The New York Public Library Announces the Best Books of 2024 for Kids, Teens, and Adults

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The New York Public Library announced its Best Books of 2024, a curated list of more than 200 recommended titles published this year for children, teens, and adults. 

For nearly a century, NYPL’s expert librarians have been providing readers with their year-end recommendations, celebrating books that inspire a love of reading. This year’s lists were selected by committees and librarians who read hundreds of books across genres including romance, comics and graphic novels, poetry, literary fiction, and nonfiction.

The books have been sorted into four categories:

• Best Books for Kids (100 titles)
• Mejores libros para pequeños / Best Books for Kids in Spanish (22 titles)
• Best Books for Teens (50 titles)
• Best Books for Adults (50 titles)

The recommended titles can be found at nypl.org/bestbooks and are available to check out at branches across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, and, in many cases, through the Library’s free e-reader app, SimplyE. Recommendations can also be found year-round by visiting your local branch, contacting AskNYPL, or online at nypl.org/recommends.

The top 10 books for each category are listed below (in alphabetical order):  

Top 10 Books for Children

• Aloha Everything by Kaylin Melia George, illustrated by Mae Waite
• Detective Beans and the Case of the Missing Hat by Li Chen 
• Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem: The Vision of Roy DeCarava by Gary Golio, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
• Godfather Death by Sally Nicholls, illustrated by Júlia Sardà
• Made in Asian America: A History for Young People by Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat
• Mallory in Full Color by Elisa Stone Leahy
• Mishka by Edward van de Vendel and Anoush Elman, illustrated by Annet Schaap, translated from the Dutch by Nancy Forest-Flier
• The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim
• We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang
• When I Wrap My Hair by Shauntay Grant, illustrated by Jenin Mohammed

Mejores libros para pequeños/Best Books for Kids in Spanish

• Aire animal por Teodora, ilustrado por Paula Álvarez
• Cómo se come un mango por Paola Santos, ilustrado por Juliana Perdomo
• Cuando seamos ranas por Dipacho
• Gracias por Jarvis
• Llamando a mamá por Anya Damirón, ilustrado por César Barceló
• Los mariachis de Adela por Denise Vega, ilustrado por Erika Rodríguez Medina
• Ojalá pudiera decirte por Jean-François Sénéchal, ilustrado por Chiaki Okada
• Un plato de esperanza: La inspiradora historia del chef José Andrés y World Central Kitchen por Erin Frankel, ilustrado por Paola Escobar 
• El río es mi mar por Rio Cortez, ilustrado por Ashleigh Corrin
• La vida secreta de las babosas por Moesha Kellaway

Top 10 Books for Teens

• Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo
• Canto Contigo by Jonny Garza Villa
• The Deep Dark by Molly Knox Ostertag
• Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
• Gachiakuta, Volume 1 by Kei Urana and Hideyoshi Andou
• How the Boogeyman Became a Poet by Tony Keith, Jr.
• Leap by Simina Popescu
• Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell
• The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall
• Snowglobe by Soyoung Park, translated from the Korean by Joungmin Lee Comfort

Top 10 Books for Adults

• The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America by Aaron Robertson
• The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• I Was Working by Ariel Yelen
• The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger
• Rare Flavours by Ram V, art by Filipe Andrade
• Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
• A Sunny Place for Shady People: Stories by Mariana Enriquez, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
• You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
• You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
   

“One of our main priorities at The New York Public Library is to get people excited about reading. There is something for everyone at NYPL, and we want to help find that book that makes reading easy. Throughout the year we librarians and staff spend countless hours reading, selecting, discussing, and putting together this list of a wide variety of book titles that reflect our diverse patrons’ varied tastes. We’re proud to offer this list every year, and celebrate our readers and authors, especially at a time when the very act of reading, and the freedom to choose what to read, is under threat,” said Brian Bannon, Merryl and James Tisch Director of Branch Libraries and Education & Chief Librarian.

In addition to the Best Books lists, the Library is also shining a light on selections of books published in 2024 that focus on New York City and the performing arts as well as books that were made at NYPL—written and researched using the Library’s extensive collections—and books in translation. Learn more: nypl.org/bestbooks 

About The New York Public Library
For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With 92 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming, and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library: nypl.org/support