This Is How We Roll

2026 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers title

Your friends gather around the table, character sheets at the ready. You dive into the fantasy: a dark dungeon crawling with enemies, the journey promising wealth or ruin, victory or defeat. Your party forges onward: roll Perception. . . . roll Stealth. . . . But not every question can be answered by the dice.

Decisions like when to trust, how to love, and who we are can’t be outsourced to a D20. We don’t get skill modifiers in real life—and...