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Two weeks in the past, I rounded up a number of of the “best-of” lists on the earth of YA to this point for 2024. Whereas that was supposed to spotlight simply how wide-ranging the bests had been this yr—one thing we ought to be celebrating, particularly as a result of lists like this weren’t as strong or numerous previous to the efforts of teams like We Want Various Books—it bought me fascinated about which books had been touchdown on a number of best-of lists.
With that curiosity got here a spreadsheet, and with that spreadsheet, a useful method to take a look at the best-of-the-best in YA for 2024.
I’ve pulled collectively the YA “best-of” lists from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, NPR, the New York Public Library, Faculty Library Journal, Kirkus, and BookPage. Fiction, nonfiction, and comics/graphic novels had been included, although manga was excluded from this roundup; that call got here as a result of just one outlet, Faculty Library Journal, particularly known as out YA manga best-ofs.
I then sorted the checklist of best-of lists by title, highlighting books from 2024 that acquired mentions a minimum of thrice.
Listed below are the best-of-the-best of YA in 2024, in keeping with the largest retailers and sources for YA protection.
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5 YA “Best-Of” Lists
4 YA “Best-Of” Lists
Three YA “Best-Of” Lists
Breaking down these titles into kind of e-book, there are 4 works of nonfiction, three comics, and 17 novels. It’s a actually unbelievable vary of genres and codecs, and it showcases how numerous YA is. It’s good to see among the big-budget and dependable titles and authors right here—deservedly, after all—in addition to a whole lot of titles that possibly didn’t fairly see the identical stage of consideration within the YA world that they deserved.
If I had been placing cash on titles we’ll see on the American Library Affiliation’s Youth Media Awards in January, I’d be maintaining a tally of each Randy Ribay and Jason Reynolds’s new books, in addition to titles like Shiny Purple Fruit, Dragonfruit, Compound Fracture, Icarus, and The Judgment of Yoyo Gold. “Best-of” honors don’t imply these titles are shoe-ins for awards, however essential acclaim throughout a number of retailers doesn’t damage.
This roundup of best-of lists, nonetheless, pales compared to one shared with me. Eric Bateman, a librarian at Canandaigua Academy in New York, reached out to say he discovered my checklist whereas engaged on his personal annual roundup of the “best-of” YA lists. He started to spherical up lists on his weblog in 2013, and this yr’s roster is, in a single hyphenated phrase, mind-blowing.
Check out this checklist. On the high, you’ll see every of the retailers included, the variety of books named “best-of” on these lists, and/or the dates these lists are anticipated to be printed.
I’ve gone forward and sorted Eric’s lists as of December 10, 2024, and right here’s what the highest books are in keeping with all of those lists!
Icarus by Ok. Ancrum (8 lists)
Twenty-4 Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds (7 lists)
The Reappearance of Rachel Value by Holly Jackson (7 lists)
Inheritor by Sabaa Tahir (7 lists)
Ariel Crashes a Prepare by Olivia A. Cole (6 lists)
Black Lady You Are Atlas by Renée Watson (6 lists)
Every thing We By no means Had by Randy Ribay (6 lists)
Thirsty by Jas Hammonds (6 lists)
When The World Suggestions Over by Jandy Nelson (6 lists)
The Deep Darkish by Molly Knox Ostertag (5 lists)
Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier (5 lists)
Wanting For Smoke by Ok.A. Cobell (5 lists)
Snowglobe by Soyoung Park (5 lists)
Whether or not you’re a knowledge nerd in terms of books or studying otherwise you merely like understanding the books which were receiving some particular consideration for the way excellent they’re, you’re going to search out some wonderful reads right here.