YA Books to Read for Women’s History Month

For Women’s History Month we’re celebrating the women who inspire us in real life and on the page with this list of books featuring strong young women who are moving, fierce, emotional, loud, and beautiful—just like all the women and girls we know!

Black Canary: Breaking Silence by Alexandra Monir

The first-ever YA origin story of superhero Black Canary.

Black Canary: Breaking Silence

By Alexandra Monir

DC Icons continues with the first-ever YA origin story of superhero Black Canary, from the internationally bestselling author Alexandra Monir. In this thrilling novel, Dinah Lance’s voice is her weapon. And in a near-future world where women have no rights, she won’t hesitate to use everything she has—including her song—to fight back.

Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao

Anastacya Mikhailov is a princess who does not need rescuing.

Blood Heir

By Amélie Wen Zhao

The first book in an epic new series, this mesmerizing fantasy is about a princess hiding a dark secret that has kept her behind the palace walls her entire life and the con man she must trust to prove that she’s innocent of her father’s murder. In this story, the princess might be the most dangerous player of all.

Breathless by Jennifer Niven

A compulsively readable novel about a young woman determined to write her own story—sex, heartbreak, family dramas, and all.

Breathless

By Jennifer Niven

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places.

With high school coming to an end, Claudine Henry is focused on four things: sex, starting college, becoming a famous writer, and… sex. But when her parents announce they’re splitting up, her entire world begins to fall apart. The epic road trip she planned with her best friend is cancelled, and she finds herself stuck on a remote island off the coast of Georgia with her mom – an island with no WiFi, no cell service and no friends.

Until she meets the free spirited, mysterious, and beautiful Jeremiah. He infuriates and intrigues her. Their chemistry takes her by surprise, and when Claude decides he should be her first, she tells herself it’s just sex. Exactly what she wanted, right? They both know that what they have can’t last forever, but maybe the time they have can be enough.

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas

When the Bat’s away, the Cat will play. It’s time to see how many lives this cat really has.

Catwoman: Soulstealer

By Sarah J. Maas

Sizzling with action and suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author SARAH J. MAAS delivers with this DC Icons coming-of-age Selina Kyle who will steal readers’ hearts in the YA blockbuster: CATWOMAN!

Color Me In by Natasha Díaz

This coming of age story is about a girl who realizes she has her own voice, and her own choices.

Color Me In

By Natasha Díaz

Growing up in an affluent suburb of New York City, sixteen-year-old Nevaeh Levitz never thought much about her biracial roots. When her Black mom and Jewish dad split up, she moves into her mom’s family home in Harlem and is forced to confront her identity for the first time. As Nevaeh stumbles upon a secret from her mom’s past, finds herself falling in love, and sees firsthand the prejudice her family faces, she begins to realize that she has her own voice. And choices. Will she continue to let circumstances dictate her path? Or will she decide once for all who and where she is meant to be?

Ember Queen by Laura Sebastian

In this thrilling conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Ash Princess series we learn that a queen never cowers.

Ember Queen

By Laura Sebastian

Ember Queen is an epic fantasy about a throne cruelly stolen and a girl who must fight to take it back for her people. Princess Theodosia was a prisoner in her own country for a decade. Renamed the Ash Princess, she endured relentless abuse and ridicule from the Kaiser and his court. But though she wore a crown of ashes, there is fire in Theo’s blood. As the rightful heir to the Astrean crown, it runs in her veins. And she learned from her mother that a queen never cowers.

Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett

The uplifting story of a teen falling in love and learning to live her truth.

Full Disclosure

By Camryn Garrett

Simone Garcia-Hampton is starting over at a new school, and this time things will be different. She’s making real friends, making a name for herself as student director of Rent, and making a play for Miles, the guy who makes her melt every time he walks into a room. The last thing she wants is for word to get out that she’s HIV positive. Simone’s first instinct is to protect her secret at all costs, but as she gains a deeper understanding of the prejudice and fear in her community, she begins to wonder if the only way to rise above is to face the haters head-on. . . .

Girl Crushed by Katie Heaney

This relatable queer rom-com is about the joys and heartbreak of falling in love and never quite falling out of it.

Girl Crushed

By Katie Heaney

Before Quinn Ryan was in love with Jamie Rudawski, she loved Jamie Rudawski, who was her best friend. But when Jamie dumps Quinn a month before their senior year, Quinn is suddenly without a girlfriend or a best friend. Enter a new crush: Ruby Ocampo, the gorgeous and rich lead singer of the popular band Sweets, who’s just broken up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend. Quinn’s only ever wanted to be with Jamie, but if Jamie no longer wants to be with her, why can’t Quinn go all in on Ruby? But the closer Quinn grows to Ruby, the more she misses Jamie, and the more (she thinks) Jamie misses her.

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Sometimes what makes a girl different is what makes her strong.

The Gilded Ones

By Namina Forna

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs. But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold—the color of impurity—and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death. Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are alaki—near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White

Nothing is as magical and terrifying as a girl.

The Guinevere Deception

By Kiersten White

With magic clawing at Camelot’s borders, the great wizard Merlin has conjured a solution: send in Princess Guinevere to be King Arthur’s wife . . . and his protector from those who want to see the young king’s idyllic city fail. The catch? Guinevere’s true identity is a secret. Deadly jousts, duplicitous knights, and forbidden romances are nothing compared to the greatest threat of all: the girl with the long black hair, riding on horseback through the dark woods toward Arthur. And when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?

Home Is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

A mesmerizing novel in verse about family, identity, and finding yourself in the most unexpected places.

Home Is Not a Country

By Safia Elhillo

Nima doesn’t feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn’t.

As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn’t give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry. And the life Nima has, the one she keeps wishing were someone else’s…she might have to fight for it with a fierceness she never knew she had.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

This heartbreakingly real depiction of sisterhood, grief, and family shows the incredible strength of a girl in the face of tragedy.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

By Erika L. Sánchez

When her older sister, Olga, dies in an accident, Julia is left to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family, stuck in the shadow of her perfect sister’s legacy. Julia has to reckon with the pressures and expectations of growing up in a Mexican American home, while coming to terms with a side of her sister that she never knew.

It’s All Love by Jenna Ortega

An uplifting and personal book from award-winning actress Jenna Ortega that will inspire you to lean into faith and love and family during life’s most difficult, and most joyous, moments.

It's All Love

By Jenna Ortega

This collection from actress Jenna Ortega is filled with Jenna’s own original quotes and affirmations, alongside intimate, personal stories about growing up Latina in Hollywood, working through depression, falling in—and out of—love, losing close family members, and so much more.

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? This highly acclaimed genre-defying novel explores themes of identity and justice.

Pet

By Akwaeke Emezi

There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. Jam and her best friend, Redemption, have grown up with this lesson all their life. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and colors and claws, who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings and a drop of Jam’s blood, she must reconsider what she’s been told. Pet has come to hunt a monster, and the shadow of something grim lurks in Redemption’s house. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend, but also to uncover the truth, and the answer to the question—How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

Acclaimed novelist Akwaeke Emezi makes their riveting and timely young adult debut with a book that asks difficult questions about what choices you can make when the society around you is in denial.

This Is My America by Kim Johnson

How far would you go for justice? In this incredible and gripping story one girl will stop at nothing to fight for her family’s freedom.

This Is My America

By Kim Johnson

Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time—her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens: the police arrive in the night and accuse Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, of killing a white girl. Just like that, Jamal goes from a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive as the racist history of their town is unearthed?

Who Put This Song On? by Morgan Parker

Lately, it feels like the whole world is listening to the same terrible track on repeat—and it’s telling seventeen-year-old Morgan how to feel, who to vote for, what to believe.

Who Put This Song On?

By Morgan Parker

Morgan wonders when she can turn this song off and begin living for herself. Loosely based on her own teenage life and diaries, this incredible debut by award-winning poet Morgan Parker will make readers stand up and cheer for a girl brave enough to live life on her own terms.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

There’s nothing more fierce than friendship in this lush thriller.

Wilder Girls

By Rory Power

It’s been eighteen months since the Raxter School for Girls was put under quarantine, since the Tox hit and pulled Hetty’s life out from under her. Cut off from the rest of the world and left to fend for themselves on their island home, the girls don’t dare wander outside the school’s fence, where the Tox has made the woods wild and dangerous. But when her best friend goes missing, Hetty will do anything to find her, even if it means breaking quarantine and braving the horrors that lie beyond.

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

She will become the world’s greatest hero, but for now, she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons.

Wonder Woman: Warbringer

By Leigh Bardugo

Diana’s fight is just beginning. She has been trained for battle and longs to prove herself, but instead she breaks Amazon law to save a mortal girl. In this action-packed adventure by real-life superhero Leigh Bardugo the two girls must stand together to save both of their worlds.