YA Fiction

Four of Shakespeare’s young female characters–Lavinia, Cordelia, Ophelia, and Juliet –have died countless times on stage and will do so countless more, because that is how their stories are written. Until now.

Stella North, 17 (white), the only female contestant in Europe’s first air race for young people, represents Britain; she prefers no one know she escaped the Russian Revolution as a young child.

A star-crossed story of family, identity, and fate set in 1991 beautifully blends a realistic romance with mesmerizing magical realism.

Laura Black, 17, left her small Pennsylvania hometown in 1937 for New York City with the goal of obtaining her mage license and becoming a baker to the stars.

This beautifully realized novel in verse succeeds on every level–as a work of historical fiction vividly bringing the past to life, as a love story, as a story about overcoming one’s personal fears, and as a work illuminating chilling parallels between Germany in the early 1930s and western society today.

Bitter, who is Black, spent much of her childhood in foster care. Now she’s at Eucalyptus, a residential school for young artists run by the regal and mysterious Miss Virtue.

Veró’s immigrant family came to the United States from Peru years ago seeking opportunities for Veró and her younger sister, and better treatment options for Veró’s hip dysplasia.

Stance, 18, lives in Ghent in 1808. She’s always looking for experiences more interesting than what her fate as a woman seems to hold. Her brother Pier, 14, who wants to be a scholar, is dismayed by his older sister’s boldness and defiance.

The seemingly out-of-the-blue suicide of May’s older brother, basketball star and Princeton-bound Danny, just before graduation sends her Chinese American family into an downward emotional spiral.