Welcome to the Bank Street Children's Book Committee's (CBC) Searchable Best Books List, a tool designed to help educators, families, librarians, and others access developmentally appropriate and engaging books for young readers (ages birth - 18).
Our online Searchable Best Books List draws from the committee's annual Best Children's Books of the Year-beginning with the list of books published in 2000-with each featuring more than 600 high-quality titles for young readers.
To share feedback about the tool, please feel free to email bookcom@bankstreet.edu. To learn more about the CBC, visit https://www.bankstreet.edu/cbc/.
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Scatter of Light, A
Malinda Lo
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
A graduation party goes wrong, exiling Aria, 17, to her grandmother's home in California. There she meets Steph, a gender-nonconforming singer/songwriter, and begins questioning her own identity.
Malinda Lo
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
A graduation party goes wrong, exiling Aria, 17, to her grandmother's home in California. There she meets Steph, a gender-nonconforming singer/songwriter, and begins questioning her own identity.
Secrets We Keep, The
Cassie Gustafson
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
When her best friend Hannah accuses Emma's dad of unspeakable acts, Emma must decide where her loyalties lie.
Cassie Gustafson
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
When her best friend Hannah accuses Emma's dad of unspeakable acts, Emma must decide where her loyalties lie.
Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix
Anna-Marie McLemore
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Latinx, poor, and transgender youth battle for self-identity during the glittering, decadent 1920s, facing pervasive classism, racism, and sexism and finding happiness by being true to themselves.
Anna-Marie McLemore
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Latinx, poor, and transgender youth battle for self-identity during the glittering, decadent 1920s, facing pervasive classism, racism, and sexism and finding happiness by being true to themselves.
Silence That Binds Us, The
Joanna Ho
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Reeling from her beloved brother's suicide, Chinese American May, with her Haitian American best friend's help, fights back against racism after May's family is publicly maligned.
Joanna Ho
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Reeling from her beloved brother's suicide, Chinese American May, with her Haitian American best friend's help, fights back against racism after May's family is publicly maligned.
Silent Stars Go By, The
Sally Nicholls
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
During World War I, just as Margot, 16, discovered she was pregnant, her fiancé, Harry Singer, was reported missing in action. Now Harry has returned. Should she tell him about the baby her parents adopted?
Sally Nicholls
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
During World War I, just as Margot, 16, discovered she was pregnant, her fiancé, Harry Singer, was reported missing in action. Now Harry has returned. Should she tell him about the baby her parents adopted?
Silent Unseen, The
Amanda McCrina
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In 1944, Maria, a Polish escapee from the Nazis, saves Kostya from the Soviet police. Then she learns he is a Ukrainian resistance fighter, and thus, the enemy.
Amanda McCrina
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In 1944, Maria, a Polish escapee from the Nazis, saves Kostya from the Soviet police. Then she learns he is a Ukrainian resistance fighter, and thus, the enemy.
Solito
Javier Zamora
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
When he was nine, Zamora made a heart-wrenching 3,000-mile journey from his home in El Salvador to join his parents and sibling in the United States.
Javier Zamora
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
When he was nine, Zamora made a heart-wrenching 3,000-mile journey from his home in El Salvador to join his parents and sibling in the United States.
Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II
Adam Makos
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
The paths of an American gunner, his German counterpart, and an innocent civilian collide violently in 1944 Cologne. Extensive back matter and original sources add veracity. Young readers edition.
Adam Makos
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
The paths of an American gunner, his German counterpart, and an innocent civilian collide violently in 1944 Cologne. Extensive back matter and original sources add veracity. Young readers edition.
Storyteller, The
Kathryn Williams
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Jess, 17, finds a trunkful of diaries kept by her Russian emigre great-great-aunt, opening the possibility of a family connection to the murdered last Russian tsar.
Kathryn Williams
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Jess, 17, finds a trunkful of diaries kept by her Russian emigre great-great-aunt, opening the possibility of a family connection to the murdered last Russian tsar.
Sun Does Shine, The
Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Anthony Ray Hinton, a Black Alabamian accused of murder, spent almost 30 years on death row. Faith, family and friends sustained him as he struggled for exoneration. Young readers edition.
Anthony Ray Hinton, with Lara Love Hardin and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Anthony Ray Hinton, a Black Alabamian accused of murder, spent almost 30 years on death row. Faith, family and friends sustained him as he struggled for exoneration. Young readers edition.
Tasting Light: Ten Science Fiction Stories to Rewire Your Perceptions
A. R. Capetta, Wade Roush, eds.
Illustrator: Wendy Xu
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Ten writers create amazing explorations of the diverse possibilities of evolution in social systems and in human, interspecies, and spatial relationships when supported, controlled, and extended by future technology. Includes a graphic format story; crisp black-and-white artwork.
A. R. Capetta, Wade Roush, eds.
Illustrator: Wendy Xu
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Ten writers create amazing explorations of the diverse possibilities of evolution in social systems and in human, interspecies, and spatial relationships when supported, controlled, and extended by future technology. Includes a graphic format story; crisp black-and-white artwork.
That's Debatable
Jen Doll
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Millie needs to win the state debate tournament to compete for a college scholarship. Only Taggart stands in her way. What they learn from each other will surprise them both.
Jen Doll
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Millie needs to win the state debate tournament to compete for a college scholarship. Only Taggart stands in her way. What they learn from each other will surprise them both.
This Golden State
Marit Weisenberg
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Poppy's family has been on the run her whole life. A move to California exposes a crack in her parents' persistent, desperate attempts to remain undercover.
Marit Weisenberg
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Poppy's family has been on the run her whole life. A move to California exposes a crack in her parents' persistent, desperate attempts to remain undercover.
This Place is Still Beautiful
XiXi Tian
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
A racial slur painted on their home forces mixed-race Chinese American sisters to confront the hate crime. How will it impact their conflict-filled relationships with their mother and each other?
XiXi Tian
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
A racial slur painted on their home forces mixed-race Chinese American sisters to confront the hate crime. How will it impact their conflict-filled relationships with their mother and each other?
This Rebel Heart
Katherine Locke
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Csilla and her aunt, Holocaust survivors in 1956 Budapest, Hungary, must battle for freedom or flee. Csilla fights alongside a student revolutionary and the Angel of Death. Elements of Jewish folklore.
Katherine Locke
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Csilla and her aunt, Holocaust survivors in 1956 Budapest, Hungary, must battle for freedom or flee. Csilla fights alongside a student revolutionary and the Angel of Death. Elements of Jewish folklore.
Together We Burn
Isabel Ibañez
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Fighting dragons in an arena has been the heritage ruling 18-year-old Zarela's life. Disaster strikes during one celebratory show and everything changes instantly.
Isabel Ibañez
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Fighting dragons in an arena has been the heritage ruling 18-year-old Zarela's life. Disaster strikes during one celebratory show and everything changes instantly.
Torch
Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
After the Soviet invasion quashes the Prague Spring of 1968, three misfit teenagers find their increasingly constricted lives unbearable and daringly flee the repression.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
After the Soviet invasion quashes the Prague Spring of 1968, three misfit teenagers find their increasingly constricted lives unbearable and daringly flee the repression.
Travelers Along The Way: A Robin Hood Remix
Aminah Mae Safi
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In 1192 the Third Crusade rages on. A motley group of fellow travelers led by two Muslim sisters join the fight to protect Jerusalem.
Aminah Mae Safi
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In 1192 the Third Crusade rages on. A motley group of fellow travelers led by two Muslim sisters join the fight to protect Jerusalem.
Unequal: A Story of America
Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Twenty African Americans, including Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nikole Hannah-Jones, are profiled in this history of racial inequality in he United States. Archival photographs. Bibliography, source notes, index.
Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Twenty African Americans, including Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nikole Hannah-Jones, are profiled in this history of racial inequality in he United States. Archival photographs. Bibliography, source notes, index.
Valiant Ladies
Melissa Grey
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
By day Kiki and Ana, who struggle with their love for one another, are proper 17th-century ladies. At night they take up weapons to fight and gamble. It all becomes sinister when Kiki's brother is murdered.
Melissa Grey
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
By day Kiki and Ana, who struggle with their love for one another, are proper 17th-century ladies. At night they take up weapons to fight and gamble. It all becomes sinister when Kiki's brother is murdered.
Vinyl Moon
Mahogany L. Browne
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
After escaping an abusive romantic relationship in California, Black 11th grader Angel gets a fresh start in Brooklyn. living with her uncle and attending high school.
Mahogany L. Browne
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
After escaping an abusive romantic relationship in California, Black 11th grader Angel gets a fresh start in Brooklyn. living with her uncle and attending high school.
Violet Made of Thorns
Gina Chen
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Violet once used her power as a seer to save Prince Cyrus's life. Can her visions continue to protect him and their kingdom? Or will mutual attraction doom them both?
Gina Chen
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
Violet once used her power as a seer to save Prince Cyrus's life. Can her visions continue to protect him and their kingdom? Or will mutual attraction doom them both?
Voices of the People
Joseph Bruchac
Illustrator: 30 tribally enrolled photographers and artists
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In free verse, the author celebrates the lives, accomplishments, and legacies of 34 indigenous Americans. Visually arresting mixed-media illustrations enrich each profile.
Joseph Bruchac
Illustrator: 30 tribally enrolled photographers and artists
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In free verse, the author celebrates the lives, accomplishments, and legacies of 34 indigenous Americans. Visually arresting mixed-media illustrations enrich each profile.
We Are All We Have
Marina Budhos
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
After her mother is detained by ICE, undocumented Pakistani high school senior Rania flees with her younger brother. With another teen from a shelter, they seek a safe haven.
Marina Budhos
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
After her mother is detained by ICE, undocumented Pakistani high school senior Rania flees with her younger brother. With another teen from a shelter, they seek a safe haven.
Weight of Blood, The
Tiffany D. Jackson
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In small-town Georgia, Maddy Washington has always been an outcast, but the bullying gets relentless when classmates find out she is Black. A Carrie retelling.
Tiffany D. Jackson
Ages: 14+
Published: 2022
In small-town Georgia, Maddy Washington has always been an outcast, but the bullying gets relentless when classmates find out she is Black. A Carrie retelling.