WPL Best of Teen Fiction 2025

"One spring afternoon after school, Amber arrives home on her bike. It's just another perfectly normal day. But when Amber's mom sees her, she screams. Because Amber died seven years ago, hit by a car while on the very same bicycle she's inexplicably riding now. This mysterious return doesn't impact only Amber. Her sister, Melissa, now seven years older, must be a new kind of sibling to Amber. Amber's now-estranged parents are battling over her. And...

Three teens seek to unravel the truth behind conflicting agendas surrounding a deadly virus that could change humanity forever.

Aiden has always dreamed of playing football like his star quarterback brother, Brandon. After struggling with an overstimulation meltdown during summer tryouts, Aiden gets a second chance when a spot unexpectedly opens on the team. However, not all teammates are happy with his inclusion, worried about how Aiden's autism will affect the game. Tensions escalate, leading to a fight and police involvement. Brandon steps in to defend his brother but is...

"Stella Chen's life ground to a halt when her brother unexpectedly passed away a year ago. Raised together by their grandmother for years in the Chinese countryside before rejoining their parents in the United States, his absence destroys the connective tissue in her family. With another jarring move her senior year, from rural Illinois to unfamiliar surroundings in San Diego, she is left alone and adrift in her family's suffocating silence and the...

"Amelia Applebaum isn't in love with Walter Holland. He just happens to be her favorite moderately famous, chaotically bisexual YouTuber. Who she just happened to invite to prom. (But it's fine. No, for real. If you delete the post, it didn't happen.) Okay, maybe her friends are right: She's slightly parasocially infatuated. But Amelia just knows sparks would fly--if only she could connect with Walter for real. If only he would host a meet and greet....

"A girl must deal with the consequences of resurrecting her sister"-- Provided by publisher. When her older sister is found mysteriously drowned in the river that cuts through their small coastal town, Soojin Han disregards every rule and uses her ancestral magic to bring Mirae back from the dead. At first, the sisters are overjoyed, reveling in late-night escapades and the miracle of being together again, but Mirae grows tired of hiding from the...

Transgender teen Charlie's plan to keep a low profile at his boys' boarding school becomes jeopardized when he starts rooming with his former summer camp fling from before he transitioned.

Legendborn meets The Da Vinci Code in this captivating light academia contemporary fantasy following a teen who infiltrates a secret school for the descendants of exiled Renaissance masters to steal their long-lost arts and sciences. Unlike the high-achieving members of her family’s secret society, Ada Castle has mastered nothing but the art of falling for the wrong guys. But now she finally has the chance to prove her worth: she just needs to gain...

In need of inspiration for her self-help book, sixteen-year-old straightlaced Audre hires seventeen-year-old easygoing Bash to be her fun consultant for a summer full of daring experiences and undeniable romance. It's the last day of school at Cheshire Prep, Brooklyn's elite academy -- and Audre Mercy-Moore's life is a mess. Her dad cancelled her annual summer visit to his Malibu beach house. Now? She's stuck in a claustrophobic apartment with her...

"In a world where magical beings, fey, are mistrusted and often institutionalized, a human brother and fey sister must team up to solve a bizarre murder in this 1920s-inspired queer teen fantasy novel. In the city of Puck's Port, where motorized vehicles fill the streets and new technological marvels abound, something rotten is lurking under the surface. A violent murder at the docks seems to point to a fey killer, igniting a powder keg of distrust...