10 YA Books That Make Great Gifts

Mikira Rusel’s family has long been famous for breeding enchanted horses, but years of debts have mounted up and they are at risk of losing their beloved ranch. They need money, and fast, so Mikira enters the Illinir, a treacherous horserace whose riders either finish maimed or murdered. The best riders on the planet enter the race but few return in one piece. 

Mikira teams up with Arielle Kadar, an enchanter whose powers are growing at an intense rate, and the dashing young lord Damien Adair. Mikira’s chances of winning the Illinir are high, and they're only getting worse as she faces backstabbers, magic, and vengeance.

Four years ago, five kids started a game. Only four survived. The survivors—Dax, Maddy, Emerson, and Owen—have been forced back together after the ghost of the friend they left for dead returns. Ian, the dead teen, wants them to complete the game they started and bring him home. It all seemed so innocent at first: a card-matching game called Meido that never came with instructions. 

As soon as they begin, they're dragged out of their reality and into a hellish otherworld of Japanese folklore populated by the Shinigami. They have one night to complete seven challenges or all of them, Ian included, will be stuck in this world forever.

On the way home from a party, seventeen-year-old Ivy and her soon-to-be ex nearly run over a woman standing in the middle of the road with no clothes on. After that, things only get weirder: a dead rabbit appears on their driveway, a box of Ivy's childhood keepsakes turns up, and her mother's mysterious past begins to resurface. 

As a teenager herself, Ivy's mom messed with supernatural forces beyond her understanding, and now they've returned to haunt her. When her mother and aunt go missing, Ivy must uncover the truth and unravel the dark secrets that have smothered generations of her family.

For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings, but her dreams are shattered when she discovers that the great love of her life is betrothed to wed another. Desperate to stop the wedding, she makes a deal with the Prince of Hearts, a wicked but alluring figure who has set his sights on her. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing. 

Bargaining with an immortal, as any fairy-tale will tell you, never ends as you hope it will. The Prince of Hearts wants more from Evangeline than a mere kiss. His plans could be her ultimate happy-ever-after... or a tragedy of epic proportions.

It’s been one year since Manny, a gay Latinx orphan, was cast out of his adopted family and, left with nowhere else to go, fled into the treacherous wilds of Idyllwild. Now, he lives off the grid, fending for himself with whatever tools he can create. 

Eli lives in a secluded community with his family, following their strict rules and never questioning what he's been told. After a body is found in the hills of Idyllwild, these two young men are drawn together and work to confront the lies they've been told as well as the mystery of their respective identities.

Christelle Dabos became a bestselling YA author in her native France in 2013 with her first youth novel, Les fiancés de l'hiver. Five years later, it received an English translation and soon won over audiences worldwide, earning comparisons to the likes of Philip Pullman. 

A Winter’s Promise is set in a world devastated following a cataclysm called The Rapture. The planet has splintered into floating islands known as Arks. Each of these Arks seems to have unique powers and fosters different communities. Ophelia lives on Amina, an Ark where objects have souls. Possessed with the means to read and communicate with the souls of objects, she tries to maintain a peaceful existence. 

That ends when when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, a son of the powerful Dragon clan. Now, she must follow her fiancée to the floating capital on the distant Ark of the Pole. The pair of them are about to become pawns in a potentially catastrophic plot for power across all of the Arks.

Frances Hardinge is one of the most acclaimed British YA authors of the past decade. Her 2015 fantasy novel The Lie Tree won almost every award going that season, including the Costa Book Award for best children's title. 

The tree of the title is a mysterious force that feeds off the lies whispered into it by the guilty. The fruit it then bears reveals truths that many do not want exposed. Faith's family is dealing with the devastating shock of her father's recent death under mysterious circumstances. She wants to uncover the truth above all else, whether the rest of her small town agrees or not. The lie tree could be the key that unlocks everything, but sometimes the truth is more painful than the deceit...

Britta Flannery is a teenage hunter who spends her days tracking criminals alongside her father, a legendary bounty hunter for the King of Malam. After her father is murdered, Britta is cast out by her community and left with no rights to her father’s land or inheritance. She runs back to the wilds of Ever Woods, the only place where she feels truly safe from the cruel world that took everything from her. 

When Britta is caught poaching by the royal guard, instead of facing the noose she is offered a deal: her freedom in exchange for her father’s killer. But the alleged killer is the infamous Cohen McKay, her father’s former apprentice and the only friend she's ever known. And loved. This dangerous quest will turn her world upside down, and could put her life at risk.

The bestselling author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe penned this eloquent coming-of-age tale in 2017 following that book's massive success. Sal thought he had a good life with his gay Mexican-American single father and a family who loved him. But senior year has started and things are changing fast. College is just around the corner and his best friend Samantha is on a self-destructive path that has left him terrified for her. 

He also can't help but wonder about his birth father and questions who he actually is. Over the course of his final year of high school, Sal must contend with the questions over his identity, the friendship he holds so dear to his heart, and the anger issues that have begun to plague him.

Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens. Best-selling and acclaimed writers like Saundra Mitchell, Malinda Lo, Robin Talley and Dahlia Adler have offered their unique takes on oft-forgotten areas of history to put LGBTQIA+ voices front and center in a way they all too often are denied. 

This includes a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, an asexual girl finding her identity amid the roller-disco scene of the 1970s, and forbidden lovers finding solace in a 16th-century Spanish convent.