Author: Kelly Jensen

This book has everything: a historic setting, the Suffragist movement, a girl on an Antarctic exposition, and a survival story.

Clara Ketterling-Dunbar is part of The Resolute, a team of 28 crew members on an Antarctic exposition. It is November 1914, and the ship is stuck on ice 100 miles from the continent. How will the team survive? How will Clara figure out who she is amid a crew who is not necessarily happy there is a woman on board?

As a heads up: this book has sexual assault and harm to animals–the first is not unpunished, and the second is not out of gross cruelty but survival.

If you love survival, discussions of feminism and what it does or does not entail, and reading about the perceptions held by people around the globe about Americans in this era, don’t miss this one.

Harper thought she knew her entire life and had a plan with her best friend: they’d been ballerinas forever. When they graduated, they’d get positions in the San Francisco Ballet, a loft downtown, and they’d live their dreams. Together.

Things don’t turn out that way, though, which is how Harper ends up in Antarctica. It was some string-pulling and some creative truth-telling that got her there, but it’s an opportunity to rethink her future. To make plans and unmake some, too.

One of the largest tech companies in the world is sponsoring an internship for teens to study climate change in Antarctica. Riley Kowalski jumps at the chance, along with three others. Riley hoped it could be a restart, as she’d had a very public panic attack at school and could not escape the ridicule of classmates.

But when the teens get to the research station, they don’t seem to be alone. Riley thinks she sees something, but she can’t be sure. Her anxiety can play tricks on her.

As their research leader experiences some bizarre physical changes, though, the teens are realizing that there is something out there and it wants to take them down.

Clara’s got magic. It’s never been dangerous, though. Then, one day, she touches her father’s chest, and from it blooms poisonous flowers. She knows the only way to help him is to cast a spell. It’s the kind of spell that requires precision and perfection, and it’s the kind of spell that will require her to seek help from Xavier. Xavier is her childhood friend, and he’s asking a heavy price for his help. Clara accepts, even though she’s nervous to do so.

But what Clara discovers about Xavier is the truth of why he’s changed so much between childhood and now. Clara may be the only one with the power to heal him.

This graphic novel is about a teen witch who helps out at her grandmother’s bookshop, where she often hands out spell books and assists in looking into supernatural occurrences in her small town. During one of those investigations, she stumbles upon her childhood crush and wants to not only rekindle feelings, but also to help him reclaim his power. It’s about family, about the ways history can tie a family and romantic relationship together, and for readers who don’t usually like “horror,” it’s not especially gory. It’s about super-magical powers and spirits.

Xu’s art is perfectly suited to the story, with a wide color palette.

It might sound like a dream gig, but for 17-year-old Aurelie, Basil’s Bakery is tough work. She keeps to herself, even though she’s overworked as an apprentice. Then a stranger walks in and gives her a set of Seeking stones. Seeking, an old-fashioned way of magic, is a skill Aurelie has, even though most people in her world do not.

The stranger is a bounty hunter and has a request of Aurelie: help rescue Prince Hapless from the Underwood. She agrees and quickly finds herself drawn into Hapless’s world full of portals, trolls, and more.

Soon, she finds herself falling hard for Hapless and his wild world. Should she stay or return to her dependable, if boring, life at the bakery?

Bri has a gift where she can grow plants from nothing into something with a single touch. When her aunt dies and leaves her estate in the hands of Bri and her family, they decide to spend the summer there. She’s hoping to learn to contain her gift but, soon learns through the estate’s old apothecary and walled garden packed with deadly botanicals that her family’s magic is what can help solve the dark secrets of the land. Oh, and there’s a nefarious group coming after Bri, as they discover she has a pretty magical hand for creating elixirs, including one for immortality…

This one is a spin on The Secret Garden and Greek mythology, and it’s also a queer, gothic delight.

Mona is 14, and while everyone around her seems to have an amazing magic, hers is…not. Her familiar is a sourdough starter, and that’s the only thing her magic seems to work on.

It’s a quiet life, but Mona keeps herself busy enough in her aunt’s bake shop. That is, until she finds a dead body on the floor. There is a killer on the loose, and all signs point to Mona being the next possible victim.

Who can she turn to for help? It might just be her own form of magic.

This book, put together by two powerhouse authors, is about the period between World War I and World War II when flying became an American obsession. That included an obsession in the Black community, too, even if their options were much more limited. But a crew of Black Americans, men and women, in Chicago, came together to build their own flying club and airfield on the south side. They trained and educated future Black pilots alongside white pilots in those years.

There are photos throughout as well, really bringing this incredible piece of history to life.

Now for our graphic novel, which looks so fun!

Chelsea has been trying to shake the reputation she has, thanks to her dad. They live in New Orleans, and he runs a paranormal removal company. It’s a new school year, and Chelsea is feeling good as she’s finally made friends with the popular crowd.

But then she finds herself in trouble and as punishment, she’s spending the summer working with her dad. She’s not thrilled, especially when she discovers that she might be good at the job because she can actually see ghosts.

Things get more complicated when Chelsea meets a ghost named Oliver and wants to help save him from being stuck inside the mansion that she’s supposed to be helping to destroy spirits from.

All of the stories in this anthology center around Desi weddings. Among the stories are a curse that becomes prophetic, a soulmate whose words can appear on the skin of their beloved, a girl discovering the meaning of true love, a boy debating whether or not to betray his parents, and more. The collection includes stories from Prerna Pickett, Syed Masood, Tashie Bhuiyan, Aamna Qureshi, Payal Doshi, Sarah Mughal, Noreen Mughees, and Anahita Karthik.

One more YA anthology for your TBR is this little gem, which looks like it might actually publish next week (so go ahead and preorder to request it from your library). I am someone who loves a good sports story, so I know I’m eager to dive into these 16 stories about girls in sports. It’s got a strong roster of contributors, including Carrie S. Allen, Sara Farizan, Juliana Goodman, Maggie Hall, Leah Henderson, Sarah Henning, Naomi Kanakia, Miranda Kenneally, Yamile Saied Méndez, Cam Montgomery, Marieke Nijkamp, Amparo Ortiz, Aminah Mae Safi, Kayla Whaley, and both of the editors, Dahlia Adler and Jennifer Iacoppelli.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

ttyl by Lauren Myracle

Luna by Julie Anne Peters

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini

Bird by Angela Johnson

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

This was not a particularly robust year for young adult fiction. There were stronger years in the ’90s, but 1994 was a high point for series books and excellent middle grade titles.

Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper

The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike

Girl, A Novel by Blake Nelson

Flour Babies by Anne Fine

18 Pine St. 1: Sort of Sisters by Walter Dean Myers

Halloween Party by Wendy Corsi Staub

Fantasy Summer by Susan Beth Pfeffer

The Third Eye by Lois Duncan

Interstellar Pig by William Sleator

Turn It Up! by Todd Strasser

Back Home by Michelle Magorian

There were not a lot of YA books that made it big this year, either, but those that did, did.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danziger

M.C. Higgins, The Great by Virginia Hamilton

If you want a frothy, delicious historical novel featuring an all-Black cast at the beginning of the 1900s in Chicago, do not look further. This book DELIVERS and then some.

Inspired by the very real Black entrepreneur CR Patterson, this book imagines what it would be like to be the daughters of a successful businessman at the time, and in addition to the two sisters’ voices, we get to know another daughter of wealth, as well as the assistant of the Davenport daughters. All of the girls have dreams and passions that fall outside of what is expected of them, and all four seem to be falling for people who are outside of their appropriate circles, too. So what happens when they seek to get what they want rather than what’s expected of them?

The second book in the series releases soon.

The Gods of Olympus select humans as their players in the Immortal Games, which take place during the Blood Moon. Ara, who is 16, hopes she is selected this year not because she wants to risk her life but because she wants revenge. Her little sister was killed in the games before.

But when Ara is selected, she finds that she’s not only putting her life in danger. There might be other feelings coming up, too, including the possibility of love.

This sounds a little like if you took Greek mythology and mixed it with the stakes of The Hunger Games.

So this book published in hardcover 10 years ago, and it’s getting a new look for 2024—I think this is going to make it land on a lot more radars, too! If you’re looking for a YA political thriller, look no further.

Emily Bird goes to a tony D.C. prep school and has everything going for her in her life. A chance meeting with homeland security officer Roosevelt David, though, changes everything. She wakes up days later in a hospital with no recollection of the party at all.

Perhaps the meeting wasn’t chance. Perhaps Roosevelt had an agenda. Perhaps he thought Emily knew something about the deadly virus ravaging she shouldn’t, given that her parents work on top-secret science for the government.

But Emily won’t take the incident lying down. She and her best friend are going to figure out what happened to her, even if it means unleashing one of the biggest D.C. scandals ever.