A Teen Ghost Named Hot Dog, Brown Girl Magic, and More New YA Books Out This Week: August 19, 2026

Hot Dog is a teen ghost who haunts a food cart outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. No one sees her. At least they didn’t until teens in Florida summoned her with an Ouija board at a party. While all of the teen guests scramble when Hot Dog appears, Logan–party host–does not.

Logan intended to summon her dead best friend, and she’s obsessed with befriending Hot Dog. Hot Dog is game, even though she’s not a real girl.

Unfortunately for Logan and for Hot Dog, something in Logan’s house knows that Hot Dog is but a ghost. There are real threats leveraged at Hot Dog, who has to face the truth about what happened to her in real life–or else she and Logan will be taken down by the thing in Logan’s house.

Harper’s grandmother, Gigi, told her stories growing up about Brown girls who gathered magic from the stars. So when Gigi dies, Harper begins to feel some kind of magic stirring beneath her own skin. She wants to know what it all means.

This means Harper is going to enroll at Black Mountain Academy, an elite boarding school her grandmother attended, and that’s rumored to be haunted by witches.

Harper’s going to find out both her own power and about the secrets at Black Mountain, even if it means dodging an ex-bestie who wants her off campus and her ex-bestie’s cousin. So when Harper discovers a legend about 12 witches who died on campus, she’s unable to shake a connection with them. But the school doesn’t want its secrets unraveled, which means Harper’s attempts to learn about herself and the witches may be cut short before they begin.

This one is getting comps to Tracy Deonn’s Legendborn.

Emily is the good girl. She’s gotten the perfect grades. She’s gotten into her dream college. She’s been the kid she wants her parents to be proud of. All of it, though, was in service of helping ease her family’s loss of her sister.

But Emily can’t keep playing the role that doesn’t feel right, and she’s decided to take a gap year. Her plan, concocted by her grandmother, sounds magical. Grandma was a member of the 1960s singing duo the Flower Sisters, and in 1966, the Flower Sisters toured Europe. Grandma’s encouraged Emily to follow the same path the Sisters took on their tour, and Emily’s all in.

What transpires is a series of ups, downs, twists, and turns that Emily could have never imagined. It’s her opportunity to learn who she is and who it is she dreams of being, all while taking the time to truly grieve her tremendous loss.

Young YA Alert! If you’re looking for a young adult book for younger YA readers with a younger teen character, here’s one for your TBR.

Lucy, 13, doesn’t quite get a lot of things going on in her life. Her 17-year-old brother, Henry, is a violin virtuoso, so why would he be dealing with depression? Why is her mother only interested in her brother’s career and not Lucy’s interest in being a mime? Why does her father, who left the family and moved to Peru, want to come back to visit now?

Not to mention that Lucy’s starting to have more serious feelings for her longtime best friend, Charles.

So when Henry dies by suicide, Lucy’s mother is looking for a way to deal with the grief. She and Lucy head to Peru. While everyone struggles through such tremendous loss, Lucy begins to find solace in a local bookstore, where the owner helps her discover the power of poetry.

This is a work about grief and loss, as well as the tricky, complex dynamics of family. There’s a lot here about mental health and the power of the written word.

Readers who love a novel written in mixed formats will want this one on their TBR. It’s got verse and conversation.

Sylvie’s goal after high school was van life. It’s her way to escape home, and with her dog by her side and plenty of resources, she’s ready to start fresh.

Knox has always been an outsider. He’s never felt stable and never had a solid life.

When Knox rescues Sylvie’s dog and breaks his arm in the process, the two of them unexpectedly connect. Sylvie feels she owes Knox for his help and offers him a ride. Now, together, the two of them begin sharing their secrets, and as they unravel piece by piece, both Sylvie and Knox wonder if they’d ever have gotten along if not by accident–or if their encounter was meant to happen.

Kia’s life has been privileged, and she’d be the first to say so. She’s the daughter of a popular and powerful influencer. But Kia wants a life that isn’t in the spotlight. She wants a normal high school experience without rumors flying everywhere about her.

So when she meets Cass, Kia gets a taste of that normalcy. At least it feels that way. Then Cass begins to garner his own attention, and the spotlight is trained on Kia again.

Can she experience the messiness of first love the way she wishes? Or is Kia forever going to find herself in the spotlight that she never once asked for?

Stella Sedgwick was banished from etiquette lessons, and she knows that making a career as a writer in 1860s England is hard enough. Add that she’s got dark skin and that she’s female? Nearly impossible.

Then, a proposition. Stella’s late mother’s former employer wants to bequeath one of the estates to Stella. The thing is, in order to avoid a complicated legal battle, Stella must marry someone. With her cousin by her side, Stella is thrust into the upper crust of London, where she finds herself with rekindled feelings toward a childhood best friend.

The relocation to London also gives Stella not only the opportunity to pick up her mother’s old advice column. It unearths so many secrets that she can hardly keep up.