CCBC Choices 2024 -- Teens (ages 12 and up)

The Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison compiles a yearly list of excellent books for youth readers.

Showing 1 - 20 of 44  There are a total of 92 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for The 21.
Notes:
Contemporary People, Places, and Issues;13-up
Description:
"In the ongoing landmark case Juliana vs. United States, twenty-one young plaintiffs claim that the government’s support of the fossil-fuel industry is actively contributing to climate change and that all citizens have a constitutional right to a stable climate—especially children and young adults, because they cannot vote and will inherit the problems of the future. Elizabeth Rusch’s The Twenty-One is a gripping legal and environmental thriller...
Book cover for Bittersweet in the hollow.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;13-up
Description:
When a girl goes missing in her secluded Appalachian town, seventeen-year-old Linden, who can taste other people's emotions, recovers haunting memories of her own disappearance and explores the legend of the Moth-Wigned Man, leading her to wonder if there are some secrets best left buried.
Book cover for The blood years.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;14-up
Description:
Frederieke Teitler and her older sister, Astra, live in a house, in a city, in a world divided. Their father ran out on them when Rieke was only six, leaving their mother a wreck and their grandfather as their only stable family. He’s done his best to provide for them and shield them from antisemitism, but now, seven years later, being a Jew has become increasingly dangerous, even in their beloved home of Czernowitz, long considered a safe haven...
Book cover for Code red.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;10-13
Description:
Thirteen-year-old former elite gymnast Eden is feeling lost after a career-ending injury, but when she meets new friends who open her eyes to period poverty, the struggle that low-income people have trying to afford menstrual products, she becomes an advocate for fair treatment and rediscovers her passion and drive.
Book cover for Eagle drums.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;10-13
Description:
In preparation for winter, a skilled young hunter embarks on a perilous journey up the mountain to gather obsidian, where he encounters the fearsome eagle god Savik and is presented with a life-altering choice.
Book cover for Enter the body.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;14-up
Description:
In the room beneath a theater stage, the ghosts of Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and other teenage girls who died tragically in Shakespeare's plays, share their experiences and trauma and get the chance to retell the stories of their lives in their own terms.
Book cover for Everyone wants to know.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;13-up
Description:
The Lo family sticks together. That’s what Honor has been told her whole life while growing up in the glare of the public eye on Lo and Behold, the reality show about her, her four siblings, and their parents. Their show may be off the air, but the Lo family members still live in the spotlight as influencers churning out podcasts, bestselling books, and brand partnerships. So when Honor’s father announces that he’s moving out of their northern...
Book cover for Fire from the sky.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;12-up
Description:
Ánte's life has been steeped in Sami tradition. It is indisputable to him that he, an only child, will keep working with the reindeer. But there is something else too, something tugging at him. His feelings for his best friend Erik have changed, grown into something bigger. What would people say if they knew? And how does Erik feel? And Erik's voice just the push of a button away. Ánte couldn't answer, could he? But how could he ignore it? Fire...
Book cover for Forever is now.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;12-up
Description:
"When sixteen-year-old Sadie, a Black bisexual recluse, develops agoraphobia the summer before her junior year, she relies on her best friend, family, and therapist to overcome her fears."--
Book cover for Funeral songs for dying girls.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;14-up
Description:
Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium all her life, close to her mother's grave. With her sixteenth birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack. Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours...
Book cover for Ginny off the map.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;8-12
Description:
On the last day of fifth grade, super-smart eleven-year-old Ginny learns that her father, who is a military ER doctor, is being deployed to Afghanistan--devastating news because they are already moving to another post in Maryland and Ginny depends on her father to help her manage her obsessions, panic attacks, and general meltdowns. One of her obsessions is geographical facts, and somehow Ginny hopes to use her geographical knowledge to overcome her...
Book cover for The girl I am, was, and never will be.
Notes:
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir;14-up
Description:
Author Shannon Gibney returns with a new book woven from her true story of growing up as the adopted Black daughter of white parents and the fictional story of Erin Powers, the name Shannon was given at birth by the white woman who gave her up for adoption. At its core, the novel is a tale of two girls on two different timelines occasionally bridged by a mysterious portal and their shared search for a complete picture of their origins. Gibney surrounds...
Book cover for Hamra and the jungle of memories.
Author:
Notes:
Fiction for Children;9-12
Description:
Courage is the strongest magic there is. On Hamra's thirteenth birthday, she receives nothing but endless nagging and yet another errand to run in the Langkawi jungle that looms behind her home. No one has remembered her special day. And so, stifled and angry, Hamra ignores something she shouldn’t: the rules of the jungle. Always ask permission before you enter. Hamra walks boldly in. Never take what isn’t yours. Hamra finds the most perfect...
Book cover for Hidden systems.
Author:
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Science, Technology, and the Natural World;12-up
Description:
"What was the first message sent over the internet? How much water does a single person use every day? How was the electric light invented? For every utility people use each day, there's a hidden history below the surface -- a story of intrigue, drama, humor, and inequity. This graphic novel provides a guided tour through the science of the past -- and how the decisions people made while inventing and constructing early technology still affect the...
Book cover for Highly suspicious and unfairly cute.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;13-up
Description:
"Bradley Graeme is pretty much perfect. He’s a star football player, manages his OCD well (enough), and comes out on top in all his classes . . . except the ones he shares with his ex-best friend, Celine. Celine Bangura is conspiracy-theory-obsessed. Social media followers eat up her takes on everything from UFOs to holiday overconsumption—yet, she’s still not cool enough for the popular kids’ table. Which is why Brad abandoned her for the...
Book cover for I'd rather burn than bloom.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;14-up
Description:
Alternating between present day and flashbacks, multiracial Filipina-American teen Marisol tries to figure out who she really is in the wake of her mother's sudden death.
Book cover for In the tunnel.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;10-14
Description:
Myung-gi knows war is coming: War between North and South Korea. Life in communist North Korea has become more and more unbearabl途there is no freedom of speech, movement, association, or thought́€”and his parents have been carefully planning the familý€™s escape. But when his father is abducted by the secret police, all those plans fall apart. How can Myung-gi leave North Korea without his dad? Especially...
Book cover for The in-between.
Notes:
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir;11-up
Description:
"In the early 2000s, thirteen-year-old Katie Van Heidrich has moved more times that she can count, for as long as she can remember. There were the slow moves where you see the whole thing coming. There were the fast ones where you grab what you can in seconds. When Katie and her family come back from an out-of-town funeral, they discover their landlord has unceremoniously evicted them, forcing them to pack lightly and move quickly. They make their...
Book cover for The Isles of the Gods.
Series:
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;12-up
Description:
Selly has salt water in her veins. So when her father leaves her high and dry in the port of Kirkpool, she has no intention of riding out the winter at home while he sails off to adventure. But any plans to follow him are dashed when a handsome stranger with tell-tale magician's marks on his arm commandeers her ship. He is Prince Leander of Alinor and he needs to cross the Crescent Sea without detection so he can complete a ritual on the sacred Isles...
Book cover for Jawbreaker.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;8-12
Description:
"Max Plink’s life is complicated. Her parents aren’t getting along. The school bullies are relentless—and her own sister is the cruelest of them. Worst of all, her mouth is a mess. With a mismatched puzzle of a jaw, Max has a Class II malocclusion, otherwise known as a severe overbite. She already has braces, which means she lives on Advil and soft foods after each orthodontist appointment. But now Max has to wear painful (and totally awkward)...