Children's Audiobooks: Teens

The Breakfast Club meets Can't Hardly Wait with an unforgettable ensemble cast in another swoony YA contemporary from award-winning author Julian Winters!

Seventeen-year-old Theo Wright has it all figured out. His plan (well, more like his dad’s plan) is a foolproof strategy that involves exceling at his magnet school, getting scouted by college... Read more »

The Black Queen

“This was such a fun and twisty YA mystery. Told from two different POVs, Duchess (a Black student) and Tinsley (a white student), ultimately join forces to see if they can solve who killed Nova, the first Black homecoming queen and Duchess' best friend. This will satisfy all mystery readers and also tackles issues of structural racism, police bias as well as forging your own path.”

Audrey, Belmont Books

The Kindred

“This sci-fi romance adventure was so fun! I loved Dow’s The Sound of Stars and this standalone sequel did not disappoint. Joy and Felix are star-crossed soulmates, aliens from different planets and social standings, but when the unthinkable happens and they launch a daring escape, they crash land on earth… in Florida! I loved everything about this and will be reading everything Dow writes from now on. ”

Miriasha, Phoenix Books

Chronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is a powerful and stunning novel-in-verse.

In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women and children from Benin and Nigeria were captured and brought to Mobile, Alabama aboard a ship called Clotilda.... Read more »

What's more important: knowing the truth or keeping the peace? When her family moves to Bardell, Georgia, on the cusp of her senior year, Avery Anderson is uprooted from DC and thrust into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and reveals a... Read more »

Vinyl Moon

“Bahni Turpin's narration of Mahogany L. Browne's Vinyl Moon was spectacular. The story and the performance pulled me into the protagonist, Angel's, world and kept me engaged there as she navigated a new school and city in her junior year of high school....I highly recommend this listen for anyone who needs to see that we're not defined by what's happened in the past, and that we deserve and are capable of good things regardless of what we've been through. Let Turpin's narration sweep you up in the warmth that Angel and her peers deserve.”

Julie, Pocket Books Shop

From the moment Sunny Nwazue discovered she had mystical energy flowing in her blood, she sought to understand and control her powers. Throughout her adventures in Akata Witch and Akata Warrior, she had to navigate the balance between nearly everything in her life—America and Nigeria, the "normal" world and the one infused with juju, human and... Read more »

The Gilded Ones #2: The Merciless Ones

“The Merciless Ones (The Gilded Ones #2) is an imaginative and adventurous romp through a well-crafted world filled with intense battles, power struggles, and plot twists leaving your heart pumping and ready for the next installment.”

Demetrius, Resist Booksellers

 Vera has unusual dreams - anything she dreams comes alive. Dream Traveling, her family calls it. Doing it all her life, Dream Traveling doesn't affect Vera as much as it used to. She has her rules and her methods - as long as she follows them, all is fine. Until she sees something she discovered she couldn't handle. Now, her dreams are plagued... Read more »

“Readers won’t be able to get enough of these dope-ass characters.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, author of Clap When You Land

Hitch meets The Sun Is Also a Star in this “mega swoon-worthy, effortlessly cool” (Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author) novel about a self-professed teen love doctor with a popular radio segment who believes he can... Read more »

The Weight of the Stars

“A scrappy, messy found family of a friend group, teen lesbian romance, and a mix of realism and a vague sense of magic- K. Ancrum has crafted another beautiful, heart-tugging book.”

Miriasha, Phoenix Books

From Africanfuturist luminary Okorafor comes a new science fiction novel of intense action and thoughtful rumination on biotechnology, destiny, and humanity in a near-future Nigeria.

Anwuli Okwudili prefers to be called AO. To her, these initials have always stood for Artificial Organism. AO has never really felt . . . natural, and that's... Read more »

Within These Wicked Walls

“The blend of magic and realism is fun and the heavy romance is a delight. Blackwood's skill at combining our reality, for instance, a religion with God (He) and all its accoutrements, slavery, and abuse, with a fantastical magical system involving amulets, evil spirits, blood-mad hyenas, and clay people, is well done. A well crafted homage to Jane Eyre.”

Kristine, Buttonwood Books and Toys

In the spellbinding sequel to Blood Like Magic, Voya fights to save her witch community from a terrible future in this “poignant, smart, and wholly unique” (Tracy Deonn, New York Times bestselling author of Legendborn) novel that’s perfect for fans of Legendborn and Cemetery Boys.

Voya Thomas may have passed her Calling to become a full-fledged... Read more »

In this much anticipated follow up to New York Times bestselling Beasts of Prey, Koffi’s powers grow stronger and Ekon’s secrets turn darker as they face the god of death.

After having promised to use her new powers to serve Fedu, the cunning god of death, and assist in his plans to remake the world, Koffi finds herself a prisoner in Thornkeep—a... Read more »

The hotly anticipated sequel to the instant New York Times bestselling YA fantasy about Tarisai’s quest to change her fateFor the first time, an Empress Redemptor sits on Aritsar’s throne. To appease the sinister spirits of the dead, Tarisai must now anoint a council of her own, coming into her full power as a Raybearer. She must then descend... Read more »

From the award-winning author of The Field Guide to the North American Teenager comes a whip-smart and layered romantic comedy. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han.  Henri “Halti” Haltiwanger can charm just about anyone. He is a star debater and popular student at the prestigious FATE academy, the dutiful first-generation Haitian son,... Read more »

The Black Kids

“"I know she resents me and resents being here. She thinks I don't care. But it's not that; it's that there's so very much to care about, so much to feel, and instead of trying to sort out what's in my head, sometimes I don't want to feel any of it."

Christina Hammonds Reed's writing is gorgeous and transporting as she tells the story of Ashley, a Black teen living in LA during the 1992 riots. As the novel progresses, Ashley tries to carry on life as normal in her predominantly white neighborhood and private school. But despite all the ways she is similar, her friends and classmates begin to see her as one of "the Black kids" and Ashley must learn what that means. As she struggles to understand her own identity so does Los Angeles. This is a powerful novel that belongs in the hand of every teen and those that love them. Content warnings for descriptions of violence and police brutality, discussions of past suicide.”

Faith, Page 158 Books

Let Me Hear a Rhyme

“I listened to this book on audio during my commute & read chapters while at home and enjoyed it in BOTH formats. The story of 3 friends trying to get a record deal for their murdered best friend & brother was strained in parts but the desire to see the outcome & my enjoyment of the characters carried me through.”

Rachael , Books Inc.

Monday's Not Coming

“My heart ached as the teenaged protagonist Claudia struggled to make sense of why her best friend Monday is simply gone. As Claudia reaches out to peers and adults again and again, you can feel her frustration with things out of her control. The actor on the audio book was a perfect choice to narrate. The book serves as an important reminder that some adolescents are dealing with chronic or extreme circumstances that have lasting impact.”

Carol, Bank Square Books