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/.

How to Perform a Search and Save a List

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Bluebird
Sharon Cameron
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
The daughter of a notorious concentration camp doctor makes it her mission at the end of WWII to keep him from committing more atrocities.

Boy from Buchenwald, The True Story of a Holocaust Survivor
Robbie Waisman, with Susan McClelland
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Romek (now Robbie) was 14 when liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945. Here he chronicles his survival and return to society. Photos, backmatter.

Burning, The: Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 (Adapted for young people)
Tim Madigan (adapted by Hilary Beard)
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
This detailed account of White rioters' destruction of Greenwood, a prosperous Oklahoman Black community, includes updates connecting the event to the Black Lives Matter movement. Extensive back matter. Young readers edition.

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A Hip-Hop History (YR Edition)
Jeff Chang, with Dave "Davey D" Cook
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
The birth and evolution of hip-hop are chronicled through histories and profiles of pioneering artists and their cultural and political contexts.

Carry On: Poetry by Young Immigrants
Students from the PGLO high school in Outremont, Quebec; Simon Bolerice, Ed.
Illustrator: Rogé
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Newcomers from many lands express loss and pain about what they've left behind, and hopes and concerns about their new homes. Free verse. Expressively painted portraits.

Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms
Crystal Frasier
Illustrator: Val Wise & Oscar O. Jupiter
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Annie joins the cheerleading squad, rekindling her friendship with Bebe, a transgender girl who is navigating her path with family and school relationships. Bright, colorful illustrations.

Chlorine Sky
Mahogany L. Browne
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
A self-effacing African-American girl who shines on the basketball court comes to find her voice and embrace her strength. Free verse.

Concrete Rose
Angie Thomas
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Maverick, 17, accepts the responsibilities that come with fatherhood while struggling with loyalty to the gang that protected him after his father's imprisonment. Strong language. [25]

Cost of Knowing, The
Brittney Morris
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
African-American brothers Alex and Isaiah are cursed with supernatural abilities that have arisen out of generational traumas; now they need each other to break the cycle.

Destination Anywhere
Sara Barnard
Illustrator: Christiane Fürtges
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Peyton is 17 years old and has never had a real friend. She leaves England in a plane bound for Vancouver hoping to change her life story. Black-and-white spot art.

Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village
Jody Sokolower
Illustrator: Various
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
An American social studies teacher interviews Palestinian youth about their heartbreaking trauma under Israeli occupation, connecting their resistance to that of Native Americans. Photos, maps. Glossary, footnotes.

Disability Visibility: 17 First-Person Stories for Today (Adapted for Young Adults)
Alice Wong, Ed.
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
From an outgrowth of the Disability Visibility Project and Story Corps come personal stories, of living and loving with disabilities. Content warnings, author profiles, further reading.

Don't Breathe a Word
Jordyn Taylor
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Skipping between 1962 and today, the book unravels the secret behind an authoritarian secret society, and a psychological experiment that goes tragically wrong in a private school's fallout shelter.

Dustborn
Erin Bowman
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
In a post-apocalyptic world, Delta struggles to interpret the map carved on her back that will free her family from the tyranny of the General.

Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
A wildfire and missing girl provide the backdrop for this captivating collection: nine exquisitely written stories of the struggles and triumphs of small-town teens.

Firekeeper's Daughter
Angeline Boulley
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
As her Ojibwe community is ravaged by drug overdoses, Daunis, 17, works with the FBI to identify the dealers. A richly detailed view of tribal life.

Four Streets and a Square: A History of Manhattan and the New York Idea
Marc Aronson
Illustrator: Illus. with archival photos.
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
An ode to the city's endless change through a look at the arts and creativity as a result of the great diversity of its population. Photos, maps, excellent back matter.

Free Speech Handbook: A Practical Framework for Understanding Our Free Speech Protections (World Citizen Comics series)
Ian Rosenberg
Illustrator: Mike Cavallaro
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
This graphic-format adaptation of The Fight for Free Speech: Ten Cases that Define Our First Amendment Freedoms is a must for every civics classroom. Colorful artwork.

Girl on the Line
Faith Gardner
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Following a suicide attempt, Journey reassesses, advocates for herself, and rebuilds family and social relationships. Back matter with health resources.

Girl Who Became a Tree, The: A Story Told in Poems
Joseph Coelho
Illustrator: Kate Milner
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Fourteen-year-old Daphne, mourning her father's death, finds refuge in the library until she falls into a magical world of monsters. Free verse; black-and-white spot illustrations.

Glimpsed
G. F. Miller
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Charity, 18, is an actual fairy godmother who loves making wishes come true, but those "happily-ever-afters" might be less successful than she thinks.

Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood
Gary Paulsen
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Gary's first experience with a stable family at his aunt's farm comes to an abrupt end when his alcoholic mother comes to take him to the Philippines.

Great Godden, The
Meg Rosoff
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
An unnamed and gender-unrevealed narrator chronicles, in elegant prose, an English summer romance and the resulting upheaval produced by a visit from two American siblings.

Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words
Dr. Lindsay Herriot and Kate Fry, editors
Illustrator: various
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
In a variety of writing genres and art media, trans youth explore their experiences of self-care, dysphoria, transphobia, acceptance, school issues, and more. Glossary and resources.

Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating
Adiba Jaigirdar
Ages: 14+
Published: 2021
Two Bengali girls in Ireland, one Muslim, one Hindu, couldn't have more different personalities. They pretend to date others, but fall for one another.