YALSA Teens' Top Ten

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) just announced their Teens' Top Ten, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year.  Nominators are members of teen book groups in sixteen school and public libraries around the country.



Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews:  Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.  Available through interlibrary loan





The Diviners by Libba Bray:  Seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of the investigation.  New Teen Fiction Bray





Seraphina by Rachel Hartman:  In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents. New Teen Fiction Hartman





Enchanted by Alethea Kontis:  When Sunday Woodcutter, the youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week, kisses an enchanted frog, he transforms back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland--a man Sunday's family despises.  Available through interlibrary loan






Every Day by David Levithan:  Every morning A wakes in a different person's body, in a different person's life, learning over the years to never get too attached, until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon.  New Teen Fiction Levithan





Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick:  Cambodian child soldier Arn Chorn-Pond defied the odds and used all of his courage and wits to survive the murderous regime of the Khmer Rouge.  Available through interlibrary loan






Boy21 by Matthew Quick:  Finley, an unnaturally quiet boy who is the only white player on his high school's varsity basketball team, lives in a dismal Pennsylvania town that is ruled by the Irish mob, and when his coach asks him to mentor a troubled African-American student who has transferred there from an elite private school in California, he finds that they have a lot in common in spite of their apparent differences.  Teen Fiction Quick





Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz:  Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.  Teen Fiction Saenz





The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater:  Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent's only gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger, and when she meets Gansey, one of the Raven Boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own--and that together their talents are a dangerous mix.  New Teen Fiction Stiefvater





Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein:  In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.  Teen Fiction Wein