“A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. is the Garden of Eden of literature.”
Thus spake National Book Award-winning Sherman Alexie.Here are a couple of myths about YA lit: (1) YA is all like Harry Potter. (A myth popular among those who've read little YA other than Harry Potter. And don't get me wrong, I love Harry Potter! But he's SO not representative of all YA. No single series could be.) (2) YA is only read, loved, lauded and applauded by young adults.
BWA-HA-HAHAHAHAAAA! LIES! ALL LIES!!!!!
Ahem.
Are you a person who hasn't read much YA? If so, I am now going to recommend some beautiful and complex YA literature that will knock your socks off, even if you're so old that you grew up in the 1920s wearing spats, making your socks more difficult to access.
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie (realism)
- The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One and Volume Two, by M.T. Anderson (realism)
- Postcards from No Man's Land, by Aidan Chambers (realism)
- The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros (realism)
- Sleeping Dogs, by Sonya Hartnett (realism)
- Slake's Limbo, by Felice Holman (realism)
- Toning the Sweep, by Angela Johnson (realism)
- The Tricksters, by Margaret Mahy (magical realism)
- A Step from Heaven, by An Na (realism)
- The His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman (fantasy)
- Kindergarten, by Peter Rushforth (realism / fairy tale retelling)
- The Attolia books, by Megan Whalen Turner (fantasy)
- Peeps, by Scott Westerfeld (contemporary fantasy? SF? If I tell you what it actually is, you'll get the wrong idea)
- True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff (realism / free verse)
- The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak (realism, sort of)
I've included descriptors in parentheses just to give you a sense of genre, but click through to the links to get to the Amazon descriptions.
However! Before you buy the books from Amazon -- or even before you buy them from Powells -- I want to say one thing (with thanks to my pal, secret code name: Heroes Use Headsets, for reminding me of this). Did you know that a lot of independent bookstores do online ordering and shipping -- or, can take orders by phone and ship them to you -- or, can take orders by phone and then contact you when your books come in? And when you shop at local independents, your entire community benefits. :o) If you live in the U.S., the American Booksellers Association has a handy-dandy independent store finder right here to help you locate your local indie.
One final thing before I go: Graceling fell today in the Battle of the Books -- to The Lincolns, by Candace Fleming. Judge Nancy Werlin's wise decision is here; she's convinced me to read The Lincolns asap. Thanks, Battle, for throwing me in with so many great books! And good luck in the final two rounds. (You can keep track of next week's semi-finals on the Battle Blog.)
More YA recommendations are welcome in the comments -- and maybe I'll follow this up sometime soon with a middle grade list and a picture book list. Happy Thursday, everyone :o)
Comments
-Jen
On other notes, thanks for the poke about indie bookstores! I found THREE right in town that I knew existed, but that I didn't know were indie! (I am SO going shopping and spending too much money...)
I'd say sorry about you getting cut from the book battle, but while I AM sorry that you got cut, it somehow seems more important that you were involved in the battle to start with, than that you won in the end. You know, being as you're a first time author and all. I hope that comes across as I mean it to... I'll End this bit by just saying, again, congrats on your success in getting put into the battle of the books! :)
Oh, and please do follow up with middle grade and picture books and any other sort you take a fancy to. I might be alone in this, but no matter how much I study things, I have trouble classifying books into those kinds of categories. Maybe my brain's got a dent or something, but I'm perpetually surprised by what's put into YA or middle, yada yada yada...
I order my books from bookdepository.co.uk, which is a company in the UK that has free worldwide shipping, or sometimes from Tattered Cover Bookstore, which is Denver's largest independent, and is only 5 hours away so I get my books sooner.
A book that I've long loved, which I first read in high school, is "My Sweet Charlie" by David Westheimer. It's a wonderful tale about desperation, race, learning and caring. I'd love to read it again someday - it's out of print now. I need to see if my library has it. It's one of those books that I loved so much I'm almost frightened to re-read it in case I don't love it as much now as I did when I was 16.
I'm very excited to see your recommendations for children's picture books. My 2 1/2 year old son, Henry, will be happy to provide his opinion on your choices. :-)
Don't forget your public library either. That way, if you happen to dislike the book, you can just return it, and you didn't spend any money at all! (Of course, I may be biased, as I work in the children's room of a library.)
~Horselover
PAPER TOWNS by john green. my first read by him. i truly enjoyed it. couldn't stop reading.
THE GOOSE GIRL by shannon hale. felt like reading a fairy tale.
Thank you for the recommendation list. I 'fell' into YA books because of a graduate class for adolescent literature. The prof was EXCELLENT (a librarian) and introduced us to all kinds of great books that somehow I was too 'old' to read. All the books I've recently reserved at the library have been YA - and usually recommended by the posters above! So, I need to say THANK YOU fellow Gracelingers - I appreciate your recommendations!
Oh, and horselover? I'm in the middle of the trilogy of A Great and Terrible Beauty - it's wonderful.
A few more YA books that are just amazing:
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
Happy Reading!
I've been camped out in YA for a while now too so thank you for more read options.
Yours is also already on my soon to read list as recommended to me by my new blog and writer friend tinkandalissa! Thanks again for the list of reads (from you both)! ~Shauna
btw, a random question: if you were a fruit, what would you be?
AG, thank you. To be honest, I was somewhat relieved by the decision. I was finding the whole thing exhausting. :o)
Nikki, I'm pretty sure I read True Believer first and had no problem with reading them backwards... but I don't remember for sure. Does anyone else have an opinion on whether it's okay to read the Wolff books out of order?
IDOTD: I'm going to have to think about that one...
"She must have loved him so incredibly hard" (Zuzak).
--Candelion
Two thumbs up for His Dark Materials, those are truly excellent books.
I keep hearing about so many of the books on your list.
More recommendations:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman,
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier,
Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
the maximum ride series by james patterson
the daniel x series by james patterson
james patterson's newest series which isn't out yet but i'm sure will be awesome
bleach (okay, so it's a manga, but its still awesome!!!)
Chronicles of Prydain (the disney movie the Black Cauldron is based off these books. A story about growing up and maturing.)
Lament the Faerie Queen's Deception (An excellent modern faerie tale without excessive drug use and extensive knowledge of faeries from all over the world)
Cry of the Icemark (an epic war story about a proud country being led by their even prouder warrior princess)
The Chrestomanci Chronicles (good stories about two Chrestomancis. enchanters with nine lives, and how annoying adults can be while still meaning well)
Howl's Moving Castle trilogy (a story about youth growing old before their time, imperfect true love, and the power of magic)
Enchanted Forest Chronicles (hilarious stories. I want to have children just so I can read them these books. Stories revolving around a heavily enchanted forest, it's king, a dragon's princess, and the messes they all make and mend)
Dragon Slippers and sequels (A story about rather original dragons and the unasuming girl who saves them. All side splitting hilarious)
The Abhorsen trilogy soon to be quartet (I've been reading these books since middle school, so almost 10 years! A story about a girl who commands death even as it commands her)
Looking Glass Wars (I love these books that both make more and less sense of Alice in Wonderland)
Tale of Desperaux (a children's book about honor, courage and valor. Things sadly missing from our society)
Princess Bride (that's right it's a book! And it kicks the movie's butt!!!)
The Bayern Books "Goose Girl" (a retelling of the Goose Girl. Very good)
The Twelve Kingdoms (novels from the land of Japan, currently being translated by tokyopop. The first is about a common girl who is suddenly thrown into an ancient and cruel world. There are few ups and a lot of downs)
Thornspell (a clever retelling of Sleaping Beauty. There are marks in the cover from me gripping the book in excitement)
101 Dalmations (another book made into a disney movie. Sometimes it's nice to slow down and read something simple but still important)
Graceling (this story helped me realize that it's distubingly easy to misconceve things about myself)
Princess Ben (a story about a spoiled princess who becomes a witch and runs away from home)
Wildwood Dancing (a story about the Twelve Dancing Princesses and the Frog Prince. Combined with vivdly portayed faeries makes for a good wintertime novel)
Beauty (Beauty and the Beast is my favorite fairy tale, and this is my favorite retelling)
sorry if this is too long but you did ask for reccomendations
THE BARTIMAEUS TRILOGY by Jonathan Stroud. You will absoulutely love it!
By the way, loved Graceling, reading an Advance Readers Copy of Fire and loving it too!
It's Deirdre, and I'm SO happy to see so many great book recommendations (which I agree with, of course)!
Attolia!!! Everyone must read!! at once!
And I'm so happy someone mentioned Princess Ben! If you're more into realism than fantasy, or you like both, try "Dairy Queen" and "The Off Season," by the same author.
Speaking of authors -- Terry Pratchett, anyone? Everything he writes is brilliant, and his latest book, "Nation," is extraordinary!
And how about Kate Thompson? Her latest is called "Creature of the Night." Realism with one foot in faery, and rather creepy -- but in a brilliant way!
Well, I must run -- I have a lot of reading to do!