The temperature is rising, and our “Adventure Begins At Your Library” Summer Reading Program has started, so a summer adventure themed YA booklist is in order! Whether you’re hanging out at the beach, hiding in your AC cooled house, or whiling away your summer break elsewhere, hopefully one of these books will hit the spot!
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron (horror, 9th & up)
YA F BAYRON
Recreating scenes from a classic slasher film for a full-contact terror game, Charity Curtis, who plays the “final girl” at her summer job at Camp Mirror Lake, finds her role turning all too real when a killer starts picking off her co-workers one by one.
Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley (mystery, 9th & up)
YA F BOULLEY
With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family’s involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people’s inheritance in one pivotal summer that makes her question everything.
Viva Lola Espinoza by Ella Ceron (romance, 9th & up)
YA F CERON
Book smart teen Lola's summer plans are derailed when she is sent to live with her grandmother in Mexico City and learns a family secret that changes her life forever.
Liar’s Beach by Katie Cotugno (mystery, 9th & up)
YA F COTUGNO
When a suspicious accident occurs while staying at his roommate’s massive beachfront home at the end of the summer, Linden teams up with his childhood friend, Holiday Proctor- who is convinced there’s a potential killer on Martha’s Vineyard, to find the truth.
Rosewood: a Midsummer Meet Cute by Sayantani DasGupta (romance, 8th & up)
YA F DASGUPTA
Teenage sisters Eila and Mallika Das are attending a summer camp where the campers are trying out for minor parts in a romance/detective television show set in Regency times--but when Eila meets the handsome Rahul it is clear that there is plenty of drama to be had outside of the screenplay.
Lake House by Sarah Beth Durst (thriller, 9th & up)
YA F DURST
Arriving at an off-the-grid summer camp with two other girls only to discover a blackened, burned husk of a lodge and a dead body in the woods, Claire soon realizes they are being hunted by something that refuses to let them leave.
Forever is Now by Mariama J. Lockington (verse fiction, 9th & up)
YA F LOCKINGTON
Suffering from agoraphobia after witnessing a scene of police brutality the summer before her junior year, Sadie discovers- with the help of family, friends, and online activists, that she can build a safe place inside herself.
Summer Ball by Mike Lupica (sports, 6th & up)
YA F LUPICA
Having led his team to the national championship, Danny is given the opportunity to attend Right Way basketball camp, but knowing that he will be playing with the best in the country puts the pressure on and makes him realize that he will have to rise to the challenge in order to prove himself once again.
Planning Perfect by Haley Neil (romance, 7th & up)
YA F NEIL
Summer vacation quickly becomes complicated for Felicity Becker as she tries to plan a perfect wedding for her mom, figure out her feelings for her friend Nancy, and wonder what dating will look like for her as an asexual person.
Matchbreaker Summer by Annie Rains (romance, 7th & up)
YA PB F RAINS
When her mom decides to close Camp Seabrook because she’s marrying a guy she met online, 16-year-old Paisley Manning teams up with polar opposite Hayden Bennett to break up the happy couple—and loses her heart in the process.
She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran (horror, 8th & up)
YA F TRAN
In Vietnam for the summer, staying at the house her estranged father is restoring, Jade, plagued by sleep paralysis, bugs and a ghostly apparition, must expose the evil lurking in its walls before dark forces consume them all.
