I know I missed We Need Diverse Books week or Banned Books week, but it took a while to compile this list of all the contemporary YA I’ve read over the years. Some overla since no one can be fit into one label, but I labeled some of them as many are #OwnVoices. Since it’s soon to be AAPI Heritage Month which overlaps with Jewish Heritage Month you might want to check those out first. Or not. It’s your choice to skim through. Enjoy!

First Nations

Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Hearts Unbroken (Muscogee MC)

Erika T. Wurth’s Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend (multi-tribal MC)

Dawn Quigley’s Apple in the Middle (Dakota Ojibwe MC)

Angelina Boulley’s Warrior Girl, Unbroken (Turtle Island Ojibwe MC)

Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams’ An Expanse of Blue (Kanaka Maoli/Native Hawai’ian)

Bryon Graves’ Rez Ball (Red Lake Ojibwe)

Brian Lee Young’s Shards of Silence (Navajo/Diné MC)

Ari Tison’s Saints of the Household (Bribri Costa Rican)

Elizabeth Santiago’s The Moonlit Vine (Puerto Rican-Taino FMC)

Black

Angie Thomas’s Concrete Rose, The Hate U Give and On the Come Up

Nic Stone’s Dear Martin, Dear Justyce, and Dear Manny

Camryn Garrett’s Full Disclosure, Off the Record and Friday I’m in Love

Renee Watson’s Piecing Me Together, Love is a Revolution and The Other Side of Home

Jane Igaro’s Dear Americanah (Nigerian FMC)

Nicola Yoon’s Steps for Dancing, The Sun is Also a Star (Korean MC/Jamaican FMC), and Everything, Everything (Jamaican FMC)

Jade Adia’s There Goes the Neighborhood

Joya Goffney’s My Week with Him, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, and Confessions of a Good Girl

Ibi Zoboi’s American Street (Haitian FMC)

Candice Iloh’s Everybody Watching (Nigerian FMC) and Salt to Water

Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown

Lamar Giles’ Not So Pure and Simple

Happily Ever Afters by Elisa Bryant

Khadijah VanBrakle’s Fatima Tate Takes the Cake, and The Perfect Family (Black Muslim FMC)

Tami Charles’ Like Vanessa

Kwame Ivery’s The Problem with the Other Side (Black MC/white FMC)

Terry Farish’s The Good Braider (Sudanese FMC)

Edwidge Danticat’s Untwine (Haitian FMCs)

Autumn Allen’s All You Have to Do

Hannah V. Sawyerr’s Truth Is, and All the Fighting Parts

Tiffany Jackson’s Allegedly

Una LaMarche’s Like No Other (Orthodox FMC/black MC)

Hispanic

Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land, With the Fire on High, and The Poet X (Dominican FMCs)

Hailey Alcaraz’s Up in Flames, and Rose By Any Other Name (Mexican FMCs)

Natalie Sylvester’s Running (Cuban FMC), and Breath and Count Back to 10 (Peruvian FMC)

Jennifer De Leon’s Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From (Guatemalan FMC)

Meg Medina’s Yaqui Delgado’s Gonna Kick Your Ass, Burn Baby Burn, and The Girl Who Could Silence the Wind

Crystal Maldonado’s Fat Chance, Charlie Vega (Puerto Rican FMC)

Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Secret of the Moon Conch (Mexican FMC)

Emery Lee’s Cafe con Lychee (Puerto Rican MC/Chinese MC)

Monica Gomez-Hira’s Once Upon a Quincenera (Mexican FMC)

Estela Undrowning by Rene Peña-Govea (Mexican FMC)

Ari Tison’s Saints of the Household (Bribri Costa Rican)

Elizabeth Santiago’s The Moonlit Vine (Puerto Rican-Taino FMC)

Maria E. Andreu’s Love in English (Argentinian FMC)

Sandra Proudman’s Salvación (Mexican FMC)

Fred Aceves’ The New David Espinoza (Mexican MC)

Aaron Aceves’ This Is Why They Hate Us (Mexican MC)

Patricia Park’s Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim (Argentinian-Korean FMC)

Asian

Mariko Turj’s The Other Side of Perfect (Japanese FMC)

Joanna Ho’s The Silence that Binds Us (Chinese FMC)

Gloria Chao’s American Panda, Rent a Girlfriend, When You Wish Upon a Lantern, Our Wayward Fate, and Ex Marks the Spot (Chinese-Taiwanese FMC)

Misa Sugaria’s This Time It Will Be Different (Japanese FMC)

Lyla Lee’s I’ll Be the One, The Cuffing Game and Flip the Script (Korean FMC)

Emiko Jean’s Tokyo Ever After, and Tokyo Dreaming (Japanese FMC)

Mitali Perkins’ You Bring the Distant Near (Indian FMC)

Kelly Yang’s Parachutes (Chinese FMC/Filipina FMC), and Private Label (Chinese FMC)

Sandhya Menon’s 10 Things About Pinky, From Twinkle, with Love, When Dimple Met Rishi and Something About Sweetie (Hindi Indian FMC)

Maureen Goo’s Somewhere Only We Know, Throwback, I Believe in Something Called Love, The Way You Make Me Feel, and Since You Asked (Korean FMCs)

Melissa De La Cruz’ 29 Dates (Chinese FMC), and Somewhere in Between (Filipina FMC)

Aashna Avachet’s Love Craves Cardamom (Indian FMC)

Aisha Saeed’s Written in the Stars (Pakistani FMC)

Priyanka Taslim’s The Love Match, and Always Be My Bibi (Bangladeshi Muslim FMCs)

Loan Le’s A Pho Story (Vietnamese FMC/MC)

Stephen Lee’s K-pop Revolution and K-pop Confidential (Korean FMC)

Abigail Hing Wei’s Loveboat Taipei trilogy (Chinese/Taipei FMC)

Nandini Baijapi’s Love Made in Mahendi (Sikh Indian FMC)

Emery Lee’s Cafe con Lychee (Puerto Rican MC/Chinese MC)

Sarah Kuhn’s From Tokyo, with Love (Japanese FMC)

Farah Naz Rishi’s If You’re Not the One (Pakistani FMC)

Pintip Dunn’s Dating Makes Perfect (Thai FMC)

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han (Korean FMC)

S.K. Ali’s Love from A to Z, Love from Mecca to Medina (Muslim Chinese MC/Guyanese-Saudi Arabian Muslim FMC)

Vinchet Chum’s Kween (Cambodian FMC)

Michelle Quach’s Not Here to Be Liked (Vietnamese-Chinese FMC/Chinese MC)

Tanya Boteju’s Bruised (Sri Lanken FMC)

Fake It Till You Make It by Jenn P. Nguyen (Vietnamese FMC)

Akemi Dawn Bowman’s Starfish (Japanese FMC)

Sayatani DasGupta’s Debating Darcy, and Rosewood (Indian FMC)

Stacey Lee’s The Downstairs Girl, and Luck of the Titanic (Chinese FMC)

Shannon C.F. Rogers’ I’d Rather Burn than Bloom, and Eighteen Roses (Filipina FMC)

Susan Lee’s Seoulmates (Korean FMC)

Navdeep Singh Dhillon’s Sunny G’s Series of Rash Decisions (Sikh Indian MC)

Alexandra Leigh Young’s Idol Gossip (Korean FMC)

Patricia Park’s Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim (Argentinian-Korean FMC)

Eric Smith’s Don’t Read the Comments (Palestinian MC/Indian FMC)

Anna Garcia’s Boys I Know (Taiwanese FMC)

Paula J. Freedman’s My Basmati Bat Mitzvah (Indian-Jewish FMC)

Jesmeen Knur Deo’s TJ Powar Has Something to Prove (Indian FMC)

Middle East

Samira Ahmed’s Hollow Fires, Internment, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know, The Singular Life of Aria Patel, This Book Won’t Burn, and Love, Hate and Other Filters (Muslim FMC)

S.K. Ali’s Love from A to Z, Love from Mecca to Medina (Muslim Chinese MC/Guyanese-Saudi Arabian Muslim FMC) Saints and Misfits, and Misfits in Love (Indian Muslim FMC)

Candice Jailili’s Seeing Stars and Finding Famous (Iranian FMCs)

Melati Lum’s Ayesha Dean mystery trilogy (Turkish-Australian Muslim FMC)

Olivia Abhati’s Perfectly Parvin (Muslim Iranian FMC)

Taheran Mafi’s A Very Large Expanse of Sea (Muslim Iranian FMC)

Ream Shukairy’s The Next Syrian Girl (Muslim Syrian FMCs)

Sabina Khan’s The Love and Lies of Ruhksana Ali (sapphic Bangladeshi FMC)

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (Pakistani FMC/MC)

Lila Reisen’s Free Radicals (Afghan FMC)

Tashie Bhuiyan’s Counting Down with You (Bangladeshi FMC)

Randa Abdel-Fattah’s Does My Head Look Big in This, and The Lines Between Us (Palestinian-Australian FMCs)

Eric Smith’s Don’t Read the Comments (Palestinian MC/Indian FMC), and You Can Go Your Own Way (Palestinian MC)

Susan Azim Boyer’s Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win (Iranian FMC)

Leyla Brittan’s Ros Demir’s Not the One (Turkish FMC)

Seema Yasmin’s Unbecoming (Iranian Muslim FMCs)

LGTBQ

Dahlia Adler’s Going Bicoastal (bi), Cool for the Summer (bilw), and Home Field Advantage (wlw)

Lev Rosen’s Camp, Emmet, and Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) (mlm)

Jessica Verdi’s Follow Your Arrow (bilm), And She Was (trans), and The Summer I Wasn’t Me (wlw)

Britta Lundin’s Like Other Girls (wlw)

Kacen Callender’s Felix Ever After (trans), and This is Kind of an Epic Love Story (bilm)

Emery Lee’s Cafe con Lychee (Puerto Rican-Chinese mlm)

Robin Talley’s Pulp (wlw)

Candice Iloh’s Salt to Water (nonbinary MC)

Camryn Garrett’s Full Disclosure, Off the Record (bilm) and Friday I’m in Love (wlw)

FT Luken’s Love at Second Sight (mlm)

Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs the Homo Sapian Agenda (mlm), Imogen Obviously (bi) , Kate in Waiting (mlm) and The Upside of Unrequited (wlm)

Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in a Crown (wlw)

Peyton Thomas’ Both Sides Now (trans MC)

Steven Salvatore (trans MC)

Marieke Nijkamp’s This Is Where It Ends (wlw)

Kathryn Ormsbee’s Tasha Loves Tolstoy (ace FMC)

Sabina Khan’s The Love and Lies of Ruhksana Ali (sapphic Bangladeshi FMC)

I.W. Gregario’s None of Above (intersex FMC)

Tanya Boteju’s Bruised (wlw)

Aaron Aceves’ This is Why They Hate Us (bilm)

Maggie Horne’s Freddie and Stella Got Hot (wlw)

Disability

Anna Sortino’s Give Me a Sign (deaf FMC)

Claire Forrest’s Where You See Yourself (wheelchair-user FMC)

Alison Gervis’ The Silence Between Us (deaf FMC)

A.J. Steiger’s When My Heart Joins the Thousands (autistic FMC/MC)

Sara Barnard’s A Quiet Kind of Thunder (mute FMC)

Jewish

Liza Weimer’s The Assignment

Rachel Lynn Solomon’s See You Yesterday, Our Year of Maybe, You’re Going to Miss Me When I’m Gone, Today Tomorrow Tonight, and Past Present and Future

Hayley Neil’s Once More with Chutzpah

Dahlia Adler’s Going Bicoastal and Cool for the Summer (Mizrahi FMC/Ashkenazi FMC)

Isaac Blum’s The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen (Orthodox MC)

Shanah Khubiar’s Just a Hat (Mizrahi MC)

Paula J. Freedman’s My Basmati Bat Mitzvah (Indian-Jewish FMC)

Una LaMarche’s Like No Other (Orthodox FMC/black MC)