The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has prepared the Best Books for Young Adults 2007 list. Teens, publishers, authors, and librarians selected this list of recommended books.
Clay by David Almond
The developing relationship between teenager Davie and a mysterious new boy in town morphs into something darker and more sinister when Davie learns firsthand of the boy's supernatural powers. Check it out!
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation by M.T. Anderson
Various diaries, letters, and other manuscripts chronicle the experiences of Octavian, a young African American, from birth to age sixteen, as he is brought up as part of a science experiment in the years leading up to and during the Revolutionary War. Check it out! The Road of the Dead by Kevin Brooks
Two brothers, sons of an incarcerated gypsy, leave London traveling to an isolated and desolate village, in search of the brutal killer of their sister. Check it out!
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
High School student Nick O’Leary, member of a rock band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her to be his girlfriend for five minutes in a order to avoid his ex-sweetheart. Check it out!
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and passion for music help her to face and share what really happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life. Check it out!Grease Monkey: A Tale of Growing Up in Orbit by Tim Eldred
Junior spacecraft mechanic Robin Plotnik arrives at the "Fist of Earth" flagship for his first job to learn he will be assisting brilliant mechanic Mac Gimbensky, who also happens to be an eight hundred-pound gorilla, but despite misgivings, they hit it off and between maintaining the fighter craft for the all-woman Barbarian Squadron, the two friends find their own path in the universe. Check it out! Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy. Edited by Sharyn November
A collection of sixteen short science fiction and fantasy stories by some of your favorite authors such as Tamora Pierce and Diana Wynne Jones. Check it out!Alphabets of Dreams by Susan Fletcher
Exiled form their home country because of their father’s plot against King Phraates, fourteen yr old Mitra and five yr old Babak, who are of royal descent, live as beggars until it is discovered that the boy can tell the future through his dreams, and the magus Melchoir and two other Zoroastrian priests take the children with them to Bethlehem to witness the coming of a new king. Check it out!
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos
A young woman named Ivy, who made a shocking discovery in her small western Pennsylvania town when she was seven years old and learned a surprising secret nine years later, questions whether she has inherited the Rumbaugh curse of having excessive love for one's mother. Check it out!What Happened to Cass McBride? by Gail Giles
After his younger brother commits suicide, Kyle Kirby decides to exact revenge on the person he holds responsible. Check it out!Saint Iggy by K.L. Going
Iggy Corso, who lives in city public housing, is caught physically and spiritually between good and bad when he is kicked out of high school, goes searching for his missing mother, and causes his friend to get involved with the same dangerous drug dealer who deals to his parents.
Check it out! An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.Check it out!
Surrender by Sonya Hartnett
As he is dying, a twenty-year-old man known as Gabriel recounts his troubled childhood and his strange relationship with a dangerous counterpart named Finnigan.
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Over a Thousand Hills I Walk With You by Hanna Jansen
Jeanne, the only member of her family not murdered in the Rwandan genocide, struggles to start a new life without her family while coping with the violent memories that haunt her.
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Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBryde Johnson
Having always prided herself on blending in with "normal" people despite her cerebral palsy, seventeen-year-old Jean begins to question her role in the world while attending a summer camp for children with disabilities.
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Devilish by Maureen Johnson
Jane Jarvis, a senior at a Catholic girl's school in Providence, Rhode Island, tries to save her best friend by making a pact with a demon.Check it out!
Side Effects by Amy Goldman Koss
Everything changes for Isabelle, not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma--but eventually she survives and even thrives.Check it out!The Girls by Lori Lansens
A fictional autobiography of conjoined twins told by Rose and Ruby Darlen, two young women who, nearing the age of thirty, are about to become history's oldest surviving twins to be joined at the head.Check it out!
Sold by Patricia McCormick 
Thirteen-year-old Lakshmi leaves her poor mountain home in Nepal thinking that she is to work in the city as a maid only to find that she has been sold into the sex slave trade in India and that there is no hope of escape.Check it out! Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow City by Kirsten Miller
Life becomes more interesting for Ananka Fishbein when, at the age of twelve, she discovers an underground room in the park across from her New York City apartment and meets a mysterious girl called Kiki Strike who claims that she, too, wants to explore the subterranean world.Check it out!
Wait for me by An Na
As her senior year in high school approaches, Mina yearns to find her own path in life but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and dealing with her mother's impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern California heat, until she falls in love with a man who offers a way out.
Check it out!Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Through journal entries sixteen-year-old Miranda describes her family's struggle to survive after a meteor hits the moon, causing worldwide tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions.
Check it out! Terrier by Tamora Pierce
When sixteen-year-old Beka becomes "Puppy" to a pair of "Dogs," as the Provost's Guards are called, she uses her police training, natural abilities, and a touch of magic to help them solve the case of a murdered baby in Tortall's Lower City.
Check it out! King Dork by Frank Portman
High school loser Tom Henderson discovers that "The Catcher in the Rye" may hold the clues to the many mysteries in his life.
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A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life by Dana Reinhardt
Sixteen-year-old atheist Simone Turner-Bloom's life changes in unexpected ways when her parents convince her to make contact with her biological mother, an agnostic from a Jewish family who is losing her battle with cancer.
Check it out!Just in Case by Meg Rosoff
Convinced that fate is out to get him, fifteen-year-old David Case assumes a new identity in the hope of avoiding what he believes is certain doom.
Check it out!The Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick
Having always been able to know when someone is going to die, Alexandra poses as a nurse to go to France during World War I to locate her brother and to try to save him from the fate she has foreseen for him.Check it out!Knights of the Hill County by Tim Tharp
In his senior year, high school star linebacker Hampton Greene finally begins to think for himself and discovers that he might be interested in more than just football.
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Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Artwork. Illustrated by Scott Hunt
Presents nine drawings by a single illustrator, each of which has been translated into a story by two different authors writing about what they imagine is going on in the picture.Check it out!Trigger by Susan Vaught
Jersey Hatch must piece his life back together after attempting to commit suicide.
Check it out!It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
New York City teenager Craig Gilner succumbs to academic and social pressures at an elite high school and enters a psychiatric hospital.Check it out!
Skin by Adrienne Maria Vrettos
When his parents decide to separate, eighth-grader Donnie watches with horror as the physical condition of his sixteen-year old sister, Karen, deteriorates.
Check it out!
The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin
Seventeen-year-old Matthew recounts his attempts, starting at a young age, to free himself and his sisters from the grip of their emotionally and physically abusive mother.Check it out!
Blind Faith by Ellen Wittlinger
While coping with her grandmother's sudden death and her mother's resulting depression and fascination with a spiritualist church, whose ministers claim to communicate with the dead, fifteen-year-old Liz finds herself falling for a new neighbor whose mother is dying of cancer. Check it out!American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
Alternates three interrelated stories about the problems of young Chinese American trying to participate in the popular culture.
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The Book Thief by Markus Zuzak
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.Check it out!The 9/11 Report: a graphic adaptation by Sid Jacobsen and Ernie Colón
A graphic novel adaptation of "The 9/11 Commission Report," the results of the investigation of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.Check it out!
What is your favorite book that you've read in 2007? Do you agree with this list? Why or why not?
llan Collins
llan Collins
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
My Dark Places by James Ellroy
Necessary Noise: Stories About Our Families as They Really Are
Necessary Noise: Stories About Our Families as They Really Are
