Book lists are inevitable at this time of year and, like many readers, I find myself scanning them in search of titles I particularly enjoyed. There is a satisfying validation in seeing one’s favorites recommended, alongside indignation over the omissions. As someone who recently had to choose just 75 YA titles for Kirkus’ Best YA of 2019 list, I am intimately familiar with the pain of having to make difficult decisions, although this is balanced by the opportunity to boost books I believe are worthy of more recognition.

What creates buzz? What makes some titles shoot to the bestseller list while others that are just as deserving fly (relatively) under the radar? There are many factors—entrenched publishing norms and practices, individual circumstances, and elements of luck and timing. Whatever the reasons, every year there are many books I can scarcely believe aren’t getting more attention. In 2017, it was The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (DCB) and Wonderful Feels Like This by Sara Lövestam, translated by Laura A. Wideburg (Flatiron Books). Last year, it was Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron (Roaring Brook) and Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and Viviana Mazza (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins). This year, I am sharing four 2019 titles I loved and hope many more readers will discover.

The Things She’s Seen by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina (Knopf) is a powerful novel from Australia that crosses boundaries of genre and age in the most compelling and imaginative way. It should move the hearts of teen and adult readers alike, dealing as it does with the traumatic history of the abusive children’s homes that many indigenous young people were subjected to. This element is wrapped up in a present-day mystery being investigated by the grieving father of an Aboriginal girl who died in a car accident. She is worried about her dad, and her spirit stays around to help him with the case and keep him company. The sibling authors are Palyku from the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and their poetic, haunting text will leave an indelible imprint.

The troubled colonial history of eSwatini is brought to life in Malla Nunn’s gripping, probing novel When the Ground Is Hard (Putnam). Set in the mid 1960s, in what was then Swaziland, in a boarding school reserved for mixed-race students—the type of school the author herself attended—readers get to know young people from a variety of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, the details of which dictate their social hierarchy and interactions. Internalized prejudices around skin color, hair texture, wealth, and other markers of status distort relationships between students as well as staff. When a developmentally disabled boy goes missing, two girls thrown together as roommates—a prickly and uneasy relationship, at first—uncover dark secrets as they search for him.

Stacia Tolman explores the plight of young people seeking to escape depressed rural American towns and the larger societal forces that work against them in The Spaces Between Us (Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt). Structural social inequality, social mobility (and barriers that limit it), teen pregnancy, academic tracking, the death of the American Dream, and the plight of abandoned factory towns are just some of the strands explored in this sharply observed and nuanced novel. White working-class teens rarely come across stories that reflect and—crucially—help them analyze and contextualize their lives. Teens from more advantaged backgrounds also may not understand systemic barriers, and the complex characters in this novel help remedy these gaps in the literature.

Hope Is Our Only Wing by Rutendo Tavengerwei (Soho Teen) is a political mystery and a coming-of-age story in which a grieving girl and her mother leave their London home following her journalist father’s death in a car accident under suspicious circumstances. Shamiso’s father returned home to Zimbabwe to investigate political corruption and the book is set against the backdrop of actual events in 2008 under Robert Mugabe’s government. This is also a story of two girls—one facing cancer and one struggling to integrate in the land of her parents’ birth. Together they learn hard lessons about the demands and rewards of true friendship. The author, who is from Zimbabwe, grounds her book in evocative details that enhance the sense of place and ratchet up the emotional tension.

What these thoughtful and intelligent books have in common is that they prompt readers to make connections between their own circumstances and times, places, and issues that may be new to them, broadening their perspectives in the process. For others, elements of these stories will resonate in a deeply familiar way, and the novels will offer new interpretations and frameworks for considering aspects of their lives.

Laura Simeon is the young adult editor.