spend the rest of her life in a convent in the Dominican Republic. But she wound up married to an unfaithful husband and living in NYC. And for some inexplicable reason, she takes her life’s frustrations out on Xiomara. To her mother, everything about Xiomara is wrong–from her curvy body to her love of poetry to (especially) her discomfort with Catholicism. In fact, when Xiomara tells the priest she doesn’t want to be confirmed in the church, her mother refuses to accept the priest’s recommendation that she let Xiomara wait. Xiomara has toed the line her entire life, but in this, she stages a small rebellion. Instead of attending confirmation classes, she stays late after school and joins the poetry club. And after a spending most of her life trying to repress and hide the parts of herself her mother won’t like, Xiomara finally starts to find her voice.
There’s nothing more I can add to the gushing praise of this book except to say (truthfully) that I literally did not put it down. I meant to read a few pages after dinner and ended up carrying it around with me for the rest of the evening until I finished it. It is rare that a realistic fiction engages me to that extent. Xiomara’s story is riveting and nuanced. As a Catholic myself, I appreciated the fact that alongside Xiomara’s reservations about religion, her best friend and brother (and the priest) show positive depictions of faith. The story is raw and authentic, with well-developed characters that give every reader a chance to both see themselves reflected and to see someone else’s point of view sensitively portrayed. There’s a reason this one is an award-winner and an instant classic. If you haven’t read it yet, do.
THE GIRL KING by Mimi Yu
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Princess Lu has known for years that her father plans to name her as his heir. She has spent those years training, enthusiastically learning swordplay, riding, hunting–all the skills she will need as emperor. But when her father instead names her cousin Set as his heir, betrothing Lu to him in the process, Lu knows it is her mother’s doing. Her mother has always hated her and favored her younger sister Min, the princess who desperately tries to do whatever is expected of her, no matter how much anger boils inside of her. Lu devises a plan to take back the throne, but when it goes wrong, she finds herself on the run with a boy from her past, one of few survivors of a genocide perpetrated by Lu’s father. And Min finds herself married to Set, an unlikely empress, with her mother, Set, and an unnerving monk all trying to influence and claim her surprising power as her own.
There is a lot going on in this series starter, set in an Asian-inspired fantasy world. The world building is rich, with themes of ethnic conflict, identity, morality in politics, and the use and abuse of power–to name a few–adding depth to a whirlwind plot. A fun read for fantasy fans!
THE DISASTERS by M.K. England
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Nax Hall can’t believe he flunked out of the Academy. He has been planning this for years–to become a pilot, leave Earth, and head out to the Colonies to start a new life. He should have been top of his class, but instead he is sitting with the other handful of rejects, waiting for the shuttle that will take them back to Earth. But as their shuttle is arriving, a group of terrorists invade the space station. Nax and the other three rejects barely make it onto the shuttle and escape before the terrorists deplete the space station of oxygen. With everyone else at the Academy dead and a terrorist ship on their tail, Nax and the others make the jump to the colonies where they learn that no one knows of the attack. In fact, whoever orchestrated the assault has claimed that Nax and his companions are wanted fugitives. As the only ones who know the truth, it is up to this misfit band of strangers to pull together and figure out the terrorists’ plan while there’s still time to save the world.
Billed as “Guardians of the Galaxy meets the Breakfast Club,” this novel is a thrilling start to a new sci-fi series. An action-heavy plot is balanced by the deep and nuanced characters and rich world-building. I highly recommend it to sci-fi fans!
Susan the Librarian 