2016 Teens' Top Ten Nominations

The Young Adult Library Association released the nominees for the 2016 Teens Top Ten Award. Voting begins August 15 and the winners will be announced in August.

Baker, Chandler. Alive. Disney/Hyperion.

Stella Cross has received a heart transplant, but it has not stopped her emotional suffering.

Then a mysterious boy named Levi Zin comes into her life. Stella’s pain goes away whenever she’s

around Levi. However, Stella finds out a terrible secret about Levi. Can it be true?

Bardugo, Leigh. Six of Crows. Macmillan/Henry Holt & Co.

Young criminal genius Kaz Brekker is offered the chance to pull off a dangerous theft that can make him rich. He recruits a gang of six dangerous misfits to help him with the heist.

Black, Holly. The Darkest Part of the Forest. Little, Brown & Co.

In Fairfold, a place where both humans and Faeries live, siblings Hazel and Ben have grown up telling each other stories about the boy in the glass coffin in the woods. Of course, they’ll never know because the boy will never wake.Then, unexpectedly, he does . . .

Broecker, Virginia. The Witch Hunter. Little, Brown & Co.

Elizabeth Grey is a witch hunter who is suddenly accused of being a witch. She is arrested and sentenced to burn. The only way for Elizabeth to avoid this fate is to help out her former enemy Nicholas Perevil, the most dangerous wizard around.

Brockenbrough, Martha. The Game of Love and Death. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books.

Set in Seattle in the 1920s, a romance develops between Flora, who is African American, and Henry, who is white. Despite some differences, the pair has much in common, including a shared love of jazz music. However, it turns out that Flora and Henry actually are pawns in a game played by two other characters– Love and Death.

Childs, Tera Lynn, and Tracy Deebs. Powerless. Sourcebooks Fire.

In a world full of powerful heroes and villains, Kenna is just a regular, powerless teenager who works in a lab. Then, three villains break into the lab, and Kenna decides to fight back. In the midst of this battle, Kenna is saved by a villain. Suddenly, she is forced to rethink her beliefs.

Cornwell, Betsy. Mechanica. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt /Clarion Books.

A new take on the classic story of Cinderella. Mechanica uses her wit and her mother’s old engineering textbooks to try to escape her stepmother and stepsisters.

Dinnison, Kris. You and Me and Him. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Clarion Books.

Maggie is overweight. Nash is out of the closet. They are the best of friends. But that friendship is tested when they both develop feelings for the same boy, a new kid named Tom.

Doktorski, Jennifer Salvato. The Summer After You & Me. Sourcebooks Fire.

Lucy Giordano lives on the Jersey Shore and has a crush on a boy named Connor Malloy, whose family spends many summer weekends at the home next door. The pair eventually shares an unexpected romance. Lucy and Connor go their separate ways. But several months later, Connor is scheduled to return to The Shore, which should definitely make for an interesting summer.

Doller, Trish. The Devil You Know. Bloomsbury.

Arcadia, or Cadie for short, is 18 years old and has been longing for something more in life ever since her mother died. Then she meets two handsome boys, cousins to one another, and they invite her and a friend on a camping trip. What seems like innocent fun takes a negative turn when Arcadia discovers one of the boys is hiding a terrible secret.

Heltzel, Anne. Charlie, Presumed Dead. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Charlie Price is presumed dead after his plane crashes. However, his body is never found. At his funeral, Lena and Aubrey meet and discover both were his girlfriend. Lena believes Charlie is still alive, and she and Aubrey set out on a journey across Europe and Asia to expose Charlie’s deceit.

Kaufman Amie, and Jay Kristoff. Illuminae. Random House/Alfred A. Knopf.

Kady and Ezra have just broken up, and then their planet is bombed by a megacorporation. The pair

escapes to a government ship, but must put their differences aside in order to survive and stop a plague that has resulted from the use of a bioweapon.

Laurie, Victoria. When. Disney/Hyperion.

High school junior Maddie Fynn has special powers that allow her to see numbers above a person’s

forehead, which she soon discovers are death dates. She identifies the death date of a young boy, but is unable to prevent his disappearance. Then, Maddie becomes a suspect in a homicide investigation.

Matharu, Taran. The Novice: Summoner: Book One. Macmillan/Feiwel & Friends.

A blacksmith’s apprentice named Fletcher discovers he can summon demons from another world. He

soon gets chased out of his village for a crime he did not commit, ending up at an academy for adepts, where he is trained to serve as a Battlemage in the Empire’s war against the savage Orcs.

Nielsen, Jennifer. A. Mark of the Thief. Scholastic/Scholastic Press.

Set in Ancient Rome, a young slave named Nic finds an amulet that gives him magic powers usually

reserved for the Gods. After discovering a conspiracy to overthrow the emperor and start a war, Nic is

forced to use the magic within to defeat the empire’s most ruthless leaders and save Rome.

Niven, Jennifer. All the Bright Places. Random House/Alfred A. Knopf.

Death plays a big role in the lives of high schoolers Theodore Finch and Violet Markey. He is constantly on the verge of suicide, and she is battling grief after her sister’s death. The Indiana teens come together to work on a project and soon develop a bond, showing each other what it’s like to live.

Priest, Cherie. Illustrated by Kali Ciesemier. I Am Princess X. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine.

When they were young, best friends Libby and May created a comic character named Princess X. Then Libby was killed in a car accident. Lonely and grieving, May soon discovers an underground culture centered around a web comic at IAmPrincessX.com. The similarities between those stories and Libby’s own stories are striking. Could her friend still be alive?

Schmidt, Tiffany. Hold Me Like a Breath. Bloomsbury.

Penelope Landlow has an autoimmune disease that forces her to remain indoors. She is also the

daughter of a notorious crime family that is involved in the black market for organ transplants. Penelope soon gains her independence and is forced to survive on her own in the big city.

Schreiber, Joe. Con Academy. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Will Shea is a con man who has scammed his way into Connaughton Academy, an exclusive school for the American elite. He soon meets Andrea Dufresne, who also has conned her way into the school. The pair soon makes a bet to see who can con the school bully, Brandt Rush, out of thousands of dollars.

Sedgwick, Marcus. The Ghosts of Heaven. Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press.

An epic story about the journey of discovery told in four episodes.

Simmons, Kristen. The Glass Arrow. Tor Teen.

Set in the future, Aya is a 15-year-old girl who has spent her life hiding in the mountains in order to

avoid the fate of most women, who are treated like property and auctioned off for breeding. Then, she

is caught. Desperate to escape, she relies on the assistance of a wolf and a mute boy in her search for

freedom.

Stohl, Margaret. Black Widow Forever Red. Disney/Marvel Press.

Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, is one of the world’s most lethal assassins, and she once rescued young Ava Orlova from being subjected to a series of military experiments. Now, Black Widow and Orlova team up again to stop Widow’s former teacher from wreaking havoc on the children of Eastern Europe.

Stone, Tamara Ireland. Every Last Word. Disney/Hyperion.

Samantha McAllister seems to have it all: she is beautiful, bright and part of the popular crowd in high school. But looks can be deceiving, and she is hiding the fact she has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Westerfeld, Scott, Margo Lanagan, and Deborah Biancotti. Zeroes. Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse.

Six California teens have special powers that aren’t always welcome. Like Ethan, known as Scam, who has a voice inside of him that will sometimes speak out when it’s not the right time to do so. When that “power” gets Ethan in trouble, the other Zeroes are the only ones who can rescue him. However, the members of this group are not exactly the best of friends.

Weingarten, Lynn. Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls. Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse.

June and Delia were best friends who grew apart. Then, Delia commits suicide. Or, at least that’s what others have been told. June believes her former best friend has been murdered, and she goes on a quest to find the truth . . . which, it turns out, is very complicated.

Yoon, Nicola. Everything, Everything. Random House/Delacorte Press.

Maddy is a teenager with a serious autoimmune disease that prevents her from leaving the house. Yet,

she seems content to stay home and read books. That is until a boy named Olly moves in next door. The two meet, and their quirky relationship is chronicled through emails, journal entries, IMs and old notes.