For almost thirty years, Alleen Pace Nilsen, in collaboration with an illustrious cast of scholars, including Kenneth Donelson, James Blasingame Jr., and Don Nilsen, have authored the yearly Honor List for prize-winning YA books. Their contributions have helped thousands of teachers and librarians select appropriate quality literature for their classrooms and libraries. True to the defining characteristic of YA literature, each of this year's six winners features teen protagonists struggling to learn what it means to become an adult. Relationships play important roles in each character's identity development. The novels' themes reflect contemporary societal and political issues that are as varied and diverse as the characters portrayed: emigration and cultural assimilation, new schools and new families, urban violence, police brutality, adoption, romance, religion, bullying, abuse, grief, death, and revenge. The authors of these award-winning novels adeptly create verisimilitude. This semblance of reality provides readers with opportunities to contemplate the complexities of lived experiences that differ from their own, from a safe distance. Classroom discussions on the contemporary issues raised in these stories can be designed to encourage critical text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections, which enhance reading motivation and comprehension.