Your YA Reading List for Women’s History Month 2023

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are highlighting some recent and upcoming YA books that celebrate the diversity of the female experience. From YA historical fiction that honors past generations of strong women and their fight to escape society’s restrictions to contemporary YA that depicts modern women standing up against misogyny and discrimination, these titles will remind you that every woman has a unique story to tell, and that all these stories need to be shared and amplified.

Beyond the Mapped Stars

By Rosalyn Eves

In the late nineteenth-century American West, Elizabeth tries to reconcile her dreams of being an astronomer with her conservative community’s expectation that she focus only on marriage and motherhood.

Great or Nothing

By Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood

This YA reimagining of Little Women takes places in 1942 as America is reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the March family has suffered a heartbreaking loss. Great or Nothing was written by four YA authors, each of whom crafts the narrative of one March sister. This book will delight longtime Little Women fans, introduce a new generation of readers to this beloved family, and celebrate sisterhood and self-discovery.

Does My Body Offend You?

By Mayra Cuevas, Marie Marquardt

Malena and her family fled Puerto Rico for Florida after Hurricane Maria. Ruby, a student at Malena’s new school, is a feminist rebel looking for a cause. When Ruby notices that Malena is being singled out for breaking the dress code, she wants to help. Together, these young women will have to negotiate their shared activism, their cultural differences, and their friendship.

The Gilded Ones #2: The Merciless Ones

By Namina Forna

Coming 04.04.23

It’s been six months since Deka has freed the goddesses and discovered who she really is. There are now wars waging across the kingdom. Oterans now think jatu are traitors to the nation. Deka is called a monster. But the real battle has only just begun and Deka must lead the charge. Deka is tasked with freeing the rest of the goddesses. Only as she begins to free them, she begins to see a strange symbol everywhere in places of worship and worn on armor. There’s something unnatural about that symbol; just looking at it makes Deka lose her senses. Even worse, it seems to repel her powers. She can’t command or communicate with the new deathshrieks. In fact, she can’t even understand them when they speak.

Off the Record

By Camryn Garrett

When Josie, a teen journalist, wins a contest to write a profile of a famous actor, she’s elated. But as she researches her piece, she begins to hear disturbing stories about sexual harassment and abuse in Hollywood that she finds impossible to ignore. Josie wants to give these women a platform, but fears that doing so could end her career before it even begins.

Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman

By Kristen R. Lee

Savannah, a Black first year student at an elite university, watches her college dreams turn into a nightmare. First, she endures constant microaggressions from her classmates. Then she witnesses a shocking incident of racist vandalism on campus. Savannah decides that she has to speak out, but will her courage cost her her safety and her future?

The Dragon's Promise

By Elizabeth Lim

Princess Shiori made a deathbed promise to return the dragon’s pearl to its rightful owner, but keeping that promise is more dangerous than she ever imagined. She must journey to the kingdom of dragons, navigate political intrigue among humans and dragons alike, fend off thieves who covet the pearl for themselves and will go to any lengths to get it, all while cultivating the appearance of a perfect princess to dissuade those who would see her burned at the stake for the magic that runs in her blood.

The Silver Blonde

By Elizabeth Ross

After the end of World War II, Clara is working as a vault girl, shelving reels of film in a Hollywood studio. When she stumbles on the body of a movie star, she’ll have to solve a murder and come to terms with the difficulties of being a German American woman in the 1940s.

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim

By Patricia Park

Alejandra Kim doesn’t feel like she belongs anywhere. At her wealthy Manhattan high school, her súper Spanish name and súper Korean face do not compute to her mostly white “woke” classmates and teachers. In her Jackson Heights neighborhood, she’s not Latinx enough. Even at home, Ale feels unwelcome. And things at home have only gotten worse since Papi’s body was discovered on the subway tracks.

Dear Medusa

By Olivia A. Cole

Sixteen-year-old Alicia Rivers is follwed by whispers throughout the hallways at school—whispers that splinter into a million different insults that really mean: a girl who has had sex. But what her classmates don’t know is that Alicia was sexually abused by a popular teacher, and that trauma has rewritten every cell in her body into someone she doesn’t recognize. But when mysterious letters left in her locker hint at another victim, Alicia struggles to keep up the walls she’s built around her trauma. At the same time, her growing attraction to a new girl in school makes her question what those walls are really keeping out.

The Epic Story of Every Living Thing

By Deb Caletti

Harper Proulx has lived her whole life with unanswered questions about her anonymous sperm donor father. She’s convinced that without knowing him, she can’t know herself. When a chance Instagram post connects Harper to a half sibling, that connection yields many more and ultimately leads Harper to uncover her father’s identity. So, Harper joins her newfound half siblings on a voyage to Hawaii to face their father. The events of that summer, and the man they discover will force Harper to face some even bigger questions: Who is she? Is she her DNA, her experiences, her successes, her failures? Is she the things she loves—or the things she hates? Who she is in dark times? Who she might become after them?

Lucha of the Night Forest

By Tehlor Kay Mejia

Lucha will do anything to protect her sister—even if it means striking a dangerous bargain. Caught between the freedom she always wanted and a sister she can’t bear to leave behind, will Lucha be able to step into her own power . . . or will she be consumed by it?

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Your YA Reading List for Women’s History Month 2023

Beyond the Mapped Stars

By Rosalyn Eves

Great or Nothing

By Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood

Does My Body Offend You?

By Mayra Cuevas, Marie Marquardt

The Gilded Ones #2: The Merciless Ones

By Namina Forna

Off the Record

By Camryn Garrett

Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman

By Kristen R. Lee

The Dragon's Promise

By Elizabeth Lim

The Silver Blonde

By Elizabeth Ross

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim

By Patricia Park

Dear Medusa

By Olivia A. Cole

The Epic Story of Every Living Thing

By Deb Caletti

Lucha of the Night Forest

By Tehlor Kay Mejia

Like this reading list of Women’s History Month YA books? Check out other book nerd reading lists here, and get social with us at @getunderlined!

Join the conversation

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Your YA Reading List for Women’s History Month 2023

Beyond the Mapped Stars

By Rosalyn Eves

Great or Nothing

By Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood

Does My Body Offend You?

By Mayra Cuevas, Marie Marquardt

The Gilded Ones #2: The Merciless Ones

By Namina Forna

Off the Record

By Camryn Garrett

Required Reading for the Disenfranchised Freshman

By Kristen R. Lee

The Dragon's Promise

By Elizabeth Lim

The Silver Blonde

By Elizabeth Ross

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim

By Patricia Park

Dear Medusa

By Olivia A. Cole

The Epic Story of Every Living Thing

By Deb Caletti

Lucha of the Night Forest

By Tehlor Kay Mejia

Like this reading list of Women’s History Month YA books? Check out other book nerd reading lists here, and get social with us at @getunderlined!

Join the conversation

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