Here are our reading groups’ favorite young adult books of 2016 based on our 2016 survey results.
THE BOOK THIEF
Markus Zusak
Liesel Meminger is only nine years old when she is taken to live with the Hubermanns, a foster family, on Himmel Street in Molching, Germany, in the late 1930s. She arrives with few possessions, but among them is The Grave Digger's Handbook, a book that she stole from her brother's…
WONDER
R J Palacio
I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse. August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as…
THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH
Ali Benjamin
Now available in paperback, this 2015 National Book Award finalist and instant New York Times bestseller is a stunning debut novel about grief and wonder. Everyone says that it was an accident... that sometimes things "just happen". But Suzy won't believe it. Ever. After her best friend dies in a…
WE WERE LIARS
Emily Lockhart
The New York Times bestseller We Were Liars is now available as a not-to-be-missed hardcover deluxe edition! Whether you know how it ends (shh . . . don’t tell!) or have let too many seasons go by without discovering the truth about the Liars for yourself, you will want to…
SALT TO THE SEA
Ruta Sepetys
For readers of Between Shades of Gray and All the Light We Cannot See, bestselling author Ruta Sepetys returns to WWII in this epic novel that shines a light on one of the war’s most devastating—yet unknown—tragedies. World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands…
ANNA AND THE SWALLOW MAN
Gavriel Savit
A stunning, literary, and wholly original debut novel set in Poland during the Second World War perfect for readers of The Book Thief. Kraków, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Lania is just seven years old when the…
LIBRARY OF SOULS
Ransom Riggs
Time is running out for the peculiar children. With a dangerous madman on the loose and their beloved Miss Peregrine still in danger, Jacob Portman and Emma Bloom are forced to stage the most daring of rescue missions. They’ll travel through a war-torn landscape, meet new allies, and face greater…
THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE
Jacqueline Kelly
Calpurnia Virginia Tate is eleven years old in 1899 when she wonders why the yellow grasshoppers in her Texas backyard are so much bigger than the green ones. With a little help from her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist, she figures out that the green grasshoppers are easier to…
THE STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SORROWS OF AVA LAVENDER
Leslye Walton
Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga. Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava — in all other ways a normal girl — is born with the wings…
CRENSHAW
Katherine Applegate
In her first novel since winning the Newbery Medal, Katherine Applegate delivers an unforgettable and magical story about family, friendship, and resilience. Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There’s no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their…
THE CARNIVAL AT BRAY
Jessie Ann Foley
“Take the boy. Don’t ask permission. There will always be time to do the responsible thing. Before that, live.” The Carnival at Bray is an electrifying story of loss and triumph, family and adventure, and of the earth-shattering power of music and love from newcomer Jessie Ann Foley. It’s 1993,…
MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
Ransom Riggs
#1 New York Times Bestseller On the New York Times Best Seller List for more than 52 consecutive weeks A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that…