I occasionally find myself the lone YA writer in a room full of writers of adult literary fiction. I also occasionally find myself having to deflect comments about my books (I can’t count the number of times I’ve said, “No, I don’t write about vampires”) and explaining that, in YA, we have the same kinds of books the adult shelves do. We have vampires, sure, and we have science fiction and we have stories about the end of the world. We have fast-paced mysteries and thrillers. We have love stories. We have sad stories. We have funny stories. We have beautifully crafted literary novels, too. We have every kind of book you could imagine.

I know it shouldn’t bother me what other people think, but I can’t help but want YA to gain the respect in literary circles that it so deserves, and it frustrates me when our books are dismissed. I mean, I started off writing literary fiction for adults. What changed my mind and inspired my detour and ultimate reinvention as a YA author? I’ll tell you: Some amazingly well-crafted YA novels. They opened my eyes to what’s possible. And that’s the thing: So much is possible in YA.

I often find myself recommending some of the novels that had an impact on me, both as a reader of YA and as a writer. There’s the poetry and imagination in Feathered by Laura Kasischke, which effectively changed my life, and Lips Touch, Three Times by Laini Taylor (which I love all the more for being a short story collection). I’ve been known to read the first page aloud from Paper Towns by John Green to anyone who will listen, and I’ve lent out Good Girls by Laura Ruby to so many friends, I don’t know where my copy is anymore. To show what’s possible with multiple perspectives, I recommend Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia and Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles (title similarity a total coincidence). I wish everyone would read How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff and Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff. For a true sense of being a teenager and why I find it so important to write about this intense and confusing period, I’d recommend Beautiful by Amy Reed. To show that YA novels can take huge risks—and do not shy from very dark content—I’d show Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. I will never be able to keep my eyes dry after reading Sweethearts by Sara Zarr, and I challenge you to try. And for anyone who doubts that YA contains books of true literature that would hold their own on any adult shelf, I insist they read Hold Still by Nina LaCour. My latest discovery—thanks to a recommendation from a certain blogger for this very blog!—is The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin, which I will probably be running around recommending to teens and adults alike for months.

I may or may not have been known to leave some of the above books, as well as others I admire, in the communal bookshelves at highly respected, well-known artist colonies that are often peopled with writers of literary fiction for adults—in the hopes that an unsuspecting reader will discover an amazing YA novel there and fall in love with something they might not otherwise.

But you know what? Even if I can’t change any minds about what YA is and how talented so many of the authors writing in our field are, what does it matter? Because we have these books, and so many more. Our eyes are already open.

I’ve been avid reader of YA for six years and a high school English teacher for five years. Connecting my students with great books is one of my passions, but I also love introducing YA to teachers, librarians, parents, etc. YA has grown in popularity since I started teaching, which is really exciting because it continues to provide books for every reader. 

I love reading YA, and I have my favorite topics and genres, but I read it with my students in mind. I’m constantly trying to balance what I read and make sure to include books dealing with sports, problems at home, relationships, fantasy, etc. because I have readers with diverse tastes in my classroom. Since this is how my brain works when I’m picking out books, it made sense to me to focus this post on the most popular titles in my classroom right now. I’m breaking it down according to what the guys and girls are reading. These titles are often big hits with my reluctant readers as well. If you’re a teacher/librarian/parent or even a teen, and you’d like to start reading YA but don’t know where to start, these are the titles I recommend beginning with. 

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers (Goodreads): I positively love Courtney Summers. Cracked Up to Be and her other books, Some Girls Are and Fall for Anything, have grown in popularity just this year. Parker, the main character, is suffering and feeling responsible for something horrible, but she hasn’t told anyone about it. Consequently, she’s been acting out and her personality has completely changed. Quite a few of my students look for edgy reads about characters with real problems. They also want a character they can connect with emotionally and personally. Almost every single one of my girls that’s read Cracked Up to Be enjoyed it and went on to read the rest of Courtney Summers’ books.

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler (Goodreads): Personally, my favorite book by Sarah Ockler is Fixing Delilah, but my girls (my reluctant girls in particular) love this book. They like the romance, the first love, and the friendship between Anna and her best friend Frankie. Even if readers haven’t experienced a loss like Anna or Frankie, they’ve most likely had a best friend that’s helped them through a problem or that they’ve gotten into a big argument with. The summer atmosphere gives the book a light-hearted feel while dealing with big issues. 

Forever by Judy Blume (Goodreads): Forever is classic YA originally published in 1975. It’s an excellent example of first love and the ups and downs of relationships. There’s quite a bit of sexual activity in Forever, but my girls always tell me that yes, there’s a lot of sex, but that it teaches girls that relationships don’t always last forever. Many of my girls in class are head over heels in love with someone. I like knowing that there’s a good book out there for them to read after a break up, or if they’re in one of these relationships. I don’t hand them this book to burst their bubbles. I hand them this book because the characters feel the same way they do. Forever by Judy Blume is almost always a winner for my reluctant girls in class.

I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder (Goodreads): Novels in verse are becoming increasingly more popular in my classroom. Many of my students start with Ellen Hopkins, but Lisa Schroeder’s novels are quickly gaining popularity. I Heart You, You Haunt Me is the most popular choice. Many of my girls will walk into my room telling me how quickly they read this book and how much they loved it. One of my students is in my YA Lit class right now because she wants to enjoy reading. She was at a complete loss for where to start and which books to read. I Heart You, You Haunt Me was one of many books I set aside for her, and she ended up reading three of Lisa Schroeder’s four books in a week! The imagery in this novel is beautiful, and for so few words, readers really connect with the characters and the story. 

**Other Popular Titles: Hold Still by Nina LaCour, Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal, The Boy Book by E. Lockhart, Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

Right Behind You by Gail Giles (Goodreads): This has been a “homerun” book for so many of my boys. It’s usually the first couple pages that hook them because we learn that Kip set another child on fire when he was nine. We don’t know all the specifics right away, but it’s enough to keep my students reading. Kip has lived a rough life after this incident including a name change, moving out of state, etc. He’s a vulnerable character with a tough shell. The boys in class can relate to him for a variety of reasons including being angry for one reason or another, being afraid to open up, living a rough life, and more. also gives readers a chance to understand a character unlike themselves and learn to empathize with people like Kip.

Trapped by Michael Northrop (Goodreads): Many students have imagined what it would be like to get trapped in school, but Trapped actually allows the reader to experience it. Many of my reluctant boys enjoyed Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, but they haven’t read or enjoyed a book since. Trapped has been a winner for these boys. They enjoy the suspense and wondering whether anyone will survive. Plenty of my girls in class have enjoyed Trapped as well.

Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson (Goodreads): The mystery in Paranoid Park really grabs my guys in class. I guess it doesn’t hurt that the main character is responsible for killing someone, even though it was self-defense. The story revolves around the character’s guilt and his indecision whether or not he should turn himself in. Paranoid Park has grown in popularity this year because many of my boys in class have been sharing it and discussing it.

Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach (Goodreads): I’m always searching for books with humor because I’ve been told that I don’t have enough “funny books” in my class library. Stupid Fast is a gem of a book that’s humorous, but also tackles family issues and fitting in. Felton is authentic and easy to relate to. He’s trying to handle his mom checking out and falling into a deep depression, his annoying little brother, becoming a good football player, and falling in love for the first time. It’s an all-around fantastic book that I can’t recommend enough.

**Other Popular Titles: Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick, Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn, Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, Gym Candy by Carl Deuker

Today’s guest for our “So You Want to Read YA?” series is Lee Wind. 

 

I often joke that for writers of kid lit, we have these ages of arrested development – these times in our childhood when colors seemed fiercer, tastes exploded in our mouths, and our memories seem so real that we can go back there in an instant.  And those are the times we go back to when we’re writing a six year old in a picture book.  An eleven year old in a middle grade work.  Or a fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen year old in a Young Adult novel.  We can write all those ages because we’ve been all those ages, and art and craft and inspiration fill in the rest.

For adult readers, there’s something truly exciting about being able to go back inside ourselves to those same ages through reading, and nourish (and sometimes heal) our inner child.  Our inner teen.

When I was growing up, I knew I was attracted to other guys, but I didn’t even know the word for it. When I learned the word (and a bunch of other not-so-nice versions of it) there wasn’t even a single book that showed me a positive, happy gay teen character.  The only “gay” characters were adult pedophiles and predators (like Baron Harkonnen in Frank Herbert’s otherwise brilliant “Dune”) and that wasn’t helping me claim my authentic identity.  So I read between the lines.  Voraciously.  I even figured out a loophole in the mating ritual of the dragons and dragonriders of Pern, and felt maybe there was a place for gay me in the fantasies of Anne McCaffrey.  But it was never stated on the page.

Which left me feeling that if there wasn’t a place for me in the world of fantasy and fiction, how could there be a place for me – as a gay guy – in our real world?

It was a cold lesson. And it kept me closeted for years.

But as I grew to be an adult and came out as a proud gay man, that lack of representation in teen fiction made me determined to become a writer myself, and write the damn stories I had yearned to read.

In time, the world and children’s publishing started to change, and in the last decade, there’s been an explosion of books for teens with gay characters.  Lesbian characters, too.  There are even a handful of bisexual and transgender titles. There are books with gay parents and uncles and caretakers, and even picture books with two dad and two mom families.  

“Annie On My Mind” by Nancy Garden – the first teen lesbian love story with a happy ending – made me cry when I read it in my 40s, because even though they were so different from me, at their core, the humanity of Liza and Annie spoke to me so deeply.  “Boy Meets Boy” by David Levithan and “Freak Show” by James St. James and “The God Box” by Alex Sanchez and “Absolutely Positively Not” by David LaRochelle rocked my world with great gay teen characters and hopeful and even happy endings.  There were so many GLBTQ teen titles that I started a blog to list them all and let teens and other readers review them in a safe space.  (“I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell do I Read?” at www.leewind.org)

Every GLBTQ Teen book I read – most recently “Zombies Vs. Unicorns” – an anthology that included three stories with queer main characters, rocks my world.  And I think, wow, just one of these books would have changed my life.  If I could have seen a gay “me” in fiction when I was a teen, I would have known that there IS a place for gay me in reality – and that’s a lesson I hope EVERY teen, no matter who they are, understands today.

And for us adults, we can time travel back to our inner fifteen year old, and say, I have something you have to read.  And it’s gonna rock your world.  And in nourishing and healing our inner teen, we nourish and heal our adult selves as well. 

So read YA for your inner teen – and let it rock your world!

***

Where to find great GLBTQ Teen Books:

Every year since 2008 the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table and the Social Responsibilities Round Table puts out the “Rainbow List” of the best books for kids and teens with GLBTQ characters and themes published.  Check out their lists here: http://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks/rainbow-books-lists

Daisy Porter has excellent reviews of Queer YA on her blog, http://daisyporter.org/queerya/

And of course, my blog lists of over 450 books in these categories: 

Gay Teen characters/Themes, 

Lesbian Teen characters/Themes, 

Bisexual Teen Characters/Themes, 

Transgender Teen Characters/Themes, 

Questioning Teen Characters/Themes, 

Books with Queer (Gender Non-Conforming) Teen Characters/Themes, 

Books with an ensemble that includes GLBTQ Teen Characters, 

Books with a GLBTQ Parent/Caretaker, 

Books on Friends and Family of GLBTQ Characters, 

Books with Homophobia as a Theme, 

GLBTQ YA Graphic Novels and Comics, 

Easy Reader/Chapter books with GLBTQ (and Gender Non Conforming) Content, 

Picturebooks I wish had been read to me when I was a little kid, 

Books with surprise gay (GLBTQ) content, 

Cross Over Adults Books of GLBTQ Teen interest, 

The GLBTQ Middle Grade Bookshelf, 

The Gay Fantasy Bookshelf, 

The GLBTQ Teen Short Story Bookshelf, 

GLBTQ Teen nonfiction, and 

GLBTQ Biography and Memoir.  

You can check them all out at www.leewind.org.