The Bookseller has announced the shortlist for the 2025 YA Book Prize that they run along with the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The award celebrates the best YA fiction from the UK and Ireland. Here are the shorlisted titles:
Sage’s entire life changed on her thirteenth birthday. It was the day her best friend was killed by a drunk driver as she walked to Sage’s house. Now Sage is lost in her grief and ashamed of the way she treated her friend on the day she died. Sage has joined a counseling group at school with other girls who have experienced recent deaths of loved ones. As Sage and the other girls process their grief together, there are moments of sadness, anger and somehow friendship manages to grow too.
This is one of the best and most piercing depictions of grief for teens that I have ever read. I appreciate that that book moves beyond blame, shame and anger to also show healing and good things happening. Newbery Honor winning author, Watson, has written this book in a dynamic mixture of prose and verse, allowing real feelings to be shown bare and honest on the page. All of the processing of grief and healing feels organic and true as readers see the various shades of blue that grief entails.
One of the best teen novels about grief, get this one in your collection. Appropriate for ages 12+.
Nell knows that her magic is going to appear soon since woman in her family gets their magic at age fifteen. Each woman’s is unique to them. Her mother changes ages constantly, her grandmother can feel every room in the house she is in, her aunt’s hair whispers secrets to her. Perhaps the worst of them is Nell’s sister, Mora, who bleeds music and who uses razor blades to release it from her body. Mora is now in the hospital to get help, and Nell fears what her own magic will do to her. When her magic arrives as insects that reveal the emotions that Nell is unable to feel, Nell doesn’t know what to do. The blue stick insects are her sadness, the ladybugs are her creativity, but worst are the wasps that are her rage. Can Nell manage to lock away her emotions deep inside to keep the wasps from coming again? Or can she find a way to feel these dangers emotions somehow?
This verse novel is simply incredible. Chewins writes a book of raw and edgy verse that demands that we see beyond the magic to the truth of each person’s experience. The verse lays bare Nell’s experience, including the abuse that she refuses to acknowledge and the trauma of her family because and despite the magic they have. The use of insects adds a creepy beauty to the book, enough to make your skin itch but also be in awe of the spectacle.
Furious, beautiful and dangerous, this verse novel insists on being heard. Appropriate for ages 13-16.
Aboard the HMS Fairweather, bodies are disposable but minds last forever until one day that all changed. Dorothy, one of the ship’s detectives, awakens in a body that isn’t hers just as the ship is going through magnetic storms that mess with its systems. Dorothy must figure out why she is in an unfamiliar body but even more importantly why someone else aboard the spaceship has been murdered! What she does know is that part of this predicament is due to her nephew Ruthie who may be smart but is also chaotic. But he also may have just saved her mind from being erased forever.
The answer to what happens when you mix a great mystery with a science fiction setting, this teen-friendly adult novel is great fun. Told in a novelette format, the book is only 100 pages long and whizzes readers along introducing marvelous characters, including the sentient ship itself. With lots of inclusive characters, many of whom are part of the LGBT community, the book makes the most of the unique characteristics of a ship in space and virtually unkillable people. A grand mystery among the stars, here’s hoping that we will visit again soon.
Great fun for older teen readers, this jaunt of a science fiction mystery is highly recommended. Appropriate for ages 14+.
Tao travels alone with her mule and wagon across the land, making sure that she only tells insignificant fortunes so she won’t attract the attention of the mage guild. She is an immigrant to the country having lost her father and come with her estranged mother. Even if she’s lonely, she makes sure she is safe. Soon though, she finds herself helping a reformed thief and a warrior to find a lost little girl. They are also joined by a baker looking for adventure and an aloof magical cat. With these new companions come new friendships but also new dangers.
This cozy fantasy is as warm and lovely as I imagine Tao’s wagon to be. The friendships develop organically on the page and the adventures the group has culminate in a very fulfilling ending that addresses much of Tao’s past. The writing is spry and great fun thanks to Leong infusing the entire read with a lot of humor and joy.
A grand adventure just right for adults and teens alike, particularly those not looking for a romance just good fun. Appropriate for ages 14+.
Rowan is learning to be a ranger, taking care of the land and its people with the help of a flying horse. But when Rowan tries to show off their skill and doesn’t listen to cautions, their horse is injured. Stuck now walking everywhere, Rowan is assigned to help Leone, a lone figure who spends a lot of time with sheep. Leone has his own dreams. He plays the fiddle constantly but won’t play for any person at all. As the two of them start their slow journeys together, their friendship begins to grow. Each finds support in one another, creating joy and romance.
O’Neill is author of The Moth Keeper and the Tea Dragon Society. This graphic novel combines a fantasy world with a trans and non-binary coming out story for both main characters. Beautifully told and filled with true moments of connection and romance, this book features characters who are complex and layered.
Beautifully illustrated and compellingly told, this graphic novel will make your heart soar. Appropriate for ages 10-14.
YALSA has opened the voting for the Teens’ Top Ten which is a top ten list of the best books of the previous year voted on entirely by teens. The titles being voted on were nominated by teen book groups in 15 school and public libraries across the nation.
Maeve Abenthy is the daughter of the world’s greatest villain. Seven years ago, she lost everything when her father destroyed one of the parallel worlds and burned the gates that allowed people to move between them. When old letters are delivered by the Otherwhere Post, couriers who are the only ones who can move between the worlds, Maeve receives one that declares that her father is innocent. Her father had been a gifted scriptomancer, able to write magic into words. It was scriptomancy that connected the worlds and still does. Now Maeve must set out to find out who sent the anonymous letter, but can she trust anyone enough to let them help her?
The author of Hotel Magnifique returns with her second book. This dark academia novel is a great read, filled with a unique magical system and a fascinating world to match. Maeve as a character is flawed and prickly with great reasons and backstory. The book allows her to grow, to begin to trust and to unravel the mystery surrounding her father.
With just the right touches of romance, this fantasy novel offers a great mix of mystery and magic. Appropriate for ages 12+. Reviewed from library copy.
Marion Brunet, a French author, has won the largest international children’s and young adult literature prize. In honor of the author of Pippi Longstocking, the Swedish award has one of the biggest monetary pots at 5m SEK or around $500,000.
Only two of Brunet’s books are available in the United States. Translated by Katherine Gregor, Summer of Reckoning was released here in 2020 and Vanda in 2022. Both are YA psychological thrillers set in France.
Just finished Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough. Just the 17th century Italian YA novel that modern readers need right now. Full of strong women taking care of their community plus the beauty of found family and an apothecary. http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746825…
A truly great YA read that is engrossing, filled with fascinating details about apothecary work, and a call for women to fight, survive, and thrive on their own terms. The text is an engaging mix of prose and poetry, offering small glimpses of other people of that time who are living very different yet hauntingly similar lives. Highly recommended.
Waking Brain Cells 