This is Teen Read Week as you’ll know if you read the LJs and blogs on my friends’ lists. I point you to those because many of them have great suggestions for things to do this week to celebrate.
Myself, I’m going to finally post part of my list of book recommendations. I still haven’t gotten my LibraryThing going, so this list is incomplete (and often lacking in publication information, and I’m not going to bother with links, sorry), and I’m only going to post the YA recommendations, but it’s something. If you haven’t read these books, you should (sorry for the lack of pretty-ness for this list):
Historical Fiction
Jacob Have I Loved, Katherine Paterson—Newbery Medal—Louise is jealous of her twin sister, Caroline
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Fairy tale retellings/Fantasy/Adventure/Science Fiction
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire
Goose Girl, Shannon Hale—fun tale by a Newbery Honor author
Princess Academy, Shannon Hale—2005 Newbery Honor
The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley
The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley—Newbery Medal
Tamora Pierce, Alanna: The First Adventure
Beast, Donna Jo Napoli
The Giver, Lois Lowry
Sabriel, Garth Nix
Lirael, Garth Nix
Abhorsen, Garth Nix
Power of Three, Diana Wynne Jones—my favorite of DWJ’s books
Cart and Cwidder, book 1 of Dalemark Quartet, DWJ
Drowned Ammet, book 2 of Dalemark
The Spellcoats, book 3 of Dalemark
The Crown of Dalemark, book 4 of Dalemark
Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones
The Folk Keeper, Franny Billingsley
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
Many Waters, Madeleine L’Engle
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L’Engle
Nancy Farmer, The House of the Scorpion (2002)
Among the Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix—book 1 of the Shadow Children series
Running out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix
Turnabout, Margaret Peterson Haddix
Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld
Pretties, by Scot
t Westerfeld
Specials, by Scott Westerfeld
Midnighters Series—The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness, and Blue Noon, by Scott Westerfeld
Magic or Madness, by Justine Larbaleister
Realism
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon (Doubleday, 2003)
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Chris Crutcher (Greenwillow, 1993)
Seek, Paul Fleischman (Marcato/Cricket, 2001)
A Step from Heaven, An Na (Front Street, 2001)
Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson (Farrar, 1999)
Cuba 15, Nancy Osa (Random, 2003)
The Gospel According to Larry, Janet Tashjian (Holt, 2001)
The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton (Viking, 1967)
The Pigman, Paul Zindel (Harper, 1968)
Zibby Oneal, In Summer Light
Brock Cole, The Goats
Kazumi Yumoto, The Letters
Francine Prose, After
Cynthia Voigt, Dicey’s Song
Poetry
Marilyn Nelson, Carver: A Life in Poems (2001)
Helen Frost, Keesha’s House
Nonfiction
Jack Gantos, Hole in My Life. Even though he writes for a middle-grade audience, this book is definitely for a young adult audience.
*There’s a lot more great nonfiction out there, but my reference list was incomplete. I might get around to expanding it at some time.
ETA: I was in such a hurry to post this that of course I forgot to mention that OF COURSE you should also read Mirrorstone books! Go find the Practical Guide to Dragons, now #3 on the NYT chapter book list. Then read Time Spies (granted, not a teen read, but still quite fun!), Dragonlance: The New Adventures, Star Sisterz, and Knights of the Silver Dragon. 🙂