1984

1984 by George Orwell

Portrays life in a future time when a totalitarian government watches over all citizens and directs all activities. Read a sample.

A Heart in a Body in the World

A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti

Followed by Grandpa Ed in his RV and backed by her brother and friends, Annabelle, eighteen, runs from Seattle to Washington, D.C., becoming a reluctant activist as people connect her journey to her recent trauma. Read a sample.

After the Shot Drops

After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay

Told from alternating perspectives, Bunny takes a basketball scholarship to an elite private school to help his family, leaving behind Nasir, his best friend, in their tough Philadelphia neighborhood. Read a sample.

All American Boys

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds

All 16-year-old Rashad was looking for was a bag of chips. He never asked to be assaulted by aggressive cop Paul Galluzzo. One of the witnesses, varsity basketball player Quinn Collins, lost his father in Afghanistan and has since been raised by Paul. The video of the incident goes viral, Rashad stops coming to school, and everyone takes sides. Rashad and Quinn face difficult choices as they move toward a new understanding of their world. Read a sample.

All the Bright Places

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school--both teetering on the edge--it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another. Read a sample.

Amal Unbound

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

In Pakistan, Amal holds onto her dream of being a teacher even after becoming an indentured servant to pay off her family's debt to the wealthy and corrupt Khan family. Read a sample.

As You Wish

As You Wish by Chelsea Sedoti

In Madison, a small town in the Mojave Desert, everyone gets one wish that will come true on his or her eighteenth birthday, and Eldon takes his very seriously. Read a sample.

Bang

Bang by Barry Lyga

Sebastian Cody did something horrible, something no one not even Sebastian himself can forgive. At the age of four, he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister with his father's gun. Now, ten years later, Sebastian has lived with the guilt and horror for his entire life. With his best friend away for the summer, Sebastian has only a new friend, Aneesa, to distract him from his darkest thoughts. But even this relationship cannot blunt the pain of his past. Because Sebastian knows exactly how to rectify his childhood crime and sanctify his past. It took a gun to get him into this.Now he needs a gun to get out. Read a sample.

Bone Gap

Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

Lots of people go missing in Bone Gap, but Finn O'Sullivan knows there is something much more wicked about beautiful Roza's sudden disappearance than meets the eye. Not even Finn's brother believes him. Now Finn must face the deadly man who kidnapped Roza from the cornfields alone. Read a sample.

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband -- these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone can see that these dreams aren't too far out of reach. But the girl's dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors' radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she's been told. Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life and her future is hers to fight for. Read a sample.

Challenger Deep

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman

Torn between life on a ship bound for the Marianas Trench's deepest point and pretending to join the school track team, Caden Bosch takes long walks, burying himself in his own mind as he struggles with his fading allegiance to the impossible ship's captain. Read a Sample.

Children of Blood and Bone

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Seventeen-year-old Zélie, her older brother Tzain, and rogue princess Amari fight to restore magic to the land and activate a new generation of magi, but they are ruthlessly pursued by the crown prince, who believes the return of magic will mean the end of the monarchy. Read a sample.

Crossover

Crossover by Kwame Alexander

Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family. Read a Sample.

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life. Read a sample.

Dear Martin

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him. Read a sample.

Downstairs Girl

Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

1890, Atlanta. By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel Caroline Payne, the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for 'the genteel Southern lady'. Read a sample.

Dreamland Burning

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

When Rowan finds a skeleton on her family's property, investigating the brutal, century-old murder leads to painful discoveries about the past. Alternating chapters tell the story of William, another teen grappling with the racial firestorm leading up to the 1921 Tulsa race riot, providing some clues to the mystery. Read a sample.

Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

They knew their love couldn't last, but they gave it their best shot, anyway. Two teens try to make love work in 1986, struggling to stay together over the course of one school year. Read a sample.

Far from the Tree

Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
 
Feeling incomplete as an adopted child after placing her own baby up for adoption, teen Grace tracks down her biological siblings and finds herself struggling with the dynamics of being a middle child between an embittered older brother and an outspoken younger sister. Read a sample.
 

Girls on the Verge

Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Waller

Camille, seventeen, gives up her spot at a prestigious theater camp to drive from Texas to New Mexico to get an abortion, accompanied by her friends Annabelle and Bea. Read a sample.

Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Giver, the 1994 Newbery Medal winner, has become one of the most influential novels of our time. The haunting story centers on twelve-year-old Jonas, who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver of Memory does he begin to understand the dark, complex secrets behind his fragile community. Lois Lowry has written three companion novels to The Giver, including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son. Read a sample.

Goodbye Days

Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
 
Looks at a teen's life after the death of his best friend and how he navigates through the guilt and pain by celebrating their lives--and ultimately learning to forgive himself. Read a sample.
 

I Am Princess X

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest

Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure. Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her. Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window. Princess X? When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There's an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon---her best friend, Libby, who lives. Read a Sample.

I’ll Give You the Sun

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

When tragedy tears twin brother and sister Noah and Jude apart, daredevil Jude meets an impulsive new mentor and slowly makes her way back to her shy brother, Noah, who has a knack for drawing and could never keep his eyes off the boy next door. Noah tells half the tale, while Jude chronicles the later years, with each twin holding half of a story that could change their lives for the better...if only they could see it. Read a Sample.

Internment

Internment by Samira Ahmed

A terrifying, futuristic United Sates where Muslim-Americans are forced into internment camps, and seventeen-year-old Layla Amin must lead a revolution against complicit silence. Read a sample.

Jackaby

Jackaby by William Ritter

New Fiddleham, New England newcomer Abigail Rook joins an investigator of the truly bizarre when a serial killer makes Abigail and her mentor, R. F. Jackaby, wonder if the culprit could be a creature whose existence the police will stop at nothing to deny. Read a Sample.

Long Way Down

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Driven by the secrets and vengeance that mark his street culture, 15-year-old Will contemplates over the course of 60 psychologically suspenseful seconds whether or not he is going to murder the person who killed his brother. Read a sample.

Love and Other Foreign Words

Love and Other Foreign Words by Erin McCahan

Well-versed in seemingly every important high school language but love, 16-year-old Josie fights to understand true love when her sister seemingly gets engaged to the wrong guy. Can Josie find a way to understand the language of love in time to embrace her own romantic surprise? Read a Sample.

Lovely War

Lovely War by Julie Berry

They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. A classical pianist from London, a British would-be architect-turned-soldier, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the U.S. Army, and a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. Their story, as told by goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though war is a formidable force, it's no match for the transcendent power of love. Read a sample.

March, Book One

March, Book One by John Lewis

March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book One spans John Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall. Read a Sample.

March, Book Three

March, Book Three by John Lewis

By Fall 1963, the Civil Rights Movement is an undeniable keystone of the national conversation, and as chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis is right in the thick of it. With the stakes continuing to rise, white supremacists intensify their opposition through government obstruction and civilian terrorist attacks, a supportive president is assassinated, and African-Americans across the South are still blatantly prohibited from voting. To carry out their nonviolent revolution, Lewis and an army of young activists launch a series of innovative projects, including the Freedom Vote, Mississippi Freedom Summer, and a pitched battle for the soul of the Democratic Party waged live on national television. But strategic disputes are deepening within the movement, even as 25-year-old John Lewis heads to Alabama to risk everything in a historic showdown that will shock the world. Read a sample.

March, Book Two

March, Book Two by John Lewis

Now, March brings the lessons of history to vivid life for a new generation, urgently relevant for today's world. After the success of the Nashville sit-in campaign, John Lewis is more committed than ever to changing the world through nonviolence - but as he and his fellow Freedom Riders board a bus into the vicious heart of the deep south, they will be tested like never before. Faced with beatings, police brutality, imprisonment, arson, and even murder, the young activists of the movement struggle with internal conflicts as well. But their courage will attract the notice of powerful allies, from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy... and once Lewis is elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, this 23-year-old will be thrust into the national spotlight, becoming one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement and a central figure in the landmark 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Read a Sample.

Miles Morales

Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds

Brooklyn Visions Academy student Miles Morales may not always want to be a super hero, but he must come to terms with his identity--and deal with a villainous teacher--as the new Spider Man. Read a sample.

Moxie

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

In a small Texas town where high school football reigns supreme, Viv, sixteen, starts a feminist revolution using anonymously-written zines. Read a sample.

New Kid

New Kid by Jerry Craft

After his parents send him to a prestigious private school known for its academics, Jordan Banks finds himself torn between two worlds. Read a sample.

Nimona

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

A shape-shifter sidekick named Nimona teams with the villainous Lord Ballister Blackheart to show the kingdom the wicked truth behind Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin's seemingly heroic ways, desperate to reveal the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics for what it really is. Read a Sample.

Nowhere Boy

Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh

Fourteen-year-old Ahmed is stuck in a city that wants nothing to do with him. Newly arrived in Brussels, Belgium, Ahmed fled a life of uncertainty and suffering in Syria, only to lose his father on the perilous journey to the shores of Europe. Now Ahmed's struggling to get by on his own, but with no one left to trust and nowhere to go, he's starting to lose hope. Then he meets Max, a thirteen-year-old American boy. Lonely and homesick, Max is struggling at his new school and just can't seem to do anything right. But with one startling discovery, Max and Ahmed's lives collide and a friendship begins to grow. Together, Max and Ahmed will defy the odds, learning from each other what it means to be brave and how hope can change your destiny. Read a sample.

Outsiders

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.

Ponyboy can count on his brothers and his friends, but not on much else besides trouble with the Socs, a vicious gang of rich kids who get away with everything, including beating up greasers like Ponyboy. At least he knows what to expect—until the night someone takes things too far. Written forty-five years ago, S. E. Hinton's classic story of a boy who finds himself on the outskirts of regular society remains as powerful today as it was the day it was written. Read a sample.

Picture Us in the Light

Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Daniel, a Chinese-American teen, must grapple with his plans for the future, his feelings for his best friend Harry, and his discovery of a family secret that could shatter everything. Read a sample.

Prisoner of Night and Fog

Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

A handsome Jewish reporter turns Gretchen Muller's life upside down when Gretchen, Adolf Hitler's beloved and protected niece, learns that an unknown comrade may be responsible for her late father's death. Soon Gretchen much reconsider everything she thought she knew about seemingly amicable Uncle Dolf as she faces the deadly truth. Read a Sample.

Raven Boys

Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive. Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them-not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. His name is Gansey and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can't entirely explain. He has it all-family money, good looks, devoted friends-but he's looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys. Read a sample.

Scythe

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants. The one who becomes a scythe must kill the one who doesn't. Read a sample.

Shout

Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson

A poetic memoir and urgent call-to-action by the award-winning author of "Speak" blends free-verse reflections with deeply personal stories from her life to rally today's young people to stand up and fight the abuses, censorship and hatred of today's world. Read a sample.

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he's pushed outwithout alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he's never met. Incredibly funny and poignant, this twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out storywrapped in a geek romanceis a knockout of a debut novel by Becky Albertalli. Read a Sample.

Spill Zone

Spill Zone by Scott Westerfeld

Years after the devastation that killed her parents, scarred her sister, and destroyed her city, Addison takes a job from an eccentric collector that forces her to break her own rules of survival. Read a sample.

Stargirl

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

Leo Borlock follows the unspoken rule at Mica Area High School: don't stand out--under any circumstances! Then Stargirl arrives at Mica High and everything changes--for Leo and for the entire school. After 15 years of home schooling, Stargirl bursts into tenth grade in an explosion of color and a clatter of ukulele music, enchanting the Mica student body. But the delicate scales of popularity suddenly shift, and Stargirl is shunned for everything that makes her different. Somewhere in the midst of Stargirl's arrival and rise and fall, normal Leo Borlock has tumbled into love with her. Read a sample.

Strange the Dreamer

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Lazlo Strange is a foundling who has grown up alone and unloved, sustained only by his fantasies and stories of a city known as Weep. As an adult, Lazlo finds his way to the Great Library of Zosma and becomes a librarian, tasked with supporting scholars in their work. Eril Fane, the liberator of Weep, pays a surprise visit to Zosma. Lazlo seizes the chance to join an expedition to the city he has dreamed of for so long, and he is caught up in an old conflict between Weep's mortal residents and blue godlike beings who had terrorized the city until Eril Fane slew them. Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of Weep, five children of these magical beings have survived and live in the giant seraph that hovers over the city. When Sarai, one of these Godspawn, visits Lazlo in his dreams, their growing relationship leads to the revelation of long-hidden secrets and opposition from other Godspawn, who desire revenge on mortals. Read a sample.

The Benefits of Being an Octopus

The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden

Seventh-grader Zoey Albro focuses on caring for three younger siblings and avoiding rich classmates at school until her fascination with octopuses gets her on the debate team and she begins to speak out. Read a sample.
 

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Yee
 
The struggle to get into a top-tier college consumes sixteen-year-old Genie's every waking thought. But when she discovers she's a celestial spirit who's powerful enough to bash through the gates of heaven with her fists, her perfectionist existence is shattered. Enter Quentin, a transfer student from China whose tone-deaf assertiveness beguiles Genie to the brink of madness. Quentin nurtures Genie's outrageous transformation - sometimes gently, sometimes aggressively - as her sleepy suburb in the Bay Area comes under siege from hell-spawn. Read a sample.
 

The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
 
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does--or does not--say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. Read a sample.
 

The How & the Why

The How & the Why by Cynthia Hand

A novel told from the viewpoints of an adoptee and the teen mother who gave her up 18 years earlier follows Cassandra's search for clues about her true identity in the letters left behind by her birth mother. Read a sample.

The Prince and the Dressmaker

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride--or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia--the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion! Sebastian's secret weapon (and best friend) is the brilliant dressmaker Frances--one of only two people who know the truth: sometimes this boy wears dresses. But Frances dreams of greatness, and being someone's secret weapon means being a secret. Forever. How long can Frances defer her dreams to protect a friend? Read a sample.

The Scorpion Rules

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

Four centuries after an artificial intelligence named Talis conquered the world, the United Nations keeps the peace by holding the world leaders' children hostage. If war breaks out, thechildren die. Talis's hostage, Crown Princess Greta, is resigned to the death that will claim her if she fails to reach her 18th birthday. But a hostage boy from a new American alliance stirs rebellion in Greta when he takes a stand. Read a sample.

The Young Elites

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

White hair and a distinctive scar are the least of blood plague survivor Adelina Amouteru's worries when her special powers exile her from her family and send her to a secret society of fellow Young Elites committed to saving the innocent. The Kenettra soldiers believe the Young Elites to be monsters wielding demonic powers. If Adelina is not careful, her own power could cause far more harm than she imagined. Read a sample.

They Both Die at the End

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

In a near-future New York City where a service alerts people on the day they will die, teenagers Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio meet using the Last Friend app and are faced with the challenge of living a lifetime on their End Day. Read a sample.

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Scout Finch, daughter of the town lawyer, likes to spend her summers building treehouses, swimming, and catching lightning bugs with her big brother Jem. But one summer, when a black man is accused of raping a white woman, Scout's carefree days come to an end. In the county courtroom, she will join her father in a desperate battle against ignorance and prejudice. Read a sample.

Understanding Comics

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud, a twelve-time Harvey and Eisner Award nominee, uses a comic book to explain and analyze the medium of comic books themselves, showing how words, lines, colors, symbols, panels and pictures all come together to create a unique and one-of-a-kind storytelling experience. Looking back at the 3000 year history of the art form, McCloud shows how this unique genre is just as important and valid as film and prose in his own funny and profound manner.

Wilder Girls

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

Friends Hetty, Byatt, and Reece go to extremes trying to uncover the dark truth about the mysterious disease that has had them quarantined at their boarding school on a Maine island. Read a sample.

With the Fire on High

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Ever since she got pregnant freshman year, Emoni Santiago's life has been about making the tough decisions--doing what has to be done for her daughter and her abuela. The one place she can let all that go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Even though she dreams of working as a chef after she graduates, Emoni knows that it's not worth her time to pursue the impossible. Yet despite the rules she thinks she has to play by, once Emoni starts cooking, her only choice is to let her talent break free. Read a sample.

Wolf by Wolf

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

The first book in a duology about an alternate version of 1956 where the Axis powers won WWII, and hold an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents to commemorate their victory. Read a sample.