Picture Books | Beginning Readers and Primary Grades | Intermediate | Middle School

High School

Suggested grade level for all entries: 9 and up

Sọmadịna by Akwaeke Emezi (Knopf)

Fifteen-year-old Sọmadịna’s beloved twin brother, Jayaike, is stolen away by a sinister figure who aims to consume the twins’ power. Sọmadịna must set out on a dangerous journey and learn to harness the magical gift she fears. Emezi draws on their Igbo heritage to craft an immersive world, brought to life with absorbing prose that heightens the coming-of-age story’s emotional impact. 304 pp.

A Constellation of Minor Bears by Jen Ferguson (Heartdrum/HarperCollins)

While hiking across the Pacific Crest Trail, Molly, her brother Hank, and their friend Tray deal with intense feelings that stem from Hank’s traumatic brain injury. Through alternating voices and past and present social media posts, Ferguson has created well-characterized teenage protagonists grappling with difficult issues (ableism, fatphobia, anti-Indigenous sentiment and actions) who slowly open up to one another. An engrossing, introspective tale. 352 pp.

On Again, Awkward Again by Erin Entrada Kelly and Kwame Mbalia (Amulet/Abrams)

A clumsy accident and an IBS incident lead to an unlikely meet-cute. High school freshmen Pacy and Cecil fall for each other, but the universe seems determined to make every encounter as awkward as possible. Kelly and Mbalia animate their dynamic duo through first-person narration packed with personality and pop-culture references. Readers will laugh out loud, cringe in secondhand embarrassment, and root for these two geeky teens of color to get their rom-com happy ending. 272 pp.

Breath of the Dragon [Breathmarked] by Shannon Lee and Fonda Lee (Wednesday/St. Martin’s)

In this page-turning Chinese-inspired fantasy, Jun is banished to the West for illegally training in martial arts and separated from Sai, his “breathmarked” (innately talented) twin. After running away to fight in a tournament to restore his family’s honor, Jun discovers that political corruption has transformed it into a deadly battle and must decide what he is willing to risk. Sensory details plunge readers into the tournament’s danger and splendor as well as Jun’s poignant inner conflicts. 352 pp.

Thief of the Heights by Son M.; illus. by Robin Yao (HarperAlley/HarperCollins)

In this graphic novel’s distant dystopian future, three friends reside in a stacked city’s lower region. Basem and Mustafa’s engineering skill in constructing Aarfah’s prosthetic legs attracts a scout who can grant them a chance at a new life. But what must they compromise? Dynamic characterization and atmospheric world-building in a setting with echoes of contemporary Muslim society engender a fantastically allegorized tale. 240 pp.

Thunder City [Mortal Engines] by Philip Reeve (Scholastic)

In this prequel to Reeve’s Mortal Engines series, the city of Thorbury is captured by villain Gabriel Strega. Miss Lavinia Torpenhow sets off to Paris on a mission she hopes will restore order — the beginning of a multilayered adventure featuring a ragtag band of companions. Readers will be swept away by the nonstop action and the sheer inventiveness of the plot, intrigued by the around-the-world exploits, and pulled in by the depth of the characterizations and relationships. 336 pp.

Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid (Harper/HarperCollins)

In a future dystopian world, those who rack up too much debt can become “Lambs” in the livestreamed Gauntlet, whose beautiful, cybernetically enhanced “Angels” hunt and execute them. Narration alternates between seventeen-year-old Lamb Inesa and Angel Melinoë in an unlikely but believably rendered example of the enemies-to-lovers trope. It’s the human moments in this work of sci-fi that will especially stay with readers after the book is closed. 384 pp.

American Spirits: The Famous Fox Sisters and the Mysterious Fad That Haunted a Nation by Barb Rosenstock (Calkins/Astra)

In 1848, a strange rapping sound disturbs the upstate New York Fox family. Neighbors conclude that daughters Maggie and Kate are communicating with the dead. The Modern Spiritualist movement is born, and the girls become celebrities. Rosenstock’s engaging, meticulously researched nonfiction account evenhandedly explores the flawed methods used to ascertain the truth and offers pertinent discussions of confirmation bias, media influence, and the limited options available to mid-nineteenth-century women. 304 pp.

Run Away with Me by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

Selznick’s first young adult work is sensitively written and imbued with romance and mystery, bookended with long, cinematic passages of wordless black-and-white illustrations in his signature style. A sixteen-year-old American transplanted to Rome for the summer of 1986 meets an enigmatic Italian teenager. The two boys are quickly swept into a relationship built on devotion, risk-taking, and mythmaking — inspired by the ancient city itself. 320 pp.

Wake the Wild Creatures by Nova Ren Suma (Little, Brown)

In the present-day timeline of this psychological mystery, sixteen-year-old Talia is desperate to return to the isolated community where she was raised. Flashback sections cover life at the Neves, an abandoned hotel at a once-grand Jewish resort hidden in the Catskills that becomes a self-sustaining commune and underground haven for abused women and daughters. Elements of magic and surrealism dip in and out of the story with a lush atmosphere and breathtaking setting. 384 pp.

Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout (First Second)

An omniscient blackbird guides readers through two seemingly disparate timelines in this poetic graphic novel. In 1943, headstrong Dutch university student Emma becomes involved in the covert relocation of Jewish children. In 2011, Amsterdam resident Annick sets out on an unexpected journey through her family’s complicated WWII history. Art as an act of defiance and source of inspiration is central to the story. The present-tense prose and print block–style digital illustrations, seamlessly integrating black-and-white photos, are equally expressive. 256 pp.

Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldívar (Dial)

High school senior Libertad’s attempts to understand her blossoming feelings for her best friend, Camila, and her own family history become intertwined with her growing understanding of the tensions between student protest movements and the Honduran government in the lead-up to the country’s fraught 2017 presidential election. Readers experience Libertad’s own journey through her first-person narration and creative expression, and in her relationships with her blood relatives and chosen family. 432 pp.

(S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi (Versify/HarperCollins)

In this verse novel with a basis in Caribbean folklore, fifteen-year-old Marisol, a recent immigrant from the Caribbean to Brooklyn, is a soucouyant, a shapeshifting “monster” who sheds her skin. She and seventeen-year-old Genevieve — who enjoys privileges such as wealth, lighter skin, and U.S. citizenship but suffers from enflamed rashes on her skin — come to realize their worlds are more interconnected than they could have imagined. Zoboi’s expressive verse skillfully captures the complexities of identity and belonging. 400 pp.

From the April 2025 issue of Notes from the Horn Book: Summer Reading. For past years’ summer reading lists from The Horn Book, click on the tag summer reading.