Book recs?

[stillsostrange]

Pursuant to my last post, can I get some YA recommendations?

I'm fond of Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness trilogy, Holly Black's stuff, and Annette Curtis Klause, that I can think of off the top of my head. (And, if I'm being honest, L.J. Smith's Vampire Diaries, Secret Circle, and Forbidden Game.) I've heard enough about Twilight to think that I wouldn't like it.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

The majority of YA bores me, so I don't read it.

But! At WisCon I bought Anna a book she almost didn't get. I started reading Zahrah, the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu and fell right into the story. For a YA book to do that for me is very unusual.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of range in YA. I'm currently listening to a bunch of it that I wouldn't normally read, because I need audiobooks to keep me from goofing off at work, but they can't be too complex, and they need to be available from the NH D/L Audiobooks website.

YA teen books set in more-or-less the real world largely don't interest me*. Especially series books. Unless they feature teen detectives. Or were written by Arthur Ransome. But I also did lots of my YA reading when I was <12.

YA fantasy has a lot of gems. Of course, its a marketing category, so what goes in it is what publishers think will sell to YA readers or to teachers and parents.


*The Wanderer by Sharon Creech was surprisingly good. As was Creech's Love That Dog. Can't vouch for the rest of her work.

[kayselkiemoon.livejournal.com]

Or were written by Arthur Ransome.

*cheers* I wish more people knew of his work. I started the Swallows & Amazons books at age 9, but his work rings true for any age (and is also fun for reading aloud!)

I read a lot of middle grade and YA set in the more-or-less real world growing up, but the bulk of what's being published these days (in mainstream YA) holds no interest for me. I think there is good work still coming out, but it gets lost amid series like Gossip Girl and The Clique.

I second Sharon Creech. I really love Walk Two Moons, the first of her novels I read.