Virginia Readers Choice 2023-24

2023-24

Virginia Readers' Choice

INDEX

Virginia Readers’ Choice 2023-24 High School Titles

1. All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

6. The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

2. Black Birds in the Sky: the story and legacy of the 1921 Tulsa race Massacre by Brandy Colbert

7. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

8. What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

3. Lore by Alexandra Bracken

4. None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney

9. When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris

5. The Cat I Never Named: a true story of love, war, and survival by Amra Sabic-el-Rayess

10. In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

All My Rage, by Sabaa Tahir

A family extending from Pakistan to California, deals with generations of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness. (Multicultural Fiction)

Black Birds in the Sky: the story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, by Brandy Colbert

"In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District--a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives. In a few short hours, they'd razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. (Nonfiction: Social & Cultural Issues)

Lore, by Alexandra Bracken

"Every seven years, the Agon begins. As punishment for a past rebellion, nine Greek gods are forced to walk the earth as mortals. They are hunted by the descendants of ancient bloodlines, all eager to kill a god and seize their divine power and immortality. Long ago, Lore Perseous fled that brutal world, turning her back on the hunt's promises of eternal glory after her family was murdered by a rival line. For years she's pushed away any thought of revenge against the man-now a god-responsible for their deaths. Yet as the next hunt dawns over New York City, two participants seek her out: Castor, a childhood friend Lore believed to be dead, and Athena, one of the last of the original gods, now gravely wounded. (Fantasy Fiction)

None Shall Sleep, by Ellie Marney

"Eighteen-year-olds Emma Lewis and Travis Bell, recruited by the FBI to interview juvenile serial killers, must turn to a notorious teenage sociopath to help track down a new murderer"(Suspense Fiction)

The Cat I Never Named: A True Story of Love, War, and Survival, by Amra Sabic-El-Rayess

In Bihac, Bosnia, in 1992, sixteen-year-old Amra and her family face starvation and the threat of brutal ethnic violence as Serbs and Bosnians clash, while a stray cat, Maci, provides solace. Biography--Adventure

The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold

After a deadly Fly Flu spreads throughout the world, survivors Nico, her dog, young artist Kit, and the mysterious Deliverer roam the earth, seeking to evade the Flies and find a place where life and love can thrive again. (Science Fiction)

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

"Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world. Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light." (Fiction: Fantasy)

What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

"In her final year in foster care, seventeen-year-old Muir tries to survive her senior year before aging out of the system" (realistic fiction)

When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris

"A boy must take up the search for his sister when she goes missing from a neighborhood where black girls' disappearances are too often overlooked" (suspense fiction)

In the Wild Lightby Jeff Zenter

"Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced to turn to her school's scholarship for prom king and queen, which plunges her into the gauntlet of social media which she hates and leads her to discoveries about her own identity and the value of true friendships" (romance)

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