American Library Association - Best Books for Young Adults
The books, recommended for those ages 12-18, meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens. The list comprises a wide range of genres and styles, including contemporary realistic fiction that reflects the diversity of the teen experience, nonfiction that brings to teens an awareness of the world they live in and its history, and fantastical stories told in both narrative and graphic formats. (Young Adults Library Services Association)
2009 ALA Best Books for Young Adults
By Ellen Jensen Abbott
2009, 341 pages, $17 list
A surge in religious fervor increases the intolerance and cruelty in her settlement, so Abisina tries to find the mysterious place where her unknown father waits, called Watersmeet.
By Peter Abrahams
2009, 336 pages, $17 list
A rich girl's former small-town boyfriend comes to search for her when she goes missing from her fancy boarding school.
By Julia Alvarez
2009, 336 pages, $17 list
Tyler learns that honesty, patriotism, and the line between right and wrong are not always black and white when his family must hire migrant workers to save their Vermont dairy farm.
By Laure Halse Anderson
2009, 288 pages, $18 list
Lia is haunted by her best friend's death from anorexia, as she struggles with the same eating disorder.
By Ellen Booraem
2008, 336 pages, $16 list
In a place where everything has a name and every name has a meaning, outsider Medford Runyuin struggles in vain to follow the rules of his adopted home.
By Libba Bray
2009, 496 pages, $18 list
Cameron knew there was something wrong when he started seeing pillars of fire and angels, but he never imagined he had mad cow disease.
By Laurie Brooks
2008, 272 pages, $16 list
12-year-old Matt struggles to cope with his memories of family left behind in war-torn Vietnam with the help of his adoptive parents, his music teacher, and his baseball coach.
By Ann Burg
2009, 224 pages, $17 list
12-year-old Matt struggles to cope with his memories of family left behind in war-torn Vietnam with the help of his adoptive parents, his music teacher, and his baseball coach.
By Don Calame
2009, 352 pages, $17 list
To impress a girl, un-athletic Matt volunteers to swim in the boys' butterfly competition with the help of his two true friends as they face their true summer's goal.
By Jillian Cantor
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
13-year-old Abigail and her younger sister Becky have always fought, until the day Becky mysteriously disappears. Now Abby struggles to keep herself and her family together and find Becky’s killer.
Chaltas: Because I am Furniture
By Thalia Chaltas
2009, 368 pages, $ 17 list
Anke watches her siblings and mother suffer at the hands of her abusive father until she finds enough strength, through involvement in volleyball, to demonstrate her needs.
By Emma Clayton
2009, 496 pages, $18 list
The government is making thousands of children strong, agile and competitive, but why? Twelve-year-old Mika plays along, hoping the training will lead him to his kidnapped twin.
Clement-Moore: Highway to Hell
By Rosemary Clement-Moore
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
Maggie and Lisa find their spring break road trip interrupted by a cow’s carcass which launches them into a hunt for an evil demon terrorizing a remote desert.
By Matthew Cody
2009, 288 pages, $16 list
In Nobles Green there are six kids with superpowers, but the night they turn 13 the powers, and their memory of them, disappear.
By Suzanne Collins
2009, 400 pages, $18 list
After winning the Hunger Games, Katniss is preoccupied with the government’s expectations for her romantic life. She soon has more important worries—including revolts in the Districts and new Game rules.
By Caroline Cooney
2009, 224 pages, $17 list
Siblings Jack, Madison and Smithy work to protect their 2 year old brother Tris from media exploitation and their not-quite-aunt Cheryl.
By Suzanne Crowley
2009, 416 pages, $18 list
In searching for her identity, Spirit finds that she is the daughter of a former queen and realizes who she truly loves, at the court of Queen Elizabeth I.
By Matt de la Pena
2009, 368 pages, $18 list
Miguel, sentenced to a group home for a horrible crime, must overcome his self-hatred while on the run with two other criminals.
By Sarah Dessen
2009, 383 pages, $20 list
Auden’s summer becomes one of second chances, not just for her but for her family and friends as well. The more chances she takes, the more she discovers about herself.
By Jennifer Echols
2009, 256 pages, $9 list
Meg is the blue haired girl in a small town, John is the cop who picks her up one night, and the relationship that develops causes all sorts of problems.
By Ann Dee Ellis
2009, 160 pages, $17 list
Mazzy spends her summer making art and heating up marshmallows in the microwave, mainly because her mother won’t get out of bed and her father has left her alone.
Engle: Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba
By Margarita Engle
2009, 208 pages, $17 list
In 1939, Daniel leaves his family behind when he flees the horrors of holocaust Europe. Now a refugee in Cuba, he must find hope to make a life for himself.
Fantaskey: Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side
By Beth Fantaskey
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
Jessica Packwood begins her senior year unaware that she’s destined to become the bride of an arrogant vampire prince who expects to establish his birthright and claim his prize.
Ferraro: The ABC's of Kissing Boys
By Tina Ferraro
2009, 224 pages, $9 list
Learning to kiss from her father's archenemy's son (a freshman) can lead to consequences Parker never imagined. A funny, poignant, and sweet Romeo and Juliet.
By Gayle Forman
2009, 208 pages, $17 list
While in a coma after her family is killed in a car accident, Mia struggles to decide whether to live or die.
By Karen Foxlee
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
Jenny’s beautiful sister is dead and nothing makes sense anymore. The only way for Jenny to right her world is to analyze the events leading up to her sister’s death.
By Rita Williams-Garcia
2009, 176 pages, $17 list
When Trina unknowingly insults Dominique in the hallway, she’s in danger of being jumped after school. Leticia could warn her, but she’s reluctant to get involved.
By Jeannine Garsee
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
After her estranged mother dies, Shawna Gallagher refuses to accept her dysfunctional home life and attempts to make peace with her mother’s lesbian lover.
George: Princess of the Midnight Ball
By Jessica Day George
2009, 288 pages, $17 list
When the decade long war ends, professional solider Galen finds work as a gardener in the king’s garden, only to help solve the puzzle involving twelve dancing princesses.
By David Macinnis Gill
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
When a repo demon comes for her Cadillac, Bug Smoot finds that her deceased grandfather pledged both her soul and her car as collateral on a deal.
Goodman: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn
By Alison Goodman
2008, 544 pages, $20 list
Sixteen-year-old Eon is the
unlikeliest candidate for Dragoneye, but she holds great power and a dangerous
secret that just might make her the greatest Dragoneye for centuries.
Grant: Blue Flame: Book One of the Perfect Fire Trilogy
By K.M. Grant
2008, 256 pages, $17 list
In 1242 France, Parsifal, who has devoted his life to guarding the Blue Flame, helps a young couple whose families are in the bloody conflict between Catholics and Cathars.
By Paul Griffin
2009, 147 pages, $17 list
Despite poverty, gang violence, and lack of appropriate supports, three inner-city teens come together and try to beat the odds and succeed in life.
By Charlotte Gingras
2009, 144 pages, $18 list
Pieces of Mira: her crazy domineering mother, her mostly absent father, her artistic talent, her first friend Cath, the birdman. Will the pieces come together to free her to be herself?
By Brent Hartinger
2009, 288 pages, $17 list
Three friends spend the summer scheming to raise enough money so they won't have to get summer jobs but find this may be harder than actually working.
By Justina Chen Headley
2009, 384 pages, $17 list
Terra Cooper is held back in life by her facial port-wine stain, her controlling father and herself. When she meets Jacob’s family, she and her mother begin to escape.
By M.H. Herlong
2008, 288 pages, $17 list
His mother is dead and his father is missing at sea. With a horrific storm brewing, can sixteen-year-old Ben and his younger brothers survive?
By David Hernandez
2009, 288 pages, $17 list
Carlos has a cheating girlfriend, a mystery man urinating on the floor at work, and a friend in a coma. Can Isabel—still grieving her dead boyfriend—help him cope?
By Steven Herrick
2009, 279 pages, $19 list
In a small Australian town, a murder brings everyone under suspicion, especially Albert Holding and his sons.
By Julia Hoban
2009, 336 pages, $17 list
Willow uses self-mutilation to deal with losing her parents to a car crash. Soon, a person named Guy enters her life and helps her to deal with her issues.
Hoose: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
By Phillip Hoose
2009, 144 pages, $20 list
As a teen, Claudette Colvin sparked the protest that led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and desegregation of public facilities by refusing to relinquish her seat to a white woman.
By Simmone Howell
2008, 304 pages, $17 list
Riley is intent on escaping the Christian camp her father has sent her to before the week is out, but meeting Dylan Luck, who uses a wheelchair, challenges her own beliefs and plans.
By Shelley Hrdlitschka
2008, 176 pages, $13 list
Celeste lives in a remote polygamist society but chafes at her coming marriage. There is an option to leave everything she knows, but that is the problem.
Jinks: The Reformed Vampire Support Group
By Catherine Jinks
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
Nina Harrison, now and forever a teenage vampire, leads her dysfunctional crew of bloodsuckers on a mission to halt vampire persecution and rescue a vicious werewolf.
By Carrie Jones
2008, 320 pages, $17 list
Zara moves to Bedford and discovers that not everything is what it seems in the small Maine town.
By A.S. King
2009, 336 pages, $10 list
After being cursed to live the lives of 100 dogs before being reborn as a human, former pirate Emer Morrisey returns to Jamaica to reclaim treasure buried centuries before.
Levine: The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had
By Kristin Levine
2009, 272 pages, $17 list
Alabama, 12-year-old Dit’s life in rural Moundville becomes complicated and tragic by his friendship with Emma, the African American daughter of the new postman.
By Alisa Libby
2009, 320 pages, $18 list
A pawn to her family's ambition, Catherine Howard tries to give Henry VIII a son.
By Lesley Livingston
2008, 336 pages, $17 list
Faeries, pixies, Janus guards, and struggling actresses populate this fantasy that weaves Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream with a contemporary New York City Setting.
Magoon: The Rock and the River
By Kekla Magoon
2009, 304 pages, $16 list
Chicago, Sam struggles to decide whether to support his father's nonviolent approach to civil rights or his brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.
By Peter Marino
2009, 293 pages, $18 list
TJ and her gay best friend Pan enjoy their close friendship until Caspar asks TJ out on a date. TJ stuggles to balance her time between Pan and Caspar.
By Wendy Mass
2009, 272 pages, $17 list
On Amanda's eleventh birthday everything goes wrong, and she is celebrating without her best friend. When she wakes up the next morning, it's her birthday again...and again...and again.
McKernan: The Devil's Paintbox
By Victoria McKernan
2009, 368 pages, $17 list
Orphaned siblings Aiden and Maddy have survived Kansas, barely, setting out on the Oregon Trail just to have regular meals. But the trip is more than they expected...
By Lisa McMann
2009, 256 pages, $16 list
Janie’s ability to see people’s dreams leads police to a predator who is assaulting girls at her high school. But this gift may jeopardize the first love she’s ever known.
By Neesha Meminger
2009, 256 pages, $17 list
Samar (Sam) is a Sikh ostensibly Americanized, until her uncle shows up, igniting her interest in her culture and past in a post-9/11 world.
By Walter Dean Myers
2009, 192 pages, $17 list
An undercover cop is shot in a drug sting. Wounded, dealer Lil J is hiding in an abandoned apartment with a stranger and a TV that replays events in Lil J’s life.
By Donna Jo Napoli
2009, 288 pages, $17 list
14-year-old Calogero emigrates to Louisiana in 1899, where his tiny Sicilian community faces discrimination and worse in a small town where they’re considered neither black nor white.
By Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
2008, 208 pages, $17 list
"Superhero" Cricket Man rescues crickets, fights bullies, saves a drowning child, helps a friend after the birth of her illegitimate baby, and delivers the baby to safety.
By Michael Northrop
2009, 256 pages, $17 list
After one of four rough cut high school guys disappears, his friends become suspicious of their teacher Mr. Haberman, who refers to them as gentlemen while teaching Crime and Punishment.
By K.A. Nuzum
2008, 256 pages, $16 list
The only witness at her mother’s death, Dessa Dean is paralyzed with fear and loneliness. She won’t leave the house. A skittish, injured stray dog is her only hope for healing.
By Aprilynne Pike
2009, 304 pages, $17 list
Laurel discovers she is a faerie when a beautiful flower blossoms out of her back, and she and her friend David seek to find out her place in the world.
By Monique Polak
2008, 208 pages, $13 list
When Anneke and her family are sent to Theresienstadt, the "model" concentration camp, she struggles to understand how her father could cooperate with the Nazis in order to improve their family's situation.
By Janette Rallison
2009, 320 pages, $17 list
Savannah learns to be careful what she wishes for when her fairy godmother sends her to the middle ages.
By Adam Rapp
2009, 256 pages, $17 list
Jamie has run away from his family, military school, and his troubled past. He sets out via bus to visit his dying brother, writing letters along the way.
By Laura Resau
2009, 336 pages, $17 list
Zeeta has lived in a different country every year with her mom Layla. Instead of enjoying their nomadic existence, she wants a boring suburban life and a normal boring dad.
By Rick Riordan
2009, 400 pages, $18 list
The fifth installment of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series unfolds the long-awaited prophecy and Percy battles for the survival of Western civilization.
Runyon: Surface Tension: A Novel in Four Summers
By Brent Runyon
2008, 208 pages, $17 list
Every summer Luke spends two weeks vacationing at a lake, and every year things are just slightly different.
Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
By Carrie Ryan
2009, 320 pages, $17 list
Mary’s village is protected by a fence keeping out the Unconsecrated-who are undead craving human flesh-until a massive breach launches the teenage girl into a fight for survival.
Schrefer: School for Dangerous Girls
By Eliot Schrefer
2009, 256 pages, $18 list
Angela has been sent to Hidden Oak, a special boarding school for the most difficult girls. The worst ones never leave.
By Jacqueline Sheehan
2007, 304 pages, $15 list
Essie, 16, sews all day for pennies at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to help feed her fatherless family and now to forget her little sister's death. Then the fire happens.
By Janni Lee Simner
2009, 256 pages, $17 list
Liza is caught in a world where magic is deadly and her powers lead her on a quest to find her missing mother.
By Sherri Smith
2009, 256 pages, $17 list
During WWII Ida Mae Jones must go against her family and heritage to join the Army’s WASP program and fulfill her dream of being a pilot.
By Tom Sniegoski
2009, 224 pages, $16 list
High school dropout Lucas Moore is shaken to learn he’s the son of The Raptor, a superhero sworn to protect Seraph City, who now wants Lucas to fight crime.
By Nancy Springer
2009, 117 pages, $17 list
Fifteen-year-old Sherica has moved around the country with her father and brother. Flashbacks and the opportunity to log into the Internet, answers the unanswered questions about her family.
Stiefvater: Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception
By Maggie Stiefvater
2008, 336 pages, $10 list
Shy and ordinary Deirdre finds herself caught up in an ancient struggle in the faerie world when she meets Luke, an attractive musician with a very dark past.
By Karlijn Stoffels
2009, 144 pages, $17 list
Mee, the singer of sorrows, and Mitou, the merrymaker, are destined to meet and change the life of a princess. Can they change one another?
Stork: Marcelo in the Real World
By Francisco Stork
2009, 320 pages, $18 list
Marcelo—a teen who exhibits Asperger-like behaviors—is forced to leave his job caring for horses to work in his father’s law firm and experience “the real world.”
By Jonathan Stroud
2009, 496 pages, $18 list
Halli lives in the shadow of his brother and the ancient heroes of his homeland, but when his family is threatened, he is unafraid to face enemies - whether human or not.
By Courtney Summers
2008, 224 pages, $10 list
Once a perfectionist cheerleader, Parker Fadley now comes to school drunk and lashes out at classmates and teachers in a hateful voice that masks her inner pain.
Tan: Tales from Outer Suburbia
By Shaun Tan
2009, 98 pages, $22 list
Giant floating poetry balls, living stick figures, strange creatures from the sea and an all-knowing water buffalo are some of the wonders found in this lushly illustrated collection of stories.
Thompson: Creature of the Night
By Kate Thompson
2009, 256 pages, $18 list
Juvenile delinquent Bobby resists his mother’s plan to move to the countryside, but his anger becomes fear as he learns about local history and the creatures who rule the fields.
By Jenny Valentine
2009, 224 pages, $17 list
Since Rowan’s brother died, her mother’s been depressed, and she’s been caring for her sister alone. When a stranger insists that a photo negative belongs to her, Rowan’s life changes.
By Alison van Diepen
2009, 288 pages, $16 list
Escaping her dreadful family is Raven’s goal when dancing with the crew at Evermore. Raven’s attraction for mysterious Zin leads to an ancient secret and the possibility of eternal love.
By Paul Volponi
2009, 160 pages, $16 list
After being severely beaten with a baseball bat during a hate crime, seventeen-year-old Noah must determine how he will let the event change him.
By Laura Whitcomb
2009, 384 pages, $17 list
Calder, a 350-year old "Fetch" that accompanies souls to heaven, breaks all his vows for a woman, wreaking havoc in the world of lost souls.
By Carol Lynch Williams
2009, 224 pages, $17 list
When the Prophet commands thirteen-year-old Kyra to marry her aging uncle, her family is shaken. Desperate to escape, Kyra knows that running away puts them all at risk.
By Virginia Wolff
2009, 496 pages, $18 list
LaVaughn perseveres through a broken heart while discovering a new love and determining what it means to have character in the face of challenging friendships, conclusion of Make Lemonade trilogy.
By Gene Luen Yang
2009, 176 pages, $17 list
Three tales in one graphic novel show the paper-thin margin that separates fantasy from reality for a warrior, a frog and a girl.
By Amy Bronwen Zemser
2008, 336 pages, $17 list
Sixteen-year-old Elaine Hamilton wants to be a chef like her hero, Julia Child, but her bossy and flamboyant best friend, Lucida Sans, is about to make life much more interesting.
End of ALA Best Books for Young Adults