April is Arab American Heritage Month, and what better way to celebrate than with a good book? These Arab American authors have written some incredible YA books beyond those on this list, and I highly encourage you to check out all of their work!
One of Hafsa Faizal's most recent novels, and 2024 Teen Best Reads selection, A Tempest of Tea involves a scrappy group of outcasts, a secret vampire society, and a teahouse by day that turns into an illegal bloodhouse for vampires at night. If you like heists and found family tropes, this book is definitely for you!
Bright Red Fruit by Safia Elhillo is a beautiful novel in verse about Samira, a "bad girl" who can't seem to gain the trust of her family and community, no matter how hard she tries. She ends up getting grounded for the summer over a rumor and finds solace in writing poetry, which she posts online. When an older poet reaches out about how he admires her work, she starts to fall down a path leading to more secrets than ever.
Naomi Shihab Nye's most recent poetry collection, Grace Notes: Poems About Families, centers around family, growing up, empathy, grief, and so much more. In the 100 poems in this collection, she writes about her childhood, school years, and the people who shaped her along the way.
An unlikely friendship blooms in The Next New Syrian Girl by Ream Shukairy when Syrian refugee Lenee meets Syrian American boxer, Khadija. Together they face the difficulties of trying to be the perfect Syrian daughter, and discuss how the Syrian Revolution affects them.
The Buried and the Bound trilogy by Rochelle Hassan is full of witches, fae, and the paranormal as Aziza, the last hedge witch in Blackthorn, Massachusetts teams up with a necromancer and a boy with a terrible curse to try and save their town and surrounding woods from a rising threat.
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