Themed Booklists

Learn about the complex history and current state of affairs of native American tribes and communities from varying perspectives. 

Celebrate Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans’ history, culture, and achievements in this collection of fiction and non-fiction novels.

From graphic novels to fantasy and fiction, these fabulous books spotlight the diversity, histories, cultures, and experiences among those who identify as Black.

Join us in celebrating Latinx authors, characters and stories that expand cultural identities and uplift Latinx stories.  

The history of race in America encompasses questions of freedom, justice, and equality. Explore current and past struggles over racial equity through a collection of non-fiction novels.

Understanding autism can begin with stories about a child, sibling, friend, or classmate. This booklist includes stories written by young people and adults about how neurodiversity has shaped them. 

Too often TV and movies portray perfect families that teens can’t relate to.

Not all teens are interested in boy wizards, vampires, rich-girl cliques, or an angst overload. Some are just looking for a good story about other kids like themselves.

Most kids really do want to be helpful and the transformative experience of helping others is a common theme in young adult fiction.

Books on romance, dating, and relationships can be reassuring for teens, letting them know they’re not alone in their angst.

Summer is a time to relax a little, have some adventures, earn a little money, and, in the case of the characters in many of these titles, have a life-changing moment.

Biographies are on lots of school booklists, but they can also be popular leisure reading choices for teens. They often feature real-life characters who have overcome adversity — a theme teens are drawn to again and again.

Believe it or not, the Fantasy genre was a hit with teens even before Harry Potter. Here’s a selection of the many subgenres, including urban fantasy and fairy tale retellings.

Heroes, villains, underdogs, pranksters, romance, betrayal, and intrigue — is it Mount Olympus or junior high school?

Some teens just aren’t interested in reading novels, but do enjoy learning new facts, skills and even trivia from nonfiction titles, including biographies, histories, titles about sports or science, even how-to books.

Since 1996, April has been National Poetry Month. Here are some books that will serve as great poetry starting points.

Looking to use some classic texts in your classroom? In our list, we’ve matched canonical texts with popular YA Lit read-alikes.

Picture books can help middle school and high school readers build background knowledge and visual literacy. The endless range of subject matter presented in picture books, in the hands of skilled storytellers and artists provides many opportunities to

For those who dream of being airborne, rather than earthbound — fiction and nonfiction about inventors, adventurers, and technological innovations that allow mankind to travel by air and explore space.

Some great books for boys and girls who love baseball — a biography of one of today’s top players, a history of the women’s pro league, an anthology of great baseball writing, a fictionalized journal of a negro league player, and lots of go

Christopher Paolini, author of the mega-popular fantasy books Eragon and Eldest, has announced that he will write two more books in the series. While fans are excited about that news, they also need more like this to read now.

Do you know a teen who’d rather crank the tunes than crack a book? Try tempting them with one of the music-themed titles below.

Most kids go through a “spy” stage, and some never grow out of it! Whether it’s the gadgets, the secret identities, or the gathering of clues — spies are cool!

As technology permeates all aspects of our lives, it’s not surprising that high-tech gadgets, plot devices, even formats, increasingly appear in teen lit, and not just in the science fiction genre.

Even as the Internet absorbs more of teens’ attention, TV remains a constant presence.

Audiobooks can help re-create the pleasure of being read to as a child.

A new form of novel has become popular — the novel told in verse or free-form poetry. Appealing to tweens and young teens, the plots are rich and varied. Here are some of our favorites.

These short stories have plenty of intrigue to keep students engaged and teachers can use them to teach literary devices including plot, characterization, foreshadowing, and irony.

Since 1978, Asian Pacific American Heritage has been celebrated in America, first with a week, now with the entire month of May.

In this booklist, you’ll find a range of titles — young adult novels by award-winning Hispanic-American authors, bilingual poetry, biography, memoir — celebrating Latino culture and examining the immigrant experience.

As the number of young adult literature books has grown, so has the number of quality titles featuring characters of diverse ethnicity, religion, and nationality, and compelling story lines about identity, prejudice, and understanding.

Fiction, non-fiction, poetry and photography vividly depict Civil War battles, the Underground Railroad, and Lincoln’s tumultuous presidential term.

These fiction and nonfiction titles will ignite young people’s interest in the history and function of our presidential mansion, as well as the lives of some of those who have lived or worked there.

These stories of separation, deprivation, defiance, and bravery help students to understand the horror and magnitude of the Holocaust. These books are an excellent complement to history units on World War II. 

Read about the underground resistance movement and brave individuals who helped shelter Jews, from the perspectives of both the rescuers and the survivors. These books are an excellent complement to history units on World War II. 

Memoir, biography, historical fiction, photo essays, as well as poems and art work, tell the stories of concentration camp victims and survivors. These books make an excellent complement to history units on World War II. 

Books in this list — both fiction and nonfiction — present personal stories of soldiers who fought on both sides of World War II. These books are an excellent complement to World War II history units. 

Titles in this list feature a range of homefront perspectives on World War II.

From Rwanda, to Cambodia, to Sarajevo, to Armenia, to North Korea, the books on this list explore historical and contemporary genocide. This list is excerpted from Dr.

These books feature teens examining their own beliefs and values in the face of religious, cultural, racial and gender discrimination. Titles complement history units on World War II and the Holocaust. 

A YALSA committee of librarians selected these books to open doors on new worlds, exciting ideas, eccentric personalities, unfamiliar cultures, and distant time periods.

A YALSA committee of librarians selected these books to open doors on new worlds, exciting ideas, eccentric personalities, unfamiliar cultures, and distant time periods.

A YALSA committee of librarians selected these books to open doors on new worlds, exciting ideas, eccentric personalities, unfamiliar cultures, and distant time periods.

A YALSA committee of librarians selected these books to open doors on new worlds, exciting ideas, eccentric personalities, unfamiliar cultures, and distant time periods.

Did your students love The Hunger Games trilogy and the Divergent and Matched series? If so, then these novels might pique their interest as well.

Do you love Fantasy thrillers set in a world of wealth and privilege? Maybe if we throw in a few romances and royal court politics?