2020 Finalists: Young Adult Fiction

Clap When You Land (Amazon, IndieBound
by Elizabeth Acevedo
Quill Tree Books
Nominated by: Stephanie @ Love.Life.Read

When flight 587 crashes, two girls’ lives are changed forever. Clap When You Land explores what it means to be family and what it means to grieve a person you didn’t completely know. The poetry of this book allows Yahaira and Camino’s voices and emotions to shine through as they process and remember their past while looking toward a changed future. The story is not only told through dual perspective but takes place in New York City and The Dominican Republic, and both places come to life through the girls’ eyes.

Grace Barker, GraceGetsBooks

Dear Justyce (Amazon, IndieBound
by Nic Stone
Crown Books for Young Readers
Nominated by: Vidya Tiru

Nic Stone’s Dear Justyce is a companion novel to her powerful Dear Martin. This is Quan’s story. After being involved in a police shooting, Quan spends much of Dear Justyce in jail. As he awaits trial, Quan begins to reflect on what happened to him and so many others: “We find the families we were desperate for and learn different ways of going about things. Ways that sometimes land us in places/positions we don’t really wanna be in.” In some ways, Dear Justyce is an even stronger novel than its predecessor. Readers do not need familiarity with Dear Martin to fully experience Dear Justyce. The plots do not depend on each other, and understanding the recurring characters is not dependent on the previous book. In fact, reading them in reverse order might lead readers to insights on Dear Martin that wouldn’t be possible if it’s read first. With Dear Justyce, Nic Stone further confirms her role as a leading creative force in today’s young adult literature.

Gary Anderson, What’s Not Wrong?

Even If We Break (AmazonIndieBound
by Marieke Nijkamp
Sourcebooks Fire
Publisher/ Author Submission

Five teens, including two transgender teens and a girl on the autism spectrum, are gathering in a remote high-tech cabin on a haunted mountain for one last role-playing adventure together. Each teen has some secrets as well as some resentments, but they think they can keep those hidden from each other a little longer. Every adventure begins with a murder – but in this case, the fantasy turns disturbingly real. Chapters from each character’s viewpoint before they disappear provide rich characterization and edge-of-your-seat suspense. Whoever is killing them one by one knows their secrets and their weaknesses. To make it down the mountain alive, they’ll need to work together. But how can they trust one another enough to do that?

Sondra Eklund, Sonderbooks

Furia (AmazonIndieBound)
by Yamile Saied Méndez
Algonquin Young Readers
Nominated by: Jenna

Camila “Furia” Hannan is a seventeen-year old multi-ethnic, multi-racial Argentine. She has two loves: fútbol and Diego Ferrari, her childhood friend who is now an international soccer star. Can Camila follow her two dreams–a career in professional women’s soccer and a boy with his own promising future–especially considering that her controlling father doesn’t know about either ambition and wouldn’t approve if he did? Furia is the kind of book that will become some readers’ favorite book of all time as they cheer for Camila and wonder if and how she will choose between her two loves. Méndez appealingly writes every scene with just the right touches. The family scenes range from tender to violent. The romance is sweet and sincere. The soccer scenes are convincing in their authenticity because debut author Yamile Saied Méndez knows her fútbol very well. All of this will resonate with young readers who may be tempted to give up when faced with odds stacked against them. No spoilers here, but Camila does not give up, ever.

Gary Anderson, What’s Not Wrong?

Punching the Air (AmazonIndieBound
by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
Balzer + Bray
Nominated by: Darshana Khiani

Every time I think about this book, I let out a nonconscious heavy sigh. It’s the kind of true story that immerses the reader so well that you can’t help but become disheartened at the state of our judicial system here in the United States. Sixteen-year-old Amal goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. His story, told in verse, makes it so much more human than any other way. It is in turns powerful, heart-wrenching, and angering. If only he had been somewhere else that day, he would be in art school. This novel is a must-read. Of course, it holds significance in 2020, but reading about this topic this way lends itself to being understood in the way that real art does. The audio version is excellent, and if I were studying this book with teens (and I will), I would require the book version as the prose placement is sublime. This story is one that you won’t soon forget.

Jenn Naughton, The Bookish Society

The Edge of Anything (AmazonIndieBound
by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Running Press Kids
Nominated by: Gary Anderson

When athlete Sage suddenly learns she has a heart defect and must never play sports again, no one understands what she’s going through – except a weird girl named Len who has strange rituals and is super careful about touching anything dirty. As the girls get to know one another, they each find someone who sees them. The secrets they’re able to hide from everyone else are at risk of discovery. Here’s a friendship story about two teens going through things bigger than they can handle on their own. The insightful and compassionate look at mental illness as illness and not something you can power through made this book stand out.

Sondra Eklund, Sonderbooks

You Should See Me in a Crown (AmazonIndieBound
by Leah Johnson
Scholastic Press
Nominated by: Kristen

Liz Lighty has her heart set on attending her dream college. Money stands in her way, and there is only one way for her to get it. Despite her anxiety, she will have to put herself out there as a black, queer girl at her mostly white upper-class small-town high school. Of course, there is one stereotypical mean girl, but mostly this story is one that doesn’t fall back on the old tropes of YA. I liked Liz so much. You can’t help but want her to succeed; she has so much against her, yet she is adorable and whip-smart. (Plus F/F Romance that is more matter of fact and less the focus of the entire plot) Not everyone in her small town is awful, but enough are that this YA contemporary novel is an ageless look into the high school experience. Content Warnings: Previous loss of a parent, Racism, Homophobia, Bullying

Jenn Naughton, The Bookish Society