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 21 - 40 of 54  There are a total of 92 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for An impossible thing to say.
Author:
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Fiction for Young Adults;12-up
Description:
In the aftermath of 9/11, high school sophomore Omid grapples with finding the right words to connect with his grandfather, embrace his Iranian heritage, and express his feelings towards a girl, until he immerses himself in the rhymes and rhythms of rap music and finds his voice.
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 Isles of the Gods.
Series:
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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 Julia and the shark.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;9-13
Description:
Ten-year-old Julia loves the mysteries of the ocean and marine biology, just like her scientist mother. Her family is spending the summer on a remote island where her mom is searching for the elusive Greenland shark, a creature that might be older than the trees, and so rare that it’s only been seen a few times. But the ocean is reluctant to give up its secrets, and Julia tries not to worry as her mother returns disappointed at the end of each...
Book cover for Land of broken promises.
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Fiction for Children;9-12
Description:
After a rocky first year, Anna's family have settled into life in California--their small restaurant is even turning a profit. Then her parents make a shattering discovery: their visas have expired. Anna's world is quickly overwhelmed by unfamiliar words like "undocumented" and "inequality." She longs to share the towering secret that looms over every aspect of her life with a friend, but her parents strictly forbid her from telling anyone. As Anna...
Book cover for The lost library.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;8-12
Description:
When a mysterious Little Free Library guarded by a large orange cat appears overnight, eleven-year-old Evan plucks two weathered books from its shelves, never suspecting that his life is about to change.
Book cover for The lost year.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;9-13
Description:
Thirteen-year-old Matthew is miserable. His journalist dad is stuck overseas indefinitely, and his mom has moved in his one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother to ride out the pandemic, adding to his stress and isolation. But when Matthew finds a tattered black-and-white photo in his great-grandmothers belongings, he discovers a clue to a hidden chapter of her past, one that will lead to a life-shattering family secret. Set in alternating timelines...
Book cover for The museum of lost and found.
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Fiction for Children;9-13
Description:
When eleven-year-old Vanessa discovers an abandoned museum, she starts filling it with her own projects and art and memories, thinking maybe, if she can put them all together in just the right way, she can finally understand why she and her relationships are the way they are.
Book cover for My flawless life.
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Fiction for Young Adults;13-up
Description:
At the most elite private school in Washington, DC., whenever anyone has a problem that they need to go away, they hire Hana Yang Lerner. Hana is a fixer. She knows who to call, what to say, and how to make sure secrets stay where they belong, buried. She can fix anything. Except her own life, which was destroyed when her father, senator Skip Lerner, was arrested for an accident that left one woman nearly dead. Now Hana's reputation is ruined and...
Book cover for Once there was.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;12-up
Description:
Once was, once wasń€™t. So began the stories Marjań€™s father told her as a little gir倔fables like the story of the girl who sprung a unicorn from a hunteŕ€™s snare, or the nomad boy who rescued a baby shirdal. Tales of extraordinary beasts that filled her with curiosity and wonder. But Marjań€™s not a little girl anymore. In the wake of her fatheŕ€™s sudden...
Book cover for Only this beautiful moment.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;14-up
Description:
Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this sweeping intergenerational story, examining queer identity at the end of different decades, follows three boys in the same Iranian family as they each gain a new understanding of their history, culture--and themselves.
Book cover for The other pandemic.
Notes:
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir;14-up
Description:
"Before COVID-19 made “pandemic” a household word in 2020, there was the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s. Author Lynn Curlee explores the parallels and the difference as he recounts living in New York and Los Angeles when the disease silently took hold of the gay community. As the disease became a full-blown public health crisis, Curlee watched in horror at the devastating progression of HIV/AIDS, the staggering losses endured, and divisive...
Book cover for Parachute kids.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;9-13
Description:

**National Book Award Longlist Title**

**Asian/Pacific American Award Honor Book**

This funny, fast-paced, and heartrending story about three siblings living on their own as undocumented new immigrants is perfect for fans of New Kid and Front Desk.

A DREAM TRIP TO AMERICA TURNS INTO A NIGHTMARE!

Feng-Li can't wait to discover America with her family! But after an action-packed

...
Book cover for A pocketful of stars.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;10-13
Description:
When thirteen-year-old Safiya's mother falls into a coma, Safiya comes to terms with their complicated relationship and discovers more about herself through dreams that transport her to her mother's childhood in Kuwait.
Book cover for The probability of everything.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;9-13
Description:
"Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5.5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out. But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. AMPLUS-68 has an 84.7% chance...
Book cover for Remember us.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;9-13
Description:
"The summer before seventh grade, as the constant threat of housefires looms over her Brooklyn neighborhood, basketball-loving Sage is trying to figure out her place in her circle of friends, when a new kid named Freddy moves in"--
Book cover for Rez ball.
Notes:
Fiction for Young Adults;12-up
Description:
"These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team--even though he can't help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident. When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his...
Book cover for Saints of the household.
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Fiction for Young Adults;14-up
Description:
When brothers Max and Jay help a classmate in trouble, they struggle with the consequences of their violent actions and worry they may be more like their abusive father than they thought, so the brothers turn to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.
Book cover for Simon sort of says.
Author:
Description:
Two years after a tragedy saddles him with viral fame, twelve-year-old Simon O'Keeffe and his family move to Grin And Bear It, Nebraska, where the internet and cell phones are banned so astrophysicists can scan the sky for signs of alien life, and where, with the help of two new friends, a puppy, and a giant radio telescope, Simon plans to restart the narrative of his life.
Book cover for Something like home.
Notes:
Fiction for Children;9-12
Description:
"Laura Rodríguez Colón has a plan: no matter what the grown-ups say, she will live with her parents again. Can you blame her? It’s tough to make friends as the new kid at school. And while staying at her aunt’s house is okay, it just isn’t the same as being in her own space. So when Laura finds a puppy, it seems like fate. If she can train the puppy to become a therapy dog, then maybe she’ll be allowed to visit her parents. Maybe the dog...