Some of the Year's Best Young Adult Books, 2017

Atkins chose to write this searing biographical novel as a window into the difficult life of neoclassicist sculptor Edmonia Lewis. A woman of African-Haitian and Ojibwe descent, she attended Oberlin College in 1862, was expelled on trumped-up charges and, while working as a housekeeper in Boston, apprenticed to a sculptor. She studied in Italy and tenaciously worked toward artistic perfection in stone. Ages 13 and up. - Ga

Sasha loves Russia, languages that don’t contain binary genders, and the way their skirt feels against their legs. Richard just got back from a juvenile residential program in Redding. He says he never got a childhood, so he’s always making jokes, pulling pranks. His friends and mentors think he might be the one to get out of their rough neighborhood in Oakland. Between their lives runs the 57 bus and a brief encounter that will make their actions erupt onto the world’s screen. The 57 Bus reads like a gorgeous young adult novel—one of the best books I’ve read this year—but it’s based on a true story, heartbreaking, eye opening and, surprisingly, filled with hope. Ages 12 and up. - Tera

Oh, this book. Where should I start? Maybe with the characters—complex and mysterious, frightened and flawed, brave and miraculous. Maybe with the music—a celebration of pirate radio and 1960s songs. Maybe with the light—bright miracles that make you reconsider what you most fear; or with the dark—dangerous miracles that question what you most need. Maybe with the miracles themselves, torn from heart and soul, urging you to embrace the darkness we each hold inside. Certainly with the glorious writing that marks any Maggie Stiefvater novel, and this is the most Stiefvater of them all, with every word steeped in such magic it leaks from the page. Ages 13 and up. - Flannery

Everyone knows who Vincent Van Gogh is. But do they? Or do you have to know his brother Theo to know Vincent? With delicate strokes, National Book Award winner Heiligman paints the picture of the closeness of two brothers and the making of an artist. An evocative story for art lovers and readers of finely tuned biographies. Ages 13 and up. - Tera

During winter break her college freshman year, alone in upstate New York (instead of home in San Francisco), our hero muses and slowly, gently reveals her past. Here is an exploration of grief, betrayal and, most importantly, reconciliation. Exquisitely written and, for me, one of the year’s most deeply affecting YA novels. Grades 8 and up. - Ga

Funny and raunchy and hip-hop and tragic—can you say a Greek myth is timely? My gods, is it! This retelling of the minotaur story has the sea god Poseidon as our derisive, manipulative, gleeful narrator. But our sympathies lie with the physically deformed Asterion (our bull-headed boy) whose sensitivity, intelligence, and hope are over years eroded until, trapped in a maze, isolated, he falls into despair and violence. Expertly written, cleverly paced, and so effective. Ages 14 and up. - Ga

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter narrates, speaking in an authentic and moving way about the difficulty in reconciling what she knows to be true about herself, her loving family, and her friends with the way others view them. “Wake up wake up,” said the poet Rumi. That’s what this book does for its readers. Ages 14 and up. - Ga

The aliens have come and they really aren’t impressed by us. They set their alien tech to doing all the jobs we used to do. While the remaining humans scrabble for economic survival, the vuvv settle in to consume “classic earth culture”: doo-wop music, 1950s gee whizz slang, and undying true love. Adam and his girlfriend Chloe make it big when they start broadcasting a pay-per-minute reality show of their romance—but with great publicity comes the risk of great catastrophe. This fierce satire sucks you in and won’t let go till the last page. National Book Award winner M. T. Anderson hits another one out of the park. Ages 14 and up. - Tera

Born in the U.S., having lived her 17 years in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola Toussaint finds herself with her manman’s sister’s family in Detroit at the ironic intersection of American Street and Joy Road. This chilling, evocative, achingly tender, remarkable debut by Zoboi is my favorite YA novel this year. For young adults and adults. - Ga