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Iowa State Reading Lists

2023 - 2024 Iowa Teen Book Award Nominee

Ain't Burned All the Bright

Illustrated by Jason Griffin
This edition: Hardcover, 384 pages
Publication date: January 11, 2022
Ages: 12 - 99

A Caldecott Honor winner! Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is ...

The List of Unspeakable Fears

This edition: Hardcover, 288 pages
Publication date: September 14, 2021
Ages: 8 - 12

The War That Saved My Life meets Coraline in this “deliciously creepy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) middle grade historical novel following ...

2022 - 2023 Iowa Teen Book Award Nominee

Long Way Down

The Graphic Novel
Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff
This edition: Hardcover, 208 pages
Publication date: October 13, 2020
Ages: 14 - 99

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021) Jason Reynolds’s Newbery Honor, Printz Honor, and Coretta Scott King Honor–winning, #1 New York Times bestse...

2022 - 2023 Iowa Teen Book Award

All This Time

This edition: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publication date: September 29, 2020
Ages: 12 - 99

From the team behind #1 New York Times bestseller Five Feet Apart comes a gripping new romance that asks: Can you find true love after losing every...

2020 - 2021 Iowa Teen Book Award Nominee

Five Feet Apart

This edition: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publication date: November 20, 2018
Ages: 12 - 99

Now a major motion picture starring Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson! Goodreads Choice Winner, Best Young Adult Fiction of 2019 A YALSA 2020 Q...

2022 - 2023 Iowa High School Book Award Nominee

The Cost of Knowing

This edition: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publication date: April 06, 2021
Ages: 12 - 99

Four starred reviews! Dear Martin meets They Both Die at the End in this gripping, evocative novel about a Black teen who has the power to see into...

A Heart in a Body in the World

This edition: Hardcover, 368 pages
Publication date: September 18, 2018
Ages: 14 - 99

“This is one for the ages.” —Gayle Forman, author of the #1 bestseller If I Stay “A book everyone should read right now.” —The New York Times Book ...

Roll with It

(Part of Roll with It)
This edition: Hardcover, 256 pages
Publication date: October 01, 2019
Ages: 10 - 99

A Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Book of 2019 “A big-hearted story that’s as sweet as it is awesome.” —R.J. Palacio, author of Wonder In the trad...

All This Time

This edition: Hardcover, 336 pages
Publication date: September 29, 2020
Ages: 12 - 99

From the team behind #1 New York Times bestseller Five Feet Apart comes a gripping new romance that asks: Can you find true love after losing every...

2020 - 2021 Iowa High School Book Award Nominee

Dry

This edition: Hardcover, 400 pages
Publication date: October 02, 2018
Ages: 12 - 99

When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harro...

2022 - 2023 Iowa Goldfinch Award Nominee

Nobody Hugs a Cactus

Illustrated by Carter Goodrich
This edition: Hardcover, 48 pages
Publication date: April 16, 2019
Ages: 4 - 8

Celebrated artist and lead character designer of Brave, Ratatouille, and Despicable Me, Carter Goodrich, shows that sometimes, even the prickliest ...

2022 - 2023 Iowa Children's Choice Award Master List Selection

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation

(Part of Charlie Thorne)
This edition: Hardcover, 400 pages
Publication date: September 17, 2019
Ages: 10 - 99

“Fast-paced, smart, and action-packed...a real page-burner.” —Chris Grabenstein, #1 New York Times bestelling author of the Mr. Lemoncello’s Librar...

City Spies

(Book #1 of City Spies)
This edition: Hardcover, 384 pages
Publication date: March 10, 2020
Ages: 8 - 12

A New York Times bestseller! A GMA3 Summer Reading Squad Selection! “Ingeniously plotted, and a grin-inducing delight.” —People “Will keep young re...

Alone

(Part of Alone)
This edition: Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication date: January 12, 2021
Ages: 10 - 99

A New York Times bestseller! Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcar...

City Spies

(Book #1 of City Spies)
This edition: Hardcover, 384 pages
Publication date: March 10, 2020
Ages: 8 - 12

A New York Times bestseller! A GMA3 Summer Reading Squad Selection! “Ingeniously plotted, and a grin-inducing delight.” —People “Will keep young re...

Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation

(Part of Charlie Thorne)
This edition: Hardcover, 400 pages
Publication date: September 17, 2019
Ages: 10 - 99

“Fast-paced, smart, and action-packed...a real page-burner.” —Chris Grabenstein, #1 New York Times bestelling author of the Mr. Lemoncello’s Librar...

2021 - 2022 Iowa Children's Choice Award Master List Selection

Blended

This edition: Hardcover, 320 pages
Publication date: October 30, 2018
Ages: 8 - 12

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s blended family is more divided than ever in this thoughtful story about divorce and racial identity from the award-winni...

Look Both Ways

A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
Illustrated by Alexander Nabaum
This edition: Hardcover, 208 pages
Publication date: October 08, 2019
Ages: 10 - 14

A National Book Award Finalist Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book UK Carnegie Medal winner An NPR Favorite Book of 2019 A New York Times Best Chi...

Team Players

(Part of Home Team)
This edition: Hardcover, 304 pages
Publication date: April 03, 2018
Ages: 8 - 12

Cassie must learn that you can’t “fix” someone else after a girl with Aspergers joins her softball team in the fourth and final book of the Home Te...

Alone

(Part of Alone)
This edition: Hardcover, 416 pages
Publication date: January 12, 2021
Ages: 10 - 99

A New York Times bestseller! Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcar...