Someone smart once said, “Reading gives you a place to go when you have to stay where you are.”
During Teen Read Week, the Young Adult Library Services Association encourages teens to pick up a new book and get away, so we're offering up five YA selections from our Staff Picks browse tool that involve adventure and literary escape. (And check back every month for more.)
Ms. Marvel, 1: No Normal by Willow G. Wilson
Imagine being an ordinary girl from Jersey and waking up one morning with superpowers. This is the new Ms. Marvel: teenaged, Muslim, powerful! New York, she’s coming for you!
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Imagine Hunger Games, X-Men, and Pierce Brown's Red Rising Trilogy rolled into one fantastical saga. Now, imagine a strong female protagonist who takes no prisoners. How desperately do you want to be Mare Barrow?
Mosquitoland by David Arnold
Meet Mim, the Mistress of Moxie, who set out from Mosquitoland, Mississippi on a quest to find out why her mother stopped answering her letters a few months back. Her narrative voice is singular in recent YA literature. If you're looking for an absurd, uproarious, profoundly hopeful travelogue with an ensemble cast, here it is. Think Charlie Kaufman meets Gordon Korman.
The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
Renegade Princess Lia has just run away from her own wedding with a few of the royal library's most important documents. She's fleeing her destiny and a loveless, arranged marriage, and two men are hot on her trail. One is the prince she jilted at the altar; the other is an assassin who's been sent to kill her.
Tangled Webs by Lee Bross
In Dickensian London in 1725, 17-year-old Arista is known as Lady A—the beautiful, raven-masqued blackmailer of London's aristocracy. But while the rich and titled fear her, she is nothing more than a pawn to an underworld kingpin known as "Bones." Along with her bodyguard Nic and her maid Becky, she is a virtual pauper and prisoner of their Fagin-like master until she's rescued by someone even more powerful then her boss, who wants her blackmailing services for himself.
Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks! Tell us what you'd recommend: Leave a comment or email us.