The list below will reveal my biases, but I should confess outright:
I love young adult novels that have page-turning plots, strong opinionated main characters, and I don't mind if there's a little magic or otherworldliness.

I started to name this list "The Best YA Books of 2009," but stopped when I realized that title wouldn't be accurate. There were several excellent releases in the past year that I read and admired, but they didn't truly move me the way these 8 titles did.

Want to make your own favorites list for 2009? Come by the library or email me!

The Hunger Games & Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
 The first two of a projected trilogy, set in the dystopian future of the US.
Each District in the ruined remains of our society is mandated by the totalitarian government to choose two teens (one boy, one girl) each year who will compete in the televised Hunger Games - sort of a Survivor-esque fight to the death. There's violence, but much heart and courage, and while the world Collins creates here is not one I'd want to live in, I am very happy to visit and cannot wait until the third book comes out in Aug/Sept. 2010!
Graceling & Fire by Kristin Cashore
These two books are linked, but aren’t a series. The author wants them read in order of publication, which means Graceling first, Fire second. (There are plot surprises in Graceling that would be spoiled if Fire were read first.) Set in a world where extremely gifted individuals are marked by having eyes whose colors don't match, these adventure tales feature very strong female protagonists plus action and page-turning plots.
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
This compelling Australian novel recounts the annual game played among three groups of young people: students at a boarding school, teenagers in the nearby town, and the city kid "cadets" who come each year to camp out for several weeks. This year, the leaders of the three groups form intense bonds - and together, they discover the strange, sad history of how the game came to be.
The Knife of Never Letting Go & The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness
The first two of a projected trilogy, set on another planet (colonized by humans).
On this new planet, a virus infects men (and animals) and causes their thoughts to become audible. The women, Todd Hewitt has always been told, have all died. But there's an even larger problem: Todd's town, for reasons he doesn't understand, will do something sinister to him unless he runs away - and once he's run, they'll be after him.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The first of a projected trilogy, set in Revolutionary America. Let me say up front: I'm not a fan of historical fiction. I don't like not knowing the difference between what actually happened and what was imagined. This book, however, won me over completely. Isabel is a 13-year-old slave who should have been freed when her owner died, but the evil nephew of her mistress sells her off, instead. In Boston at the start of the Revolutionary War, Isabel will learn much about the world and herself.

The book below I've not yet read, but I’m confident it will join my favorites of 2009 once I have - every reviewer I trust raves about it.

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
From the book jacket: "In the summer before his senior year, Marcelo, a high-functioning autistic who has been sheltered in a special school, is forced by his hard-driving lawyer father to take a summer job in his law firm's mail room so that he can learn to function in the "real world." But Marcelo learns more about the real world than his father intended, including finding out just what kind of lawyer, and person, his father really is."