A Global Teen Leadership Takeover, Outlawed Musicians, and More New YA Books for May 6, 2026

Everyone loves Beckett Lane for no reason other than his dad is famous. Everyone loves him except for Wren, and she doesn’t get why other girls don’t see all of his red flags. Even Wren’s sister Kennedy has fallen under his spell.

So when Beckett humiliates Kennedy at a party, Wren knows she’s got every right to get revenge. She’s going to make a documentary to highlight just how awful he is.

The problem is that the closer Wren gets to Beckett in her hopes of getting some insider dirt, the more Wren finds herself wondering if she’s falling for him, too.

Whats Up in YA

Sign up for What’s Up In YA? to receive all things young adult literature.

Releasing simultaneously in hardcover and paperback, Rose’s novel is one for readers who love some folk horror.

Lindsay Weinberg is 17 and has been kicked out of another prep school. This time, her reward is being shipped off to her uncle’s home in a remote Maine town. When she arrives, Lindsay is surprised to find Uncle Levi’s new wife, with no sign of him. Worse, there are other teens at this farm, all of whom seem to be taking part in some kind of reform program.

Lindsey is feeling hopeless and confused. But then she meets twins who live off the peninsula’s coast, and it turns out that, despite their remote location, they have internet access. So Lindsey does what feels right and invites several of the other teens at her uncle’s place to join her in sneaking out to party with the twins. The party is great, but when they wake up back at the farm, they have no idea what happened or how they got home. Soon, a series of disappearances starts to add up to more questions than answers–including whether or not they’re going to survive their stay.

Brothers Daniel and Adrián Aguirre are best friends, bonded over their deep love of music. But it’s 1976 in Rosario, Argentina, and under the authoritarian government, musicians and artists are considered state enemies. It doesn’t matter if the musicians or artists are just kids having fun at home.

So when Río Babel, Daniel and Adrián’s band, accidentally begin getting radio attention for their music, they’re put in an impossible position. Do they follow their dream of music, or do they stay quiet in the hopes of protecting the lives of their families?

Derrick, a Diné teen living in Navajo, New Mexico, knows that taking the opportunity to attend school on the East Coast is a ticket to a life he could never have otherwise. But leaving home is hard, especially because it means leaving his great-grandmother behind.

And school? It’s difficult to balance all of the responsibilities Derrick now has, especially as it seems his classmates have no problems doing so. They’re also asking him a lot of questions about his heritage and home, completely unfamiliar with a life that differs from the ones of privilege they live.

As his great-grandmother’s health gets worse, she begs Derrick to come home and leave school behind. But that conversation sparks something in Derrick: he realizes that he knows what he’ll do his term paper on, and it’s his great-grandmother’s experience in federal Native boarding schools.

Having more Native stories from more Native voices is such a treat, and this one looks like a fantastic read about intergenerational trauma and family bonds.

Kōpaʻa Island Resort is a playground for the wealthy and a retreat where those with immense privilege can “escape” the modern conveniences of things like wifi and cell phones. It’s a place plump with persimmons and the promise of rejuvenation.

The place is Lehua’s worst nightmare. Her sister Ohia has gone missing, and Lehua, desperate to find her, follows a trail to Kōpaʻa. But when the island’s boat leaves without Lehua, she’s stuck and cut off from all civilization.

Stuck and desperate for answers about her sister, Lehua begins to uncover Kōpaʻa’s unsavory past. She’s struggling, too, with nightmares and voices telling her she needs to leave now. But the more Lehua attempts to find her sister, the more she discovers about the island’s brutal past.

Lehua will have to face that past to reclaim her own future–and discover what happened to Ohia.

America is about to collapse, and there’s a crucial election happening. Benton Young is a high school senior trying to impress a girl, so he impulsively uploads a video online. He’s telling people to throw the election into chaos by voting for him, rather than any of the actual candidates. The video goes viral, and the Supreme Court steps in. Benton is put into the White House, and teens across the globe are watching–and taking similar actions to elect young people into positions of power in their countries.

Young people now lead eight powerful nations. They’re going to convene at a summit in Sweden, but the first night there, one of the leaders is murdered. Benton is the only suspect. Now he has to prove his innocence, all while also running one of the most powerful nations in the world.

Here’s yet another book releasing both in hardcover and paperback this week. This one is set post-high school, so if you’re looking for older YA, this might be your next read.

Soraya believes she’s close to turning her “situationship” with Wes into something real. She’s graduated from high school, has “glowed up,” and feels like she’s all that and more. Wes is spending some time in Italy with his fraternity brothers, so Soraya decides she’s going to take a trip, too–where better to make Wes fall in love than the Amalfi Coast?

Soraya sells this as a graduation trip with her girlfriends, and it is. But she hasn’t been quite honest about why she wants to go here, nor that her plans include making out with Wes at night. Her plan starts to unravel as her friends feel the weight of those secrets, when Wes keeps acting kind of like a jerk to her, and when a cute Italian boy starts sending Soraya signals that he might be interested.

Harper Reid’s life has been completely upended after the death of her grandfather. She’s moved across country to a rural farm–one where she spent summers growing up–and the Dungeons & Dragons campaign she was engaged in is, well, no longer one she’s part of.

Harper didn’t anticipate running into Ollie Shifflet, her old bestie, once she moved. But she did, and she’s been invited to take part in a new D&D campaign with Ollie and her friends.

There is immediate tension of the romantic sort building between Harper and Ollie’s characters in the campaign. It’s only there though, for sure. At least, that’s what Harper tells herself. It’s possible that Harper, who is trying to be out and proud in her new town, and Ollie, who knows she needs to keep her bisexuality quiet to protect herself, are going to have to acknowledge that those game-based feelings are more than just imaginary.