2026 Tayshas Reading List

All the noise at once

Davis, DeAndra,


School Library Journal starred, April 2025. Booklist starred, April 2025. Kirkus Review, February 2025. Publishers Weekly Annex, April 2025. All Aiden has ever wanted to do was play football just like his star quarterback brother, Brandon. When he finally gets a chance to play the game he loves. However, not every player is happy about the new addition to the team, wary of how Aiden’s autism will present itself on game day. Tensions rise. A fight breaks out. Cops are called. Brandon interferes on behalf of his brother, but is arrested. When he’s wrongly charged for felony assault on an officer, everything Brandon has worked for starts to slip away. As Brandon’s trial inches closer, Aiden is desperate to figure out what really happened that night. Can he clear his brother’s name in time?
Date Published:2025

School Library Journal starred, April 2025. Booklist starred, April 2025. Kirkus Review, February 2025. Publishers Weekly Annex, April 2025. All Aiden has ever wanted to do was play football just like his star quarterback brother, Brandon. When he finally gets a chance to play the game he loves. However, not every player is happy about the new addition to the team, wary of how Aiden’s autism will present itself on game day. Tensions rise. A fight breaks out. Cops are called. Brandon interferes on behalf of his brother, but is arrested. When he’s wrongly charged for felony assault on an officer, everything Brandon has worked for starts to slip away. As Brandon’s trial inches closer, Aiden is desperate to figure out what really happened that night. Can he clear his brother’s name in time?

Date Published:2025

Death in the cards

Manansala, Mia P.,


Booklist, Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Though she runs a side hustle as a tarot card reader, seventeen-year-old Danika Dizon really wants a paid spot working at her mother's private investigation business. When her classmate Eli Delgado goes missing shortly after a reading with her in which she dealt the Death card, Danika is approached by Eli's younger sister Gaby to take the case. Danika learns Eli was keeping secrets and as she and Gaby uncover her hidden life, they learn some people don't want the truth to come out.
Date Published:2025

Booklist, Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Though she runs a side hustle as a tarot card reader, seventeen-year-old Danika Dizon really wants a paid spot working at her mother's private investigation business. When her classmate Eli Delgado goes missing shortly after a reading with her in which she dealt the Death card, Danika is approached by Eli's younger sister Gaby to take the case. Danika learns Eli was keeping secrets and as she and Gaby uncover her hidden life, they learn some people don't want the truth to come out.

Date Published:2025

Every borrowed beat

Stewart, Erin, 1982-,


Booklist, Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal starred, Sydney Wells was supposed to have died, but she received an unexpected heart transplant after the tragic death of another girl her age, Mia. Looking into Mia's life out of gratitude, Sydney meets Clayton, Mia's best friend, and together they decide to honor Mia by checking things off of her life vision board. The one thing holding Sydney back from falling for Clayton, though, is that she lied to him about having known Mia--she has kept her heart transplant a secret, and worries she will never be able to tell him.
Date Published:2025

Booklist, Kirkus Review, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal starred, Sydney Wells was supposed to have died, but she received an unexpected heart transplant after the tragic death of another girl her age, Mia. Looking into Mia's life out of gratitude, Sydney meets Clayton, Mia's best friend, and together they decide to honor Mia by checking things off of her life vision board. The one thing holding Sydney back from falling for Clayton, though, is that she lied to him about having known Mia--she has kept her heart transplant a secret, and worries she will never be able to tell him.

Date Published:2025

The glass girl

Glasgow, Kathleen.


Everyone in fifteen-year-old Bella's life needs something from her. Her mom needs her to help around the house, her dad needs her to not make waves, her ex needs her to not be so much. The only person who never needed anything from her was her grandmother--and now she's dead. There's only one thing that dulls the pressure. Vodka, beer, peppermint schnapps...alcohol smooths the sharp edges of Bella's life. And what's the big deal? Everyone drinks. Besides, Bella can stop whenever she wants. But after she gets blackout drunk at a Thanksgiving party and wakes up in the hospital, it's time to face reality. And for Bella, reality means rehab.
Date Published:2024

Everyone in fifteen-year-old Bella's life needs something from her. Her mom needs her to help around the house, her dad needs her to not make waves, her ex needs her to not be so much. The only person who never needed anything from her was her grandmother--and now she's dead. There's only one thing that dulls the pressure. Vodka, beer, peppermint schnapps...alcohol smooths the sharp edges of Bella's life. And what's the big deal? Everyone drinks. Besides, Bella can stop whenever she wants. But after she gets blackout drunk at a Thanksgiving party and wakes up in the hospital, it's time to face reality. And for Bella, reality means rehab.

Date Published:2024

The kill factor

Oliver, Ben,


School Library Journal, April 2024. Publishers Weekly, February 2024. Booklist, March 2024. Bulletin (Center for Children's Books), April 2024. Kirkus Review, February 2024. In a near-future where a virtual currency of digital content fuels a fame-hungry society, a brand-new experiment that combines social media and reality TV has been greenlit. Contestants are sent to a maximum-security reform camp on an island where they can have no contact with the outside world. To lose means prison. But to win is to be free. The most popular young offender with the most upvotes by the end is given both a second chance in society and a cash prize. This kind of money could mean everything to Emerson and her family who live in the Burrows, one of the subterranean villages where the government have buried affordable housing. It's more than freedom. It could mean the chance to change her family's circumstance and finally find a place in the society they've never been allowed into. But what Emerson doesn't know, what the viewers don't know, is that the prison on the island is empty. Those who lose, those who are voted off, aren't incarcerated. Each challenge will leave more and more contestants to die. And the only choice they have is to win over viewers before it's too late.
Date Published:2024

School Library Journal, April 2024. Publishers Weekly, February 2024. Booklist, March 2024. Bulletin (Center for Children's Books), April 2024. Kirkus Review, February 2024. In a near-future where a virtual currency of digital content fuels a fame-hungry society, a brand-new experiment that combines social media and reality TV has been greenlit. Contestants are sent to a maximum-security reform camp on an island where they can have no contact with the outside world. To lose means prison. But to win is to be free. The most popular young offender with the most upvotes by the end is given both a second chance in society and a cash prize. This kind of money could mean everything to Emerson and her family who live in the Burrows, one of the subterranean villages where the government have buried affordable housing. It's more than freedom. It could mean the chance to change her family's circumstance and finally find a place in the society they've never been allowed into. But what Emerson doesn't know, what the viewers don't know, is that the prison on the island is empty. Those who lose, those who are voted off, aren't incarcerated. Each challenge will leave more and more contestants to die. And the only choice they have is to win over viewers before it's too late.

Date Published:2024

This thing of ours

Joseph, Frederick, (Activist),


Booklist, Kirkus Reviews Starred, Publishers Weekly Starred, After a torn ACL threatens his promising basketball career, a Black teen named Ossie Brown finds himself lost without his athletic identity to define him at his affluent, predominantly white school. He finds a lifeline in the highly regarded writing program run by Ms. Hunt, a Black teacher at his school, and forms new friendships with classmates who see him as more than just an asset to the sports program. But when complaints against Ms. Hunt lead to her getting fired, Ossie and his new friends must find a way to ensure their voices are heard.
Date Published:2025

Booklist, Kirkus Reviews Starred, Publishers Weekly Starred, After a torn ACL threatens his promising basketball career, a Black teen named Ossie Brown finds himself lost without his athletic identity to define him at his affluent, predominantly white school. He finds a lifeline in the highly regarded writing program run by Ms. Hunt, a Black teacher at his school, and forms new friendships with classmates who see him as more than just an asset to the sports program. But when complaints against Ms. Hunt lead to her getting fired, Ossie and his new friends must find a way to ensure their voices are heard.

Date Published:2025

When we ride : a novel /

Ogle, Rex,


Diego Benevides works hard. His single mother encourages him to stay focused on school, on getting into college, on getting out of their crumbling neighborhood. That's why she gave him her car. Diego's best friend, Lawson, needs a ride--because Lawson is dealing. As long as Diego's not carrying, not selling, it's cool. It's just weed. But when Lawson starts carrying powder and pills and worse, their friendship is tested and their lives are threatened. As the lines between dealer and driver blur, everything Diego has worked for is jeopardized, and he faces a deadly reckoning with the choices he and his best friend have made.
Date Published:2025

Diego Benevides works hard. His single mother encourages him to stay focused on school, on getting into college, on getting out of their crumbling neighborhood. That's why she gave him her car. Diego's best friend, Lawson, needs a ride--because Lawson is dealing. As long as Diego's not carrying, not selling, it's cool. It's just weed. But when Lawson starts carrying powder and pills and worse, their friendship is tested and their lives are threatened. As the lines between dealer and driver blur, everything Diego has worked for is jeopardized, and he faces a deadly reckoning with the choices he and his best friend have made.

Date Published:2025