Some of the best YA books that were published in the year 2020. The featured titles were chosen from Librarians’ favorites and pulled from different best of lists.


Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school’s bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family.

Cemetery Boys is Ms. Alyssa’s best book of 2020, it was also found on the Publishers Weekly and NPR best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 

 


We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

The collective account of fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco as a tight-knit group of young Nisei, second-generation Japanese American citizens, as their lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.

We Are Not Free was found on the Publishers Weekly, Time Magazine, and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 

 


Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art.

Punching the Air was found on the Publishers Weekly, Time Magazine, and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 


Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo 

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people. In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. When it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

Clap When You Land was found on NPR and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 


Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

Raised in isolation, Tarisai yearns for the closeness she could have as one of the Crown Prince’s Council of 11, but her mother, The Lady, has magically compelled Tarisai to kill the Crown Prince.

Raybearer was found on the Publishers Weekly, NPR, and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Hoopla), Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 

 

 

 


The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute, and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a Hunger Games prequel, is Ms. Kristi’s top teen pick for 2020.

Available formats: Book, Audiobook (Hoopla), Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 


Juliet Takes a Breath: The Graphic Novel by Gabby Rivera 

Critically-acclaimed writer Gabby Rivera adapts her bestselling novel alongside artist Celia Moscote in an unforgettable queer coming-of-age story exploring race, identity and what it means to be true to your amazing self. Even when the rest of the world doesn’t understand. This graphic novel contains explicit sexual content.

Juliet Takes a Breath is Ms. Kimberly’s top teen pick for 2020.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Hoopla)

 

 

 

 


Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

Charlie Spring sits next to rugby player Nick Nelson in class one morning. A warm and intimate friendship follows, and that soon develops into something more for Charlie, who doesn’t think he has a chance. Nick is struggling with feelings of his own, and as the two grow closer and take on the ups and downs of high school, they come to understand the surprising and delightful ways in which love works.

Heartstopper is Ms. Alyssa’s top graphic novel pick for 2020

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Ebook (cloudLibrary)

 

 

 


Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

Gene understands stories, but he doesn’t get sports. However, at the high school where he now teaches, basketball is all anyone can talk about. The men’s varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that’s been decades in the making. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he’s seen on a comic book page. He knows he has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn’t know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons’s lives, but his own life as well.

Dragon Hoops was found on the Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 


Flamer by Mike Curato

It’s the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can’t stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance. Author and artist Mike Curato draws on his own experiences in this debut graphic novel, telling a difficult story with humor, compassion, and love.

Flamer was found on the NPR and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book

 

 

 


Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn’t always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation–following her mother’s announcement that she’s getting married–Robin is devastated. Then one day Robin’s mother enrolls her in a local comic drawing class, which opens the window to a future Robin could never have imagined.

Almost American Girl was found on the NPR and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 

 


Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds

Stamped reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. This book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas–and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.

Stamped: Racism, Antirascim, and You was found on the Publishers Weekly, Time Magazine, NPR, and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook (Media on Demand by OverDrive), Audiobook CD

 

 


Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth

The term “Apple” is a slur in Native communities across the country. It’s for someone supposedly “red on the outside, white on the inside.” Eric Gansworth is telling his family story from the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds. Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

Apple: Skin to the Core was found on the Time Magazine and NPR best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 

 


The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh by Candace Fleming

First human to cross the Atlantic via airplane; one of the first American media sensations; Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite; loner whose baby was kidnapped and murdered; champion of Eugenics, the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding; tireless environmentalist. Charles Lindbergh was all of the above and more. Here is a rich, multi-faceted, utterly spellbinding biography about an American hero who was also a deeply flawed man.

The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh was found on the Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Book, Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

 

 

 


The Talk by Wade Hudson

Thirty diverse and award-winning authors and illustrators capture frank discussions about racism, identity, and self-esteem.

The Talk was found on the NPR and School Library Journal best books lists.

Available formats: Ebook (Media on Demand by OverDrive)

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