Best Fiction at CA Library

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Each year at this time, the Young Adult Library Services Association announces its lists of the best books published in the previous year. Today we take a look at some of the titles on the list of Best Fiction for Young Adults (the full list is here).

You can see which books are already in the CA Library collection by checking our catalog here. We’ll be adding more in the next few weeks.

Since there are so many on the full list (over 100 titles), here is the best of the best, the top ten fiction books for young adults…

Julie Berry. All the Truth That’s In Me. Penguin/Viking Juvenile, 2013 — Judith can’t speak. But when her close-knit community of Roswell Station is attacked by enemies, Judith is forced to choose: continue to live in silence, or recover her voice. “Suspenseful and haunting.” — Publishers Weekly

Kristin Elizabeth ClarkFreakboy. Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2013 — Told from three viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Brendan, a wrestler, struggles to come to terms with his place on the transgender spectrum while Vanessa, the girl he loves, and Angel, a transgender acquaintance, try to help. “A must-have for library shelves, this will be popular with fans of Ellen Hopkins.” — Booklist starred review

Tim Federle. Better Nate Than Ever. Simon & Schuster/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013 — A small-town boy hops a bus to New York City to crash an audition for E.T.: The Musical. “”Funny and insightful…this talented first-time author has made the classic Chorus Line theme modern and bright for the Glee generation.” — Booklist

Tom McNealFar Far Away. Random House/Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013 — When Jeremy Johnson Johnson’s strange ability to speak to the ghost of Jacob Grimm draws the interest of his classmate Ginger Boltinghouse, the two find themselves at the center of a series of disappearances in their hometown. “Whether readers connect more deeply with the suspense, the magical elements, or the gloriously improbable love story, they will come away with a lingering taste of enchantment.” — School Library Journal

Rainbow Rowell. Eleanor & Park. Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin, 2013 — Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits–smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. “The pure, fear-laced, yet steadily maturing relationship they develop is urgent, moving, and, of course, heartbreaking, too.” — Booklist starred review

Marcus Sedgwick. Midwinterblood. Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press, 2013 — Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island inhabited–throughout various time periods–by Vikings, vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant. “Although fans of the author’s Revolver  will likely flock to this book to relish more of Sedgwick’s stark, suspenseful writing, new readers might find that there are more questions left unanswered than are resolved.” — School Library Journal

Ruta Sepetys. Out of the Easy. Penguin/Philomel, 2013 — Josie, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a French Quarter prostitute, is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation. “Readers will find Josie irresistible from the get-go and will devour the sultry mix of mystery, historical detail, and romance.” — Publishers Weekly

Andrew Smith. Winger. Illustrated by Sam Bosma. Simon & Schuster/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2013 — Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates. “Readers don’t need to know anything about rugby to appreciate this moving, funny coming-of-age novel.” — School Library Journal

Tara Sullivan. Golden Boy. Penguin/Putnam Juvenile, 2013 — Thirteen-year-old Habo has always been different—light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him. When his family is forced from their small Tanzanian village, Habo knows he is to blame. “Harrowing but ultimately redemptive…the murder of Tanzania’s albinos is a real and horrific phenomenon of the past 15 years, a cold fact that makes the fictional events in Golden Boy more moving and consequential than those in any dystopian young-adult chase-drama.” — The Wall Street Journal

Elizabeth WeinRose Under Fire. Disney-Hyperion, 2013 — When young American pilot Rose Justice is captured by Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious women’s concentration camp, she finds hope in the impossible through the loyalty, bravery, and friendship of her fellow prisoners. “Wein excels at weaving research seamlessly into narrative and has crafted another indelible story about friendship borne out of unimaginable adversity.” — Publishers Weekly

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