# YALSA’s Teen Book Finder — user reviews > 22 indexed App Store user reviews of YALSA’s Teen Book Finder by American Library Association, rated 2.70/5 from 6 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yalsas-teen-book-finder/id527674308/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yalsas-teen-book-finder/id527674308.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1 · 4★ 1 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 2 ## Newest reviews (2 of 22) ### 4/5 — Great lists, but "find it" feature lacking *2012-08-10* These are great lists and it's awesome to have them so readily available. The only problem - and perhaps someone can enlighten me on this point - is that the "find it" feature, which as far as I know is powered by oclc's worldcat search api, doesn't bring up local, relevant results (essentially the results you would get if you used worldcat's actual site). A previous reviewer suggested that only academic libraries were included in results, but I'm not sure that's the problem. Utilizing the find it feature for HP & the deathly hallows, for example, tells me that the nearest copy (I'm in Wisconsin) is at an elementary school outside Philadelphia. Hmm. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Regardless, I think it's a great readers advisory/collection development tool, but marketing it to teens with the promise of a feature that isn't actually functional seems problematic. 4 for great potential and because I'm sure yalsa can iron out the wrinkles. ### 4/5 — Good app, but needs some additional features *2012-06-20* I teach 9th grade English and am always looking for books for my students and myself. This app is a quickly accessed tool I can use to help locate books for picky readers. A few additional features I would like to see: 1. A search category for age and gender. On a computer I can access the reviews for a book, which will give me an idea about appropriate audience, but in the app I must make a guess. 2. Ways to provide feedback and/or suggestions within the app. 3. Ways to personalize the app to my students' interests. I like being exposed to new books through the Hot Picks, but I would once again like them on an appropriate level. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Rip off *2019-07-25* This is not what I thought it would have been I thought I would have been able to read books but I cannot this just really shows ware you can buy some ### 1/5 — So *2014-12-10* This game will not do anything ### 1/5 — Crap! *2014-03-18* This app is junk. Plain and simple. NONE of the books I want are on there! They're not too well known books but so what!?!?! This app should have them in its database! This app doesn't even recognize two amazing books, one a classic entertainment, Ragweed and the other a great series, the original Percy Jackson series and the dumb thing doesn't even have THAT!!!???!!!! ### 2/5 — Good books at my fingertips! *2022-06-23* I love that I have good books at my fingertips, but it seems it’s not being updated any longer. The Printz award list hasn’t been updated in a few years. YALSA, this is THE way to keep teens engaged in reading! Please update this with new titles! ### 2/5 — Disappointing *2013-03-05, version 1.0* The most useful aspect of this app is the book lists, which seems to have been the intention. However because the book database is limited to the books on the list, it's not very functional for finding a new book to read. The "locate book" option only shows results for southern Indiana--a place I've never been--and there nowhere I can find to change that. Ultimately I don't know how to use this app in a way that a quick google search doesn't offer. ### 2/5 — So wanted to like this app more *2012-11-17* Would be great if find feature connected to local PL instead of world cat (which failed to locate my library system). ### 2/5 — Not as useful as I'd hoped *2012-07-14* Nice idea, but glad I tested the app before sharing with teens. The search does not seem to communicate with our greater Portland area library system. The college libraries and the system south of us do show. I have a isbn reader app that can find books in local stores and Multnomah County, so I know it's possible. I like the short synopses. The lists would be more useful if they weren't as broad, but I imagine with feedback the app will improve. ### 3/5 — Alphabetical order please *2014-04-25* Why is a site associated with The American Library Association listing its authors by their FIRST names? Alphabetical order of people is by last name, first. ### 3/5 — Good idea, clunky implementation *2012-12-13* So, I love the YALSA lists online. They are top-notch and a great place to go to find titles for my 9th grade classroom library. Actually, they're the best place I've found. And all the books are in this app, I suppose, but... a lot of buts. A few of the screens are missing "back" buttons, so once you get there you're kind of trapped and have to start over instead of just going back and searching for more "sci fi" titles or whatever. I wish the reviews or synopses were a bit more substantial—there's all this app infrastructure but then not all that much that actually tells you about the actual titles once you find them. And the searching—yikes! Authors names are actually NOT IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER. First, they seem like they're sorted by first name, but then you look closely and realize all the first names are L's, for example, but after that the names jump all around. Bizarre. The first time I tried searching by author, I was looking for other books by the same author of a book I'd just found through the app. When I finally found her name (not in alphabetical order), it said "NO TITLES LISTED." And I had just looked at a book by her in the app! (Lish McBride/"Hold Me Closer, Necromancer" if any folks who work on the app are reading). So as a result, I fear this may not be a reliable way to locate books for kids as I'd hoped. If this worked the way it should, it'd be awesome! ### 3/5 — error message and question *2012-06-06* Upon trying to share via twitter, there is an error on close message and no tweet. Why are authors listed alphabetically by first name? Lots of potential... ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Good *2013-12-30* Works well for when I'm looking for a new book to read. The app is simple, but I like that. ### 5/5 — What about public libraries? *2012-08-04* Love the search feature and links to lists. Was disappointed that the Find It button only showed university library holdings. ### 5/5 — Fun App!! *2012-06-08* This is an amazing app. You can search for YA books by author or title, add them to a favorites list and find them in your local library network. What's not to love?!? Perfect for librarians, parents, YA lovers, teens will love it too. ### 5/5 — School librarian *2012-06-06* Great app! Easy to navigate. Really useful for finding and recommending books. Search by category (author, title, genre, etc.) or check out the "Hot Picks" updated daily. Add books to your "My Favorites" page to create lists. Highly recommended for librarians, teens, teachers, and parents. ### 5/5 — Fantastic *2012-06-05* This app is easy to use and a great tool! ### 5/5 — For all kinds of book lovers *2012-06-05* YALSA's Book Finder app is easy to use and provides quick descriptions of award winning and recommended YA books, audiobooks, and adult books of interest to teens. Perfect for librarians, but also helpful to teachers, parents, and teens themselves. Appreciate the Favorites feature that allows for a mobile "to read" list. ### 5/5 — YALSA's Teen Book Finder *2012-06-04* This is a great app for anyone that is interested in reading and/or recommending and/or teaching teen books. It's easy to use and easy to find the best books for teens in a wide variety of categories. The search features make the app perfect for someone looking for a specific title or for something to read in a favorite genre. If you wonder if the book is available in a nearby library, that can be discovered in the app too. ### 5/5 — Outstanding *2012-06-04* Very nice way to find award titles on the go, in a helpful mobile format. ### 4/5 — Updated one year ago *2018-04-28* Since all the other reviews are older than one year I thought I would try this app out and review it. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was I was surprised at how many books were missing from popular authors. Brandon Sanderson only had two books listed when his Mistborn and other series are very popular for instance. ### 4/5 — About the App *2015-04-01* It would be great if you could put more hot picks in display and new books in display. It would be great if once that you locate the library it could give you a link to place a hold or the phone number to call the library directly and place a hold. I tried to call to the phone that you provide and even though there's a path to call to Reston Regional Library, the path is long and a teenager wouldn't invest this effort. I insist it would be such a great service just to link the library's location with the phone number. There's a lot of Library systems around the country but, why not? Thank you from an avid reader from Fairfax County. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-06-05.*