Best of 2021

"Pick a favorite book." The question bookworms fear most. But picking one book out of the ones you read in only a year couldn't be so bad could it? Or...maybe picking five? Or maybe twenty??

I have read a total of 77 books this year, including graphic novels, and these are my top twenty, listed roughly in the order that I read them. Enjoy!

 

Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee

Lora is determined not to let go of her imagination. Her friends seem to be drifting away, becoming more interested in sports, fashion, and other things that Lora has no need for. When Lora's séance tea party brings her to discover Alexa, a ghost haunting her house, the two girls--one alive and one dead--become fast friends. But what happens when Lora starts to change--and Alexa can't?

 

 

Witches of Brooklyn by Sophie Escabasse

When the foster care system dumps Effie on her two elderly aunts' doorstep, she expects boredom. What she does not expect is two old ladies who practice acupuncture and may be hiding something big. When Effie discovers that her two aunts are, in fact, witches, and that she might have magic too, crazy things start to happen--a cursed pop star shows up in Effie's kitchen, a snake slithers right out of a painting to terrorize the school, and Effie makes some real friends. This could turn out to be the best thing that's ever happened to her.

 

 

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk

Ellie is not at all sad that her family was forced to move to Echo Mountain after their livelihood was destroyed by the Great Depression. On the mountain, Ellie has found her place in the world, working to keep her family afloat and exploring the wilderness around her. But Ellie's mother and sister long for their old lives in town, and when an accident puts Ellie's father in a coma, her balanced life seems to fall apart. 

The accident is unjustly blamed on Ellie, so she takes matters into her own hands and hikes to the top of the mountain to visit "the hag," an old woman who practices folk healing. As Ellie connects with the old woman, and others on the mountain, she finds a way to piece her family back together.

 

 

Here in the Real World by Sara Pennypacker

Ware is prepared to spend his summer alone, dreaming about being a knight in the middle ages. He is not prepared for his parents to send him to Rec camp every day, where he'll have to actually talk to other kids and won't have any time for daydreams. 

But on his first day at the Rec, Ware stumbles upon a hidden ruin of a church, where a girl named Jolene is making a garden. So Ware leaves Rec and, with the reluctant help of Jolene, builds a castle space for himself in the abandoned church. There, the two kids spend their summer days, Jolene firmly grounded in the "real world" and Ware dreaming about the world he wishes he lived in. But when developers threaten the sanctuary, Ware and Jolene must work together to save their handmade world. 

 

A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus

When William, Edmund, and Anna's grandmother dies in 1940, none of them are overly distraught. After all, their grandmother never really cared for them. But with their parents and now grandmother dead, the children need someone to look after them. So they hatch a plan: follow the evacuation that is taking children away from war-torn London and into temporary homes in the countryside. Maybe William, Edmund, and Anna will find a forever home there. 

As the children move from one foster home to another, none of which even mildly resemble the home they want, the children find solace in the village library, where the friendly librarian is always there for them. The children even start to wonder if the librarian could take them in--but her husband is a German soldier, and the rest of the English village shuns her for it. Will the children ever find a real home?

 

The Girl who Circumnagivated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making by Cathrynne M. Valente

September, whose father is in the war and whose mother is busy building planes, wants something more than washing teacups and listening to her small dog barking. That something shows up in the form of the Green Wind, who has come from Fairyland to spirit September away. 

September thinks this will be a wonderfully delicious fairy adventure, but darker things are brewing. The Marquess wants something, and only September can get it. But does September want to, when the Marquess is destroying the lives of Fairyland's people? And does September have a choice?

 

Merci Suárez Can't Dance by Meg Medina 

Seventh grade is starting to look even tougher than sixth grade for Merci Suárez. Her teachers expect her to be as smart as her genius brother, Roli; her arch nemesis, Edna, is acting worse than ever, especially now that she gets to plan the Valentine's Day Heart Ball; and Merci's beloved grandfather, Lolo, is struggling with Alzheimer's. On top of everything, Merci is assigned to work in the student store with a boy she barely knows. And with her Tía Inés exploring a new love life, and Merci terrified of dancing at the Heart Ball (because Merci Suárez cannot dance), Merci is trying her hardest to avoid love for as long as she can. But how long will that be?

Sequel to the Newbery-winning Merci Suárez Changes Gears. 

 

The Adventures of a Girl Called Bicycle by Christina Uss

The girl named Bicycle appeared at the doorstep of the Mostly Silent Monastery in Washington, D.C. when she was only a baby. Now at twelve, she has spent almost her entire life in the monastery, perfectly happy among the Mostly Silent Monks, longing for a bicycle of her own and avoiding social interaction with anyone her age.

So when Sister Wanda announces that Bicycle is going to attend a summer camp where she'll finally learn how to make friends, Bicycle snatches her first chance and pedals as hard as she can away from the monastery. She's headed for San Francisco, where she can meet her bicycle idol and maybe make a real friend. She never expected a handlebar-haunting ghost, overly aggressive pigs, and a mysterious woman dressed in black to be following her across the states. On the stops and starts of her journey, Bicycle makes more friends than she ever expected. But will she reach her goal in the end? 

 

A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

When Sara, a new student who's trying to adjust to a big public school after leaving her small Islamic one, and Elizabeth, an extroverted girl who's struggling to get along with her old best friend, are thrown together in Sara's mom's cooking class, they don't exactly become instant friends. Sara's parents are from Pakistan; Elizabeth's mother, who is struggling with depression, is from England. Sara is Muslim; Elizabeth is Jewish. Elizabeth likes cooking, and Sara doesn't. The only thing that they seem to have in common is that their moms are studying for the U.S. citizenship test. But soon the girls are teammates for a multicultural food celebration, and become friends with the same desire: make up the best recipe to get a spot on TV. But will they learn to trust each other?

 

Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy

Patricia "Sweet Pea" DiMarco was not expecting her parents to get a divorce. And she definitely wasn't expecting them to decide to buy the two identical houses on her street, with her mom in one, her dad in the other and the reclusive Miss Flora Mae of advice-column fame in the house in between. Supposedly this is to help Sweet Pea cope with the divorce, but she's not so sure. On top of that, she has to deal with her ex-best friend Kiera, who's unfortunately sitting next to her at school. But Sweet Pea finds solace in her cat, Cheese, and her new best friend, Oscar.

Then Miss Flora Mae leaves on a trip and asks Sweet Pea to handle the advice column letters while she's away. Sweet Pea isn't supposed to answer the letters--just get them from the mailbox and wait for Miss Flora's response. But when Sweet Pea recognizes the handwriting on one of the envelopes, and temptation overwhelms her, a series of events all tied to Miss Flora Mae's advice column wreak havoc across her small Texas town. Sweet Pea has to be able to patch up her mistake before it's too late. 

 

Across the Pond by Joy McCullough

Callie is delighted when her parents announce that they've inherited a castle in Scotland and their family is moving at once. In a new place, Callie will be able to start afresh and make new friends. After all, her friends back home in San Diego didn't really work out.

A semi-disastrous school tour leads Callie to decide that she's going to be homeschooled. She can survive without new friends, after all. Especially since the gardener's daughter on the castle estate does not seem interested in Callie's company. But her parents only agree on the condition that Callie join a social activity--so Callie finds herself in a birding club. She makes a friend in the club, but when she argues with the club leader, a grouchy old man, she risks losing her birding friend, too. 

The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor

Mei's work as the daughter of the cook of a Sierra Nevada logging camp keeps her busy, and she spends her free time telling the younger kids stories about Auntie Po, the elderly Chinese woman version of Paul Bunyan. But life as a Chinese American in the years after the Chinese Exclusion Act can't be peaceful, and as trouble arises in the camp and Mei starts to feel a growing attraction towards her best friend, Bee, Auntie Po seems to come alive in a way that Mei never could have expected. 

 

Starfish by Lisa Fipps

For as long as she can remember, Ellie has had to cope with people who try to make her uncomfortable in her own body. From bullies at school to her own mother and siblings at home, everyone seems to be obsessed with Ellie's weight. Ellie finds refuge in her backyard pool, where she can just swim and feel weightless for a while. Then her best friend, the only one who's ever understood her, moves away. Ellie's mom starts to get adamant about Ellie getting surgery. And Ellie's Fat Girl Rules--a list she always keeps for herself--are restricting her life. Ellie has to learn that when things get nasty, she has to stand up for herself. 

 

Room to Dream by Kelly Yang

Mia Tang thinks that her life has finally reached a balance. Her parents own the Calivista Motel, and they finally have enough time off to go on a trip back to China! But life at the Calivista isn't as perfect as it seems--bigger businesses are popping up all around Anaheim, and local businesses are getting squashed. Mia's best friend Lupe is taking classes at the high school, and doesn't seem to have time for her anymore. And her friend Jason is just being totally weird. Even in China things aren't like she remembered--her cousins are living in fancy high-rises and have more money than her family ever dreamed of. But Mia is able to release her feelings in her journal, and when her grandfather suggests sending her journal entries to a Chinese children's paper, things get even more mixed up!

Third book in the Front Desk series.

 

The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo

When Beatryce arrives at the monastery of the Order of the Chronicles of Sorrowing, she can't remember anything about her past: except that she can read. In a world where reading is outlawed for girls, this secret puts her in danger. It's a time of war, and the king is looking for Beatryce. The girl finds a friend in a monk at the monastery, who sends her away for her own protection. On her journey, Beatryce encounters a wayward goat, a boy searching to prove himself, and a mysterious old man. Beatryce finds solace in the stories that float around in her head, but will stories be enough to save her from the growing danger?

 

The Time of Green Magic by Hilary McKay

After being raised as an only child by her father, Theo, and her grandmother, Granny Grace, Abi feels as though her whole world is being muddled up when Theo gets remarried. Polly and her sons, Max and Louis, seem like too much at first: too many people in the new small house, too many things that Abi suddenly has to share. Then, the family discovers the ivy house. 

The house is really much too large, and old, and eerie. And they can't possibly afford it. But, just like that, they are moving in, though Polly and Theo have to work extra hard to pay it off. With more space to share, and their own rooms, the children are able to become accustomed to each other. But before things can start to get normal again, Abi starts falling into books. And then Louis leaves his window open, hoping for an owl--and gets something else instead. Suddenly the children must come to terms with this green magic--or risk the consequences.

 

The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu

Marya Lupu has lived all of her life in the shadow of her brother, Luka, who everyone says is destined to become a sorcerer, one of the magical elite who protect Illyria from the evil Dread. In Illyria, girls don't have many places to fill, and Marya's mother has just about given up turning Marya into the nice young lady who can someday be a gift to society. 

But when the sorcerers come to judge whether Luka has the magical talent required to join their ranks, Marya makes a big mistake, the consequences of which will send her down a path she could never have imagined. She is sent to Dragomir Academy, a school high in the mountains where troubled girls go to learn how to be good. Marya is suddenly surrounded by classmates who, like herself, have been instructed never to talk about their pasts. 

When a sorcerer arrives at the school, and strange things start happening to the other girls, Marya and her classmates discover things about Dragomir Academy, magic, and the Dread that could get them into a lot of trouble if they tell someone--but more trouble if they don't.

 

Stella by Starlight 

Trouble from the Ku Klux Klan is interrupting the mostly-peaceful life if the Black community in Bumblebee, North Carolina. Stella grows scared as the adults in her town start to whisper, but she is able to mostly keep the rhythm of her everyday life: struggling to improve in writing, listening to the stories told by the Black folks in Bumblebee, and helping her mother out. But when violence breaks out, Stella realizes that sometimes you have to fight back to get a happy ending. 

Ophie's Ghosts by Justina Ireland

Ophelia's life is in turmoil. She and her mother are uprooted from their happy life in Georgia when a horrible act of racism takes her father away from her. Now it's no longer safe to stay in Georgia, so Ophie and her mother have to move to Pittsburgh, the steel city, to find work and lodging with relatives.

But as she enters Pittsburgh, Ophie learns that she has a special power. She can see ghosts.

Keeping this secret from her mother is hard, especially since Daffodil Manor, the mansion where Ophie and her mother have found work serving a wealthy white family, is filled to the brim with ghosts. These ghosts, and one of them in particular, are waiting on earth for their purpose to be fulfilled. And they think it's Ophie's duty to help them. 

 

The Swallows' Flight by Hilary McKay

Four children. Two countries. One war.

Ruby and Kate in England, Ruby with the blotches on her face and Kate with the everlasting illnesses. Erik and Hans in Germany, Erik with his love for animals and Hans with his love for cooking. None of these children expected to be caught up in the middle of a world war. Ruby and Kate never expected their families to be torn apart by the violence that spreads over Europe, and Erik and Hans never expected to be flying with the German army, their instructions being to kill. The story of how these four children find each other and their places in the middle of a world war is at once heartwarming and tear jerking. 

I hope you check some of these books out! They're all amazing, heartwarming, and written and illustrated by really talented people. You can find the list of all the books I read in 2021 here; some of those books really deserve to be on this list but they just couldn't fit. Happy New Year, and happy reading in 2022!

Cover images from Goodreads