Each year, we ask library staff around the system for their favorite books published that year. Here are this year’s teen titles.
In The Charmed List by Julie Abe, Ellie and Jack, two teens with magical abilities, are forced to go on a road trip as punishment for a prank gone wrong. Along the way, Ellie realizes that Jack has been helping her cross off items on her senior year bucket list, including falling in love.
Akwaeke Emezi’s Bitter follows an art student who attends an art school and makes challenging art while revolution roils the city around her, but when anti-protest violence harms one of her friends, she makes her most provocative art as revenge.
Jenny Ferguson’s The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, a complex novel, follows Lou, whose secure summer job at her uncles’ ice cream parlor is threatened by her father’s letters from prison and his desire to return to her life, her boyfriend’s volatility, and the possibility that her uncles’ ice cream parlor may not make enough money to stay in business.
An atmospheric historical fantasy with a touch of romance, Belladonna by Adalyn Grace tells the story of orphaned Signa, who believes she cannot die. When she is sent to live with distant relatives, one’s sudden illness leads her to befriend Death itself to reveal the mystery.
In the Key of Us by Mariama Lockington is about Andi and Zora, two musically gifted girls dealing with family trauma. When they find themselves thrown together as the only two Black kids at summer music camp, they resist the obvious connection at first, but learn they have much more in common than they believed.
Lakelore by Anna-Marie McLemore follows two nonbinary teens, Bastian and Lore. After an incident seven years before which caused them to stop speaking with each other, Lore and Bastian are reunited near the lake that has magically helped them deal with anxieties and traumas.
Axie Oh’s The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, a retelling of an old Korean folktale, tells the story of Mina, who sacrifices herself to save her sibling from the Sea God. Her journey underwater leads her to the Spirit Realm and the possibility of saving her village.
From Dust, a Flame by Rebecca Podos follows Hannah, who discovers she has snake eyes on the day after her seventeenth birthday. Her mother promises to help, then disappears just as Hannah and her brother learn their grandmother has died, and that she may have had the power to help Hannah heal. Can their new friend Ari help her become whole?
Tommie Smith’s autobiographical graphic novel, Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice, tells how he grew up in poverty and facing racism from many people around him, but grew into a great athlete, most famous for the iconic moment in the 1968 Olympics when he raised his fist on the awards podium.
Youngbloods returns to Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series to unite Frey, who is ready to speak her truth and free herself from her family of deceivers, and Tally, who started a revolution she now wants no part of. When they meet, they realize they need to rein in the forces of destruction together.
In Nothing Burns as Bright as You by Ashley Woodfolk, two unnamed queer Black girls recount their brief, intense relationship that begins and ends in fire.
Find these titles in our catalog: Seattle Staff Faves 2022: Teen Books
~ posted by Wally B.
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