Summer 2020 Top Teen Picks
APL asked teens to submit their favorite reads from the summer of 2020.
Red Queen
Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood -- those with common, Red blood serve the Silver-blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own. To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard -- a growing Red rebellion -- even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
Where to Find:
The Cruel Prince
"Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him - and face the consequences. In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself"--FantasticFiction.com.
Where to Find:
Graceling
In a world where some people are born with a unique and sometimes uncanny gift, Katsa was certainly no exception. At an early age, she demonstrated an uncomfortable gift for killing. This makes her the perfect tool for her uncle, King Randa. Katsa detests being used and decides to stand against the injustice surrounding her.
Where to Find:
The Mortal Instruments
The first installment of Cassandra Clare's bestselling urban fantasy series, The Mortal Instruments, is adapted into a graphic novel series
Hanging out with her best friend, Simon, is just about the most exciting thing in Clary's life...that is, until she realizes there are people only she can see. But when her mother disappears and a monster attacks her, Clary has to embrace a world that she never even knew existed--a world full of vampires, werewolves, demons, and those who fight for the humans, Shadowhunters...
Where to Find:
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
"Revisit[s] the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games"-- Provided by publisher.
Where to Find:
The Hunger Games
In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.
Where to Find:
Of Fire and Stars
Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile kingdoms.
But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire--a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden.
Where to Find:
I Wish You All The Best
After coming out as nonbinary, Ben must leave home and goes to live with a sister and her husband to finish the last year of high school.
Where to Find:
The City of Ember
In the year 241, twelve-year-old Lina trades jobs on Assignment Day to be a Messenger to run to new places in her decaying but beloved city, perhaps even to glimpse Unknown Regions.
Where to Find:
The Ruins of Gorlan
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.
Where to Find:
Water for Elephants
Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope.
Where to Find:
Frostfire
Tracker Bryn Aven's goal of becoming a member of the elite King's Guard is threatened when she is sent to stop Konstantin, a fallen hero who she once secretly loved, who appears to be kidnapping changelings.
Where to Find:
Switched Trylle Trilogy
A New York Times Bestseller -- When Wendy Everly was six years old, her mother was convinced she was a monster and tried to kill her. Eleven years later, Wendy discovers her mother might have been right -- all because of Finn Holmes. Finn is a mysterious guy who always seems to be watching her. But it isn't long before he reveals the truth: Wendy is a changeling who was switched at birth -- and Finn has come to take her home.
Where to Find:
Rogue Crew : A Tale of Redwall
The murderous and evil Razzid Wearat and his crew of vermin are on a mission to seize Redwall Abbey for themselves, and Abbot Thibb and his Redwallers must defend their home with the help of the hares of the Longpatrol and the Rogue Crew of sea otters
Where to Find:
Aurora Rising
Told in separate voices, eighteen-year-old Tyler Jones, top graduate of Aurora Academy, and a group of misfits and troublemakers embark on their first mission with Auri, a stowaway from the distant past.
Where to Find:
The Colossus Rises
Teens Jack, Marco, Aly, and Cass begin a quest to find seven pieces of Atlantis's power that were hidden long ago and that will, if returned to Atlantis, save them from certain death due to the genetic abnormality that also gives them superior abilities.
Where to Find:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Narnia . . . a land frozen in eternal winter . . . a country waiting to be set free . . . Four adventurers step through a wardrobe door and into the land of Narnia---a land enslaved by the power of the White Witch. But when almost all hope is lost, the return of the Great Lion, Aslan, signals a great change . . . and a great sacrifice.
Where to Find:
Throne of Glass
After she has served a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, Crown Prince Dorian offers eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien her freedom on the condition that she act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Where to Find:
Red, White, and Royal Blue
A big-hearted romantic comedy in which the First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales after an incident of international proportions forces them to pretend to be best friends
Where to Find:
Keeper of the Lost Cities
At age twelve, Sophie learns that the remarkable abilities that have always caused her to stand out identify her as an elf, and after being brought to Eternalia to hone her skills, discovers that she has secrets buried in her memory for which some would kill.
Where to Find:
Cinder
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch... Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle.
Where to Find:
Heartless
Before becoming the infamous Queen of Hearts, Cath, one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, aspires to open a bakery and marry for love rather than accept the king's proposal, especially after meeting the mysterious court jester.
Where to Find:
Renegades
From Marissa Meyer, author of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Heartless, comes a high-stakes world of superheroes, villains and vigilantes.
Where to Find:
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness : adventure, peril, lost jewels, and the fearsome toothy cows of Skree
The three Igiby children and their family will need all their gifts to survive the evil pursuit of the venomous Fangs of Dang who have crossed the dark sea to rule the land with malice. Waterbrook Press
Where to Find:
Snow Like Ashes
Orphaned Meira, a fierce chakram-wielding warrior from the Kingdom of Winter, must struggle to free her people from the tyranny of an opposing kingdom while also protecting her own destiny.
Where to Find:
The Lightning Thief
"Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. And that's the least of his troubles. Lately, mythological monsters and the gods of Mount Olympus seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. And worse, he's angered a few of them. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect." -- from front jacket flap.
Where to Find:
Carry On
"Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor's avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there's a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon's face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here -- it's their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon's infuriating nemesis didn't even bother to show up"-- Provided by publisher.
Where to Find:
The Crown's Game
"The Crown's Game is a captivating tale that deftly transports readers to a mysterious and fascinating fantasy world, one teeming with hidden magic and fiery romance."-Sabaa Tahir, New York Times bestselling author of An Ember in the Ashes
Where to Find:
The Green Ember
Heather and Picket are extraordinary rabbits with ordinary lives until calamitous events overtake them, spilling them into a cauldron of misadventures. They discover that their own story is bound up in the tumult threatening to overwhelm the wider world. Kings fall and kingdoms totter. Tyrants ascend and terrors threaten. Betrayal beckons, and loyalty is a broken road with peril around every bend. Where will Heather and Picket land? How will they make their stand?
Where to Find:
The Hobbit
Presents a dramatization of Tolkien's epic story concerning Bilbo Baggins, a respectable, well-to-do hobbit. Baggins lives comfortably in his hobbit-hole until the day the wandering wizard Gandalf chooses him to take part in an adventure from which he may never return.
Where to Find:
Heir Apparent
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.
Where to Find:
The Mother Daughter Book Club
When the mothers of four sixth-grade girls with very different personalities pressure them into forming a book club, they find, as they read and discuss "Little Women," that they have much more in common than they could have imagined.
Where to Find:
Code Name Verity
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.
Where to Find: