New York Public Library’s Best Books Of 2022 List For The Harlem Holidays

The New York Public Library has unveiled our Best Books of 2022 list.

This almost century-long tradition gives the Library an opportunity to highlight new, diverse, inspiring titles and connect New Yorkers and readers from Harlem to Hollis with books that spark excitement, curiosity, and a love of reading. 

With the holidays just around the corner and many people looking for gift ideas or something new to read on a trip, the Best Books list is especially timely. 

250 plus books spanning all age groups, genres, and formats were selected by expert librarians and staff across the NYPL system (Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island). The lists include Best Books for Kids (100 titles), Mejores libros para pequeños/Best Books for Kids in Spanish (35 titles), Best Books for Teens (50 titles), and Best Books for Adults (75 titles). A Top 10 for each category was chosen. 

The top 10 for each category can be seen below:

Children’s Books

• 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

Teen Books

• 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

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

The full list of Best Books can be found at nypl.org/bestbooks. 

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.

Photo credit: 1-2) NYPL.