Great YA Fiction: Coming of age Fantasy Mystery etc.
Discover the best YA fiction books featuring coming-of-age tales, fantasy adventures, and gripping mysteries. Explore top picks for young adult readers who love thrilling, magical, and suspenseful stories.
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Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES AND INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER **THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL, NOW A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES** “Eerie, beautiful, and devastating.” —Chicago Tribune “A stealthy hit with staying power. . . . thriller-like pacing.” —The New York Times “Thirteen Reasons Why will leave you with chills long after you have finished reading.” —Amber Gibson, NPR’s “All Things Considered” You can’t stop the future. You can’t rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play. Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever. Need to talk? Call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) anytime if you are in the United States. It’s free and confidential. Find more resources at 13reasonswhy.info. Find out how you can help someone in crisis at bethe1to.com.
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Juggler in the Wind
by Wim Coleman
When a ragtag circus shows up in the town of Buchanan, Kansas, fourteen-year-old Randy Carmichael faces a deep mystery. Why is his alcoholic mother so troubled by the troupe's arrival? What does Circus Olympus mean to her pastand to Randy's future? Voices summon him, a godlike figure appears in his dreams, and supernatural adversaries lay in wait for him as he embarks on a dangerous quest that will take him beyond mortal reality.
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Leven Thumps and the Ruins of Alder
by Obert Skye
Leven discovers that he must travel to the island of Alder to find the answer that will save the realm of Foo from destruction.
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The Cabinet of Wonders
by Marie Rutkoski
Petra Kronos has a simple, happy life. But it’s never been ordinary. She has a pet tin spider named Astrophil who likes to hide in her snarled hair and give her advice. Her best friend can trap lightning inside a glass sphere. Petra also has a father in faraway Prague who is able to move metal with his mind. He has been commissioned by the prince of Bohemia to build the world’s finest astronomical clock. Petra’s life is forever changed when, one day, her father returns home – blind. The prince has stolen his eyes, enchanted them, and now wears them. But why? Petra doesn’t know, but she knows this: she will go to Prague, sneak into Salamander Castle, and steal her father’s eyes back. Joining forces with Neel, whose fingers extend into invisible ghosts that pick locks and pockets, Petra finds that many people in the castle are not what they seem, and that her father’s clock has powers capable of destroying their world. This startling debut novel, about the risks we take to protect those we love, brims with magic, political intrigue, and heroism. The Cabinet of Wonders is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
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The Unsuspecting Mage
by Brian S. Pratt
'Magic! Real Magic! Ever wanted to learn?'Little did James realize when he answered the ad in the paper that he would find himself in the middle of an adventure destined to test the limits of his intelligence and courage. Cast upon a world with little explanation as to how he came to be there or why, James, a high school senior, must learn quickly how to survive or die as had others before him.He is soon to realize that knowledge gained from hundreds of books, as well as time spent role playing, will prove invaluable in his new circumstances.This new world is on the brink of war, and only by learning to control the magic within will he be able to overcome the trials ahead. With the aid of a boy named Miko, his wits, and no small amount of luck, he sets out to discover what he must do, and who it was that brought him there.
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The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey
by Trenton Lee Stewart
Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance, all graduates of the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened and members of the Benedict Society, embark on a scavenger hunt that turns into a desperate search for the missing Mr. Benedict.
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A Certain Slant of Light
by Laura Whitcomb
In the class of the high school English teacher she has been haunting, Helen feels them: for the first time in 130 years, human eyes are looking at her. They belong to a boy, a boy who has not seemed remarkable until now. And Helen--terrified, but intrigued--is drawn to him. The fact that he is in a body and she is not presents this unlikely couple with their first challenge. But as the lovers struggle to find a way to be together, they begin to discover the secrets of their former lives and of the young people they come to possess.