6 YA Fantasy Books You Need to Recommend on First Chapter Fridays

“The fifteenth lesson of wizard training is that every wizard must eventually leave the place that makes her. At first, home is a nest. But every nest must ultimately burn so that wizards can fly far, far away, into the horizon of new possibilities where their full potential is waiting to be developed and unleashed.”

While most of the books listed here are pure entertainment, this partly autobiographical story of a teenage wizard uses fantasy and magical realism to tell the heartbreakingly beautiful story of the author, Echo Brown.

Echo grew up in poverty, in a home where her parents were both addicted to the “white rocks.” She is a victim of physical and sexual abuse, and when her wizard abilities begin to develop, she can see the dark veil of depression that covers nearly everyone around her. Her mother tries to teach her how to keep from being smothered by the veil herself, but when she is raped, she can no longer fight against it and descends into depression.

The first half of the novel was hard to read and its content definitely makes it one to reserve for older students. But the second half is utterly beautiful: the women in Echo’s community, wizards who have also been hurt by the men in their lives, bolster her the best they can, and when Echo’s teacher, Mrs. Delaney, takes an interest in her, we see Echo begin the painful process of walking toward her goals of becoming valedictorian, attending Dartmouth, and using her own experiences to help other Black girls who are victims of trauma.

Brown explores significant themes throughout the novel, examining the intersection of race, gender, and poverty in ways reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye but ultimately ending with hope and healing. Yes, these characters are traumatized and broken, but they are survivors who use their past traumas to help others along the way.

The first in a trilogy, The Cruel Prince took #bookstagram by storm in 2018. It tells the story of Jude, who is whisked to the land of Faerie along with her two sisters after her parents are brutally murdered in their home. We quickly learn that Jude’s older sister Vivi is actually the daughter of General Madoc, and their mother’s murder was punishment for leaving the land of Faerie and taking his daughter away from him. 

General Madoc takes in Vivi, Jude and her twin sister, Taryn, and the twins are left in an uncomfortable position: as humans, they are the targets of scorn, but as daughters of the king’s right-hand man, they are accorded some respect. Particularly cruel to Jude are Cardan, the Prince of Faerie, and his friend group. 

Jude is desperate to prove herself and use her fighting abilities to win a place at court, but General Madoc repeatedly prevents her from doing so. When Jude starts to befriend a member of Cardan’s pack and receives a mysterious invitation from Prince Dain, she is drawn into a world of intrigue and betrayal, and she must decide who to trust if she wants to stay alive.
If your students are avid fantasy readers, and they haven’t fallen in love with Black’s trilogy already, The Cruel Prince is sure to keep them turning pages.

Deonn brings a fresh twist to YA fantasy with her take on the King Arthur legend, this time from the perspective of a young Black teen attending an Early College program in the South.

Bree Matthews and her roommate Alice find themselves at a party in the woods they aren’t supposed to be at. There, Bree witnesses a mysterious attack and attracts attention from a mysterious boy, Selwyn, a Merlin; however, when she returns to her dorm, the memories of the night are wiped from her mind . . . until she remembers the next morning.

As Bree investigates, she finds herself drawn into a secret society called the Order of the Round Table. Able to resist Selwyn’s powers in unexpected ways, there’s a power bubbling up inside her she doesn’t understand. Initially, she thought it was the anger she buried in the face of her mom’s death, but as events unfold, it seems clear there’s more going on. When she uncovers a memory of a Merlin at the hospital after her mother’s death, she is determined to discover what the society had to do with it.

As Bree tries to join the Order alongside Nick Davis, her assigned mentor, she gets pulled deeper into a growing danger: demons are appearing, and it seems like the magical world is inching closer to war. Bree must decide whether to fight alongside the group or against them.

Running through the novel is the tension Bree feels as a Black student at a predominantly white school in the South, built by former slaves. As she explores the growing power within her, she learns more about her mother and her ancestors, and their connection to root magic. We loved seeing Deonn bring new and unexpected voices into an ancient tradition. The page-turning novel will appeal to students familiar with the fantasy genre, but Bree’s work to heal from her grief and reconnect with her father gives the novel depth, and the modern setting and diverse characters will draw in students who aren’t already fantasy fans.

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Sitlali has grown up with her grandmother in modern-day Mexico, but as she receives more and more unwanted attention from Jorge, a dangerous gang member, she decides it’s time to leave Mexico for the United States to find the father who abandoned her years ago. Calizto is doing everything he can to protect Tenochtitlan from its 1521 invasion by Spanish invaders. Through the magic of the moon goddess, however, the pair find themselves drawn together through a conch shell that enables them to speak, and even touch, across the centuries.

Through chapters that alternate between the two characters’ points of view, we go back and forth between Calizto’s efforts to prevent Tenochtitlan from falling and Sitlali’s efforts to cross the border into the United States, reconnect with her father, and avoid attention from ICE. As they support each other through these endeavors, Sitlali and Calizto fall in love, leaving us to wonder whether they can be together despite the centuries that separate them.

In the author’s note, Garcia McCall shares that she was inspired to create a YA version of The Lake House (2006), and we love her unexpected approach. After tutoring students in US history last year, Steph was particularly intrigued to read about Cortes’s invasion from the Nahua perspective, and the novel highlights the many ways this original invasion affects life in Mexico and the United States even today. We believe this is a book our former students, many of whom still have family living in Mexico, would be drawn to.

We loved this first entry in Mafi’s trilogy and immediately added the second book to our library holds. The blend of Cinderella and Persian mythology and complicated court dynamics reminded us of Marissa Meyer’s Cinder and Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (but much more appropriate for younger audiences).

Alizeh is the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom, but because of the enmity between Jinn and Clay (humans), she struggles to survive as a despised and abused servant in the Ardunian city of Setar. Alizeh’s eyes are a dead giveaway of her Jinn heritage—because of the ice running through her veins, her eyes flicker between brown and ice blue—so the snoda servants must wear to cover their faces is the perfect disguise.

Kamran is the crown prince of Ardunia, brought back from the front lines of battle to prepare to take over the crown, in part by marrying and having an heir before his grandfather dies. When he observes an altercation in which Alizeh defends herself against a young thief, he begins an investigation that threatens the safety of his kingdom and his relationship with the king, especially when he finds himself falling in love with Alizeh.

Whether your students are drawn to the romance between Alizeh and Kamran, the rich world of Ardunia, the intrigue of royal life, or the deeper questions the novel raises about social class, we’re confident that the more pages they turn, the more invested they’ll be.

With strong Hunger-Games-meets-fantasy vibes, Throne of Glass is the first in a seven-part series, so if you can get your students hooked on book one, their TBR will be stocked for a while.

Celaena Sardothien, sentenced to hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for all the murders she committed as Adarlan’s Assassin, has already survived longer than most prisoners in Endovier. And when she’s dragged out and brought before the king, she’s given the chance to fight for her freedom.

If Celaena wins the king’s brutal competition, she will serve as his assassin for four years and then finally be set free. She’s up for the challenge (of course) and begins a brutal training regimen under the watch of Chaol, the Captain of the Guard, and Prince Dorian, the king’s son who selected her for the challenge. 

When the other competitors start showing up dead, appearing to have been mauled to death by a brutal monster, it’s clear something is very wrong. And as Celaena develops a friendship with the visiting Princess Nehemia, she begins to discover a series of strange etchings, called Wyrdmarks, around the castle grounds. It’s up to Celaena to figure out what’s going on before it’s too late so she can continue the fight for her freedom.