Anderson, Laurie Halse. The Impossible Knife of Memory. 2014.
After five years on the road, Hayley and her father, an ex-soldier suffering from PTSD, try to make a new life in an upstate New York town. But will the past get in the way of their future?
2014 School Library Journal Best Books: Young Adult
Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld. 1998.
True to the title, the book is a history of crime that permeated the underbelly of New York City and its boroughs in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of these gangs were so vicious they would post signs warning police to stay out of their neighborhoods – or else!
Aptowicz, Cristin O’Keefe. Words in Your Face: a guided tour through twenty years of the New York City poetry slam. 2008.
A history of the New York City Poetry Slam, a performance poetry competition where participants recite their own original work before a panel of five judges selected randomly from the audience.
Auchincloss, Louis. A Voice from Old New York: a memoir of my youth. 2010.
American novelist, historian, lawyer, and essayist Louis Auchincloss reflects on his life, discussing his family, privileged upbringing, relationships, work, and more.
Avi, and Brian Floca. City of Light, City of Dark: a comic book novel. 1995.
Asterel races against time to locate a token which will prevent the Kurbs from freezing New York City.
Barrett, Andrea. The Air We Breathe. 2007.
In the fall of 1916, as U.S. involvement in World War I looms, the Adirondack town of Tamarack Lake houses a public sanitarium and private cure cottages for Tuberculosis patients. Gossip about roommate changes, nurse visits, cliques and romantic connections dominate relations among the sick – mostly poor European immigrants. The timely theme focuses on how the tragedy, betrayal and heartbreak of war extend far beyond the battlefied.
Bat-Ami, Miriam. Two Suns in the Sky. 2001.
In 1944, in Oswego, a teenager named Christine meets and falls in love with Adam, a Yugoslavian Jew living in a refugee camp, despite their parents’ conviction that they do not belong together.
2000 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction
2000 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
Bauer, Joan. Backwater. 2005.
When Ivy begins to study her family’s history, her discoveries rattle the other members of her New York State clan.
Bauer, Joan. Peeled. 2008.
In an upstate New York farming community, high school reporter Hildy Biddle investigates a series of strange occurrences at a house rumored to be hautned.
Benway, Robin. Going Rogue. 2014.
When Maggie Silver’s parents are falsely accused of stealing priceless gold coins, she must use her safe cracking skills to try to clear their names, with help from the “team” she has formed as an undercover operative in a New York City high school.
Bitton-Jackson, Livia. Hello, America: A Refugee’s Journey from Auschwitz to the New World. 2005.
In the final book of the acclaimed trilogy that includes I Have Lived a Thousand Years and My Bridges of Hope, Elli and her mother leave war-ravaged Europe behind. Arriving in New York in 1951, they seek to preserve their Jewish heritage while embracing the freedom of the new city.
Blackman, Dorothy. New York Patriots. 2007.
In New York Patriots, fifteen patriots are featured in historically true events in New York State during the Revolutionary War. Across the state, each of these courageous actions brought the country closer to the freedom its citizens so earnestly sought.
Blundell, Judy. Strings Attached. 2011.
When she drops out of school and struggles to start a career on Broadway in the fall of 1950, seventeen-year-old Kit Corrigan accepts help from an old family friend, a lawyer said to have ties with the mob, who then asks her to do some favors for him.
2015 YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
Bogaert, Harmen Meyndertsz van den et al. Journey into Mohawk Country. 2006.
This book is an illustrated version of the journal a young Dutch trader, Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, who journeyd into the land of the Iroquois Indians in 1634, seeking to bolster the Dutch trade in what is now New York State.
Brashares, Ann. The Here and Now. 2014.
Prenna arrives in New York from 80 years in the future, where a mosquito-borne illness has left the world in ruins. She and her fellow time travelers must follow strict rules to survive in the present day.
Bray, Libba. The Diviners. 2012.
Evie O’Neill is sent from her small town in Ohio to live with her uncle in New York City. But there, the 17-year-old and her uncle get thrust into the investigation of numerous murders. *The sequel, Lair of Dreams is due out in August 2015.
Brezenoff, Steve. Brooklyn, Burning. 2011.
Sixteen-year-old Kid, who lives on the streets of Brooklyn, loves Felix, a guitarist and junkie who disappears, leaving Kid the prime suspect in an arson investigation, but a year later Scout arrives, giving Kid a second chance to be in a band and find true love.
Bronski, Peter. At the Mercy of the Mountains: True Stories of Survival and Tragedy in New York’s Adirondacks. 2008.
Recounts true stories of danger, survival, and tragedy in New York’s Adirondacks Mountains.
Brown, Teri. Born of Illusion. 2013.
Set in 1920s New York City, this is the story of budding magician Anna Van Housen, who may or may not be the daughter of Harry Houdini. She has spent her whole life playing sidekick to her faux-medium mother and trying to hide the fact she actually possesses the very abilities her mother lacks.
2015 YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
Bruchac, Joseph. Bowman’s Store: A Journey to Myself. 2001.
Bruchac, now a well-known children’s author and storyteller, relates his childhood and high school years living with his grandparents near Saratoga, NY, and his discovers of his Abenaki heritage, which he learns to honor.
Budhos, Marina Tamar. Ask Me No Questions. 2006. Fourteen-year-old Nadira, her sister, and their parents leave Bangladesh for New York City, but the expiration of their visas and the events of September 11, 2001, bring frustration, sorrow, and terror for the whole family.
2007 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
Buckhanon, Kalisha. Upstate. 2006.
Antonio, initially a teen arrested for murder, and his sweetheart, Natasha, exchange a decade of correspondence. Both from tiny, dark apartments in Harlem, they are passionately in love, but destined to walk very different roads.