I seek Young Adult literature recommendations (for a class)

Hello all,

I’m taking a summer class on Young Adult Literature, for my MLS degree. We are expected to read two YA novels a week and write reviews of each, which shouldn’t be a problem. However, we have a long list of options and choices, and I’d love to get some recommendations so I can go straight to the good stuff. The professor wants one or two from each given genre or subcategory, so I can’t just read Judy Blume’s entire body of work (not that I think I would want to). So what do you all recommend?

From the syllabus:

So far, I just finished Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl, and I’ll probably read a graphic novel to fulfill the Sci-Fi/Fantasy requirement next. I’ll probably also read Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot since I already love his work, but from here on out, any suggestions based on the above (or any other appropriate works) would be welcomed.

It’s a categorie I never really read as a YA but:
Rowling, J. K. my kids love them so I tried them and they are very readable - terrific sti\ory values.

Hinton, S.E. (The Outsiders-also in VHS) sometimes feels dated I think Rumble Fish is the most complete.

Cormier, Robert I read Fade which isn’t YA and then read The Chocolate War which must be close to the best YA book ever written because I loved it.

**Garrison Keillor ** Lake Wobegon Days manages to make mundane funny.

**Angelou, Maya ** I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Interesting enough but check out Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas and some of her poetry for a better appreciation.

**Grafton, Sue; Carl Hiaasen ** Anything by either of them is a joy but YA???

**Piers Paul Read ** (Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors) terrific read that has stayed with me for decades now.

I’m not quite sure where it would fit in (Romance? Strong female character?) but I highly recommend “Stargirl” by Spinelli. I was so moved by this book. I think it may be my favorite book ever, YA or otherwise.

**Realistic Fiction **The Kite Runner
**Romance **Stargirl
**Humor (Fiction) **No More Dead Dogs
Sports (Chap. 6) No clue. Sorry.
**Strong female character in fiction **Speak
**Mystery/Suspense **Acceleration
**Historical Fiction **The Midwife’s Apprentice
**Fantasy **Alanna (or anything else by Tamora Pierce)
**Science Fiction **The Giver I really don’t think this is fantasy. It has clear moral ambiguities brought about by shifts in technology. But if your teacher will only accept it as fantasy, then I’d recommend Ender’s Game
**Ethnic experience in fiction **Necessary Roughness
**Gay experience in fiction **Annie On My Mind
**Biography/Autobiography **Walking From East to West
Shocker/ challenged (you can use a challenged book) I don’t know what this means
**Popular adult fiction (best seller) **hmm… not sure. I like just about anything by Phillipa Gregory these days.
**Information, Poetry, or Drama **Grand Mothers : Poems, Reminiscences, and Short Stories About The Keepers Of Our Traditions

I’m sorry, but I just can’t resist. You’re getting a degree in Me?

Those are surprisingly standard and unimaginative suggestions from your professor, but hey, who am I to judge?

I heartily recommend Sabriel by Garth Nix. It’s the first book in his “Abhorsen Trilogy,” and I was shocked at how well-written and engrossing it was for a YA book. I was also surprised at just how dark it was for YA - a young girl inherits her father’s position as Necromancer after he becomes trapped in what’s essentially Hell while trying to lay spirits to rest. It inhabits that intersection of horror and fantasy, and features a strong female protagonist.

I just couldn’t get into it, and it’s everything I usually love about books. But I found the writing surprisingly weak and repetitive (if she “fingered her bells” once more, I’d scream - and it’s not even dirty like it sounds!). I finally gave up 2/3s of the way in. Ah, well. Guess that’s why there’s lots of books out there - to each their dozen.

There’s no way this is YA. Way too much anal rape. Way too much brutal anal rape. This is definitely adult fiction. I would not allow a twelve year old to read this, and I can’t imagine any publisher marketing it as so. It could go in popular adult fiction, but not YA realistic fiction.

All the books I’m suggesting are going to be skewed heavily towards girls, because, well, I am one.

Another from Karen Cushman, aside from The Midwife’s Apprentice is Catherine, Called Birdy . One of my most favorite books. I vastly preferred it to The Midwife’s Apprentice.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott–I’m not sure what category that would fall into. Maybe historical, maybe strong woman character in fiction.

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (historical fiction)–Short and sweet.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell–There are others, but that’s my favorite.

You might want to consider reading one of the Redwall books by Brian Jacques as a fantasy selection. It’s been a while since I’ve read any, but I was way into them in middle school. The world’s pretty easy to grasp, though, so you could probably just pick up any book at all in the series.

I heartily second Sabriel and Lake Wobegon Days.

Cormier wrote a lot of good stuff, if you don’t mind that most of the stories are pretty dark and depressing.

In addition to “The Chocolate War,” I recommend:

“I am the Cheese”
“Beyond the Chocolate War”
“We All Fall Down”
“The Rag and Bone Shop”

I also second the suggestion of Chris Crutcher (especially “Ironman”) and add a couple more recommendations:

Lois Duncan, “Killing Mr. Griffin”
Deborah Z. Porter, “When Dad Killed Mom”
Diane Duane, the “Young Wizards” series (starting with “So You Want To Be a Wizard”)

I agree it’s not for 12 year olds. I do think it’s fine for 17 year olds. “YA” is a vague term on Amazon, especially when doing searches, their search engine sucks. I don’t know if there’s a more rigid guideline for this class. One of the reasons I liked it so much was that it’s about a culture I don’t see much written about, and it was one of the few books where I had nothing - nothing - in common with the protaganist, but I cared for him so deeply I couldn’t stop reading. But yeah, I’ll conceed it’s not appropriate for the young end of YA.

Though the troublemaker part of me wants to ask why brutal vaginal rape is OK, but homosexual anal rape isn’t. Rape/molestation survivor stories are a huge chunk of YA fiction. It was one of my favorite genres as a young girl.

Hoot is wonderful. As is Michael Chabon’s Summerland (a baseball fantasy - sports? fantasy?)

I think this is for younger kids (middle school age) but I suggest “My Brother Sam is Dead” - can’t remember the author, but seems timely (a boy torn about the war, in this case the Revolution).
Historical Fiction

Thank you all for the suggestions so far! Please keep 'em coming! That Garth Nix book actually sounds very cool (and I should be able to fit it in under “Horror”), and I did not know about Michael Chabon’s Summerland, but I loved his Kavalier and Clay (not a YA novel), and I can use Summerland as a “Sports” book.

I was a little disappointed by Artemis Fowl, but I think I’m going to use Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol: Crawling Through the Wreckage for my graphic novel sci-fi/fantasy selection just because I have it here and haven’t read it yet. It’s about misunderstood outcasts and freaks, so it might be just perfect as a YA title.

These are some things I read and loved around that age, many of these were even required reading. I know that YA is broad, so some of these might be considered too young/old, I don’t know, but I’m thinking of what was required in sixth-eighth grade Gifted classes when I was there.
All Louisa May Alcott
All Lucy Maud Montgomery
Prydain Chronicles
Dark is Rising series
Westing Game
Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn
Narnia
Secret Garden
Hobbit
To Kill a Mockingbird
Cold Sassy Tree
Call of the Wild
The Pigman
I am the Cheese (was that the title?)
Separate Peace

Hmm, that’s what I remember reading at that age (well and Romeo and Juliet for class too!). Would Lemony Snicket be YA or kids? There was some other book about a girl, Dicey’s Song, maybe? I didn’t like that.

You really can’t appreciate YA SciFi without reading the Heinlein juveniles: *Starman Jones, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, Farmer In The Sky, The Star Beast, Citizen of the Galaxy, Red Planet, Between Planets, * and Podkayne of Mars, which also qualifies as a “strong female character” book.

In my mind, YA goes until about eighth or ninth grade, and then the maturity level should be high enough to handle most anything. I couldn’t see a librarian forming a list of recommended YA books and including The Kite Runner in it because some parents would pick it up for their sixth-grader.

I read it originally for class this semester, and no one in the class could find a real good reason for the extent of rape there was in the book. There was no strong parallel between the rape of the land and the rape of the youth or anything like that. It just strikes me as a waste to not utilize something so bold and contentious as rape for a greater metaphorical and symbolic meaning. I guess a banana is really just a banana sometimes, but to have it be nothing more in a novel was very surprising.

I actually don’t think that graphic depictions of vaginal rape in books for the middle school set is all that cool, either. I just remarked upon the anal rape in The Kite Runner because that’s the only kind of rape there is in that book. I’d wager, though, that vaginal rape is more acceptable because it’s the expected rape to hear about. It’s perfectly acceptable for a woman to come out and talk about rape without it having any effect on her femininity, but a man doing the same thing would damage his identity in a totally different way. Not saying that being raped wouldn’t be a terrible ordeal for either sex, but a man faces different obstacles in current society.

I see Joan Lowery Nixon is on your list. She’s a local author here in Houston, so we all had to read a few of her mystery novels in junior high. Once she came to our school and gave a talk on writing. I read The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore and The Seance and I remember her books being okay, but nothing special.

Rob Thomas, creator of Veronica Mars, wrote a few young adult novels, including Rats Saw God and Slave Day. I haven’t read them but I’ve heard good things. If they’re half as good as the show, which was originally conceived as a novel, those might be good bets and you can spare your professor the experience of grading the one-billionth review of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. :wink:

Realistic Fiction (Chap. 4) Maniac Magee might qualify; it’s certainly quite good. (You could also fit it under “Sports,” probably).
Romance (Chap. 4): dunno.
Humor (Fiction) (see Chap. 5)
Sports (Chap. 6) Summerland? meh. Didn’t much like it, but it’s not awful.
Strong female character in fiction (choose any): The Hero and the Crown, definitely–one of the all-time greats! Or To Kill a Mockingbird.
Mystery/Suspense (Chap. 6): The Westing Game, a classic whodunit, or Holes, a modern mystery (that might also fit under “humor”).
Historical Fiction (Chap. 8): Treasure Island! A fantastic read, especially if yuou’ve not read it in years. Also almost anything by Scott O’Dell (Island of the Blue Dolphins etc.)
Fantasy (Chap. 7): Sounds like you’ve got this covered. I was disappointed by Artemis Fowl and Sabriel, but highly recommend The Golden Compass and its sequels. I also kinda like A Wizard of Earthsea, but you could probably guess that :).
Science Fiction (Chap. 7): I’m not really up on my YA SF.
Ethnic experience in fiction (see p. 299): Annoying category, if you ask me (everybody’s ethnic!), but you might go for Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry.
Gay experience in fiction (see websites links): Dunno.
Biography/Autobiography (Non-Fiction) (see Chap. 9 or web sites link): Too many to choose from! I’m partial to PT Barnum and Mark Twain as awesome biographical subjects.
Curriculum related (see Chap. 9-11)
Shocker/ challenged (you can use a challenged book): Shocker? Maybe Coraline, by Neil Gaiman; it’s really creepy horror.

Daniel

I still have and occasionally re-read Katherine Paterson’s “Jacob Have I Loved.” I kinda vaguely recall seeing the movie (after-school special, maybe?) - Bridget Fonda was in it? - but the book has stuck with me since jr. high, which was 20-some years ago.

[You recommend The Hero and the Crown over The Blue Sword and Spindle’s End? All of them are great, but I thought THatC was the weakest one.

He might be a little young, but anything by John Bellairs is good for creepy/horror.

For ethnic experience, Come a Stranger, by Cynthia Voigt (part of her Tillerman Family sequence), or anything by Deborah Eillis.

My first thought was The Giver, which is a pretty good book (I’m also reminded of another, similar one, with two groups of people–one in the trees and one below the roots. Can’t remember the name though). I didn’t realise that Ender’s Game was considered YA, but I would recommend that as well.

For a more original response, I’d rsuggest Silverwing by Kenneth Oppel. It’s the first of a series (Sunwing and Firewing being the others–I haven’t read Firewing yet but I’d like to).