In December the State Library of Victoria (in collaboration with Australian publishers) put on a showcase of young adult books we can expect to see in 2016. Our booksellers share the titles they’re most looking forward to.

Angela Crocombe is keen to read Megan Jacobson’s debut Yellow

There are so many YA books to get excited about, and that’s only looking at the next few months. We’re starting off the year with a double whammy book launch at the Carlton store of two great #LoveOZYA authors: Kirsty Eagar with Summer Skin (due February) and Justine Larbalestier with My Sister Rosa (due February). What a dynamic duo! I can’t wait to people spot the YA authors in the crowd.

I’m keen to read Megan Jacobson’s debut Yellow (due February), a contemporary ghost story. Glenda Millard’s The Stars at Oktober Bend (due February), a love story between two damaged teenagers, seems destined to make me cry. And a hotly anticipated new title by the American author of Flora and Ulysses, Kate DiCamillo, will be released in March. It’s called Raymie Nightingale and while there are no talking animals (unlike most DiCamillo titles), I guarantee that it will still be a brilliant, heartfelt read.

So sure are the publishers that we’re going to cry when we read Amy Zhang’s new book, This is Where the World Ends (due May), that they provided tissues with the reading copy. Very thoughtful of them. But I’m sure it’s also going to be one that stimulates a lot of discussion, just like her debut Falling Into Place, which I absolutely loved.

Then there’s A Tangle of Gold (due March) the final book in Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Colours of Madeleine trilogy to look forward to. Moriarty is a hugely talented Australian author with a very distinctive style, so I can’t wait to see how she wraps up this beautiful fantasy trilogy that has been a bestseller for us.

So much to read, so little time. Must get my nose back in a book right now.

Holly Harper is excited about Dawn Kurtagich’s Creeper Man

Six of Crows was one of my favourite books of 2015 – Leigh Bardugo’s world of magical Russian mobsters and high-stakes heists was the most original thing I read all year. No surprises, then, that my most anticipated book of 2016 is its sequel, Crooked Kingdom (due September).

Steve Lochran’s Paladero: Riders of the Thunder Realm (due July) is going to make a lot of readers very, very happy, myself included. It’s being pitched as Jurassic Park meets Game of Thrones: cowboy/knights herding dinosaurs while fighting off witches and monsters. I really need this in my life.

I’m a sucker for anything horror, so Dawn Kurtagich’s The Creeper Man (due July) made me sit up and take notice. After two sisters escape their abusive father, they find safety in a new home in the woods, but every day the trees around them inch ever closer. And as if that wasn’t terrifying enough, there’s a man with no eyes who stalks them from the woods. I. Can’t. Wait.

I’m also a sucker for a catchy title, which is why I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Hot Pterodactyl Boyfriend by Alan Cumyn (due April). I’m not expecting high literature here… I’m really not sure what I’m expecting, but I know I can’t go past that title.

Nina Kenwood is dying to get her hands on Emily Gale’s The Other Side of Summer

I am going to start with my two most-anticipated reads, which also happen to books written by my colleagues: Iris and the Tiger by Leanne Hall (due February) and The Other Side of Summer by Emily Gale (due June). Both are on the cusp of middle fiction and YA, and both look fabulous. Iris and the Tiger has a cover to die for, and a blurb that references unusual aunts, mysterious forests, strange animals and scheming parents. I can’t wait. Emily’s book is a story of grief, moving countries and growing up, and I know I will cry and feel many, many emotions when reading this novel. I am dying to hold it in my hands.

Other Australian YA books I am excited about: My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier (due February) which I have already read, and heartily endorse, The Sidekicks by Will Kostakis (due March), which I’ve heard good things about, Bro by Helen Chebatte (due February), which looks like a bold debut, and Skylarking (due August) by Kate Mildenhall, which sounds literary and wonderful.

Dani Solomon is looking forward to The Way We Roll by Scot Gardner

Lots of YA authors nail the intense emotions and trials of adolescence; Scot captures with beauty the bits in between, when you’re not sure what you should feel and when you don’t feel strongly about anything. When your day to day life might be rough but rough is normal. The Way We Roll (due March) is listed as a ‘bromance with an unexpected thriller twist’. Eee! I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this book.

My grandfather fought in the Vietnam War and the only thing I ever recall him saying about it was: ‘I might have pulled a trigger but whether I killed anyone is up to me’. I think between the two big World Wars and the current ones, sometimes the Vietnam War gets a bit forgotten when it comes to children’s fiction, so I’m really interested to see what David Metzenthen has to say about it in Dreaming the Enemy (due April).

Iris and the Tiger by Leanne Hall (due February) is about a 12-year-old girl forced to live in Spain with an eccentric aunt in a huge mansion filled with surreal paintings. As a reader I love a good mystery. A good mystery can be delicious. A surrealist mystery… Well, that’s a feast. And going by Leanne’s other books, I know I am going to love it.

Finally, my notes next to How Not To Disappear by Clare Furniss (due February) say ‘pregnant girl, mad grandma, gin sling, dementia, ROAD TRIP’. Do I really need to say more?

Bronte Coates can’t wait to read Jaclyn Moriarty’s A Tangle of Gold

Last year I read the first two books of Jaclyn Moriarty’s The Colours of Madeline series and was utterly enchanted by the Kingdom of Cello. I can’t wait to return there with the third book, A Tangle of Gold (due March). This is the book I’m most excited to get my hands on.

Justine Larbalestier is another of my favourite YA authors and her new book, My Sister Rosa, comes out in a matter of weeks. The plot sounds sinister… and that’s all I’m going to say until I’ve read it.

I’m also excited for a new ‘urban bromance’ from Scot Gardner (The Way We Roll, due March), and new rom-com from Melissa Keil (The Secret Science of Magic, due September), as well as new novels from Clare Akins (Between Us, due 2016) and Claire Zorn (One Would Think the Deep, due May). I’ll definitely be reading Alice Pung’s anthology of teenager’s stories, My First Lesson (due September), as well as Jared Thomas’s second book out through Magabala Books. Plus, the sequel to Illuminae (obviously).

Two voices I’ve not read before have also piqued my interest. Jessica Miller was shortlisted for the Text Prize for her manuscript of Elizabeth and Zenobia (due August), which is described as a ‘fantastically imagined story about all the different ways we can be haunted’, and Steve Lochran’s Jurassic World meets Game of Thrones: Paladero: Riders of the Thunder Realm (due July) sounds like a heck of a lot of fun.

Finally, two authors with ties to Readings have new books out this year that walk the line between middle fiction and YA. Leanne Hall’s Iris and the Tiger (due Feburary) is a surrealist mystery with a painted tiger at its heart, and Emily Gale’s The Other Side of Summer (due June) is a tender, deeply moving story of grief, music, and family.