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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Sheine Lende
Darcie Little Badger
Illustrator: Rovina Cai
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In an alternate contemporary America, a resourceful 17-year-old Lipan Apache girl uses inherited supernatural abilities to search for missing children. Can she rescue them and her own mother? Gentle greyscale illustrations and spot art. Prequel to Elatsoe.
Darcie Little Badger
Illustrator: Rovina Cai
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In an alternate contemporary America, a resourceful 17-year-old Lipan Apache girl uses inherited supernatural abilities to search for missing children. Can she rescue them and her own mother? Gentle greyscale illustrations and spot art. Prequel to Elatsoe.
Shooting for Stars
Christine Webb
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Skyler wants to complete her dead mother's scientific research, but does she want that more than a budding romance? And does anything justify lying to her father?
Christine Webb
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Skyler wants to complete her dead mother's scientific research, but does she want that more than a budding romance? And does anything justify lying to her father?
Shut Up, This Is Serious
Carolina Ixta
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Mexican Americans Belén and Leti are best friends, but can their friendship survive a secret pregnancy, the stress of college admissions, poverty, and systemic racism?
Carolina Ixta
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Mexican Americans Belén and Leti are best friends, but can their friendship survive a secret pregnancy, the stress of college admissions, poverty, and systemic racism?
Snowglobe
Soyoung Park
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In a frozen future, 16-year-old Chobahm is recruited to join a reality television show in a climate-controlled glass dome for the elite and soon discovers dark secrets. Mature content
Soyoung Park
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In a frozen future, 16-year-old Chobahm is recruited to join a reality television show in a climate-controlled glass dome for the elite and soon discovers dark secrets. Mature content
Song of the Six Realms
Judy I. Lin
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Xue, an orphan, is under contract as an apprentice when a wealthy young nobleman buys her services as a musician, but to what end? Includes glossary and realm guide.
Judy I. Lin
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Xue, an orphan, is under contract as an apprentice when a wealthy young nobleman buys her services as a musician, but to what end? Includes glossary and realm guide.
Spilled Ink
Nadia Hashimi
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Two Afghan twins flee the Taliban to a small Virginia town with their family. Then one of them is victimized in a hate crime. Back matter.
Nadia Hashimi
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Two Afghan twins flee the Taliban to a small Virginia town with their family. Then one of them is victimized in a hate crime. Back matter.
Stepping Off
Jordan Sonnenblick
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
While Jesse, 16, is trying to decide if he is in love with Chloe or with Ava, his parents' marriage disintegrates. Then COVID hits. Affecting and heartfelt.
Jordan Sonnenblick
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
While Jesse, 16, is trying to decide if he is in love with Chloe or with Ava, his parents' marriage disintegrates. Then COVID hits. Affecting and heartfelt.
Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal, The
Ambika Vohra
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
An ambitious Souh Asian Indian American scholarship high school student is stumped by a Stanford application prompt about a time she stepped out of her comfort zone. Then a new friend takes her there.
Ambika Vohra
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
An ambitious Souh Asian Indian American scholarship high school student is stumped by a Stanford application prompt about a time she stepped out of her comfort zone. Then a new friend takes her there.
Suffragist's Guide to the Antarctic, A
Yi Shun Lai
Illustrator: map by Filippo Vanzo
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In 1914 an 18-year-old suffragist signs onto a hazardous expedition to the Antarctic and fights for gender equality. Detailed black-and-white maps. Inspired by an actual expedition. Author's note.
Yi Shun Lai
Illustrator: map by Filippo Vanzo
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In 1914 an 18-year-old suffragist signs onto a hazardous expedition to the Antarctic and fights for gender equality. Detailed black-and-white maps. Inspired by an actual expedition. Author's note.
Summer She Went Missing, The
Chelsea Ichaso
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Audrey has vanished. Her brother Dylan and her best friend, Paige, encounter a number of false leads when they search for her. Then Paige finds a secret in Audrey's room.
Chelsea Ichaso
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Audrey has vanished. Her brother Dylan and her best friend, Paige, encounter a number of false leads when they search for her. Then Paige finds a secret in Audrey's room.
Take a Sad Song
Ona Gritz
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Jane stayed out late with a boy, but her mother reported her a runaway. Sent to a girls' reformatory, she struggles to cope and finds others to support her there. Set in 1970. Free verse.
Ona Gritz
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Jane stayed out late with a boy, but her mother reported her a runaway. Sent to a girls' reformatory, she struggles to cope and finds others to support her there. Set in 1970. Free verse.
Tangleroot
Kalela Williams
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Noni Reid, 18, uncovers shocking secrets when tracing her Black enslaved and white enslaver ancestors in a rural Virginia town. Author's note on research.
Kalela Williams
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Noni Reid, 18, uncovers shocking secrets when tracing her Black enslaved and white enslaver ancestors in a rural Virginia town. Author's note on research.
There Is a Door in This Darkness
Kristin Cashore
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In 2020, Wilhemina's gap year before college brings a pandemic, a fraught presidential election, the death of a loved one, a new relationship, and supernatural visions.
Kristin Cashore
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In 2020, Wilhemina's gap year before college brings a pandemic, a fraught presidential election, the death of a loved one, a new relationship, and supernatural visions.
Time and Time Again
Chatham Greenfield
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Phoebe, a Jewish lesbian with a chronic illness, wakes up every morning and repeats August 6 over and over. It's not even a great day. Then one day a car crash disrupts the endless loop.
Chatham Greenfield
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Phoebe, a Jewish lesbian with a chronic illness, wakes up every morning and repeats August 6 over and over. It's not even a great day. Then one day a car crash disrupts the endless loop.
To the Bone
Alena Bruzas
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Ellis arrives in Jamestown glad to leave her poverty behind, but life in the colonial settlement is so much more grim than she expected. Author's note. Mature content
Alena Bruzas
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Ellis arrives in Jamestown glad to leave her poverty behind, but life in the colonial settlement is so much more grim than she expected. Author's note. Mature content
Trajectory
Cambria Gordon
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
After her mathematician father suffers a stroke, Eleanor conceals her problem-solving skills. Recruited in 1942 to an all-female team to improve ballistic trajectories, she comes into her own.
Cambria Gordon
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
After her mathematician father suffers a stroke, Eleanor conceals her problem-solving skills. Recruited in 1942 to an all-female team to improve ballistic trajectories, she comes into her own.
Twenty-four Seconds from Now...: A Love Story
Jason Reynolds
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Neon, a Black 17-year-old high school senior, comically traces his intimate relationship with Aria, 17, beginning with his current anxieties, looking back on their developing relationship, and finally returning to the present moment. Mature content
Jason Reynolds
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Neon, a Black 17-year-old high school senior, comically traces his intimate relationship with Aria, 17, beginning with his current anxieties, looking back on their developing relationship, and finally returning to the present moment. Mature content
Ukraine: Remember Also Me, Testimonies from the War
George Butler, foreword by Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States
Illustrator: George Butler
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Ukrainians, young and old, told this acclaimed artist about their wartime experiences as he drew their portraits. Poignant, defiant, heartbreaking, and matter-of-fact reminiscences alongside ink, watercolor, and collage illustrations. Mature content
George Butler, foreword by Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States
Illustrator: George Butler
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Ukrainians, young and old, told this acclaimed artist about their wartime experiences as he drew their portraits. Poignant, defiant, heartbreaking, and matter-of-fact reminiscences alongside ink, watercolor, and collage illustrations. Mature content
Unboxing of a Black Girl, The
Angela Shanté
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In a mixture of free verse, haiku, and vignettes, the author creates a poetry memoir of her own girlhood in New York City and the lives of Black girls elsewhere.
Angela Shanté
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In a mixture of free verse, haiku, and vignettes, the author creates a poetry memoir of her own girlhood in New York City and the lives of Black girls elsewhere.
Visitations
Corey Egbert
Illustrator: Corey Egbert
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Teen Corey and his younger sister survive a terrifying kidnapping by their increasingly mentally ill, albeit loving, mother. Gentle pastel illustrations. Author's note. Includes mental health resources. Mature content
Corey Egbert
Illustrator: Corey Egbert
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Teen Corey and his younger sister survive a terrifying kidnapping by their increasingly mentally ill, albeit loving, mother. Gentle pastel illustrations. Author's note. Includes mental health resources. Mature content
When the World Tips Over
Jandy Nelson
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In a small Northern California wine country town, a mysterious rainbow-haired girl upends the lives of three broken siblings whose father disappeared 12 years before.
Jandy Nelson
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In a small Northern California wine country town, a mysterious rainbow-haired girl upends the lives of three broken siblings whose father disappeared 12 years before.
Where the Dark Stands Still
A. B. Poranek
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Liska flees her village, which views her magic as evil, and enters the servitude of a forest demon who can rid her of her powers.
A. B. Poranek
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
Liska flees her village, which views her magic as evil, and enters the servitude of a forest demon who can rid her of her powers.
Where Was Goodbye?
Janice Lynn Mather
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In Nassau, Bahamas, high school senior Karmen can't make sense of her brother's recent suicide. Now suspended for breaking a school lab window, she resolutely researches his life and her own feelings. Resources. Mature content
Janice Lynn Mather
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
In Nassau, Bahamas, high school senior Karmen can't make sense of her brother's recent suicide. Now suspended for breaking a school lab window, she resolutely researches his life and her own feelings. Resources. Mature content
Whose Right Is It?: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equality (Whose Right Is It? series)
Hana Bajramovic
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
An examination of how "equality" has been defined by the 14th Amendment and how the law has shifted as applied to 21st-century issues. Photographs. Footnotes and resources.
Hana Bajramovic
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
An examination of how "equality" has been defined by the 14th Amendment and how the law has shifted as applied to 21st-century issues. Photographs. Footnotes and resources.
Wide Awake Now
David Levithan
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
High school lovers Duncan, who's Jewish, and Jimmy, who's multiracial, protest a recount in the election of the first gay Jewish president. A reimagining of Levithan's novel Wide Awake.
David Levithan
Ages: 14+
Published: 2024
High school lovers Duncan, who's Jewish, and Jimmy, who's multiracial, protest a recount in the election of the first gay Jewish president. A reimagining of Levithan's novel Wide Awake.