Just a few weeks ago, my social media timeline was filled with everyone’s favorite reads of 2025. Now that we’re setting reading goals and intentions for 2026, there are a few titles that belong on your to-read lists. The six books below, covering different genres and formats, include the latest from celebrated authors as well as promising debuts—but what they have in common is a magnetic appeal that’s difficult to define but obvious when you encounter it. While they’re all solidly, delightfully YA, many hold appeal for adult readers. After all, you’re never too old for a ripping yarn. (You’ll find the full list of spring preview YA titles here.)
Two stellar coming-of-age stories weave in supernatural elements that help the protagonists better understand their lives:
Sundown Girls by L.S. Stratton (Nancy Paulsen Books, Jan. 27): A Black family, trying to heal after their kidnapped daughter Camryn’s return, vacations in a Virginia town where girls are going missing—and which turns out to be a former “sundown town,” where Black citizens’ presence was prohibited after dark. Camryn encounters a ghost, investigates the disappearances, and struggles to come to terms with her own trauma.
If We Never End by Laura Taylor Namey (Bloomsbury, March 3): In this story that explores literal dreams as well as the dreams that sustain our hope, despondent Sylvie is staying in rural Oregon with her Tía Vivian, a renowned artist who’s working on a commission. Sylvie accidentally summons the ghost of a boy with amnesia and tries to help him remember and move on.
The graphic format is ideal for concisely and memorably conveying meaning, as exemplified by these two nonfiction works:
Bad Kid: My Life as a “Troubled Teen” by Sofia Szamosi (Little, Brown Ink, March 10): Speaking out against abuse packaged as therapy, Szamosi describes her struggle to survive years of harsh wilderness programs, beginning at age 13. She brings her gut-wrenching story to life through expressive illustrations, photos, and journal excerpts, delving with unflinching honesty into harmful intergenerational patterns and coping mechanisms.
How To Survive the End of the World: A Graphic Exploration of How To (Maybe) Avoid Extinction by Katy Doughty (MITeen Press/Candlewick, March 31): Between climate disasters, virus outbreaks, and omnipresent AI, everyone has surely wondered how it’s all going to end. Doughty’s brightly illustrated survey of past and possible future scenarios is an engaging (and surprisingly reassuring) blend of science and history that will pique curiosity and inspire further exploration.
Family, community, and selfhood—they’re complicated, interrelated parts of growing up, something the following two novels explore with nuance.
When It’s Your Turn for Midnight by Blessing Musariri (Carolrhoda Lab, April 7): After her mom spills a devastating secret, Chianti flees her hometown of Harare, Zimbabwe, for her grandmother Ambuya’s house. Ambuya’s lively friends—fellow revolutionaries in the war of independence—become chosen family, nurturing Chianti as she uncovers more about the past. Musariri’s vivid turns of phrase make her writing a rare pleasure.
Change of Plans by Sarah Dessen (Simon & Schuster, May 5): A sudden breakup and an unplanned stay with long-lost relatives upend all Finley’s plans and everything she thought she knew about herself. After a seven-year hiatus, YA superstar Dessen returns with a heartfelt story about small acts of daily courage that will win over a new generation.
Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.
