The New York Public Library Unveils the Best Books of 2022 for Kids, Teens, and Adults

November 22, 2022—The New York Public Library announced today its Best Books of 2022, a curated list of more than 250 recommended titles published this year for children, teens, and adults. 

For nearly a century NYPL’s expert librarians have been providing New Yorkers with their year-end recommendations, celebrating books that inspire a love of reading. This year’s list was selected by eight individual committees, which reviewed nearly three thousand books for various ages and genres, including comics, horror, romance, mystery, and poetry.     

The books have been sorted into four categories:

• Best Books for Kids (100 titles)
• Mejores libros para pequeños / Best Books for Kids in Spanish (35 titles)
• Best Books for Teens (50 titles)
• Best Books for Adults (75 titles)

The recommended titles can be found at nypl.org/bestbooks and are available to check out at branches across the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island—with no late fees!—or, in many cases, through the Library’s free e-reader app, SimplyE. Recommendations can also be found year-round by visiting your local branch, contacting AskNYPL, tuning in to NYPL’s podcast, The Librarian Is In, or online at nypl.org/recommends.

“One of the biggest strengths of The New York Public Library is the passion, knowledge, and diversity of our librarians and staff. Dozens of our most avid book lovers are enlisted each year to assess and select books that reflect the community and patrons we serve, to entice the most reluctant of readers, and excite the most fervent of bookworms,” said Emily Pullen, manager of Reader Services and Engagement. “Whether the motivation is to find the perfect gift for a loved one, read while traveling during the holiday season, or tackle your New Year’s resolution to read more, the Library’s Best Books list has something for everyone.”

The top 10 books for each category are listed below (in alphabetical order):  

Top 10 Books for Children

• Aviva vs. the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe
• Beauty Woke by NoNieqa Ramos, illustrated by Paola Escobar
• Blue: A History of the Color As Deep As the Sea and As Wide As the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond, illustrated by Daniel Minter
• Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee
• Nothing Special by Desiree Cooper, illustrated by Bec Sloane
• Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams’s Photographs Reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge, illustrated by Lauren Tamaki
• Sir Ladybug by Corey R. Tabor
• Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas
• Ten Blocks to the Big Wok: A Chinatown Counting Book (English and Chinese Edition) by Ying-Hwa Hu
• Wednesday and Woof #1: Catastrophe by Sherri Winston, illustrated by Gladys Jose  

Mejores libros para pequeños/Best Books for Kids in Spanish

• A veces, yo soy todo lo que necesito by Juliana Perdomo
• ¡A viajar, semillas! by Lorena Ruiz
• La casita de Esperanza by Terry Catasús Jennings, illustrated by Raúl Colón
• La falda morada de Leo by Irma Borges, illustrated by Francesco Fagnani
• Las gallinas de Sonia by Phoebe Wahl, translated by Laura Piperno and Gema Zamorano 
• 9 kilómetros by Claudio Aguilera, illustrated by Gabriela Lyon
• Sábado by Jorge Garza
• Tengo hambre by Menena Cottin
• Una noche sin dormir by Micaela Chirif, illustrated by Joaquín Camp
• Yo no fui by Ana Palmero, illustrated by Alejandra Acosta   

Top 10 Books for Teens

• All My Rage: A Novel by Sabaa Tahir
• Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White
• I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
• I Rise by Marie Arnold
• Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American by Laura Gao
• Queer Ducks (and Other Animals): The Natural World of Animal Sexuality by Eliot Schrefer, illustrated by Jules Zuckerberg
• So This Is Ever After by F. T. Lukens
• The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes
• The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Zatanna: The Jewel of Gravesend by Alys Arden, illustrated by Jacquelin de Leon

Top 10 Books for Adults

• The Genesis of Misery by Neon Yang
• The High Desert: Black. Punk. Nowhere–A Memoir by James Spooner
• A Lady For a Duke by Alexis Hall
• Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
• Path of Totality: Poems by Niina Pollari
• Shutter: A Novel by Ramona Emerson
• Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
• The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee 
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin by Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird & Tom Waltz
• Vladimir: A Novel by Julia May Jonas

About The New York Public Library
For over 125 years, The New York Public Library has been a free provider of education and information for the people of New York and beyond. With over 90 locations—including research and branch libraries—throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island, the Library offers free materials, computer access, classes, exhibitions, programming and more to everyone from toddlers to scholars, and has seen record numbers of attendance and circulation in recent years. The New York Public Library receives approximately 16 million visits through its doors annually and millions more around the globe who use its resources at nypl.org. To offer this wide array of free programming, The New York Public Library relies on both public and private funding. Learn more about how to support the Library at nypl.org/support.