By Allison Riggs
I created and maintain a booklist binder that is kept at our Teen Place Desk for use by library staff that may not be familiar with YA literature, for patrons that don’t necessarily want to interact with staff but would still like some reading suggestions, or for those times when your brain freezes up and all of a sudden you forget every book you have ever read/heard of. I have been continually adding titles to the genre lists throughout the year while also making sure they feature diverse titles, and will have the updated ones printed before summer when we get the most readers’ advisory questions. I also make read-alike lists throughout the year based on readers’ advisory questions I get while on desk and popular trends.
Today I want to share some of my latest lists with you all in case you would like to use them for readers’ advisory purposes, displays, or for your own reading! The lists I keep in the binder include a short synopsis of each title along with the book cover and call number to make it more user friendly, but to keep this post from being extremely long I only included the book titles with short descriptors. If I haven’t read the book myself, I used NoveList’s story elements that are featured with each title to help me with the descriptors. NoveList’s The Secret Language of Books: A Guide to Story Elements is a great resource when making read-alike lists and for completing other readers’ advisory tasks.
If you liked To all the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han, try:
Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda Becky Albertali (Character Driven, LGBTQ)
Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (Love/Hate, Summer)
29 Dates by Melissa De la Cruz (Love Triangle, Character Driven)
The Upside of Falling by Alex Light (Fake Dating, Family Relationships)
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandyha Menon (Own Voices, RomCom)
Fake it Till You Break It by Jenn P Nguyen (Fake Dating, Own Voices)
The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West (Fake Dating, Self-Discovery)
Frankly in Love by David Yoon (Fake Dating, Family Relationships)
If you liked Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, try:
Symptoms of a Heartbreak by Sona Charaipotra (Teen Doctor, Own Voices)
The Fault in our Stars by John Green (Bittersweet, Character Driven)
Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella (Mental Illness, Romance)
Just Breathe by Cammie McGovern (Secrets, Fast-Paced)
Sick Kids in Love by Hannah Moskowitz (Chronic Illness, Romance)
The Stars and Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus (Mixed Media w/ Poetry, LGBTQ)
Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider (Character Driven, Romance)
Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon (Character Driven, Mixed Media w/ texts and illustrations)
If you liked One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus, try:
Little White Lies by Jennifer Barnes (Fast-Paced, High-Drama)
Time Bomb by Joelle Charbonneau (Multiple POVs, Fast-Paced)
This is Our Story by Ashley Elston (Plot-Driven, Investigation)
Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson (Boarding School, Mystery)
People Like Us by Dana Mele (Boarding School, Psychological Suspense)
We Told Six Lies by Victoria Scott (Multiple POVs, Fact-Paced)
The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas (Nonlinear, Fast-Paced)
All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban (Suspenseful, Nonlinear)
Illinois Library Association 