School’s out, homework’s done, and it’s time to hit the beach — with a book.
Summer reading often gets a bad rap, but the books you spend time with this summer don’t have to be limited to the ones assigned by next year’s teachers. In fact, there are so many amazing young adult novels that portray real, pressing global issues and heartbreaking personal stories in ways that we had trouble narrowing down this list.
Reading is one of the best ways to become a Global Citizen — to get to know what it’s like to live in someone else’s shoes and to understand their struggles. This summer, pick up a few of these must-read books, both new releases and always-relevant classics, that are sure to expand your understanding of yourself and people around the world.
There’s always time for homework later.
“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
Black lives matter. It’s a fact that has riled the United States in recent years as stories of unarmed black children being shot and killed by law enforcement officers have filled newspapers, launched rallies, and sparked investigations.
In “The Hate U Give,” Angie Thomas shows what it’s like to be the friend of one such victim as she traces the story of Starr Carter, a 16-year-old growing up in a poor neighborhood and facing the daily teenage struggle to fit in at her fancy suburban prep school. When her childhood best friend is killed by a cop, she is thrown into the central story of our time. How can she deal with her grief, anger, and confusion, and ensure that it doesn’t happen again?
“Saving Red” by Sonya Sones
What does it really mean to help the homeless? Molly Rosenberg is about to find out, as she volunteers in an annual homeless count in Santa Monica and meets Red, a homeless girl not much older than her who needs help getting home.
Red, like many people who find themselves living on the streets, struggles with mental illness and the trauma of her past life. In this beautiful novel that showcases the ways in which Molly and Red can befriend and help one another, Sonya Sones offers a personal, rich look into what it’s like living amid the struggles of homelessness, and how we call can help.
“If You Could Be Mine” by Sara Farizan
This book is a remarkable tale about what it means to grow up gay in one of the most homophobic places on the planet: Iran.
In Iran, gay and lesbian teens face more than just bullying for their sexual identities — they face death. Sahar and Nasrin, two teenage girls who have long harbored romantic feelings for one another — and even explored their feelings on the down-low in the past — could face imprisonment, beating, and execution if their love is discovered.
But there’s a silver lining. In Iran, being transgender is more acceptable than being gay, and trans individuals are legally able to get gender reassignment surgery. When Nasrin’s parents announce that they have arranged for her marriage, Sahar decides it would be better to live as a man and be able to live her love out in public than to hide in shame for the rest of their lives. This is a story of shocking self-sacrifice and love, a book that is sure to change the way we think about sexuality and love around the world.
“The Lines We Cross” by Randa Abdel-Fattah
This is the “now” book for summer 2017. It tells the story of Michael, an average American teen whose parents are pretty political. They drag him to anti-immigrant rallies and don’t want to see more refugees let into the US borders. Michael doesn’t think much of it until he meets Mina, a Muslim refugee from Afghanistan. The star-crossed high schoolers must navigate the world’s complex politics as they develop their own friendship, and the book deftly portrays a personal story that adds nuance and gray area to stories all too easily reduced by headlines and talking heads on TV.
“Only Ever Yours” by Louise O'Neill
If you’re digging “The Handmaid’s Tale” on Hulu right now, this dystopian YA novel about what it means to be a woman may be the perfect summer read for you.
Girls have only one purpose in life in Louise O’Neill’s fictional world: making men happy. The pressure to be perfect and the stakes that go with it are very high. Freida and Isabel are facing their final year of school where they are being trained in the art of womanhood and beauty, but if they fail to reach perfection, they could be doomed to lives as concubines or teachers of future generations. The book is more than just an empowering feminist text that questions the assumptions of the patriarchy; it’s a deeply personal and disturbing story about the ways perfectionism can make even the most beautiful women question their own self-worth.
“Monster” by Walter Dean Myers
This 2007 novel still burns with relevance — as demonstrated by the 2016 film version starring Jennifer Hudson and A$AP Rocky — as it explores what it means to be a young black man accused of a crime and stuck in the criminal justice system in America.
The book radiates intelligence. Steve Harmon, the 16-year-old sitting in juvenile detention awaiting his trial, writes a diary in the form of a screenplay to deal with his thoughts and emotions leading up to trial. Two other boys involved the crime, one black and one Hispanic, have taken plea deals, but Harmon is going to trial. The book focuses on a single decision in Steve’s life, and the consequences that will come from it.
“Beauty Queens” by Libba Bray
There’s hardly ever been a better concept for a beach read than Libba Bray’s “Beauty Queens,” which tells the story of what happens when 50 beauty pageant contestants are stranded on a desert island with little food, water, or chance of survival.
If you had to read “Lord of the Flies” in school, you’ll know what can happen when young adults are stranded and left to their own devices. Though these girls have spent their lives focusing on beauty — and their special talents — perhaps this island getaway is the wake-up call they need to truly get to know themselves and one another and find out what lies beneath their pretty surfaces. Oh, and yes, it’s really funny, too.
“All the Bright Places” by Jennifer Niven
Couldn’t get enough of “13 Reasons Why” on Netflix this spring? Well this book might temporarily feel the void.
“All the Bright Places” deals with tough subjects — grief, mental health, suicide — but it does so in the most beautiful way, in a story filled with grace and love and the pleasure of discovering a new friend. The story follows Theodore Finch, fixated on suicide and hoping to find a reason to avoid it, as he meets Violet Markey, grief-struck over her sister’s death, at the top of a bell tower. The story of whether they can save one another is riveting, and a beautiful way to spend some time thinking about how mental health issues hinder us and help us, and how they can encourage us to help one another.
“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
If you followed the #NoDAPL and Standing Rock protests this winter, Sherman Alexie’s novel about a young Native American kid with a special talent is the perfect way to delve deeper into the issues that unite and divide Native kids from their white peers.
Junior’s artistic talents gift him with a way off of his reservation and into the all-white high school nearby. His struggle to figure out and forge his future — to stay on the reservation or move away, to cling to his Native heritage or shake it off — are both relatable and revelatory.
“If I Was Your Girl” by Meredith Russo
For trans kids, keeping their identities a secret can be a matter of life or death. For Amanda Hardy, it could be both.
Amanda is happy to start a new school with her new identity — the one that finally matches who she is inside — without anyone knowing what she used to look like. But when she begins to make friends, including one special friend named Grant, she realizes that she can’t have true friendship unless they know the truth about who she is. Amanda has to risk rejection and loss in pursuit of genuine relationships, a calculation that highlights just how overwhelming it can be to grow up trans today, not knowing where and when you’ll find acceptance.