What YA Books Showed Up on The Most “Best-Of” Lists?

Two weeks ago, I rounded up several of the “best-of” lists in the world of YA so far for 2024. While that was intended to highlight just how wide-ranging the bests were this year—something we should be celebrating, especially because lists like this were not as robust or diverse prior to the efforts of groups like We Need Diverse Books—it got me thinking about which books were landing on multiple best-of lists.

With that curiosity came a spreadsheet, and with that spreadsheet, a handy way to look at the best-of-the-best in YA for 2024.

I’ve pulled together the YA “best-of” lists from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, NPR, the New York Public Library, School Library Journal, Kirkus, and BookPage. Fiction, nonfiction, and comics/graphic novels were included, though manga was excluded from this roundup; that decision came because only one outlet, School Library Journal, specifically called out YA manga best-ofs.

I then sorted the list of best-of lists by title, highlighting books from 2024 that received mentions at least three times.

Here are the best-of-the-best of YA in 2024, according to the biggest outlets and sources for YA coverage.

Five YA “Best-Of” Lists

• Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay
• Twenty-Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds

Four YA “Best-Of” Lists

• Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson
• Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo
• The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
• Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
• Heir by Sabaa Tahir
• Icarus by By K. Ancrum
• Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham
• On The Bright Side by Anna Sortino

Three YA “Best-Of” Lists

• 49 Days by Agnes Lee
• Ariel Crashes a Train by Olivia A. Cole
• The Color of a Lie by Kim Johnson
• Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White
• The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
• Flamboyants by By George M. Johnson
• Fledgling by SK Ali
• Icarus by By K. Ancrum
• Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
• The Judgment of Yoyo Gold by Isaac Blum
• Kindling by Traci Chee
• Rising From The Ashes by Paula Yoo
• Road Home by Rex Ogle
• Sheine Lende by Darcy Little Badger
• When The World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson

Breaking down those titles into type of book, there are four works of nonfiction, three comics, and 17 novels. It is a really fantastic range of genres and formats, and it showcases how diverse YA is. It’s nice to see some of the big-budget and reliable titles and authors here—deservedly, of course—as well as a lot of titles that maybe didn’t quite see the same level of attention in the YA world that they deserved.

If I were putting money on titles we’ll see at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards in January, I’d be keeping an eye on both Randy Ribay and Jason Reynolds’s new books, as well as titles like Bright Red Fruit, Dragonfruit, Compound Fracture, Icarus, and The Judgment of Yoyo Gold. “Best-of” honors don’t mean those titles are shoe-ins for awards, but critical acclaim across several outlets does not hurt.

This roundup of best-of lists, however, pales in comparison to one shared with me. Eric Bateman, a librarian at Canandaigua Academy in New York, reached out to say he found my list while working on his own annual roundup of the “best-of” YA lists. He began to round up lists on his blog in 2013, and this year’s roster is, in a single hyphenated word, mind-blowing.

Take a look at this list. At the top, you’ll see each of the outlets included, the number of books named “best-of” on those lists, and/or the dates those lists are anticipated to be published.

I’ve gone ahead and sorted Eric’s lists as of December 10, 2024, and here’s what the top books are according to all of these lists!

• Icarus by K. Ancrum (8 lists)
• Twenty-Four Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds (7 lists)
• The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson (7 lists)
• Heir by Sabaa Tahir (7 lists)
• Ariel Crashes a Train by Olivia A. Cole (6 lists)
• Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson (6 lists)
• Everything We Never Had by Randy Ribay (6 lists)
• Thirsty by Jas Hammonds (6 lists)
• When The World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson (6 lists)
• The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag (5 lists)
• Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier (5 lists)
• Looking For Smoke by K.A. Cobell (5 lists)
• Snowglobe by Soyoung Park (5 lists)

Whether you’re a data nerd when it comes to books or reading or you simply like knowing the books that have been receiving some special attention for how outstanding they are, you’re going to find some excellent reads here.