Announcing the Longlist for the 2019 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature

The Undefeated, by Kwame Alexander and Kadir Nelson
“This is for the unforgettable/ The swift and sweet ones/ who hurdled history/ and opened a world/ of possible,” begins this incredible poem that was originally performed for ESPN’s The Undefeated. Kwame Alexander delivers an anthem to Black Americans, accompanied by beautiful portraits by two-time Caldecott Honoree Kadir Nelson, highlighting the endurance and spirit of black people in the United States throughout history and the present day. An important and powerful new work not to be missed.

Shout, by Laurie Halse Anderson
It’s been twenty years since Anderson’s groundbreaking and award-winning novel Speak was published, giving a voice to survivors of sexual assault (including the author herself). In this lyrical memoir, written in poetry and free verse, Anderson digs deep into the difficult truth: society’s treatment of women and girls hasn’t changed as much as it should have in the intervening two decades. By reflecting on her own experiences, the experiences of her parents, and the ways in which both inspired her writing and perspective on the world, she lifts up and celebrates people who speak out, while adding to their volume and demanding more from those in power.

Pet, by Akwaeke Emezi
Monsters were banished from the town of Lucille a long time ago—or at least that’s what everyone thought. Jam’s been taught that the bigotry and injustice they brought with them are things of the past. But then hulking Pet claws its way out of her mother’s painting. Pet warns that there is a monster in Lucille, and it’s in her best friend Redemption’s house. Emezi’s YA debut is a compelling allegory for our time, carried on the shoulders of a fascinating cast of characters, at the center of which is Jam, black, transgender, and selectively nonverbal. We can almost guarantee you won’t read anything else like it this year.

A Place to Belong, by Cynthia Kadohata and Julia Kuo
After suffering terrible treatment in America’s Japanese internment camps, twelve-year-old Hanako’s family gives up their American citizenship and moves to Japan—near the city of Hiroshima, which has been devastated the the atomic bomb. There, they hope to find better lives, staying with with Hanako’s grandparents, who live just outside the ruined city. But when they arrive, they find only desperate poverty, and streets filled with starving orphans. Hanako is forced to make impossible choices; should she try to help others, when she can barely help herself? Through it all, she finds herself turning to family—for survival in the present, and hope for the future.

Look Both Ways, by Jason Reynolds
One of the best things I read this year was Reynolds’s short story in Black Enough, about a group of boys dreaming of the perfect sandwich. His newest longer work is every bit as unusual and compelling, a novel told over the course of a ten-block walk. (Reynolds excels at deeply exploring moments in time;  Long Way Down, a National Book Awards Longlist selection in 2017 takes place in the 60 seconds it takes an elevator to descend, as the boy riding in it contemplates whether to carry out a revenge shooting). It’s a slice of life, or really of a bunch of lives, about what happens as you’re living, the detours and the conversations and the truth and the connections, and to make it even better, it’s an illustrated work, with art by Alexander Nabaum.

Patron Saints of Nothing, by Randy Ribay
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a book look as powerful and relevant as Ribay’s third novel, which tells the story of a boy named Jay whose entire plan for his final semester of high school is to play video games, until he learns his Filipino cousin Jun was a victim of President Duterte’s war on drugs. No one else in the family wants to discuss it, but Jay needs to find the truth behind his cousin’s murder, even if it means traveling to the Philippines to get it. He isn’t at all prepared for what he learns there, especially the fact that Jay himself had his own part in Jun’s death.

Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All, by Laura Ruby
Ruby (the Printz-winning rural fantasy Bone Gap) hops genres with her newest, set in Chicago during World War II and starring Frankie, who’s living with her siblings in an orphanage after the death of her mother and disappearance of her father. Her dad was supposed to return as soon as he made enough money to take care of them, but when he shows up for a weekend visit that turns out to be his final goodbye as he takes off for greener pastures with his new wife, Frankie and her sister, Toni, are now on their own, forcing Frankie to figure out how to make a life in a world that’s burning to embers around them.

1919: The Year That Changed America, by Martin W. Sandler
1919 was a momentous year, as Sandler documents in this fascinating overview of events ranging from Boston’s Great Molasses Flood, to laborers protesting working conditions, to women’s gaining the right to vote. Sandler breathes life into each event, gives it context, and examines its impact on modern day politics and culture; connections to immigration, the Black Lives Matter movement, and climate change will particularly resonate with young readers. A meticulous and breathtaking look at history’s influence on the present day.

Out of Salem, by Hal Schrieve 
So many major points for this one right at the offset: a fourteen-year-old protag—which is all too rare in queer YA—who happens to be genderqueer and using they/them pronouns, which is one of the only things rarer. Oh, and what you don’t get from the blurb is that there’s another queer narrator, Aysel, who’s fat and Turkish and a lesbian and oh, yes, also a werewolf. (Now that is how you dual-POV.) When Z’s entire family was killed in a car accident, they were the only one to come back. Now they’re trying to maintain a normal existence as an undead, but with their body falling apart, that’s easier said than done, even with a new guardian. In a world where they’re becoming increasingly undesirable to be around and Aysel is fearing for her life amid major werewolf discrimination and suspicious murders, the two form a deep friendship that may be the only thing that can save them both.

Kiss Number 8, by Colleen AF Venable and Ellen T. Crenshaw
The story of the ordinary, and thus extraordinary, life of a teenager growing up and coming into her awareness of her sexuality while grappling with a family secret, Kiss Number 8 unfolds in beautiful black-and-white illustrations that speak volumes. Amanda lives a typically full life for a teen in 2004, splitting her time between school, friends, church, and real passion, watching baseball with her ad. Her comfortable day-to-day is threatened on two fronts: she overhears a conversation that hints at a potentially devastating family secret, and at the same time, she begins to develop an awareness of her sexuality—and specifically, her more-than-friends feelings for her bestie Cat.
The 2019 National Book Award winners will be announced on November 20.