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

Goth Girl, Queen of the Universe

Lindsay S. Zrull

Ages: 14+

Published: 2022

Publisher: Flux/North Star Editions

ISBN: 978-1-63583-078-1

Keywords: Foster care, Mental illness, Mother-daughter, Competitions, Gothic novels, Edgar Allan Poe, LGBTQIA+, Body positivity, Fat-shaming

In foster care since age seven, Jess, 17, joins Oscar's cosplay team, hoping a distant costume competition will enable her to reunite with her mentally ill biological mother.