This past weekend, I went on a much needed trip to the library and checked out the following titles: Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson, This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp, and The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by Yoon Ha Lee. These books are diverse in terms of their subject matter and their authors.

The diversity of these books felt significant to me because I didn’t see this a decade ago. When I was a teenager reading young adult, I was lucky if I could find a Black young adult author that had a book I could relate to.

While there is certainly room for improvement, young adult fiction has gotten more inclusive. I. As someone who once dreamed of being a young adult author, ‘ve been a happier young adult reader these past two years in the past.

Now, I’d like to share some of my favorite YA reads from the past three years.

1. Juliet Takes A Breath by Gabby Rivera

This book was the first book I read by a queer person of color. Telling the coming of age story of a Puerto Rican lesbian from the Bronx, this book was so wonderful that I did a whole essay about it for Bitch Media. The characters, locations, and thought provoking themes made this one of my favorite young adult books ever.

2. The Boy In The Black Suit by Jason Reynolds

This book has one of the most poignant portrayals of a young Black teen I’ve ever read. A coming of age story about Matt, a 17 year old working at a funeral home to support himself and his dad. I really liked how sensitively the book handled grief and loneliness and teens who can’t quite be teens due to enormous adult responsibility.

3. Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

After reading this book, I wanted more geeky YA reads, especially if they were centered on fandom. This book tells the story of three friends at a pop culture convention called SupaCon. Told from the point of view of a bisexual Chinese female vlogger/actress and an autistic teen girl with anxiety, this book is one of the most fun, heartwarming, and relatable reads ever.

4. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevado

One of my favorite subgenres of YA fiction is YA novels in verse. Novels in verse are written in poems and it’s a really creative way to tell a story. This particular verse novel stood out to me b/c it’s one of the few novels in verse I’ve read by and about a woman of color.

The writing style is fantastic not only because of the author’s poetry background, but how the poems create a distinct voice for the book’s main character Xiomara as she learns to express herself through poetry.

5. Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

I recently did an essay about this book for my Brain Mills Press YA column The Afro YA. This book is one of my favorites because I love the idea of art as magic and how community and heritage can literally give you power.  It’s gorgeous in more ways than one and I hope somebody makes this a graphic novel and a film someday.

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