Use the dropdown menus below to find suggested reading lists curated by DC Public Library staff, one for each year from seventh through twelfth grade. More book suggestions and new titles for teens can be found at Find and Borrow: Teens.
Seventh Grade
You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen by Carole Boston Weatherford
Lumberjanes Vol. 1: Beware The Kitten Holy by ND Stevenson & Grace Ellis
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, And Helped Win World War II by Candace Fleming
Iveliz Explains it All by Andrea Beatriz Arango
Linked by Gordon Korman
Both Can be True by Jule Machias
Code Red by Joy McCullough
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School by Tiffany Jewel
You Know, Sex: Bodies, Gender, Puberty, and Other Things by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth
You Don't Have to be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves ed. Diana Whitney
Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe by Steve Sheinkin
All You Have to Do by Autumn Allen
Gather by Kenneth Cadow
Kindling by Traci Chee
A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess
When We Became Ours by Shannon Gibney
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Suggested Reading by David Connis
This Delicious Death by Kayla Cottingham
Broken Wish by Julie C. Dao
Rez Ball by Byron Graves
Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis
This Rebel Heart by Katherine Locke
Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Adaobi Nwaubani
Snowglobe by Soyoung Park and Joungmin Lee
Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkins
An Impossible Thing to Say by Arya Shahi
Rules for Rule Breaking by Talia Tucker
Seven Minutes in Candyland by Brian Wasson
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Grand Theft Horse by Greg Neri
This Place: 150 Years Retold by Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
Night of Endless Adventure by Jim Zub
A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
Will on the Inside by Andrew Eliopulos
Eighth Grade
Ranger's Apprentice: The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip through the Motown Sound by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin
Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners by Naomi Shihab Nye
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club by Phillip Hoose
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson
Legend by Marie Lu
I am Princess X by Cherie Priest
Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson
March: Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez
The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee
Punching Bag by Rex Ogle
Rust in the Root by Justina Ireland
So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole
Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks by Jason Reynolds
The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst by Jaclyn Moriarty
Swing by Kwame Alexander
Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi
The Silence that Binds Us by Joanna Ho
Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix by Cherie Dimaline
Wilder Girls by Rory Power
Most Likely by Sarah Watson
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Concrete Kids by Amyra Leon
Go with the Flow by Lily Williams / Karen Schneemann
Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan
Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham
Saints of the Household by Ari Tison
The Collectors: Stories by A. S. King
Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile
Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell
Ninth Grade
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
You're Welcome Universe by Whitney Gardner
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Oima
Frida Kahlo by Zena Alkayat
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Promise Boys by Nick Brooks
Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender
Don't Ask Me Where I'm From by Jennifer De Leon
Your Heart, My Sky by Margarita Engle
The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall
We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride
I Kissed Shara Wheeler by Casey McQuiston
Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa
The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Gallant by Victoria Schwab
Golden Boys by Phil Stamper
Hold Tight, Don't Let Go by Laura Rose Wagner
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka
Freshman Year by Sarah Mai
Komi Can't Communicate by Tomohito Oda
Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson
Tenth Grade
Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
#notyourprincess: Voices of Native American Women ed. Mary Beth Leatherdale
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
Votes For Women! American Suffragists and the Battle for the Ballot by Winifred Conkling
Copper Sun by Sharon Draper
How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation by Maureen Johnson ed.
Let's Talk About Love by Claire Kann
I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson
Rani Patel in Full Effect by Sonia Patel
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Bomb: The Race To Build - And Steal - The World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
Four for the Road by K.J. Reilly
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku by Fujita
The Nowhere Girls by Amy Lynn Reed
The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali by Sabina Khan
We'll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean
Threads that Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
Music from Another World by Robin Talley
Smash It! by Francina Simone
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
The Faint of Heart by Kerilynn Wilson
The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women who Sewed to Survive by L.J. Adlington
Is God Is: What to Send up When it Goes Down by Aleshea Harris
Blazewrath Games by Amparo Oritz
Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology ed. Amber McBride
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
The Wild River and the Great Dam by Simon Boughton
Invisible Son by Kim Johnson
The Crafty Chica Creates! Latinx-Inspired DIY Projects by Kathy Cano-Murillo
Eleventh Grade
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Exit, Pursued By A Bear by E.K. Johnston
The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
When The Moon Was Ours by Anna McElmore
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
The Inexplicable Logic Of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert
Autism in Heels: The Untold Story of a Female Life on the Spectrum by Jennifer Cook
Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
All of Us Villains by Amanda Foody & Christine Lynn Herman
Fledgling by Octavia Butler
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robing Wall Kimmerer
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman
The Next New Syrian Girl by Ream Shukairy
Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar
All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater
White Rose by Kip Wilson
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
So Much for Love: How I Survived a Toxic Relationship by Sophie Lambda
Run. Book One by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
Tiny Dancer by Siena Cherson Siegel
Bite Me, Royce Taslim by Lauren Ho
You the Story; A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory by Ruta Sepetys
Twelfth Grade
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon
Giant Days by John Allison
History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera
Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia
Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson
Murder Book: A Graphic Memoir of a True Crim Obsession by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
Sula by Toni Morrison
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Thunder Song: Essays by Sasha taqwšeblu LaPointe
The American Daughters by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Severance by Ling Ma
The Words in My Hands by Asphyxia
The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Boys Run the Riot by Keito Gaku
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty
Forever is Now by Mariama J. Lockington
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Impossible Escape: A True Story of Survival and Heroism in Nazi Europe by Steve Sheinkin
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
You'd Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow
Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams