Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Spring 2026 To-Read List

By Sophie L.

As a new season comes, so do new books to add to your TBR list. Spring is a time of change, so it may be time to change up your taste and try a different genre! My to-read list this spring is filled with romance, fantasy, comedy, drama, and a bit of historical fiction. Here are the top ten books I’m itching to read as we move into verdant springtime.

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

This novel explores the universal story of navigating high school, told through a series of letters that reveal the life of Charlie, who is a freshman in high school and a wallflower. “We accept the love we think we deserve,” is a famous quote from this book. Such a beautiful quote must have a beautiful story, and I can’t wait to unravel it. 

2. Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Shiori is the princess of Kiata who has forbidden magic running through her veins. When she loses control of her powers, her stepmother turns Shiori’s six brothers into cranes and warns the princess that for each word she speaks, one of her brothers will die. Now she must save her brothers, reclaim the throne, and learn to embrace the magic she was taught to suppress. Also, this story has Chinese and Japanese folklore? Count me in!

3. Kamisama Kiss by Julietta Suzuki

Kamisama Kiss follows Nanami, recently homeless, who inherits a shrine and becomes a local deity. With her new role comes many responsibilities and a cranky fox yokai, Tomoe, who becomes her familiar. This series is such a classic shoujo romance, and Nanami is such a likeable MC! I’m definitely reading this.

4. Lovely War by Julie Berry

Set in the dreary days of World Wars I and II, this book is about four humans whose fates and hearts lie in the hands of the gods. Their stories, which we follow through the goddess Aphrodite as she tells them to the gods Hephaestus and Ares, prove that love can transcend even the great evil that is war. I love stories that focus on multiple romances!

5. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

In The Book Thief, Death acts as a narrator, telling us the story of Liesel, whose book-stealing and story-telling skills bring light to herself and those around her amidst the horrors of WWII. This book is definitely full of angst, and when I need a good cry, I’m 100% picking up this book.

6. A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima

When Shoko Nishimiya, a deaf girl, joins the elementary class of Shoya Ishida, a bully, he and his friends begin tormenting her. However, when the cruelty goes too far, Shoko switches schools, and Shoya turns into a scapegoat, going from the bully to the bullied. Six years later, Shoya and Shoko’s paths cross again. Shoya struggles to make amends with Shoko and confront his classmates who turned on him. I’ve heard really good things about this series, and I’m curious about Shoya’s character growth.

7. The Red Palace by June Hur

Hyeon, an eighteen-year-old palace nurse, and a young royal police investigator pair up to solve the mystery of a series of grisly murders in the Joseon dynasty of Korea. Throughout the treacherous search for the murderer, Hyeon begins to find herself entangled with dangerous political schemes and the young inspector. This book is basically a blend of my favorite genres, so I’m really excited to check it out!

8. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh

This is for fans of Spirited Away! The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea follows Mina as she traverses through the Spirit Realm to awaken the Sea God from an enchanted sleep. She is accompanied by a mysterious man named Shin and a band of gods, demons, and spirits. When I saw this book for the first time, the cover took my breath away, and I had to stop to admire it. It’s simply stunning, and the plot sounds absolutely sublime!

9. Phantom Busters by Shoco

Phantom Busters is a shonen action comedy manga! Four boys, Eugene, Mogari, Kaoru, and Kotaro, create an exorcist club at school to fight spectral foes. Mogari can eat ghosts, Kaoru can see ghosts, Kotaro can talk to ghosts, and Eugene is a straight-A student who doesn’t believe in ghosts. When the four boys put together their abilities, they set out to exorcise evil. This is a really fun read, especially for comic lovers, and the art style is magnificent!

10. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Ending with a classic, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, is about Bruno, a German boy, who befriends a Jewish boy during the time of the Holocaust. However, their friendship will lead to devastating consequences that will make you cry. Though it’s a sad story, I’m interested to read about the enduring innocent friendship of these two boys even in one of the darkest points of history.

[Librarian note: Check out our 5 Questions With...interview with author Axie Oh!

5 Questions with...Axie Oh!

by Enola

 

Photo credit https://www.axieoh.com

Recently, I had the great pleasure of interviewing an amazing New York Times bestselling author, Axie Oh, for the Winter Park Library’s Teen Book Guild “5 Questions With…” series. She is an author of many great books, such as XOXO, ASAP, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, and The Floating World duology starter. Axie Oh writes many YA novels inspired by Korean culture, history, K-dramas, K-pop, and folklore. 

  

Q: What inspired you to write your books like ASAP, or The Girl Who Fell Beneath, and are any of the characters based off of people you know?

 

For ASAP, I was inspired by my love of K-pop, visits to Seoul (the vibrant capital city of South Korea), and second chance romances, like the classic Persuasion by Jane Austen. For The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, I was inspired by my love of fairytale retellings and Korean myths and legends, as well as Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away. 

 

The characters aren’t based off anyone in particular except for, perhaps, Mina’s older brother, Joon, from The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, who was somewhat based off my older brother.

 

Q: When did you know you wanted to be a writer and what’s something readers might not know about one of your books?

 

I wanted to be a writer after high school, when I entered college. I took classes in fiction writing and poetry and started to share my work with others (friends, peers, teachers, and online). Readers might not know that it took eight years for The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea to become published. I first wrote it in 2014, and it wasn’t published until 2022. Around twenty or so editors passed on publishing the book before it found its home with the perfect editor and publisher.  

 

Q: What was the most challenging scene or book to write, and why?

 

The most challenging scene in The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea was a scene that occurs in chapter three, when Mina meets Shin, Namgi, and Kirin for the first time. I had to juggle introducing three new characters, one of whom is masked for most of the chapter, while also making the scene exciting and move the plot forward. The hardest book for me to write so far was The Floating World because I sold it on what was basically a concept (a retelling of Korean celestial maidens set in a steampunk fantasy world) and then had to discover the characters, world, and plot from there! 

 

Q: Which character out of all your books are you most attached to and do you have a favorite line or chapter in one of your books?

 

I’m definitely attached to Mina from The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, and one line that I like that I don’t see quoted as often is from the first chapter: Behind them, the dragon rises silently out of the water, its long neck extending into the sky. Seawater falls off its dark blue scales, dropping like coins onto the boat’s deck.

 

The line that I write when I sign books is: Don’t chase fate. Let fate chase you. 

 

Q: Do you have any advice or words for aspiring authors?

 

Your first reader is always yourself: write the story that calls to you, with characters that you can’t stop thinking about. Please your inner reader before you please anyone else. On a practical level, start with a messy first draft, and try to reach “the end” even if you have to skip whole scenes. After you’ve reached the end and know the story beats and characters arcs, you can go back and revise the story to make it really shine. 

 

 

Thank you so much to Ms. Oh for taking the time to do the Winter Park Library’s Teen Book Guild “5 Questions With…” interview, I greatly appreciate it. 

 

I hope you enjoyed getting to read her answers as much as I did, and learning more about her amazing books and her author career. You can check out ASAP, XOXO, Rebel Seoul, The Floating World, and The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea at the Winter Park Library!