January 03

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The 2023 Nerdies: Young Adult Fiction Day Two Announced by a Convention of Nerds

Posted by on January 3, 2024 in 2023 Nerdies, Nerdies | 1 Comment

Today marks the last day of the 2023 Nerdy Book Club Awards’ announcements. There are so many fantastic books for young readers. Thank you for everything you do all year to get engaging and relevant books into kids’ hands. ! Our final Nerdies’ post shares the second half of the Young Adult Fiction winners. Thank you to everyone who nominated books for this year’s awards and wrote announcement posts and reviews. Take some time to explore the other Nerdies Awards posts and read some of the books. You will find more books to share with the young readers in your life.

Congratulations to the 2023 Nerdy Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction Day Two! Check out the first day of winners in yesterday’s post.

Rez Ball by Byron Graves

As if just being a teenager isn’t challenging enough, Tre Brun (Ojibwe) also has to deal with living up to the expectations of everyone around him: his dad, his coach, his friends, his teammates, and the rez (location: Red Lake Nation reservation in Minnesota). He didn’t anticipate carrying the weight of success as a sophomore in high school, and yet, he wants to honor his brother, Jaxon, who was tragically killed in a car accident. Can Tre handle the pressure to be the best baller, hero, and son while grieving the loss of his brother? Byron Grave’s debut novel Rez Ball realistically portrays a coming-of-age story with a fast-paced storyline that keeps the reader turning the pages right up to the very end. –Kelly Vorhis

She Is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

Jade Nguyen needs money for college. It is the only reason she agreed to visit her estranged father in Vietnam over the summer. Ba is obsessed with restoring a French Colonial mansion into a bed and breakfast, and Jade is assigned with creating the website. Warped by the sins of colonialism and the tragic history of its inhabitants, the house is malevolent. As Jade learns more about the house and the dangerous ghosts haunting it, she is convinced that the house is trying to kill her family. Can she convince her father to leave before it is too late? The lush forest of Vietnam and the rotting mansion in the middle of it become sinister characters in this horror debut. Clean out the fridge (trust me) and turn on the lights before reading! This book is a finalist for the 2024 Morris Award–along with Rez Ball. –-Donalyn Miller

The Blood Years by Elana K. Arnold

The Blood Years is a harrowing and brutal story based on the life of Elana K. Arnold’s grandmother.  In the foreword. Arnold explains to readers that her grandmother survived the Holocaust in Czernowitz, Romania and that she promised her Nana she would share her story with the world. The Blood Years isn’t nonfiction- gaps have been filled in, and some characters are based on several people in her grandmother’s life- but that doesn’t make the story any less chilling, realistic, or heartbreaking. I cried more than once while reading The Blood Years,  filled with rage and grief as I finished it in one sitting.  

When Rieke’s father abandons his wife and two daughters, they move in with Opa, their maternal grandfather, as their mother struggles to deal with being abandoned.  Rieke is a young teen focused on school and dance at the beginning of the book, but antisemitism is increasing in Czernowitz. Opa tries to protect Rieke and her older sister Astra (despite Astra’s carefree attitude and tendency to seek out trouble), but he can only do so much.  With the benefits of hindsight, the reader knows what will happen when World War II breaks out in Europe.  Arnold, however, does not shy away from the brutality of everyday life in Czernowitz. This is not a story about concentration camps – this is about the brutality of everyday life for Jewish people who were able to stay in places like Czernowitz.  It’s about cruelty and hate, loss and grief, and hope and survival, even when it seems like life can not and will not go on. Readers may want to check trigger warnings, but this powerful story is a must-read for teens and adults and is especially important today. –Sarah Mulhern Gross

The Davenports by Krystal Marquis

The Davenports by Krystal Marquis is one of those books that has a common theme that most young adults can relate to: parental obligations while trying to carve out a world for your own. Yet the story goes deeper than that. It opens readers to a little known world that’s not often written about in young adult books and brings forth an African-American experience that’s not centered on pain, but of love and joy. 

Marquis develops characters that are relatable while bringing readers on a roller- coaster of emotions as they each go through their self- discovery. Not so patiently, waiting for the second book in the series to continue on this family’s journey of awakening in a rapidly- changing time period. –Samantha Davidson

The Next New Syrian Girl by Ream Shukairy

The cavernous differences between how Syrian American, Khadija, has lived her life so far versus newly-arrived Syrian refugee, Leene, is palpable from the beginning. Then as they get to know one another and Khadija learns of Leene’s history, their bond forever changes as they begin to see one another for the lives they’ve led with an undercurrent of trauma but heartache and pain with glimmers of love and hope. 

Shukairy weaves a rich tapestry of Syrian life through these teen girls as did Zoulfa Katouh in As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow. With its dual points of view, readers are intimately immersed in Khadija and Leene’s lives. And their discoveries are profound. –Alicia Abdul

Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley

Perry Firekeeper-Birch has always lived life on her own terms, not how others have expected or wanted her to live it.  And being constantly compared to her twin, Pauline, has made it twice as complicated on Sugar Island in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The 16yo girls are participating in the Summer Ojibwe Internship Program, and not surprisingly, Perry’s the opposite of thrilled. She’d rather be outdoors, fishing and spending time with family. Instead, she’s been assigned to intern in the Tribal Museum where she learns first hand how others view her ancestors and their tribe’s sacred objects. Her twin, Pauline, is working with the Tribal Council, and is ecstatic about it until things begin to go awry. Life is never easy for the girls, and as the plot thickens, they become enmeshed in the lives of the others participating in the internship program and it becomes apparent that there is more going on in Sugar Island than anyone realizes.

Warrior Girl Unearthed is a suspenseful murder-mystery told in first person where readers learn of the plight of many indigenous peoples. The author provides a bibliography via Perry’s “Repatriation Resource” book list included at the end of the novel. Students will find the storyline to be fast-moving, relatable and intriguing due to the protagonist’s quirky use of misnomers, candidness, and determination. –Kelly Vorhis

We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride

I’ve always been a fan of books that tap into fairy tales to create new worlds while holding onto the elements of the original fairy tale. Amber McBride’s novel – in – verse, We Are All So Good At Smiling, interweaves magic, clinical depression, and grief through a fairy tale lens to explore the darkness that the two main characters, Whimsy and Faerry, face. When our two characters first meet, it is in the hospital where they are being treated for depression. There they learn to put on smiles so they look fine to the world and are subsequently sent home where they are anything but fine.

When Faerry moves into Whimsy’s neighborhood, they are drawn further together by racism and their depression rooted in a mysterious personal trauma. The only way they can face their trauma and heal is by taaking a journey straight through the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane; the forest where their pain began. Battling the monsters in the forest requires them to lean on each other as anchors giving them each the strength to face Sorrow and save themselves to come out the other side. McBride’s play with language and blending of a variety of fairy tales taps into her own personal narrative (shared in her author’s notes) creating a powerful story of love, hope, and a reminder to lean on others in time of need. –-Cindi Koudelka

Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest

“Where do you see yourself?” is a frequently asked question when it comes to college applications and for all introspective high school seniors but it’s a more complicated question for Euphemia “Effie” Galanos. Effie is a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy and as a high school senior, she’s looking to her future but she often has to ask twice as many questions as her abled peers. As she imagines her future at her dream university, where she might finally be able to tell her long-time crush her true feelings, Effie has to ask questions about accessibility and how she’ll be able to navigate the world away from home. She’s also got to figure out how to speak up for herself as she faces discrimination in school so she can truly answer the question of where she sees herself – and who she wants to be.

Author Claire Forrest is a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy herself and her authentic lived experience shines through every page of this original and vivid debut novel. YA titles with disabled characters by disabled authors are still too far and few between, making Where You See Yourself a vital addition to the canon. In fact, the narrative itself offers commentary on the importance of representation and community, giving teen readers a validating look at how they can empower themselves. Everything about this book feels immediate and true. It’s a sweet romance, a story about community building and friendship, and a great coming of age story. It’s sure to be both a mirror and a window for readers and will never stay on your shelves. –Angie Manfredi

Alicia Abdul is a high school librarian in Albany, NY and teaches young adult literature at two universities. She shares her reading (and dresses) on Instagram @ReadersBeAdvised and blogs at readersbeadvised.wordpress.com. She’s served or chaired several YALSA book committees, presents at local, state, and national conferences on books, programs, and graphic novels, and is an adjunct for two graduate programs on young adult literature. 

Samantha Davidson is a former secondary literacy teacher and currently an instructional coach, Samantha from @secondaryurbanlegends loves books, particularly those written by diverse authors. Keep up with her online where she shares all her middle grades and young adult favorites and ways to share them in classrooms. 

Sarah Mulhern Gross is a National Board certified teacher at a STEM-focused high school in NJ. She has degrees in English and biology, because science+humanities will save the world some day!

Dr. Cindi Koudelka (@cmkoudelka) is a Curriculum Specialist with National Board Certification in Adolescent Young Adulthood/English Language Arts at Fieldcrest School District in Illinois and an Adjunct professor at Aurora University. She is involved in multiple literacy research organizations through which she has presented and published on various educational topics. Her research interests focus on critical adolescent literacies, young adult literature, positioning, and youth participatory action research. She is a youth advocate who believes in the power of literacy to disrupt systemic oppression.  Her passion is to help adolescents reflect critically and foreground activism, community, and love.

Angie Manfredi is a middle school teacher-librarian in New Mexico. She believes every child deserves the right to access relevant and engaging literature that accurately reflects their lives and the world around them. She likes sending snail mail, world cinema, and adventures. The last books she read that she loved are Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell and Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier.

Kelly Vorhis teaches English in Northern Indiana and loves learning alongside her students every day. She can be found on Instagram @kelvorhis. Most days she is never far from a cup of coffee, her journal, and a book.