Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Magic, Mystery & Growing Up: My Favorite MG + YA Reads
25
items Books that spark imagination at any age. Description: A mix of middle-grade and young adult favorites — featuring adventure, heart, humor, and just the right touch of magic. Perfect whether you're a teen or simply reading like one. Be sure to check o...
Warrior Girl Unearthed is a contemporary YA mystery set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where a fierce Native teen uncovers a tangled web of missing artifacts, injustice, and danger while fighting to protect her tribe’s heritage. What makes this one s...
➡️Newly Added: Warrior Girl Unearthed
With a long commute and a never-ending TBR, audiobooks have become my daily magic trick. While I still cherish my physical books and always have one of those in progress, too, I’d never get to enjoy even half the stories I love without them. Seriousl...
Audible
This middle-grade contemporary novel is set in modern-day Pakistan and follows Amal, a brave village girl whose life turns upside down when she’s forced into indentured servitude for a corrupt landowner. It’s a heartfelt story about courage, justice,...
Amal Unbound
This historical YA novel is set in WWII Germany, where a young girl named Liesel steals books to make sense of a world unraveling around her—and yes, the story is narrated by Death, who’s surprisingly poetic and a little snarky. Its unforgettable mix...
The Book Thief
This sweet YA romance unfolds in 1980s Omaha, where two misfit teens—Eleanor, all bright hair and sharp edges, and Park, all quiet strength and comic books—slowly fall into a love that’s as awkward as it is heart-melting. What makes this one stand ou...
Eleanor & Park
It’s a heartfelt historical middle-grade novel set in 1930s California, following Esperanza Ortega as she flees a life of privilege in Mexico and learns to rebuild everything from the ground up in a migrant labor camp. What really makes this book shi...
Esperanza Rising
This YA fantasy sweeps you into a gritty, sea-salt-soaked world where a tough, ship-savvy heroine fights to survive the treacherous Narrows and uncover the truth about her father’s betrayal. What really makes it shine is the atmospheric writing—Adrie...
Fable: The World of the Narrows, 1
This riveting YA thriller is set in modern-day Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and follows Daunis Fontaine, an eighteen-year-old Ojibwe woman caught between two worlds who becomes an undercover informant after witnessing a shocking murder. 🌲🔥 The book s...
Firekeeper's Daughter
This twisty speculative thriller set in 1970s–1980s America follows a young woman born via a virgin-birth experiment as she hits the road to uncover the truth behind her mother’s disappearance—and the dark secrets of the “miracle” community that crea...
Girl One
This classic dystopian YA novel drops you into a tightly controlled future community where twelve-year-old Jonas is assigned the mysterious role of Receiver of Memory—and quickly learns that “perfect” comes with a price. Lowry’s simple, elegant writi...
The Giver
This YA dystopian fantasy sequel continues Mare’s fight as she gathers other powered Reds and Silvers while trying not to lose herself to the chaos of rebellion. Aveyard amps up the tension and emotional stakes here, giving the story a sharper, darke...
Glass Sword: Red Queen, Book 2
This classic YA novel unfolds as a 1970s American teen’s diary, tracing her sudden descent into drug culture and the chaotic spiral that follows. Its anonymous diary format gives the whole story an unnervingly intimate, fly-on-the-wall feel—like you’...
Go Ask Alice
This middle-grade historical novel unfolds in 1970s Vietnam and Alabama, following young Hà as her family flees Saigon and adjusts to a new life that’s equal parts confusing, painful, and unexpectedly hopeful. Told in spare, lyrical verse, it’s the k...
Inside Out and Back Again
This YA dystopian fantasy installment finds Mare imprisoned and powerless inside the king’s court, forcing her to confront the political and emotional fallout of the revolution she helped ignite. Aveyard leans hard into psychological tension and comp...
King's Cage: Red Queen, Book 3
This quirky YA fantasy set in modern-day Wales follows a teen who stumbles into a hidden world of children with bizarre, magical abilities—and uncovers a mystery that’s been waiting for him all along. What makes it extra fun is the way the author wea...
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
This YA fantasy sequel sweeps you back into the treacherous, sea-soaked world of the Narrows, where Fable’s journey picks up with high-stakes danger, shifting alliances, and a storm of secrets that could change everything she thought she knew. What m...
Namesake: The World of the Narrows, 2
This contemporary YA novel unfolds in a modern-day American high school and follows Parker Grant, a fiercely independent teen who is blind and determined not to let anyone treat her differently. When a boy from her past transfers into her school, old...
Not If I See You First
This YA dystopian fantasy set in a divided, futuristic kingdom follows Mare, a Red-blooded girl who discovers she has powers reserved only for the elite Silver class—and suddenly becomes a dangerous symbol of revolution. Aveyard’s twisty plotting and...
Red Queen, Book 1
Sadie is a YA thriller set in contemporary small-town America that follows a teenage girl on a relentless road trip to track down the man she believes killed her sister. What makes it unforgettable is the dual-timeline storytelling—part gritty first-...
Sadie
This contemporary YA romance unfolds over one whirlwind day in New York City, following a science-minded girl facing deportation and a dreamy poet on the brink of choosing his future. What makes it extra special is how the story hops between perspect...
The Sun Is Also a Star
This contemporary YA novel follows Aza Holmes, a teen in Indianapolis navigating friendship, first love, and a missing-person mystery while wrestling with the tightening spiral of her OCD. What makes it stand out is John Green’s raw, intimate writing...
Turtles All the Way Down
This YA contemporary novel is set in post-9/11 America and follows a Muslim teen navigating high school, prejudice, and an unexpected romance in a small suburban town. What makes it stand out is Mafi’s sharp, intimate writing style—equal parts raw an...
A Very Large Expanse of Sea
This YA dystopian fantasy finale brings the war between Reds, Silvers, and newbloods to its breaking point as Mare must decide who to trust—and what she’s willing to sacrifice—to shape a new future. Aveyard wraps the series with big battles, politica...
War Storm: Red Queen, Book 4
This one’s a modern YA novel set in a small Southern town, where a girl named Whimsy is pulled into a strange, shadowy world after her chronic sadness begins to feel a little too magical to ignore. It’s a blend of contemporary realism and fantasy, we...
We Are All So Good at Smiling
Okay, so maybe I wasn’t emotionally prepared for a YA romance right now (my brain said “angst,” this book said “K-pop sparkle”), but honestly? It might have been exactly the palate cleanser I needed. It was sweet, quick, and just the right kind of di...
XOXO