Chronicling in poetry one teen’s interior journey to process and understand the sudden, completely life-altering tragedy that has struck his family, his village and his country, Up from the Sea is a delicate and deep novel-in-verse that shows how we learn to go on living, and start anew, even after unprecedented loss.

On March 11, 2011, 17-year-old Kai cared only about the school day ending so he could practice soccer with his friends. But when the 14th largest earthquake in the world strikes the Tohoku region of Japan and, following closely on its heels, one of the largest tsunamis ever recorded decimates 300 miles of coastline, Kai’s life becomes literally, mentally and emotionally flooded. The tsunami completely wipes away Kai’s entire village, and he’s at such a loss that he doesn’t even want to try to tie together the shreds of his former life to make anything out of what’s left. But when Kai learns of an opportunity to visit New York City to speak with the children who survived that city’s tragedy a decade ago on September 11, 2001, he remembers that NYC is where his long-absent American father last lived. He’s at first desperate and then determined to demand either aid or answers from the man.

Author Leza Lowitz uses her first-hand experiences of living in Japan when the earthquake and tsunami struck to weave together a memorable amalgam of people and places. As the full meaning of Kai’s loss dawns on him, we witness all his worry, angst, anger, survivor’s guilt and sadness, as well as his eventual coping and recovery, providing a rare view of the human spirit.

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

Principal Trenton has just finished giving her speech at Opportunity High School’s assembly. The students, teachers and administrators make their way to the doors, quickly realizing they are locked. Unseen by everyone in the room, a boy with blond hair sticking out of a black cap enters the one unlocked door to the left, raises a gun and directs a student to lock the door. The shooting starts with the principal and continues to anyone who approaches the shooter. Panic, screams, blood and death follow in a matter of seconds.

Marieke Nijkamp holds nothing back in her gut-wrenching debut. The story unfolds in alternating chapters with multiple points of view: the shooter’s twin sister, Autumn; her girlfriend, Sylv; Sylv’s brother, Tomás; and the shooter’s ex-girlfriend, Claire. The shootings are graphic, the fear is real, and every move is a matter of life or death. Intensity and terror build at breakneck speed over the next 54 minutes, as the backstory of this shooting unfolds between the lines.

Through the narrators’ prose, Tweets and blog posts, Nijkamp approaches other serious, realistic issues, including bullying, abuse, rape and deep-seated grief and loneliness. With an ending that will leave readers rocked with fear, grief, chills and tears, this outstanding debut will hit close to home and is best suited for older teens.

As the Civil War churns through its final year, 13-year-old Samuel does his best to keep his younger brother, Joshua, out of trouble. At their Tennessee orphanage for black boys, Father Mosely teaches the boys how to read and write and pray, activities at which Samuel excels. When it seems that Joshua will be blamed for a shocking transgression, pious Samuel stands up and falsely admits to the wrongdoing. Little does he know that his punishment takes him out of the free state of Tennessee and deep into Mississippi, where everyone with black skin is a slave. Sold to a family-owned plantation, Samuel is callously dubbed “Friday.” Yet despite his loss of identity and the terrible plight of his fellow slaves, Samuel remains luminously faithful to his God. His goodness attracts the attention of Gerald, a boy near Samuel’s own age who acts as the master of the plantation while his father fights with the rebels.

In his first young adult novel, Jon Walter conjures a fresh look at the intimacy between slaves and their owners. Gerald genuinely values Samuel’s friendship, and a particularly telling scene involves Gerald’s attempt to whip a slave. Walter portrays Samuel’s pure religious faith with lovely passages that ring through his endless travails. This novel will surely become part of the Civil War literary experience, offering readers of any age much to ponder.

Diane Colson is the Library Director at City College in Gainesville, Florida.

Seventeen-year-old Lucille and her 10-year-old sister, Wren, have been abandoned by their father (who went crazy) and their mother (who left town, leaving no forwarding information). Lucille is left to pay the bills, maintain the house and care for her sister. She’s worried that if anyone finds out, she and her sister will be placed in foster care, so her best friend, Eden, is the only person she can count on. To complicate things, Lucille has been secretly lusting after Eden’s twin brother, Digby.

Forced to find a job to make ends meet, Lucille applies to a local restaurant known for its knockout beautiful waitresses (think black hot pants and cleavage-revealing tank tops). Lucille hides her desperation through lies to Wren, Wren’s teachers, her boss and even to herself, refusing to ask for help while sinking further in quicksand. With Eden and Digby on Lucille’s side, things go smoothly—until they don’t. A series of events, including a huge plot twist that brings a new meaning to friendship, force Lucille to reveal her struggles.

Debut author Estelle Laure delivers an emotionally charged, artistic view of a world where parental abandonment and the fear and threat of state custody are very real. Lucille is externally strong yet internally fragile, while Wren is perceptive and displays an impeccable willingness to love and forgive. Laure captures the desperation for acceptance on a variety of levels in this poetic, heartbreaking read that will resonate with teens.

Parker Grant has it all under control. She’s earned herself upwards of 100 gold stars—one for each day she hasn’t cried since her father’s death. She’s got the high-school scene down pat—so much so that she holds daily office hours for anyone seeking social advice. And even though she’s blind, she’s perfectly capable of taking solo morning runs.

Just don’t ask her about Scott Kilpatrick. Because if you do, she might very well lose it altogether.

Eric Lindstom’s debut novel, Not If I See You First, is a striking exploration of friendships, first loves and all the ups and downs that come with them. Parker’s blindness adds a layer of depth to her character, but while it’s certainly fully rendered, it’s by no means her defining characteristic. Her “come at me” bravado and her sassy back-and-forth with her friends are all as true to life as the deep-seated vulnerability hiding underneath. While most readers won’t relate to Parker’s physical disability, they will find they recognize plenty of her in themselves.

In fact, the protagonist and her crew are all in the throes of discovering who they are, and accepting those discoveries, but at the same time, they're the type of mature, fiercely loyal friends we’d all kill to have in any phase of life.

Not If I See You First tackles all the anxiety, joy and self-evaluation of high school in a way that will ring true to both older readers and those who are still in the midst of it.

Determining what's real and what's imagined is just part of 17-year-old Calvin’s everyday life. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Calvin believes his world is intrinsically linked with that of Bill Watterson’s iconic comic strip Calvin and Hobbes—he was, after all, born on the last day the strip was published. As he communicates daily with tiger Hobbes—knowing he must be a delusion—Calvin feels the only way he’ll ever be normal is to travel to meet Watterson and have him draw just one more comic.

So Calvin, Hobbes and Calvin’s best friend, Susie (he wonders at times if, she, too, is a delusion), set out on an ill-advised and perilous quest across frozen Lake Erie, all the way from Canada to Ohio, to meet Watterson. Along the way, the trio tries to sort out life, love and reality, while braving the elements, challenging their own demons and meeting some characters along the way.

National Book Award finalist Martine Leavitt has created a cleverly framed story about living with mental illness from a first-person point of view. The book is written in dialogue among Calvin, Susie and Hobbes and as a letter to Watterson. Everyone may question his identity and his reality from time to time; Leavitt poignantly and wrenchingly shows what it’s like to struggle with that all the time. Although intended for an older audience, it bears similarities to the insightful look at disability from the eyes of the beholder in Sharon Draper’s award-winning Out of My Mind.

Following the life and brief fame of a young black dancer living in New York City during the 1840s, Juba! is the historical tale of one man’s desire to use his art as activism to overcome the systemic racism that has hindered his people, and his nation, for generations.

Scraping by in the impoverished and Irish-immigrant Five Points district, William Henry Lane—better known by his stage name, Master Juba—lives to dance. But Juba rarely gets the chance to dance for pay these days, as the racial divisions between what an audience wants to see (blackface and minstrel shows) and what an artist wants to perform (something that transcends race and vague stereotypes) hold him back.

During one of his earlier bookings, Juba catches a huge break and unknowingly is interviewed by well-known novelist Charles Dickens, who writes both a character sketch and a rave review of Juba’s incomparable dancing skills and talents when he returns to England. This sets in motion a life-changing whirlwind of events for the dancer. But as Juba begins to find fame with his art, he may have to sacrifice his happiness and pride to appease the jaded masses.

The recently deceased Walter Dean Myers wrote more than 100 children’s and YA novels throughout his lifetime, including the New York Times bestselling and Printz Award-winning Monster, and he won countless awards for the majority of them. Juba! is a strong final note for Myers, who used his unique and insightful voice to the shed light on the racial and social plights of a people ever searching for equality.

Justin Barisich is a freelancer, satirist, poet and performer living in Atlanta. More of his writing can be found at littlewritingman.com.

Teen love, angst, secrets and lies make up a lot of realistic YA fiction. Fortunately, those topics can also add up to some of the best storylines, as in Courtney C. Stevens’ second novel.

It’s hard enough to be a teen facing typical teen issues. But when Sadie is severely physically scarred and her best friend, Trent, is killed in a car accident, Sadie’s world is put on pause. She doesn’t want to return to school. She doesn’t want to face—literally—her friends. And she can’t get past the way her friends Gina and Gray were involved in the crash.

Sadie turns to Trent’s brother, Max, who provides a compassionate ear—and soon, a bit more, as their relationship blossoms. But as that happens, mysterious notes about Sadie’s past start appearing in her mailbox, and she finds it difficult to trust anyone. As as her thoughts turn more to the past, to times she shared with Trent and the gang, she wonders if any of them will ever fully recover, physically or mentally.

Secrets and lies—as indicated in the title—plague the many complex relationships in this novel, which addresses some heavy topics. But Stevens keeps the atmosphere appropriately light, as readers peer into Sadie and Max’s budding relationship and as the quartet of friends reunites for paintball and a road trip to the “Fountain of Youth.”

Carefully unveiled secrets come out at the end, leading to a conclusion that is believable and satisfying. This is a nice, relatable bit of realistic YA fiction.

As senior year draws to a close and college looms, Andrew finds himself very much alone. He’s lost his two best friends to a car crash, and his parents are more distracted than ever following his football star brother’s return. Andrew is left with nothing but his obsessive crush on Laura, the prettiest girl in school. But as he begins spending more time with Laura and her fundamentalist Christian youth group, he starts to question everything he’d once held true.

Debut author Pratima Cranse’s gentle treatment of a huge array of characters—from flirty to bookish, from deeply religious to sexually confused—paints a vibrant and familiar picture of a teenage social scene. Despite the large cast, Cranse treats every supporting character with equal respect, building complex personal histories that make each one as compelling and relatable as the protagonist.

And as for Andrew, the author deftly captures his frenzied attempts to navigate one upheaval after another during a summer that would be climactic under the most normal circumstances. Without his best friends by his side, Andrew’s desperation for community and belonging leaves him vulnerable to new experiences. As he begins to shed the assumptions he’d always held of Laura’s clique and see these kids in a new light, he can’t help but see himself differently, too. Cranse’s portrayal of Andrew’s struggle is sometimes heartbreaking, often wryly funny and ultimately very compassionate and true.

All the Constellations is a novel not to miss, and Cranse is a voice to watch.

Ryan Graudin’s second novel, Wolf by Wolf, is an alternative history mash-up that mixes X-Men, The Hunger Games and Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America. It’s 1956, and Germany and Japan have won World War II. To celebrate their victory, the Axis powers sponsor an annual cross-continent motorcycle race in which the winner meets Adolf Hitler and the losers are lucky to come out alive.

Yael is a 17-year-old Holocaust survivor, having been sent to the death camps as a child with her mother. A victim of extreme Nazi experimentation, she can transform her appearance to impersonate any female. She’s also a spy for the Resistance. Her mission is to enter the race as Adele Wolfe, last year’s winner, and assassinate Hitler at the Victor’s Ball. Yael has studied Adele’s files and her mannerisms and has training in combat and languages, she’s unprepared for the emotional turmoil stirred up by Adele’s twin brother, Felix, and fellow competitor, Luka. The Resistance is counting on Yael’s success, but with motorcycle sabotages, harsh climates and kidnappings, Yael’s ability to complete her mission hangs precariously on trusting her uncertain heart.

Despite its substantial length, Wolf by Wolf is a heart-pounding, quick read with romantic tension and suspense. Graudin doesn’t bog down the audience with much world-building, which can be a detriment for who can’t visualize Europe and the 1950s. Regardless, this genre-bending adventure and its powerful yet scarred heroine will be popular for those eager to see how Yael’s future plays out.

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.