5 Powerful YA Lit and Middle Grade Books Set in Schools
- unabridgedpod
- Sep 5
- 4 min read
Curated by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (ashley_dicksonellison)
Young adult books set in schools capture so much of what makes teen life both challenging and meaningful. High school hallways, classrooms, and sports courts become the backdrop for stories about identity, friendship, bullying, and finding your place in the world. In this roundup, I’m sharing five powerful YA novels that take place in or around schools—each one offering a unique perspective on growing up, from mysteries and romances to heartfelt coming-of-age journeys.
Whether you’re looking for YA school novels that dive into mental health, explore cultural identity, or keep you turning pages with suspense, these curated book reviews, featuring Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, The Silence That Binds Us, Rez Ball, One of Us Is Lying, and Other Words for Home, are great places to start.
From the review: "Tre Brun has been playing basketball on the rez his whole life, following in the footsteps of his father and his older brother, both basketball stars for the Red Lake Warriors who almost clinched state championships.
"But then Jaxon, Tre's older brother, dies in a tragic car accident, and basketball comes to mean even more to Tre. He vows, as a sophomore, to move up from JV to Varsity, to make a mark that will be a tribute to his brother, his hero."
From the review: "Joanna Ho's The Silence that Binds Us (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) is a brilliant and complex young adult novel that takes on so many vital social issues with nuance and compassion. Our protagonist, Maybelline Chen, has so much to navigate as she faces not only grief from losing her beloved older brother Danny but also racist community backlash against her family in the wake of Danny's death." (Click the title above to read the full review.)
From the review: "In One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus, Bronwyn, Addy, Cooper, Nate, and Simon are assigned to detention under suspicious circumstances. When one of them is dead by the end of the detention period, the remaining four become suspects. All of them have motive. Did one of them commit the crime? This is the question that is explored over the course of the novel." (Click the title above to read the full review.)
From the review: "I re-read this one, Benjamin Alire Sáenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), for our January Unabridged Buddy Read, and I fell in love with this brilliant, powerful, moving book all over again. In fact, I loved it even more the second time. We had a fascinating buddy read chat, which enriched the experience even more." (Click the title above to read the full review.)
From the review: "I absolutely LOVED this brilliant middle-grade novel in verse. I had seen recommendations from several bookish friends who read this and had great things to say about it, and I was eager to try it out.
"Warga covers so many important topics here in a beautiful, moving way that also propels forward the story. When the book begins, we meet Jude and her family and learn about the tension in Syria between people who want democracy and change others who want the stability that comes with things remaining the same. This tension is especially palpable between Jude's father and her older brother Issa, and Issa soon moves out of the family's home and into the areas of the greatest conflict where he can help others." (Click the title above to read the full review.)
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Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.
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