So far, 2024 has offered plenty of good news for fans of international YA literature. In January, the Youth Media Award winners were announced at the American Library Association’s LibLearnX conference. The Mildred L. Batchelder Award honors U.S. publishers of translated works for young people through age 14. Given the heavy preponderance of picture books among the eligible titles, it was refreshing to see YA represented: Abrams won for Houses With a Story by Seiji Yoshida, translated from Japanese by Jan Mitsuko Cash, and Levine Querido received an honor for Pardalita, a graphic novel from Portugal by Joana Estrela, translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. Meanwhile, the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature honored a translated title for only the second time in its history: Fire From the Sky by Moa Backe Åstot, translated from Swedish by Eva Apelqvist. In other news, early 2024 release Snowglobe, a dystopian thriller from South Korean author Soyoung Park, translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort, is making a big splash, with a screen adaptation in the works. Here are some other 2024 titles in translation that are not to be missed.

The Book of Denial by Ricardo Chávez Castañeda, illustrated by Alejandro Magallanes, translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel (Unruly, Jan. 30): Groundbreaking writer Chávez Castañeda and award-winning illustrator and graphic designer Magallanes, both from Mexico, are the forces behind this explosive, visually engaging work. The bold design and the dramatic, limited palette lend additional impact to the story of a boy attempting to make sense of a world in which children are the victims of horrific adult cruelty.

The Djinn’s Apple by Djamila Morani, translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain (Neem Tree Press, May 7): Morani, an Algerian literature professor, sets this historical thriller during the 8^th-century golden age of Baghdad, when it was a multicultural hub of scholarship. Muslim teen Nardeen’s family members are murdered, but she manages to escape. Desperate for answers—and revenge—she’s helped by a Jewish doctor in her quest for the truth.

The Boy From Clearwater: Book 2 by Pei-yun Yu, illustrated by Jian-xin Zhou, translated from Taiwanese Hoklo, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese by Lin King (Levine Querido, May 7): Readers met former political prisoner Tsai Kun-lin in the first volume of this two-part graphic biography from Taiwan. The riveting story of this heroic activist concludes here, unfolding in exquisitely illustrated panels that trace his adult life following his arrest, torture, and 10-year prison sentence as a teen who came of age under martial law.

We Go to the Park by Sara Stridsberg, illustrated by Beatrice Alemagna, translated from Swedish by B.J. Woodstein (Unruly, May 14): This remarkable collaboration between two acclaimed creators—a Swedish novelist/playwright and an Italian artist—invites teens and adults to reminisce about and reconsider simple trips to the park through a surprising lens. The pairing of otherworldly paintings with brief, deceptively simple lines of text turns ordinary playgrounds, fields, and woods into landscapes of endless possibility.

Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.