Curated category · 2006—2025

Best young readers

Award-winning and editorially recommended young readers across twenty years, organized for discovery rather than sales ranking.

Selections: 703
Authors: 624
Lists & prizes: 3

Showing 145–192 of 703

2023Young readers

Warrior Girl Unearthed

Angeline Boulley

NPR Books We Love

2023Young readers

Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey

Edel Rodriguez

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

1-2-3 Scream!

R.U. Ginns, illustrated by Javier Espila

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

A Scatter of Light

Malinda Lo

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

A Warbler's Journey

Scott Weidensaul, illustrated by Nancy Lane

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

African Town

Irene Latham and Charles Waters

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

All My Rage

Sabaa Tahir

On 2 lists: National Book Award for Young People's Literature, NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

American Murderer: The Parasite That Haunted the South

Gail Jarrow

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

An Arrow to the Moon

Emily X.R. Pan

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

Zoulfa Katouh

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Attack of the Black Rectangles

Amy Sarig King

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Aviva vs. the Dybbuk

Mari Lowe

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Ballad & Dagger (An Outlaw Saints Novel)

Daniel José Older

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Berry Song

Michaela Goade

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrated by Daniel Minter

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Different Kinds of Fruit

Kyle Lukoff

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Farmhouse

Sophie Blackall

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Growing Pangs

Kathryn Ormsbee, illustrated by Molly Brooks

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Hanged! Mary Surratt and the Plot to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln

Sarah Miller

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

I Am Golden

Eva Chen, illustrated by Sophie Diao

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

I Can Explain

Shinsuke Yoshitake

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

I Kissed Shara Wheeler: A Novel

Casey McQuiston

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

I Love You Like Yellow

Andrea Beaty, illustrated by Vashti Harrison

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

I Must Betray You

Ruta Sepetys

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

If You Could See the Sun

Ann Liang

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

It Won't Always Be Like This: A Graphic Memoir

Malaka Gharib

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

It’s the End of the World and I’m in My Bathing Suit

Justin A. Reynolds

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Knight Owl

Christopher Denise

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution

Kacen Callender

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Listen to the Language of the Trees: A Story of How Forests Communicate Underground

Tera Kelley, illustrated by Marie Hermansson

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Little Monarchs

Jonathan Case

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech

Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Miss Quinces: A Graphic Novel

Kat Fajardo

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria

Muhammad Najem and Nora Neus, illustrated by Julie Robine

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

My Brother Is Away

Sara Greenwood, illustrated by Luisa Uribe

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

My Parents Won't Stop Talking!

Emma Hunsinger and Tillie Walden

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Noor and Bobby

Praline Gay-Para, illustrated by Lauranne Quentric, and translated by Alyson Waters

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

One for All: A Novel

Lillie Lainoff

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Ophelia After All

Racquel Marie

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Red Scare: A Graphic Novel

Liam Francis Walsh

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Rust in the Root

Justina Ireland

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Skater Cielo

Rachel Katstaller

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Solito: A Memoir

Javier Zamora

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Sometimes, All I Need Is Me

Juliana Perdomo

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler

Ibi Zoboi

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

The Aquanaut

Dan Santat

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

The Catalogue of Hugs

Joshua David Stein and Augustus Heeren Stein, illustrated by Elizabeth Lilly

NPR Books We Love

2022Young readers

The Complicated Calculus (and Cows) of Carl Paulsen

Gary Eldon Peter

NPR Books We Love