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BOOK LIST

Diverse and Inclusive Books to Inspire Young Adults

Engage young adult readers with these diverse YA books featuring representative characters and culturally responsive themes.

By Scholastic Editors
September 21, 2023

By the time readers are young adults, their worlds have broadened to include a wide range of people and life experiences that inform their developing identities.

As teenage readers discover who they are, it's important that they have access to stories that reflect and celebrate the full range of human experiences and a diversity of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical and mental abilities, religion, and culture.

The following topics and themes are explored in this list:

  • Race and Ethnicity - diversity in race and ethnicity in the text
  • Social Justice - civil disobedience, advocacy, and attempts to seek justice for oppressed groups of people
  • LGBTQIA+ - featuring characters who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, or any identification within the LGBTQIA+ spectrum
  • Mental Health - featuring characters with temporary, cyclical, or episodic mental illnesses and other mental health struggles
  • Immigration - immigrant and emigrant experiences
  • Neurodiversity and Neurodivergence - featuring characters who have neurological variances and differences, such as autism, dyslexia, and ADHD
  • Physical Disability - featuring characters with impairments that limit physical functioning

For even more Scholastic books that explore these themes, check out our catalog, The Power of Story: Diverse Books for All Readers.

Hardcover Book

What a Desi Girl Wants

Grades 7 and up
$14.24$18.99
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Mehar's dislike for Naz and her social media influencer daughter, Aleena, deepens. She can tell that the two of them are just using her father for his money. Mehar's starting to think that putting a stop to this wedding might be the best thing for everyone involved.

But what happens when telling her father the truth about Naz and Aleena means putting her relationship with Sufiya at risk . . .

Paperback Book

If I Ever Get Out of Here

Grades 7 - 10
$10.49$13.99
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Lewis "Shoe" Blake is used to the joys and difficulties of life on the Tuscarora Indian reservation. What he's not used to is white people being nice to him—people like George Haddonfield.

Hardcover Book

Meet Me in Mumbai

Grades 9 - 12
$14.24$18.99
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From the author of the "heart-wrenching yet hopeful" (Samira Ahmed) novel, The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali, comes a timely story about two teenage girls forced to understand the power and consequences of their choices.

Hardcover Book

Damselfly

Grades 10 - 12
$14.24$18.99
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In the wake of crash-landing on a deserted tropical island, Samantha Mishra and the rest of the Drake Rosemont fencing team must rely on their wits and one another to survive.

Paperback Book

Zara Hossain is Here

Grades 10 - 12
$8.24$10.99
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When an openly queer Pakistani Muslim student encounters racism, her family faces an unexpected detour on the path to citizenship. “Vivid account exploring issues many immigrant teens face.”-Kirkus

Social Justice

$11.24$14.99
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This touching graphic novel explores the story of how a young change-maker learned to find himself and never compromise. How the right decision is very rarely the easy one, but taking the road less traveled can make all the difference in the world.

 

 

$7.49$9.99
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In this forthright and courageous account, Walter Dean Myers, two-time winner of the Newbery Honor and four-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, depicts a complex man whose life reflected the major issues of our times.

Paperback Book

The Greatest: Muhammad Ali

Grades 7 - 12
$6.74$9.99
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From his childhood in the segregated South to his final fight with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali never backed down. He was banned from boxing during his prime because he refused to fight in Vietnam. He became a symbol of the antiwar movement -- and a defender of civil rights. As "The Greatest," he was a boxer of undeniable talent and courage. He took the world by storm -- only Ali could "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!"

Paperback Book

Chasing King's Killer

Grades 9 - 12
$6.71$8.95
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An astonishing account of the assassination of America's most beloved and celebrated civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, by New York Times bestselling author, Jame L. Swanson.

Paperback Book

Sunrise Over Fallujah

Grades 9 - 12
$8.24$10.99
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Robin "Birdy" Perry, a new army recruit from Harlem, isn't quite sure why he joined the army, but he's sure where he's headed: Iraq. Officially, their maneuvers are called Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the young men and women in the CA unit have a simpler name for it: WAR.

LGBTQIA+ Stories

Hardcover Book

Gay Club!

Grades 9 and up
$14.99$19.99
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Barney's a shoo-in for his school's LGBTQ+ Society President at the club's next election. But when the vote is opened up to the entire student body, the whole school starts paying attention. How low will the candidates go to win? Buckle up for some serious shade, scandals and sleazy shenanigans. It isn't long before it's National Coming Out Day - for everyone's secrets!


But when the group faces an unexpected threat - and a big opportunity - can the club members put politics aside and stand united?

Paperback Book

Openly Straight

Grades 9 - 12
$8.24$10.99
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Rafe has been out since eighth grade—he isn't teased, and he goes to other high schools and talks about tolerance. And while that's important, he's ready for something else.

Hardcover Book

Where We Go From Here

Grades 9 - 12
$14.24$18.99
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Set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this utterly engrossing debut by Brazilian author Lucas Rocha calls back to Alex Sanchez's Rainbow Boys series, bringing attention to how far we've come with HIV, while shining a harsh light on just how far we have yet to go.

Hardcover Book

A Very, Very Bad Thing

Grades 9 - 12
$13.49$17.99
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Marley is one of the only gay kids in his North Carolina town—or at least that's true until Christopher shows up. Jeffery Self unforgettably shows how love can make us do all the wrong things for all the right reasons—especially if we see them as the only way to make love survive.

 

Mental Health

Paperback Book

Hey, Kiddo

Grades 12
$11.24$14.99
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The powerful, unforgettable graphic memoir from Jarrett Krosoczka, about growing up with a drug-addicted mother, a missing father, and two unforgettably opinionated grandparents.

Paperback Book

Sunshine

Grades 7 - 12
$11.24$14.99
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Now, in his follow-up to the National Book Award finalist Hey, Kiddo, Jarrett brings readers back to Camp Sunshine so we can meet the campers and fellow counselors who changed the course of his life.

Paperback Book

The Bridge

Grades 11 - 12
$9.74$12.99
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Aaron and Tillie don't know each other, but they are both feeling suicidal, and arrive at the George Washington Bridge at the same time, intending to jump. Aaron is a gay misfit struggling with depression and loneliness. Tillie isn't sure what her problem is-only that she will never be good enough.

Hardcover Book

This Might Get Awkward

Grades 7 - 12
$13.49$17.99
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The more time Gemma spends with the Bookers, the more she falls in love with the entire family (although it seems that Beau's sister suspects the truth). Then, Beau wakes up, but since he has short term memory loss, he has no trouble believing that Gemma IS his girlfriend. For the first time in her life, Gemma has everything she's ever wanted. But how can she embrace her new dream life when everything is built on a lie?

 

 

Paperback Book

On a Scale of One to Ten

Grades 9 - 12
$8.24$10.99
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A stunning journey of one girl's mental illness and the redemptive power of truth and healing.

 

Paperback Book

The Memory of Light

Grades 11 - 12
$9.74$12.99
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Inspired in part by the author's own experience with depression, this is a rare young adult novel that focuses not on the events leading up to a suicide attempt, but the recovery from one—about living when life doesn't seem worth it, and how we go on anyway.

 

Immigration

Hardcover Book

The Arrival

Grades 7
$16.49$21.99
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Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant's experience through brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. The reader experiences the main character's isolation—and shares his ultimate joy.

Hardcover Book

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali

Grades 9 and up
$13.49$17.99
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Rukhsana is finding it impossible to live up to her conservative Muslim parents' expectations. Luckily, it's only a few more months until her new life at Caltech. But when her parents catch her kissing her girlfriend, all of Rukhsana's plans fall apart.

Paperback Book

Simone Breaks All the Rules

Grades 10 - 12
$8.24$10.99
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Haitian-American Simone has a bucket list of rules to break that will surely upset her strict family.

 

 

Starting from this pivotal moment, Constitutional law scholar Lawrence Goldstone will take young readers through the key events of the 19th and 20th centuries leading up to the fundamental injustice of Japanese American internment. Tracing the history of Japanese immigration to America and the growing fear whites had of losing power, Goldstone will raise deeply resonant questions of what makes an American an American, and what it means for the Supreme Court to stand as the "people's" branch of government.

 

Neurodiversity

Paperback Book

Same But Different

Grades 9 - 12
$4.49$5.99
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With insight and humor, Same but Different explores the many aspects of teen autism while daring to address issues and feelings nobody talks about. This powerfully rendered book is timely and one of a kind. It paints an important story of hope for teens and families living with autism, and lets us see that everybody's unique rhythm is worth dancing to.

Paperback Book

Marcelo in the Real World

Grades 11 - 12
$8.24$12.99
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Reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in the intensity and purity of its voice, this extraordinary novel encompasses a legal battle, a subtle love story, and the primal coming-of-age narrative: discovering the truth of one's own capacities. Winner of the 2010 Schneider Family Book Award

Paperback Book

Debating Darcy

Grades 7 - 12
$9.74$12.99
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Debating Darcy is bestselling author Sayantani DasGupta's reinterpretation of beloved classic Pride and Prejudice - imaginative, hilarious, thought-provoking, and truly reflective of the complex, diverse world of American high school culture.

Physical Disability

Paperback Book

Where You See Yourself

Grades 10 - 12
$8.24$10.99
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Where You See Yourself combines an unforgettable coming-of-age tale, a swoon-worthy romance, and much-needed disability representation in this story about a girl who's determined to follow her dreams.

Hardcover Book

Love Letters for Joy

Grades 7 and up
$14.24$18.99
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Less than a year away from graduation, seventeen-year-old Joy is too busy overachieving to be worried about relationships. She's determined to be Caldwell Prep's first disabled valedictorian. And she only has one person to beat, her academic rival Nathaniel.

 

 

Paperback Book

That's Not What Happened

Grades 10 - 12
$7.49$9.99
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From New York Times bestseller Kody Keplinger comes an astonishing and thought-provoking exploration of the aftermath of tragedy, the power of narrative, and how we remember what we've lost.

 

 

Paperback Book

Pinned

Grades 7 - 9
$4.49$5.99
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Award-winning author, Sharon G. Flake, presents a powerful novel about a teen boy and girl, each tackling disabilities. Autumn's learning disability makes reading a painful struggle, but as a wrestler, she can take down any problem. Adonis uses a wheelchair. But he's a strong reader who loves books.

Paperback Book

Untwine

Grades 9 - 12
$8.99$11.99
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A haunting and mesmerizing story about sisterhood, family, love, and loss by literary luminary Edwidge Danticat.

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