Award-Winning

Young Adult Books

The first thing you should know about Young Adult
books is that YA is not a genre, it’s a demographic.
The books are targeted to teens and usually feature
a teen protagonist. Since YA includes many genres,
our list includes books that won awards in everything
from romance to sci-fi to comics.

CALS.org
 Binge Read: Award-Winning Young Adult Books
2017 The 57 Bus 16 Slater, Baskin r read it! 2015 Lizard Radio 17 Schmatz, Pat r read it!
2007 American Born Chinese 13 Yang, Gene Luen r read it! 2006 Looking for Alaska 13 Green, John r read it!
2012 Anya's Ghost 4 Brosgol, Vera r read it! 2014 Love is the Drug 14 Johnson, Alaya Dawn r read it!
2013 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 3, 8, 16 Sáenz, Bejamin Alire r read it! 2015 Lumberjanes 4 Watters, Ellis, Stevenson, and Allen r read it!
2015 The Art of Secrets 12 Kilse, James r read it! 2006 Magic or Madness 11 Larbalestier, Justine r read it!
2016 Bone Gap 13 Ruby, Laura r read it! 2009 Marcelo in the Real World 15 Stork, Francisco r read it!
2001 Bronx Masquerade 7 Grimes, Nikki r read it! 2017 March: Book Three 13 Lewis, John r read it!
2014 Brown Girl Dreaming 10 Woodson, Jacqueline r read it! 2014 Midwinterblood 13 Sedgwick, Marcus r read it!
2015 Challenger Deep 10 Shusterman, Neal r read it! 2000 Monster 13 Myers, Walter Dean r read it!
2014 Charm & Strange 9 Kuehn, Stephanie r read it! 2009 Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit 2 Uehashi, Nahoka; Hirano, Cathy (trans) r read it!
1974 The Chocolate War 1 Cormier, Robert r read it! 1975 The Outsiders 1 Hinton, S.E. r read it!
2009 A Curse as Dark as Gold 9 Bunce, Elizabeth C. r read it! 2018 Piecing Me Together 7 Watson, Renee r read it!
2019 Darius the Great is Not Okay 9 Khorram, Adib r read it! 2019 Poet X 13 Acevedo, Elizabeth r read it!
2016 Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings 3 Engle, Margarita r read it! 2003 Postcards from No Man's Land 13 Chambers, Aidan r read it!
2012 Enclave 14 Aguirre, Ann r read it! 207 The Problem with Forever 14 Armentrout, Jennifer L. r read it!
2017 Far From the Tree 10 Benway, Robin r read it! 2012 Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy 8,16 Wright, Bil r read it!
2004 The First Part Last 13 Johnson, Angela r read it! 2010 The Rock and the River 7 Magoon, Kekla r read it!
2010 Flash Burnout 9 Madigan, L.K. r read it! 2013 Seraphina 9 Hartmann, Rachel r read it!
1959 Flowers for Algernon 5 Keyes, Daniel r read it! 2017 The Serpent King 9 Zentner, Jeff r read it!
2011 The Freak Observer 9 Woolston, Blythe r read it! 2011 Ship Breaker 13 Bacigalupi, Paolo r read it!
2011 The Freedom Maze 11 Sherman, Delia r read it! 2016 Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda 9 Albertalli, Becky r read it!
2015 Gabi, A Girl in Pieces 9 Quintero, Isabel r read it! 2002 A Step from Heaven 13 Na, An r read it!
2017 Girl in the Blue Coat 12 Hesse, Monica r read it! 2017 The Sun is Also a Star 7 Yoon, Nicola r read it!
2010 Going Bovine 13 Bray, Libba r read it! 1996 That Summer 1 Dessen, Sarah r read it!
2017 The Hate U Give 9 Thomas, Angie r read it! 2013 The Thing About Luck 10 Kadohata, Cynthia r read it!
2005 How I Live Now 13 Rosoff, Meg r read it! 2014 This One Summer 6 Tamaki, Jillian and Tamaki, Mariko r read it!
2014 If You Could Be Mine 8 Farizan, Sara r read it! 2015 Through the Woods 6 Carroll, Emily r read it!
2015 I'll Give You the Sun 13 Nelson, Jandy r read it! 2018 We Are Okay 13 LaCour, Nina r read it!
2013 In Darkness 13 Lake, Nick r read it! 2016 When the Moon Was Ours 17 McLemore, Anna-Marie r read it!
2006 It's Kind of a Funny Story 1 Vizzini, Ned r read it! 2017 When We Collided 15 Lord, Emery r read it!
2009 Jellicoe Road 13 Marchetta, Melina r read it! 2012 Where Things Come Back 13 Whaley, John Corey r read it!
2001 Kit's Wilderness 13 Almond, David r read it! 2008 The White Darkness 13 McCaughrean, Geraldine r read it!
2017 Little and the Lion 16 Colbert, Brandy r read it! 2014 Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass 3 Medina, Meg r read it!
1 American Library Association’s Best Books for 4 Will Eisner Award (American comic books) 9 William C. Morris Award (first-time author) 14 Rita Award (romance)
Young Adults 5 Hugo Award (science fiction/fantasy) 10 National Book Award (literary excellence) 15 Schneider Family Book Award (disability experience)
2 Mildred L. Batchelder Award (books translated 6 Ignatz Award (small press comics) 11 Andre Norton Award (YA science fiction/fantasy) 16 Stonewall Book Award (LGBT experience)
into English) 7 Coretta Scott King (African American experience) 12 Edgar Allan Poe Award (mystery) 17 James Tiptree Jr. Award (gender in science fiction/
3 Pura Belpré Award (Latino cultural experience) 8 Lamda Literary Award (LGBT themes) 13 Michael L. Printz Award (YA literature) fantasy)
8/1/20