Top 13 Short Books For Teens Updated 04 /2024

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During the last few decades, the number of young adult books has grown, as well. Because of the "Harry Potter effect," there's no doubt that some of the growth has come from that. You might not want to read a long book all the time, but sometimes you want to read something quick.

Short YA books pack a lot into a few pages. A lot of young adult books are stand-alone books, but there are some that start a longer series (often, too, all on the shorter page count side). It's not true that all short YA books are "easy" to read. Some of these books can be very difficult, taking more time to read than some of the longest books in YA.

After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson

On the day that D Foster comes into Neeka and her best friend's lives, the world opens up for them to enjoy. In a split second, they start paying attention to things outside of their neighborhood in Queens, like the shooting of Tupac Shakur. They also start looking for their Big Purpose in life. All too soon, D's mom comes to get her back, and Tupac dies. This gives them a sense of how quickly things can change and how even brief connections can be very powerful.

The Agony of Bun O’Keefe by Heather Smith

It is 1986 in Newfoundland. Bun O'Keefe is 14 years old and has lived alone in a dangerous and dirty house. Her mother is a compulsive hoarder, and Bun hasn't had much contact with the outside world because her mother is that way. In the boxes and bags her mother brings home, she finds random books and old VHS tapes. She learns about life from these things. It isn't very often that Bun and her mother talk, so one day Bun's mother tells Bun to leave. St. John's, Newfoundland, is a city where Bun ended up after he took a ride out of town. It's good that the first person she meets is Busker Boy, a musician on the street. He senses that she's not very smart and takes her in. In a house together, Chef, a hotel dishwasher with culinary dreams, Cher, a drag queen with a tragic past and Big Eyes, a Catholic school girl who wants to be different, live. The Landlord, a man Bun is told to avoid at all costs, is also in the house. Bun learns that the world is bigger than the walls of her mother's house through her experiences with her new roommates and their sometimes heartbreaking revelations. She also finds out how much fun it is to be part of a new family of friends who care.

American Ace by Marilyn Nelson

In the end, when Connor's grandmother dies, she leaves him a letter. In the letter, she says that the man who raised Dad is not his birth father.

 

Only a class ring and a pair of pilot's wings can tell us who this birth father is. Connor decides to look into it on his own. This becomes even more important when his father has a stroke and is in the hospital. What Connor learns will help him and his father see race, identity, and each other in a new way.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Jin Wang moves to a new neighborhood with his family, only to find out that he's the only Chinese American student at his new school. The Monkey King, the subject of one of the oldest and best Chinese fables; Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits. In this action-packed modern fable, their lives and stories come together in a way that isn't what you expect.

Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Angus is my mixed-breed cat. He is half tabby and half Scottish wildcat. Labrador-sized, but mad.

Thongs: Ugly underwear. Why are they there? Some of them only get up your butt. I think that's what they do.

All of the things you do when you kiss, like lip to lip, open mouth, tongues, etc., are called "full-frontal Snogging."

He thinks like a Teletubby, and that's not good for his daughter (only not so developed). He is trying to gobble up the dog next door, but her cat, called "Angus," doesn't like it. That's because she accidentally cut off her eyebrows. Her best friend says she looks like an alien because she didn't mean to. Ergghhhlack. Add some boy-stalking, teacher bribery, and frontal snogging with the Sex God, and Georgia's year could be the most fab fab ever!

Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden

Liza Winthrop and Annie Kenyon met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and from the moment they met, Liza knew there was something special about them. There were a lot of things Liza didn't know about love.

Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris

This is how it looks like someone has been a very bad zombie:

That the football coach has given the team steroids makes Kate Grable angry. Worse, the steroids are having an unintended effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into zombies who don't think about anything but eating flesh. No one is safe: not Kate, not Aaron, not her brother, Jonah, not even Jonah. Before her whole high school eats each other, she needs to find an antidote. So Kate, her best friend, Rocky, and Aaron fight to save their town. and keep your hormones in check.

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin

Susan Kuklin, an author and photographer, met and interviewed six young people who were transgender or gender-neutral and used her skills to show them in a thoughtful and respectful way before, during, and after they made their own decisions about gender. Images like portraits, family photos, and candid shots are all over the pages. They help to show the emotional and physical journey each young person has made. It doesn't matter if the conversation is happy or sad, because the teens' families, living situations, gender, and the changes they make in realizing their true selves make each one very different from the one before.

Black Box by Julie Schumacher

She can no longer make sense of their lives when her older sister, Dore, gets depressed and has to go to the hospital. Only Dora's friends and Jimmy Zenk, who has at least one bad grade and wears black every day of the week, know about Elena at school, but everyone else doesn't. They keep fighting at home, too. As long as she can, Elena will do everything she can to help her sister get better and get their lives back to normal. Even when the responsibility is too much for her.

Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston

Valley, 4, knows what her job is: hide in the underground den with her brother, Bo, while her father, Da, is at work, because Those People will kill them like coyotes. But now, with Da gone and no home to return to, Valley (now Valkyrie) and her big brother must take their message to the outside world, which isn't very smart. It's where little boys put their names on their backpacks and young men don't pat down strangers before giving them a lift. Blythe Woolston adds dark humor and a sharp psychological eye to her white-knuckle story, which is set in a day-after-tomorrow Montana. She switches back and forth between past and present vignettes in prose that is as tightly wound as the springs of a clock and as well-planned as a game of chess. The pace picks up right until the explosive end.

Bluefish by Pat Schmatz

It's been a long time since Travis lived in the country and had his dog, Rosco. His grandpa, who is a good person but has alcohol problems, lives with him now. He also has to go to a new school, which isn't fun, and pass when he's called on to read out loud. Then, Travis meets Mr. McQueen, who doesn't take "pass" for an answer. He's a rare teacher who doesn't give up on a book about nature. Then Velveeta, a girl with witty jokes and a colorful scarf, comes into Travis's life. She has some dark secrets of her own, though. Pat Schmatz brings to life a group of people who are completely believable and captures the moments of trust and connection that make all the difference.

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