Aug. 5, 2024 – Looking for a great summer read? Cedar Rapids Community School District teacher librarians Roby Davis, Stephan Frischkorn, Jessica Zimmerman, Andrea Schoenbeck, Frank Scherman, and Michelle Kruse shared some of the books their students love.
This list features Young Adult books for teens. Find a list of picture books, elementary school nonfiction, and early readers for children ready to start reading on their own here, and their recommendations for middle grade readers here.
Browse the books below, and click the covers to put them on hold in the library's catalog. Book descriptions are excerpted from the catalog, which pulls from publisher information, and from the teacher descriptions.
YA Fiction
“We Are Not From Here” by Jenny Torres Sanchez
This realistic fiction book tells the story of two teens making the treacherous journey from Guatemala through Mexico to the U.S. Border.
"A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" by Holly Jackson
As her senior capstone project, Pippa Fitz-Amobi is determined to find the real killer in a closed local murder case, but not everyone wants her meddling in the past. Murder mysteries are a popular genre, and this was one of the top books circulated at both Washington and Kennedy high schools this year.
"An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" by Hank Green
A young woman becomes an overnight celebrity before realizing she's part of something bigger and stranger than anyone could have possibly imagined when she makes a video of a giant sculpture in New York that goes viral.
"Ground Zero" by Alan Gratz
September 11, 2001, New York City: Brandon is visiting his dad at work, on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. Out of nowhere, an airplane slams into the tower, creating a fiery nightmare of terror and confusion. And Brandon is in the middle of it all. Can he survive — and escape? September 11, 2020, Afghanistan: Reshmina has grown up in the shadow of war, but she dreams of peace and progress. When a battle erupts in her village, Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier named Taz. Should she help Taz — and put herself and her family in mortal danger? Two kids. One devastating day. Nothing will ever be the same.
"Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao
The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected — she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead. To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way — and stop more girls from being sacrificed. "Pacific Rim" meets "The Handmaid's Tale" in this blend of Chinese history and science fiction.
"One of Us is Lying" by Karen M. McManus
On Thursday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app. Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom alive. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. He died on a Thursday. But that Friday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates. Now, all four of them are suspects in his murder. Are they guilty? Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? Teen murder mysteries are very popular in the school library, and this was the most circulated fiction book of the last year at Washington High School and within the top 20 at Kennedy High School.
YA Nonfiction
“Poetic Bones: Ode to the Genocide Survivor” by Naomi Sengiyumva
This book of poetry by a Cedar Rapids author and Cedar Rapids Community School District employee is a unique and authentic perspective of everyday life as a Burundian American, navigating grief, healing, and purpose.
"Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed" by Dashka Slater
When a high schooler started a private Instagram that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as "edgy" humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. No one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the accounts discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse. In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean?
"Atomic Women: The Untold Stories of the Scientists who Helped Create the Nuclear Bomb" by Roseanne Montillo
Meet the World War II female scientists who worked in the secret sites of the Manhattan Project. Recruited not only from labs and universities from across the United States but also from countries abroad, these scientists helped in – and often initiated – the development of the atomic bomb, taking starring roles in the Manhattan Project. In fact, their involvement was critical to its success, though many of them were not fully aware of the consequences.
"Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Adapted for Young Adults" by Isabel Wilkerson
Identifies the qualifying characteristics of historical caste systems to reveal how a rigid hierarchy of human rankings, enforced by religious views, heritage and stigma, impacts everyday American lives
"Letters to a Young Athlete" by Chris Bosh
Chris Bosh, NBA Hall of Famer, eleven-time All-Star, two-time NBA champion, Olympic gold medalist, and the league's Global Ambassador, had his playing days cut short at their prime by a freak medical condition. His extraordinary career ended "in a doctor's office in the middle of the afternoon." Forced to reckon with moving forward, he found himself looking back over the course he'd taken to the pinnacle of the NBA and beyond. Reflecting on all he had learned from a long list of basketball legends, from LeBron and Kobe to Pat Riley and Coach K, he saw that his most important lessons weren't about basketball so much as the inner game of success – right attitude, right commitment, right flow within a team. Now he shares that journey, giving us a view from the inside of what greatness feels like and what it takes.