Every year, a YALSA committee creates the Best Books for Young Adult (BBYA) List. They read a massive amount of books for this committee. 224 books were nominated for the list with 86 books making the final list. Of those 86 titles, the Glendale Public Library owned most of them already which always makes me very happy since I do a large part of the ordering. Every year, I create an in-house bibliography and a webliography to go along with the final booklist YALSA creates. Then I do a display promoting these books. My created booklist only contains the titles the library owns already, so it's not the completed BBYA list plus I use the library catalog synopses instead of the YALSA committee created ones. Oh, and if you go to the webliography, it will connect you directly to the library catalog so you can put the books on hold.
Anyway, here are some of the titles that I think teens will not only enjoy, but are also well written titles. So no, Gossip Girl will not be on the list. Even one of my favorites of last year, Sunrise over Fallujah didn't make the final cut.
Do you like Historical Fiction? Try these:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Slave girl spies for the rebels in the Revolutionary War
A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce
Charlotte tries to save her family's mill against mortgage and curses when a man who can spin straw into gold comes into her life.
How about nonfiction?
No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin
In their own voices, inmates sentenced to death as teens talk about their lives in prison.
What the World Eats by Peter Menzel
25 families in 21 countries with one week of food surround them in these portraits.
Fancy a Realistic Science Fiction Book?
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Future North America, government maintains control through televised competition that pits teens against one another.
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
A terrorist attack in San Francisco has created a police state and Marcus decides to use his hacking skills to make things right.
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
A teen girl recovering from a serious accident and suffering from memory lapses learns a startling illegal secret about her very existence.
Want some gritty fiction?
Kendra by Coe Booth
Kendra longs to live with her mother who couldn't deal with motherhood at fourteen.
Paper Towns by John Green
Q basks in normal life until the fabulous Margo takes him on a midnight adventure and then disappears.
Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
Here's the synopsis from YALSA--much better than the library catalog's! Abducted at the age of ten, Alice has lived as a sex partner for Ray for 5 years until he informs her that she’s "too old" for his love.
Hopefully that will give you some more reading suggestions for the week. Later on I'll post about quick picks and popular paperbacks!
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