Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

*YALSA has launched the new Teen Book Finder Database, which is a one-stop shop for finding selected lists and award winners. Users can search this free resource by award, list name, year, author, genre and more, as well as print customizable lists. This new resource will replace the individual award and list web pages currently on YALSA’s site that are not searchable and that are organized only by year.

Each year, the Popular Paperbacks committee creates lists of books to encourage young adults to read for pleasure. The lists of popular or topical titles are widely available in paperback and represent a broad variety of accessible themes and genres.

Current List

Previous Lists

Policies and Procedures

Committee Contacts

Teen Book Finder App

Please note: This list has been retired. New lists will not be released.

2017 Popular Paperbacks Titles:

2017 Popular Paperbacks Titles

Biography: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story: This selection of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs highlights the struggles young adults face in forming their identities and deciding what kinds of people they want to be.

Horror: Better Dead than Unread: The committee's update of the 2011 Chillers and Thrillers list showcases the abundance of horror books for young adults.

Living Overseas: Stranger in a Strange Land: This list of young adults living in foreign countries and attempting to navigate new languages supports YALSA's 2016 Teen Read Week's multilingual Read for the Fun of It theme.

Mental Health: Invisible Wounds: According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 1 in 5 teens have or will develop a serious mental illness. This list takes a look at how mental health and mental illness is portrayed in books for young adults.

Top Ten