Welcome to the September 2023 YA Books New Release Spotlight ! This month’s Spotlight is in a different format from my previous Spotlights. I really like it, and I plan to continue using this format for the October 2023 Spotlights.
ABOUT THE SEPTEMBER 2023 YA BOOKS
September brings us a wide variety of YA book genres, diverse characters, and international settings. There are 22 books total, whittled down from a starting list of 45 YA books. The YA titles were the smallest group of the three September New Release Spotlights. I started from a smaller list of new book releases, and on top of that, many of those did not meet my basic criteria for inclusion.
I was also surprised that there were only two YA graphic novels that meet my criteria; there are usually at least 4-6 YA graphic novels that meet my criteria in any given month.
Realistic fiction, fantasy, and romance are the best-represented genres.
My top picks for September 2023 YA books:
- The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White
- The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes
- Those Pink Mountain Nights by Jen Ferguson – fun to cozy up with on a cold winter night!
- All the Fighting Parts by Hannah V. Sawyerr
- Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake
HOW TO USE THE SEPTEMBER 2023 YA SPOTLIGHT IN YOUR LIBRARY
This post has four parts. I’ve linked each below for easy reference, but they are also linked in the body of this post.
- Google Slides presentation (click “use template” to make a copy)
- printable list of YA September 2023 Spotlight titles (sorted by genre; click “use template” to make a copy)
- The Ginormous Book List
- Amazon-linked book covers, sorted by genre and topic – links are in Part IV below
PART I: GOOGLE SLIDES PRESENTATION – SEPTEMBER 2023 YA BOOKS
The first part of the New Release Spotlight is the Google Slides presentation. This is downloadable, editable, and FREE!
The Google Slides presentation includes each book’s publisher’s summary, genre, setting, grade levels, themes, protagonist description, and any notes I might need to add.
This presentation is great to play on a loop in the library! Trust me, students will ask for some of the books, which to me is the #1 best way to develop a student-centered library collection.
This presentation is now complete for September 2023. I will not be adding any more titles to the presentation, so you can now download the full presentation and play it on a loop in your library!
Click here to download the presentation. Click “Use Template” in the
top-right corner to make an editable copy for your own Google Drive.
PART II – PRINTABLE LIST OF SEPTEMBER 2023 YA BOOKS BY GENRE AND TOPIC
You can download a one-page, printable list from this Google page. This list is also complete for September 2023. No new titles will be added.
The list is sorted by genre and topic. Includes book title and author’s last name. The list is fully-editable, so you can add or remove whatever you need to suit the needs of your library.
Books that fall into more than one genre are listed under each genre (so some titles are on the list more than once).
PART III – THE GINORMOUS BOOK LIST
Since October 2019, I have added the New Release Spotlight books to The Ginormous Booklist. This is a huge Google spreadsheet that currently has over 3600 titles for K-12.
I will continue to add information from the September Spotlight titles to The Ginormous as normal. Scroll to the bottom for the newest titles.
PART IV – SEPTEMBER 2023 YA BOOK COVERS WITH AMAZON LINKS
The fourth part of the September 2023 YA Spotlight is a sorting area by genre and topic.
The cover images below are clickable Amazon Affiliate links. If you use them to make a purchase, I will get a small commission from your purchase.
I am including the cover images below to help make it easier for you to find the books. I know I sometimes have trouble finding them on Titlewave just by title or author.
The book cover links below will tell you the ISBN (scroll down to book details) and give you an overall list of books without having to scroll through the entire Google presentation. This list is now complete, so no new titles will be added.
Because some books fall into multiple genre or topic categories, you will find some books listed more than once below.
REALISTIC FICTION
HORROR
GRAPHIC NOVELS
FANTASY
ROMANCE
NOVEL IN VERSE, JOURNAL, OR EPISTOLARY FORMAT
SUPERNATURAL
DYSTOPIA
MYSTERY
SPORTS FICTION
SHORT STORIES / STORY COLLECTIONS / ANTHOLOGIES
MEMOIR
MYTHOLOGY
MORE SEPTEMBER 2023 BOOK RELEASES
ABOUT THE SPOTLIGHT
The New Release Spotlight began in May 2016 as a way to help librarians keep up with the many new children’s and YA books that are released each week.
Each week, school librarian Leigh Collazo compiles the New Release Spotlight using a combination of Follett’s Titlewave, Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Recommended grade levels represent the range of grade levels recommended by professional book reviewers. See the full selection criteria here.