Prepare to acquaint yourself with an Austro-Hungarian prince, a teenage private detective, girls disguised as boys, torrid love triangles and more as you delve into this year’s nominations for the Young Adult Library Service Association’s (YALSA) top teen books of
Prepare to acquaint yourself with an Austro-Hungarian prince, a teenage private detective, girls disguised as boys, torrid love triangles and more as you delve into this year’s nominations for the Young Adult Library Service Association’s (YALSA) top teen books of the year.
In celebration of Teen Read Week (October 16-22) Book Buzz highlights below a sampling from the full list of 25 nominated books at the YALSA website www.ala.org/yalsa. During Teen Read Week young adults are encouraged to read for the fun of it. YALSA’s top ten teen books are chosen for teens by teens across the country and are announced each year during Teen Read Week.
Catch you on the flipside of a book!
Behemoth
By Scott Westerfeld
Young Adult Fiction Westerfeld
This sequel to Leviathan is a skillfully crafted, steam-punk adventure. Alek, the lost Austro-Hungarian prince, and Deryn, a girl disguised as a boy, are on the airship Leviathan heading to the Ottoman Empire on a peacekeeping mission. When they are suddenly attacked they are left to fend for themselves. Alek escapes and starts a revolution to overthrow the Sultan, while Deryn embarks on a covert mission. Will their actions manage to stave off war?
I Am J. Little
By Cris Beam
YA New Fiction Beam
J (no one calls him Jeni anymore) acts like a boy, dresses like a boy, and has always identified himself as such, despite being genetically female. J’s parents and best friend, however, do not accept him as male. Desperate, he runs away and enrolls in a school specifically for gay and transgender students. There, he is able to begin to find acceptance. More than just a story of a transgender teen, this is the story of how teenagers live and love and cope.
The Lost Gate
By Orson Scott Card
YA New Fiction Card
Danny thought he was a Drekka, one without magic. His cousins learn to conjure faeries, ghosts, golems, trolls, werewolves, and such; but not Danny, until… he discovers his powers as a Gatemage. The first in 1,000 years! The only catch: all magic families made a pact to kill any person who could make gates to transport themselves. Danny is forced to run from everything and everyone he knows in an attempt to unravel the secrets behind his powers.
The Sky is Everywhere
By Jandy Nelson
YA New Fiction Nelson
Awkward Lennie and her vibrant sister Bailey were as close as sisters could be. But when Bailey suddenly dies, Lennie is left alone to struggle with the emotional torrent that follows. Soon Lennie becomes torn between two boys. Toby, Bailey’s ex-boyfriend, shares and understands Lennie’s grief. But Joe, the exciting new boy in town, is a musical genius and is clearly attracted to her. This is all more than the reserved band geek is equipped to handle! Who will she choose? This story of love, loss, and healing will have you laughing and crying all in the same breath.
You Killed Wesley Payne
By Sean Beaudoin
YA New Fiction Beaudoin
Quirky teenager Dalton Rev is a private eye. Dressed in a crisp white shirt and tie, he is sent to Salt River High School to investigate the death of student Wesley Payne. Was it suicide? Or was it murder? The school’s tight cliques are on the verge of a turf war, making it tricky to catch the perp. But it’s up to Dalton to sort through the mess, locate the missing hundred grand, and if everything rolls his way, ride off into the sunset with the victim’s adorable sister.
Zombies vs. Unicorns
By Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier
YA Fiction Black
Are you Team Unicorn or Team Zombie? In this anthology of twelve fast-paced stories, popular teen authors make strong arguments for both sides adding to the longstanding and gruesome debate concerning the relative awesomeness of zombies versus unicorns.
Lies
By Michael Grant
YA Science Fiction Grant
In Gone and Hunger the first two books in this series all adults have disappeared. Now, seven months later, life is getting hard for the under 15s who survived. Food is running out, the beach is burning, and a few who died have eerily come back amongst the living. As the situation worsens and everyone has their own battles to face, is death the only way out?
Red Moon Rising
By Peter Moore
YA New Fiction Moore
In a world dominated by vampires, Danny is used to hiding his true nature because Wulfs are treated like the scum of the earth. But thanks to treatments he’s received from infancy, most people assume Danny’s other half is just human. When Danny begins experiencing strange changes, it appears that his Wulf side has become active. Now he faces a difficult choice: a dreary future becoming an inmate part of each month or life as an illegal, unregistered Wulf.
• Wendy Ikemoto is the temporary Young Adult Librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library. Come in and discover why she loves this library so much. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
