MG & YA book list for 2023 titled above an image of a brightly colored, fully stocked bookshelf

An Unforgettable Must-Read YA Book List for 2023

Summer is best for catching up on your TBR and figuring out what to add to your classroom library. Well, look no further. I’ve done a bunch of reading for you—you’re welcome 😉—and compiled this epic YA book list. I can confidently tell you which inclusive, new titles will be popular young adult books bound to fly off your shelves. (Bonus: if you’re looking for “older” titles, Danielle has this mega post with all of our MG & YA book list round-ups and inclusive media pairings, too; you can bookmark it since we update it frequently). This YA book list blog post uses affiliate links for your convenience. If you decide to purchase any recommendation from this YA book list, please consider doing so through our affiliate links at no additional cost to you. 2023:

Carina Assayed July 12, 2023

7 LGBTQ YA Books is written atop a group of diverse individuals huddles and staring down at a camera with a pride flag above them

7 Mesmerizing LGBTQ YA books every young adult should know

With love in the air, I have been reading a ton of LGBTQ YA books this February. Whether it’s a YA romance pick or a coming-of-age, I love when complex LGBTQ+ protagonists fall in love (with themselves, especially). For this month’s round-up, you’ll find 7 of my favorite recently read LGBTQ YA books. I listed them in no particular order, and you truly could not go wrong reading any of these! Or even better, reading them and then adding to your classroom library #representationmatters. 🏳️‍🌈 7 must-read LGBTQ YA books 🏳️‍⚧️ The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School (HS) by Sonora Reyes ❤️ I teach at a school whose demographic is predominantly Latine students. I wish I could give every one of my students this LGBTQ YA book because so many would feel seen in a

Carina Assayed February 14, 2023

7 MORE YA Fantasy Book Recommendations

New year, new bookshelf goals! A personal goal of mine this school year is to add more diverse genres and, of course, more diverse YA books to my classroom library. When I conducted a bookshelf audit to find what was missing on my shelves, I realized I was low on YA fantasy books and YA sci-fi books. After reading Danielle’s post for 12 diverse YA fantasy books and YA sci-fi books, it inspired me to curate a list of seven more to add to my shelves this year. Diverse YA Fantasy Books & YA Sci-Fi Books 1. Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble by Anna Meriano (MS) If you’re a fan of… ✨ Coco (who isn’t?), ✨ The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (or Sabrina the Teenage Witch for us older folks),✨or Harry Potter (sans

Carina Assayed January 24, 2023

Brightly colored hard cover books arranged in a circle in rainbow order. At the top of the image there is a white border with pink and blue text that says "Native American Heritage Month in Secondary ELA"

ELA Texts & Resources for Honoring Native American Heritage Month

Looking for text recommendations and engaging resources that you can use during Native American Heritage Month (and year round!), look no further! How many Native American/First Nation voices are present in your curriculum or your classroom library? If you aren’t sure, I have a free tool that allows you to see what’s missing, representation-wise, from your classroom library. Indigenous stories aren’t just underrepresented in schools, they are vastly underrepresented in publishing as well. According to data compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 1% of children’s books released in 2018 were written about Indigenous characters. That number deteriorated even further when we looked at how many books were written BY Indigenous authors. Even though there are hundreds of nations and tribal affiliations across Turtle Island – with a variety of diverse experiences, customs, and practices

Leila Hobbs November 9, 2022

An overhead photo of brightly colored books standing up. There is a white banner at the top with pink text that says "YA & MG Novels in Verse"

8 Captivating Novels in Verse for Secondary ELA Students

Whether you’re hosting a lit circle or adding to your classroom library, these novels in verse will be a big hit with your secondary ELA students. I love incorporating verse novels into the classroom! The fact that they have compelling stories, and easy-to-connect with characters makes verse novels an ideal choice for reluctant poetry readers. Students that aren’t typically interested in poetry, but who are interested in the story, can grow to appreciate the writing style. Keeping a few verse novels in your classroom library is also a great way to let students explore poetry in a “no pressure” setting. In this post, I’ll share some novels in verse for middle and high school ELA, plus some extension/enrichment activities that you can use to accompany the books. If you want to pick up any of

Leila Hobbs June 7, 2022

In the background there are brightly lit library shelves, in the foreground there is a small globe, a stack of books, and a magnifying glass. There is a white border at the top with pink text reading "International Texts for Secondary ELA"

5 International Texts to Promote Diversity In the Classroom

One tool for promoting diversity in the classroom is using texts by international authors. Here are 5 texts from around the world your students will love! Note: This is a guest post, written by Abena. She’s a writer and educator who focuses on promoting diversity in the classroom. Check out her blog, DiversityInMind, and follow her on Instagram @diversity_in_mind. Now, enjoy her text recommendations! What is Cultural Diversity In the Classroom? When I taught in the UK, texts from other cultures were part of the curriculum. Often, this meant British-Africa, British-Asian, and so on. It felt like minority cultures were only being validated in part because of their relation to ‘Britishness’ rather than their own individual cultural experiences. (I see this reflected in diverse book lists from other places, like the USA, too.) As time

Abena April 13, 2022

A black and white photo of a city skyline with mountains in the background. There is a white border at the top with blue and pink text reading "Dystopian Literature Circles"

Dystopian Literature Circles in Secondary ELA

Want to have a dystopian literature circle in your classroom? Let me plan it for you! This post has book recs and a step-by-step guide. Students love dystopian literature, and there’s an endless amount of quality texts covering different themes. That’s why I love to do dystopian literature circles with my students. This allows us to compare themes across different settings and characters. If you haven’t tried literature circles in high school, I’ll share some tips about getting started with those as well. Introduction to Dystopian Literature Before we ever start literature circles, we come together as a class and create a common understanding of what dystopian literature is. We discuss four types of control present in dystopian novels: Corporate (Minority Report) Bureaucratic (1984) Technological (The Matrix) Ideological/Religious (The Handmaid’s Tale) As we’re discussing these

Danielle Hall March 29, 2022

YA Books with Strong Female Leads

Whether you’re looking for books to celebrate Women’s History Month or just amazing titles to add to your classroom library, here are some YA books with strong female leads you can use in your secondary ELA classroom. YA books with strong female leads: Dread Nation (YA Fantasy) Dread Nation is set in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. The twist? The Civil War ended not after a treaty, but after the dead began to rise. To combat the undead –known as “shamblers”– many Black and Indigenous children are forced into a life of conscripted service. Our heroine Jane McKeene is attending Miss Preston’s School of Combat. It’s not the life she desires, but it offers her more opportunities than many of her fellow Black Americans. Dread Nation is a classic monster-tale in that

Leila Hobbs March 9, 2021

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Want a contemporary novel for your curriculum? Need classroom library suggestions? Check out Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo If you love YA books, you’re probably familiar with Elizabeth Acevedo’s work. Her debut novel The Poet X was a breathtakingly beautiful novel-in-verse, and a breakout success. We featured her follow up novel, With the Fire on High, on the YA Cafe Podcast. WtFoH was an unexpected novel-in-prose, but equally wonderful. With Clap When You Land, Acevedo returns to her poetry roots and gives us another novel-in-verse. If you’re looking to add more Latinx voices to your classroom library, any of Acevedo’s books are a great choice. I also have a blog post featuring my favorite YA books by Latinx authors. Today’s post is written by the amazing

Leila Hobbs February 17, 2021

5 Books from 2020 For Your Classroom Library

What a year 2020 has been, am I right? Well, amid everything, some amazing new books joined the shelves. Here are my top five recommendations for the classroom library. I know that, as English teachers, we can sometimes have a book-buying problem. I’ve narrowed my picks down to five books that will give you a lot of mileage. I made a list on Bookshop.org so you can easily purchase these books guilt-free. Bookshop.org gives 100% of the profits on every sale to the brick & mortar store of YOUR choice. For example, when I shop there, I choose my local bookstore here in Astoria, OR. You could choose your favorite Indie in your hometown. (I get a small commission of every sale, and I put those pennies right back into maintaining this blog

Danielle Hall December 15, 2020

Latinx YA Books for Your Classroom Library

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month, y’all! We celebrate this every year from September 15th to October 15th, and we can also bring it to our bookshelves. I recommend visiting the National Hispanic Heritage Month website: they have some great resources for teachers. Keep reading for amazing Latinx YA books that you can share with your students to celebrate. While it’s important to celebrate cultural and national heritage during specific festivals or annual events, how inclusive is your classroom library year-round? Books are both windows and mirrors. Can your students see genuine representations of themselves, or “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes”? Don’t feel discouraged if your classroom library or curriculum isn’t inclusive, yet. Your students are lucky because they have you to advocate for them and to continue pushing for diversity in the materials that

Danielle Hall September 24, 2020

Inclusive YA Retellings for the Classroom Library

I recently finished Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron and it got me thinking about using inclusive YA retellings in Secondary ELA. Retellings (or “reimaginings,” as I like to think of them) involve taking any story and giving it a new spin. This provides the reader a novel (hah!) way to connect with the material. We know that retellings stretch as far back as Shakespeare (he based Romeo and Juliet on a poem by Arthur Brooke). So let’s dig in… why are retellings so important to our collective conscience? Cinderella is Dead is set in a Dystopian fantasy future in which the Cinderella story as we know it has been weaponized against women to bring them into submission. Our LGBTQ+ heroine will not be attending the ball, business as usual. It’s 200 years

Danielle Hall August 6, 2020

YA/Middle Grade Books by Arab & Muslim Authors

Are you looking to create a more inclusive classroom library? Are you asking yourself, “What should I read next?” We have many lists of inclusive recommendations and today, we’ll focus on books by Arab and Muslim authors. Before I dive into the book recommendations, I wanted to talk about a few terms that sometimes get used interchangeably: Arab, Muslim, Islamic, Middle-Eastern. The most important takeaway here is that no single book will reflect every experience of one of these groups, so please include as many voices as you can. Arab/Arabic: To put it simply, not all Muslims are Arab, and not all Arabs are Muslim. “Arab is an ethno-linguistic category, identifying people who speak the Arabic language as their mother tongue (or, with immigrants, whose parents or grandparents spoke Arabic as their native language)”, (from

Leila Hobbs July 10, 2020

50+ Captivating & Diverse Texts for Secondary ELA

Hey y’all! Are you looking for diverse texts for secondary ELA? Do you want to grow your classroom library or find suggestions for a lit circle? Look no further! I’ve written a lot of YA book reviews and created a lot of book “round-up” lists over the years, so I thought it would be helpful to compile my many recommendations here. Each list, unless otherwise specified, features a range of authors and protagonists, including BIPOC, queer, neuro-divergent voices. And a final word about diversity and inclusion: no “one text” is going to develop your students’ empathy and thirst for justice. Instead, be sure to include a variety of voices throughout your shelves and curriculum, all year long. Be sure to bookmark this list of diverse texts for secondary ELA as it will continually grow* 🙂

Danielle Hall June 8, 2020

2019 Book Recommendation Round-Up

With the decade drawing to a close, it’s time to reflect on the great books released in 2019! Here are my favorite YA book recommendations of 2019: 2019 YA Book Recommendations Round-Up: As I write this, it’s the end of 2019 and the holiday season has begun. Whether you’re looking for last-minute reads to hit your reading goal or shopping for the booklovers on your list, I’ve got you covered. Here are YA book recommendations for every reader! Please note that not all these recommendations are a good fit for middle school readers. 🙂 Enjoy! The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee Y’all, I love Stacey Lee. To me, her books are like curling up with a warm cup of tea, you just sink into the story. But The Downstairs Girl isn’t

Danielle Hall December 12, 2019

Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz

This week we’re chatting about Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz, a heartwarming #ownvoices tale of two chronically ill teens who don’t die at the end! (Transcript) In today’s episode… Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz Isabel is sick. Not “Make-a-Wish” sick, though. Isabel has Rheumatoid Arthritis, the kind of sick that hurts her every single day and requires constant treatments, but isn’t going to kill her. Her friends and family, although they care about her, sometimes forget that she’s sick at all. After all, Isabel is dealing with it so well, and works hard to never be an imposition on their lives. Sasha’s world is different. He’s sick, too, with Gaucher disease, but he and his family are open and unapologetic about his life and struggles. When the two meet during

Danielle Hall November 21, 2019

A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy

Our friend Courtney joins us to chat about A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy. It’s perfect for fans of Children of Blood and Bone or Three Dark Crowns! (Transcript) In today’s episode… A River of Royal Blood tells the story of two rival princesses, Eva and Isadore, in a land of magic and mystery. Eva, our POV character, has always known that when she comes of age, she and her sister will fight to the death for the crown. Even though she wants to rule and be a good queen, Eva has never believed she’d have a chance because she’s never been able to use her magic of Blood and Marrow. It’s a terrifying magic with a sinister past, and Eva’s father could never find someone to teach her. When a mentor

Danielle Hall October 31, 2019

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus feat. L. Sam Smith

Writer & teacher L. Samantha Smith joins us to chat about The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus, a lush, split perspective YA debut. (Transcript) In today’s episode… The Stars and the Blackness Between Them follows two girls, Audre and Mabel. Audre has just been sent to Minnesota from her home in Trinidad after her mother found her with another girl. Mabel is ready to welcome her, but barely has the energy to enjoy much these days. After a startling diagnosis, Mabel counts on Audre for calm and peace. She also begins a correspondence with an imprisoned writer. It feels like these two people are alone in understanding her and anchoring her to this life. Can the two girls shape happiness in the space and time they have left together?

Danielle Hall September 27, 2019

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi feat. H.D. Hunter

This week we’re chatting about Pet by Akwaeke Emezi. Our guest is author H.D. Hunter who has some great insight into this totally unique YA new release. (Transcript) In today’s episode… Pet by Akwaeke Emezi The people in the town of Lucille know that there are no monsters anymore – not since the angels came and took them all way. But when a creature from one of Jam’s mother’s paintings comes to life and declares it’s here to hunt a monster, Jam believes it. The creature tells Jam to call it ‘Pet’, and asks her to help it find a monster lurking in her best friend’s house. Can Jam navigate the tricky waters of hunting a monster when no one believes they still exist? These Show Notes use Amazon Affiliate

Danielle Hall September 12, 2019

The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert feat. Nikea JaLynn

BookTuber, Nikea JaLynn (cohost of the series #BlackGirlLit), joins us to chat about The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert. (Transcript) In today’s episode… The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert Dove “Birdie” Randolph has tried hard to live up to her parents’ expectations: she’s at the top of her class, she works hard, and she even quit playing soccer to make more time for schoolwork. She seems to be the perfect daughter. But Birdie has a secret: she’s seeing a boy named Booker, a boy who’s been in Juvie, and Birdie’s sure her parents won’t approve. When her estranged aunt Carlene comes to town, Birdie’s life gets even more complicated. Carlene’s in recovery, but Birdie’s mother still braces herself for the moment when it will all come crashing down. Can Birdie

Danielle Hall August 22, 2019

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

Stacey Lee does it again! The Downstairs Girl is exactly the kind of historical fiction we need right now. We loved it, and your students will too. (Transcript) In today’s episode… The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee Being a Chinese American teenager in late 19th century Atlanta isn’t easy, but Jo Kwan has made a life with some stability. She and her caretaker, Old Gin, live in secret in a hidden room below a house, eavesdropping on the family living above them. When Jo’s fired without cause from her job as a hat maker she has no choice but to return to work as a lady’s maid for a girl she despises. Luckily, Jo has a secret. She’s taken to writing an advice column as “Miss Sweetie,” a sauce box of

Danielle Hall August 8, 2019

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim feat. Maura Milan

Project Runway meets Mulan in the new YA fantasy novel Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim. Joining us to chat is author and filmmaker, Maura Milan. (Transcript) In today’s episode… In Spin the Dawn, Maia Tamarin wants to be the best tailor in the land but can’t even officially apprentice as a girl. Her brothers have gone off to fight in a bloody civil war, and she’s all that holds the family business together. When her aging father gets called to the emperor’s court to be the imperial tailor, Maia slips away in his stead, posing as one of her brothers. When she arrives, she discovers that there are several tailors vying for the job, and she must best them in a series of challenges. Soon, Maia discovers that there’s more at stake

Danielle Hall July 25, 2019

Wicked Fox & more: Asian American author spotlight

Asian American YA Authors and Protags

sHow many Asian American YA novels do you have in your classroom library? We recently read Wicked Fox, a new YA urban fantasy by Kat Cho, and we wanted to collect some of our favorite Asian American YA authors and protags to share. According to a study done by Creative Commons, only 7% of children’s and YA books released in 2018 have characters from Asian backgrounds. This demographic is being hugely underrepresented in publishing, and that’s why today we want to spotlight some #ownvoices stories. Asian American YA Novels for Middle School: Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen Pilu of the Woods is a graphic novel following an episode in Willow’s life after the death of her mother. After Willow gets in a fight with her sister, she runs

Danielle Hall July 2, 2019

More Diverse YA Novels from the YA Cafe Podcast

From the 17th Century adventures in Lady’s Guide, to the dystopian future predicted in Internment, this list has a book recommendation for every student. Make sure you are subscribed to the podcast so you don’t miss all the great diverse YA books and guests we have lined up for our next season! 🙂 And if you aren’t already caught up, you can check out the books from our first season! Episode #29 – 18 October 2018 The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee is the follow-up to her fabulous The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. In this new novel, Felicity is off on her own adventures. After struggling to gain admission into any sort of hospital or medical school, Felicity wonders if she’ll ever be allowed to study medicine as a

Danielle Hall June 20, 2019

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