Denver Days Booklist for Teens

Celebrate Denver Days with these great reads for teens! Each fiction book listed here either takes place in Colorado or is written by a Colorado author, or both! 

Find more Denver Days activities for all ages here!

Book Cover
Abtahi, Olivia

After being dumped at the beginning of freshman year, Iranian-American Parvin Mohammadi sets out to win the ultimate date to Homecoming. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Ames, Alison

Clem and her best friend, Nina, live in the haunted town of Moon Basin, known for its accidents and murders that are linked to the now-abandoned coal mine, but when they join their new friend, Piper, and her dad on a trip into the mine, they find themselves haunted by strange dreams and experiences afterwards. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Bacigalupi, Paolo

In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Brody, Jessica

Ryn, eighteen, trapped by a massive blizzard in the Denver airport, meets some unique characters who help her cope with survivor's guilt on the first anniversary of her best friend's death.

Book Cover
Carbone, Elisa

In 1878, thirteen-year-old Eva seeks her birth mother in Colorado, only to find the city and her mother are not what she imagined. The year is 1878, and 13-year-old Eva has lost all the family she-s ever known. Eva feels like an orphan-but she's not. Sadie Lewis, the woman who gave her up at birth, is alive and well in Denver. And Eva sets out to find her, carrying only an address on a slip of paper. But Denver holds more surprises than Eva can bear. When she reaches 518 Holladay Street, she discovers Sadie Lewis's shocking secret'a secret that lands Eva in a house of ill repute, forced to dance with strangers for her keep.

Book Cover
Cooner, Donna D.

Maisie Fernandez has just about convinced herself that she does not care about her weight or her looks, or about only having one friend in Fort Collins High School (nerdy Owen Carpenter), but "Sienna", the internet profile she creates, is beautiful, skinny, and confident; the profile is part of her plan to humiliate the popular kids who bully and make fun of her, but suddenly the deception gets complicated--because the actual Sienna, the girl whose photos Maisie has been using, shows up in real life. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Cosimano, Elle

John "Smoke" Conlan uses his supernatural ability to travel outside the walls of a juvenile detention center in Denver, Colorado, to try to clear his name and help his fellow inmates find redemption.

Book Cover
Cowles, Ashlee

After her soldier brother is horribly wounded in Afghanistan, Gabriela must honor the vow she made: If anything ever happened to him, she would walk the Camino de Santiago through Spain, making a pilgrimage in his name. The worst part is that the promise stipulates that she must travel with her brother's best friend--a boy she has despised all her life. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Del Rosario, Juleah

After her mother died a few years ago, Rowena and her sister, Ariana, drifted into their own corners of the world, each figuring out in their own separate ways how to exist in a world in which their mother is no longer alive. When Ariana disappears-- at night, in the middle of a snowstorm-- Row is left to piece together the mystery behind where Ariana went and why. And she comes to realize that she might be part of the reason Ariana is gone. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Denver Teens

An anthology comic book collecting the works of Denver area teens who participated in a graphic novel workshop at the Sam Gary branch of the Denver Public Library in the summer of 2015!

Book Cover
France, Emily

Because their mother is usually high, Essa, seventeen, must be responsible for her sister, nine-year-old Puck, but when Puck disappears during a hike outside of Boulder, Colorado, Essa must rely on her newfound spiritual strength and boyfriend Oliver.

Book Cover
García, Mia

From hiking trips to four-person birthday parties to never-ending group texts, Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora have always been inseparable in their Denver, Colorado, home. But now with senior year on the horizon, they've been growing apart. And so, as always, Jess makes a plan. Reinstating their usual tradition of making resolutions together on New Year's Eve, Jess adds a new twist: instead of making their own resolutions, the four friends assign them to one another--dares like kiss someone you know is wrong for you, find your calling outside your mom's Puerto Rican restaurant, finally learn Spanish, and say yes to everything. But as the year unfolds, Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora each test the bonds that hold them together. And amid first loves, heartbreaks, and life-changing decisions, beginning again is never as simple as it seems.

Book Cover
Gervais, Alison

Maya has reservations about transferring to a hearing school in Colorado after studying in a school for the deaf for years, but grows closer to Beau Watson, the student body president, who starts learning sign language to communicate with her.

Book Cover
Holland, Sara

Maddie loves spending summers at Havenfall, a Colorado inn where her uncle brokers peace between worlds, until a murder forces her to take on responsibilities for which she is unprepared.

Book Cover
Jones, Traci L.

After moving to an affluent suburb of Denver in 1975, ninth-grader Tiphanie feels lonely at her nearly all-white high school until she befriends another "outsider" and discovers that prejudice exists in many forms.

Book Cover
Kruger, Mark H.

Sixteen-year-old Nica Ashley moves to sleepy Barrington, Colorado, to live with her father and discovers a mysterious pulse of energy has given her and her friends superhero-like powers.

Book Cover
Menon, Sandhya

When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud by targeting Jaya Rao's little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out she will be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and she knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart. His Lordship Grey Emerson is doomed once he turns eighteen-- thanks to an ancient curse by a Rao matriarch. When Jaya Rao bursts into his life, he can't shake the feeling that she is hiding something. As the stars conspire to keep them apart, Jaya and Grey grapple with questions of love, loyalty, and whether it is possible to write your own happy ending. Set in Colorado, and written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Mitchell, Todd

Fifteen-year-old James lies about himself to be considered "cool" when he gets into an exclusive boarding school, but soon unnaturally vivid dreams of being a demon-hunting warrior lead to self-destructive acts while he is awake. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Peterson, J. C.

Determined to reinvent herself, seventeen-year-old Marnie Barnes, with the help of her bubbly roommate, opens herself up to new experiences, new friends, a very cute boy, and a rescue pup, finally learning to embrace who she really is. Written by a Colorado author.

Book Cover
Summers, Courtney

Sadie's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated Colorado town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. When Mattie is found dead, and the police investigation is botched, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice. She hits the road following a few meager clues. When West McCray, a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America, hears Sadie's story, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.