YA shines bright this season. Spring brings fast-paced adventures, powerful graphic novels and heartfelt teen romances. Series continuations and fresh debuts fill the list. The stakes feel big and emotions run high. These stories are fun at any age.
Teen & YA Book Recommendations May 2026:
Young World
by Soman Chainani
From the New York Times bestselling author of the School for Good and Evil series comes a renegade thriller, about a teenager elected President of the United States, sparking a global revolution of young leaders--until one of them is murdered and he's the prime suspect.
"This book is a damn revolution." -- Nic Stone, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin
*The first edition of Young World is presented in brilliant neon color, with over 150 nuke-orange visuals, fizzy orange-and-blue stained edges, full-color designed endpapers, and a neon-orange cover case.*
America is on the brink of collapse, and the youth have lost all faith in their leaders. As a pivotal election approaches, Benton Young, a high school senior trying to impress a girl, impulsively uploads a video, daring everyone to interfere with the vote and write him in for President. The video explodes online, igniting election chaos and a national revolt, until the Supreme Court intervenes to put Benton in the White House. Galvanized by Benton's rise, more global youth take to the streets, and more governments fall, until eight of the world's most powerful nations are led by teenagers.
When these young leaders convene at their first summit in Sweden, they face the monumental task of setting a new course for history. But the first night, their unity is shattered when a leader is murdered in cold blood . . . and Benton is the only suspect. Hunted by enemies young and old, he must untangle a deadly web of secrets, betrayal, and power plays--while the future of the world hangs in the balance.
With globe-spanning action, stunning twists, and an electric new brand of storytelling, Young World is a heart-stopping thriller that asks: What happens when the future really does belong to the young?
To All the Boys I've Loved Before the Graphic Novel
by Jenny Han - Barbara Perez Marquez - Akimaro Akimaro - Li Lu Li Lu
To All the Boys I've Loved Before is now a major motion picture on Netflix and the inspiration for the spin-off series XO, Kitty -- now streaming on Netflix!
In this sparkling graphic novel adaptation of the Time Best YA Book of All Time selection and New York Times bestselling first book in the beloved series, Lara Jean's love life gets complicated.
What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them ... all at once?
Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Covey keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren't love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she's written. One for every boy she's ever loved--five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed and, suddenly, Lara Jean's love life goes from imaginary to out of control.
Experience Lara Jean's story all over again in an all-new graphic novel format!
Seconds to Spare
by Rachel Reiss
Buckle up for a wild ride with this airborne locked-door thriller from acclaimed YA author Rachel Reiss. Previously a Wattpad WEBTOON Watty Award winning story.
Eighteen-year-old Evelyn Werth is trapped in what feels like a never-ending nightmare. She's the only person onboard Aloha Airways Flight 1333 who's stuck in a 28-minute time loop, one that repeats over and over again. During each loop, four things always happen:
1. The Internet goes out and the pilot warns of upcoming turbulence.
2. There are five minutes of moderate shaking.
3. A woman in the very last row collapses.
4. The plane tilts forward and begins to nosedive.
When Orion James -the cute boy who's been asleep the entirety of each cycle- wakes, it triggers an alarming change in the events Evelyn has come to count on. As the two grow closer and learn to trust each other, they discover there's more to the loop than they initially realized. They must find the hidden clues, piece together the moving puzzle, and save everyone onboard --before it's too late.
Holloway
by Elana K Arnold
"Elana K. Arnold paints prose like a master. A fascinating journey through time, love, and forgiveness." - A.S. King, Printz Award-winning author of Dig
Award-winning author Elana K. Arnold returns with a boldly visionary, deeply felt story that crosses space and time to examine loss and love in a world on the brink.
It is the late summer of 2021, and a girl named Nora is on the Paris Metro.
Nora, whose mother loved her, even though Nora was broken.
Nora, who couldn't help her mother when her mother needed her most.
Nora, from whom the pandemic has taken nearly everything, save the object she clings to: a cylinder containing her mother's ashes.
With no family left, no friends to speak of, and no way to turn back time, Nora has come to France to keep a promise she never got to make: to spread the ashes in a place her mother never got to see. But instead, Nora finds herself on the run through a forest in the night, taking refuge in a dark holloway. And when she wakes, and tries to make her way back to something she recognizes, she realizes that is impossible.
Because it is no longer 2021.
Questioning everything -- including her own sanity -- Nora sets out on a journey through a time and place completely foreign to her, and yet one that, much like the time and place she came from, is defined by death, loss, fear, and uncertainty. A journey in which she must find a way to honor her mother -- and heal herself -- in a world that feels irrevocably broken.
Shards of Silence
by Brian Lee Young
In his first YA novel, award-winning author Brian Lee Young (Diné) bridges the generational divide between a Navajo teen at an elite prep school and his great-grandmother's experience at a federal boarding school for Indigenous students. The book is an eye-opening call for community healing and a profound coming-of-age story.
Even if it hurts to leave behind his friends and family in Navajo, New Mexico -- especially his great-grandmother, Mildred -- Derrick knows his scholarship to an elite East Coast boarding school is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Sagefield Academy is totally different from life on the rez: His new classmates vacation in Europe and take study drugs. Derrick wants to stick to caffeine, but handling sports, school, and a twenty-page term paper, all while dodging comments about his hair and heritage, feels straight-up impossible.
Back home, Másání Mildred's health is fading quickly. On the phone, she begs Derrick to leave Sagefield. When he realizes her fear comes from her time in federal Native boarding schools, he knows he's finally found the term paper theme he believes in: carrying her voice into the future.
Derrick will need to shatter a steadfast generational silence to untangle his great-grandmother's memories--though her story might change him, and his family, forever.
April Books:
Soundtrack: A Novel
by Jason Reynolds
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Long Way Down comes a powerful print adaptation of the acclaimed, award-winning audiobook Soundtrack--a stirring story of music, friendship, and finding your voice in 2000s New York City.
★ "[A] stunning tribute to New York City's creative scene . . . The text echoes with the sounds of N.Y.C., as Stuy perceives them, from beginning to end."--Publishers Weekly, starred review
Stuy Grey plays the drums, just like his mom, a founding member of the all-black punk band the Bed-Stuy Magic Dusters. He teaches himself by watching videos of tap dancers. Now he's left home, estranged from his mom and her abusive boyfriend. He's camping out with his uncle on the Lower East Side. His landlord, Dunks, has chops: He shreds on only five strings. Add Alexis on bass guitar and Keith on horn: These teens are a band, busking in New York City subway stations to scrape enough money to record an album.
As their popularity grows, so do the pressures, from complicated family dynamics to the glare of unexpected public attention. And when the police start looking for their bassist, Stuy faces his toughest decision yet.
Adapted from the acclaimed Listening Library original audiobook and written with Jason Reynolds's signature rhythm, heart, and honesty, Soundtrack: A Novel is a raw, resonant story about friendship, creativity, and what it truly means to find, and fight for, your voice.
Deathly Fates
by Tesia Tsai
A sweeping debut inspired by the Chinese folk practice of necromancy, Deathly Fates is perfect for fans of Descendant of the Crane, The Bone Shard Daughter, and A Magic Steeped in Poison.
As a priestess paid to guide the deceased home, Kang Siying has never feared death. However, when her beloved father collapses, Siying realizes that even she is not free from the cruel grasp of mortality. Desperate to provide her father with the medical aid he needs, Siying accepts a dangerous job that promises a generous commission, and travels to a hostile state to retrieve the corpse of a missing prince.
But the moment Siying places her reanimation talisman on the dead prince's head, rather than make the corpse obedient to Siying's commands, the talisman brings the prince back to life. Worse, he won't stay alive for long--not unless he absorbs enough qi, or life force, to keep his soul anchored to his body.
In return for a reward worth twice her original commission, Siying agrees to aid the frustratingly handsome prince in finding and purifying evil spirits for their qi. As they journey across the countryside, encountering vengeful ghosts and enemy spies alike, they gradually uncover dark secrets about the prince's death--secrets that could endanger both Siying's father and their entire kingdom.
The Escape Game
by Marissa Meyer - Tamara Moss
"An absolute winner--sharp, suspenseful, and so much fun." --Karen M. McManus, #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying
An unforgettable YA murder mystery set in an escape-room themed game show, by Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles, and Tamara Moss, rising star and acclaimed author of Lintang series.
This gorgeous first edition hardcover features stunning stenciled edges and specially crafted endpapers!
It's all fun and games until someone ends up dead.
Six months ago, season four of The Escape Game ended in horror when contestant Alicia Angelos was found murdered on set.
Now season five is underway, and new contestants are ready to put their skills to the test solving the show's trickiest escape rooms. There's Adi, the cryptographer; Carter, the math whiz; Beck, the wannabe game master; and . . . Sierra Angelos, the girl who got away with her sister's murder. Or so everyone believes.
But Sierra's not just here to win. She's here for justice.
When the contestants begin uncovering clues that hint at the identity of Alicia's true killer, it becomes clear that the stakes aren't high in this competition, they're deadly. If these teens want to win--and survive--the game, they must solve the biggest mystery of all: who killed Alicia Angelos?
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer and rising star Tamara Moss comes a twisty thrill-ride, filled with sabotage, betrayal, and puzzles to die for.
March books:
Emergence: A Memoir of Boyhood, Computation, and the Mysteries of Mind
by David Sussillo
For fans of Educated and Invisible Child, David Sussillo combines memoir and cutting-edge neuroscience to tell the story of his unlikely journey from group homes and drug-addicted parents to the scientific elite--exploring why, and how, he managed to succeed against all odds.
David Sussillo has made a career at the cutting edge of neuroscience and technology--yet his path there was anything but a straight line. Born to drug-addicted parents in New Mexico, he navigated a childhood marked by violence and neglect. But a seed was planted at the unlikeliest of places--the local arcade.
What follows is a remarkable journey of resilience and transformation, from the chaotic corridors of group homes to the halls of Columbia and Stanford. Along the way, Sussillo takes readers on an illuminating tour of the century-long dance between neuroscience, physics, and computation that has laid the groundwork for neural networks--the technology that drives modern artificial intelligence. As he advances in the field, working to demystify these networks, he also begins to pursue an answer to a more personal question: why, and how, did he succeed against all odds?
Emergence radiates heartbreak, humor, and scientific wonder, inviting readers on an unforgettable journey that bridges the personal and the profound, revealing how intricate complexities arise from simple beginnings.
Lies We Tell about the Stars
by Susie Nadler
A gorgeous debut about friendship, grief, and new beginnings set in near-future San Francisco in the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake and on the cusp of the first human mission to Mars.
Celeste Muldoon is alone when the Big One finally hits, because, for the first time ever, her best friend stood her up after school. Nicky and Celeste share a birthday, matching tattoos, an obsession with the upcoming Mars mission, and pretty much everything else. So why did he ghost her on the day she needed him most?
As the quake's death toll rises and days pass, Nicky and Celeste's parents fear the worst. But Celeste doesn't buy it. He couldn't be dead. Nicky'd spent their senior year selling essays to rich kids and was about to get caught. He'd told Celeste about his plan to vanish, to reinvent himself and escape the disaster he'd created. The quake would be perfect cover.
But she can't convince anyone that he could still be alive. Only Meo, a mysterious stranger who was somehow mixed up with Nicky, seems to believe, but Celeste has every reason to distrust him--even if her heart races whenever Meo shows up.
When Celeste finds Nicky's notebook, it sends her and Meo on a quest across the broken city, up the coast through towns sheltering quake refugees, and eventually all the way to Florida, where the mission to Mars is about to lift off.
One Word, Six Letters
by Adib Khorram
Two teen boys grapple with identity and accountability and set off a ripple effect within their community after a school assembly is disrupted by a shouted slur.
★"[A] searing, deeply felt dual-POV novel," --Publishers Weekly, starred review
Freshmen Dayton and Farshid couldn't be more different--or so it seems.
When Dayton takes a dare and shouts the f-slur at a visiting author during a school event, it sets off a chain reaction that forces both boys to face parts of themselves they'd rather ignore.
Dayton, grappling with the fallout of his actions, faces rejection from his friends, disappointment from his parents, and a growing awareness of the harm he's caused. Meanwhile, Farshid is left to untangle his own feelings--about himself and about the quiet struggle of coming to terms with his queerness in a world steeped in heteronormativity.
As their lives unexpectedly intersect, Dayton and Farshid must reckon with what kind of men they want to become and whether they have the courage to defy toxic masculinity and societal expectations.
Timely, raw, and deeply thought-provoking, this novel is perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds and Nic Stone.
Heiress of Nowhere
by Stacey Lee
An orphan races to uncover a killer--who may have come from the sea--when she and her beloved orcas fall under suspicion in this "atmospheric . . . beguiling" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) historical gothic mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of The Downstairs Girl, Stacey Lee.
1918. Orcas Island, Washington.
Lucy Nowhere has spent her eighteen years working on the vast estate of the eccentric shipbuilder who took her in after she washed ashore in a green canoe as a baby. But she has long wished for a life off the island, and in a matter of days, she is set to leave for college--and, for the first time, choose her own future.
Then she finds her employer's severed head on the beach. Rumors swirl that a mischievous spirit and its minions, the sea wolves, have struck again. Lucy doesn't believe in myths. She knows that a human--a human murderer--killed him. And when she is unexpectedly named heiress to the estate, she understands the next target is her.
Her closest friend, the estate's vigilant young guard, begs her to escape while she can. But Lucy knows the only way she can discover who she is, and free the island of its curse, is to find the real killer--before she becomes the next victim.
Red Stones: A Graphic Account of the Salvadoran Civil War
by Ernesto Saade - Ernesto Saade
In 1981, the Salvadoran Civil War reached Miriam's village of Santa Marta.
After spending her days bringing tortillas to the guerilla fighters nearby, she watched government soldiers encroach on her town. Military intimidation turned to violence, and violence turned to the threat of a massacre. Miriam and the women of her town began a forced and desperate exodus.
In 2021, Ernesto Saade visited Santa Marta to hear Miriam's story.
The result of that in-depth conversation is this graphic account of conflict, displacement, and the Red Stones massacre. This event, not known by all even within El Salvador, is one part of the scar its civil war left behind--a moment of tragedy and resilience seen through the eyes of someone who lived it.
Related: If you enjoy teen and YA novels, you may also enjoy our reading recommendations for Modern Romantics.