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So You Want to Read YA?: Guest Post from Malinda Lo (author of Adaptation)

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This week’s edition of “So You Want to Read YA?” comes to us from author Malinda Lo.

Malinda Lo is the author of several young adult novels including most recently the sci-fi thriller Adaptation; the sequel, Inheritance, will be published Sept. 18, 2013. Her first novel, Ash, a retelling of Cinderella with a lesbian twist, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. She lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog. She can be found online at Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and her website, www.malindalo.com.

As an author of young adult novels with many adult friends who don’t read YA, I often find myself explaining to them what YA is and what it isn’t. “No, it’s not all about vampires!” “Yes, it can be complex!”

It can be a little trying. However, because they’re my friends, sometimes they will read my novels even though they think (erroneously) the books aren’t for them — which is both gratifying and utterly horrifying because they’re my friends, and what if they hate my books?! But luckily, since they’re my friends, they don’t tell me if they hate them. Sometimes they even tell me they were surprised that my books weren’t dumbed down (yes, this has happened) and ask if there’s other YA I can recommend.

I think the best route to successful book recommending is first figuring out what the reader in question has liked in the past. So, when someone who’s new to YA wants to read YA, I want to figure out what sort of adult books they enjoy, since YA obviously is a broad category that encompasses many genres. 

Here are my recommendations for a few different types of readers:

“I love literary fiction full of beautiful sentences.”

For this reader, I’d recommend Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma. This novel, which is about a girl who nearly drowns in a lake and then is haunted by that experience, is the kind of novel you want to read slowly so that you can savor each sentence. Also, though the main character is a teen, the other characters are a bit older, and none of them exhibit any stereotypical 90210-like teen characteristics. They are complex, a little cruel, and utterly fascinating.

“I love mysteries! Police procedurals especially.”

While there aren’t a lot of detective novels in YA because teenagers usually aren’t able to have that kind of job, I’d recommend I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga. This is about Jasper Dent, the teenage son of a convicted serial killer who realizes that a series of murders in his town eerily resemble those that his father committed years ago…but his father is in prison. Who’s doing the killing? And can Jasper avoid becoming his father? A totally engrossing page-turner of a mystery.

“So many YA books are being turned into movies! Should I read any of the books first?”

Yes. These people should read City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, which is a deliciously fun urban fantasy about a girl who learns that there’s a secret world of angels and demons intertwined with ordinary New York City. You name it, City of Bones and its many sequels have it: kick-ass girls, sexy bad boys, bisexual half-Asian warlocks (yes!), love triangles with a twist (and what a twist), and awesome action scenes. I honestly don’t know how the movie will do it!

“I read romance. Bring me romance!”

YA is chock full of romance, especially romance of the first love kind. For this reader, I’d suggest Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler, the story of one girl’s mission to lose her virginity during a summer at the beach. It’s touching and true and also a lot of fun, which romance should be.

“I love epic fantasy!”

For fantasy readers, I always recommend the books of Kristin Cashore. Her first novel, Graceling, is a kick-ass adventure about a killer lady, and it’s perfect for readers who want action and adventure. Her second novel, Fire, is a nuanced exploration of beauty and monstrousness, set in a wonderfully progressive imagined world, and is perfect for those who want a thought-provoking read.

“I’m lesbian/bisexual/queer and I’ve already read your books. What gay YA should I read next?”

This is probably the question I get the most from readers, which is why I maintain a list of recommended reads featuring lesbian/bisexual/queer female leads on my website. But that list includes both YA and adult. For those who want a YA book, I suggest Emily M. Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post. This book might have special meaning for adults because it’s set in 1990 and is about coming of age as a lesbian in that specific time period. It’s also multilayered and it brilliantly evokes the experience of living in Montana. And it makes you think: This is YA? Wow, YA.

“I don’t know what I want but I want to read some YA. Surprise me.”

I would hand them White Cat by Holly Black, with no explanations.

So You Want to Read YA? Guest Post from teacher Jillian Heise

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This week’s “So You Want to Read YA?” contribution comes from teacher Jillian Heise!

Jillian Heise has been teaching middle school language arts for eight years giving her the opportunity to discuss thoughts and insights about books with real teen readers. She is currently teaching 7th & 8th graders at a K-8 school near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her students have access to her classroom library of over 1,300 books, and are used to her sharing her reading life, the importance of making reading a habit, appreciation for rockstar authors, and love of fictional characters with them. She also shares her book recommendations with a wider audience on her blog, Heise Reads & Recommends. Jillian is a voracious reader and self-admitted book pusher and does not feel the need for a program to change that. On twitter, she is @heisereads and is always happy to recommend a book to any reader in need. For this reason, among others, her TBR stacks are always towering.

Although I have always been a voracious reader, my teen years were not during the golden age of YA that we are currently experiencing. When thinking about what really got me into reading YA, I think back to my undergrad middle grades language arts methods course. Our whole class read was The Giver by Lois Lowry, the grandfather of YA dystopians in my opinion, and we had to choose ten other books to read on our own. That was it for me; I went beyond those ten and never stopped as I got into teaching every day. My goal is to help every student find that one book that will hook each one into reading. Now, nine years and I’ve lost count of how many books later, I still read voraciously, share my reading life with my students, and share book recs with a broader audience through my blog.

When asked to write this post, I started brainstorming a list of books right away. But how best to put out there the books I would want to share? I looked around at my classroom library organized around topic bins, struggled to start a new book because I wasn’t in the mood for a few I picked up, thought about the 40 book challenge for my students to read across genres, realized that the way I often recommend books is by asking “What are you in the mood for?” or “What was the last book you read that you liked?” or “What do you like to do?” and it struck me that the way I needed to share my titles was with a list arranged around topics/genres. And, of course, since my whole focus on teaching reading is choice, choice, and more choice in order to engage readers and motivate teens to read more, there are quite a few books on this list…because everyone needs choice in order to find the just right book that will be the gateway into reading. I hope one (or more) of these will speak to you.

This is my personal canon of YA lit that I think would make a great starting point for adults wanting to jump in, and a good guide for recommending to students/teens as well. It includes books that have been highly lauded by others, as well as books that just happened to be that right book at the right time for me in my own life. Many of these have also been well-loved by my students. You will create your own canon as you read more and more which may include what I have here and what others in this series have shared, but all have value because each reader’s voice and choice has value. So…what kind of book are you in the mood for?


*Denotes series books – so if you love it, you can read more.


The New “Classics”
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Speak by Laurie Halse Andersen
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*

The Dystopians
Divergent by Veronica Roth*
Legend by Marie Lu*
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld*
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi*
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi





The “Literary”
The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater*
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor*
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi*






The “Emotionals”
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
If I Stay & Where She Went by Gayle Forman*
When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney (June 2013)
Something Like Normal by Trish Doller
October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman (poetry)




The Contemporaries
Five Flavors of Dumb by John Antony
I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga*
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landeau-Banks by e. Lockhart
Peak by Roland Smith
Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge (graphic novel)






The Fantasticals & Supernaturals
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin*
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride*
Nightshade by Andrea Cremer*
The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima*
Pivot Point by Kasie West*




The Romances
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Just One Day by Gayle Forman*
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles*






The Middle Grades that are Worth Your Time
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (Yes, the Newbery Award winner)
Wonder by R.J. Palacio

So You Want to Read YA?: Guest Post from Michael Northrop (author of Rotten)

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This week’s guest post comes to us from author Michael Northrop, and he’s going to lay down where to start when it comes to contemporary YA.




Michael Northrop’s first young adult novel, Gentlemen, earned a Publishers Weekly Flying Start citation, and his second, Trapped, was named to YALSA’s Readers’ Choice, Quick Picks, and Popular Paperbacks lists. His third YA novel, Rotten, is out today—Quelle coïncidence! It is about a tough teen named JD and a rescued Rottweiler named Johnny Rotten. His Twitter handle is @mdnorthrop.






Depending on whom you ask, YA is either a marketing label, an age range, or something else entirely. One thing it’s not is one thing. The genres contain subgenres, the categories contain subcategories and no one really agrees on what those terms mean anyway. Here are my recommendations for just one genre—or is it a category?—contemporary/realistic fiction. If you’ve never read YA before—or if you’ve read tons of it, but none of it realistic—here are half a dozen excellent books to start with.

Contemp(t)

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers. 

This seems like a good place to start. “Problem novels” have come a long way. When I was a teen, they were pretty reliably ham-fisted. Not this one. There are plenty of problems—boy, howdy—but it’s never didactic. Instead, Summers’ portrayal of high school social dynamics is relentless and searing.


Old-School
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. 

This is sort of the roots of the tree when it comes to YA, but in addition to the history lesson it’s also a brilliant novel. (Ponyboy! Sodapop! Aah, so good!) I reread it recently, and nearly 50 years after it was written (by a 16-year-old!) it still feels fresh and vital.


Old and at a School

A Separate Peace by John Knowles. 

The granddaddy of all prep school novels, it’s elegant, powerful, and perfectly constructed. John Knowles, making the rest of us look bad since 1959.

Meanwhile, in the City

Tyrell by Coe Booth. 

Pitch-perfect from the opening sentence, which is, not incidentally: “When I pick Novisha up from school, she actin’ all weird and shit.”


Have a Heart

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork. 

Good contemporary YA doesn’t have to be nasty, dark, or mean. It just, you know, tends to be. There are plenty of big-hearted books out there, though. This story of an autistic 17-year-old navigating the “real world” of a summer internship is one of the best I’ve read.


Romance

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. 

And speaking of hearts—romance! I’ve been told there are a lot of YA books about it. The statistical probability of me reading many of them is pretty low, though, so I’m sticking with a safe pick here. TSPoLaFS is extremely clever and very sweet and has twice as many words in its title as my first four books combined.

Extra Credit: This probably isn’t the right book to start with—a lot of readers might never go back—but it’s worth checking out once you’ve gotten a feel for contemporary YA.

The Outer Limits

The Children and the Wolves by Adam Rapp. 

This one shows how far realistic YA can go. (At least) one of the main characters is a full-blown psychopath, and another is a kidnapped three-year-old girl. (Oh, Frog, you poor thing.) It’s a very short book, so it’s like taking a quick walk along the outer edge of the YA property.

So You Want to Read YA?: Guest Post from librarian Sophie Brookover

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This week’s post comes from librarian extraordinaire, Sophie Brookover. This lady knows her YA! 


Sophie Brookover coordinates continuing education programs and manages social media for LibraryLinkNJ, The New Jersey Library Cooperative (do you have a great idea for a webinar or workshop for library staff? Please: let her know!) Now that she’s not working in a library, she’s a reader’s advisor-at-large, offering a listening ear and quality reading suggestions to anyone who asks. You can find Sophie on Twitter as @sophiebiblio and co-hosting the #readadv chat (8 PM on the 1st & 3rd Thursday of each month) with the lovely Kelly Jensen/@catagator and Liz Burns/@LizB.

Back in ye olden times (aka the halcyon days of the late 1990s & early 2000s), I subscribed to a bunch of music magazines — SPIN, Rolling Stone, Magnet and the late, lamented CMJ New Music Monthly. CMJ was my favorite for two reasons:


  1. It always came packaged with a new music sampler and
  2. RIYL.

RIYL stood for “Recommended If You Like” and it appeared at the end of every album review, providing a little extra shorthand-y context for the reader, leading music store staff to albums they could suggest to loyal customers and leading listeners to new music they might otherwise miss. I didn’t know what to call it at the time, but RIYL was listener’s advisory.

Fast-forward to, well, now: I only pick up Rolling Stone when I’m in an airport, Magnet is published quarterly, SPIN lives exclusively online, and my beloved CMJ is long since dead. OR IS IT?

The spirit of CMJ lives on in everyone who participates in reader’s advisory. Sure, RIYL was primarily about sweet tunes, not life-changing books, but the kernel of the idea lives, and remains powerful. Recommended if YOU Like. Not what I like. Sure, these are books I like, but I’m recommending them through the lens of what I imagine you will enjoy, in three general categories: Awesomely Creepy, Adventure!, and What It Feels Like For a Girl. I hope you find something that works for you!

Awesomely Creepy

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding

ZOMG you know how there’s something in the back of your closet? Or under your bed? Like, you can’t see it, but you know it’s there and it is the scariest, absolute worst thing ever and it is definitely out for your blood? That’s a pretty awesome feeling when you’re reading about it and not having to experience firsthand, isn’t it? Bonus points for having used “Cray” in a book title before Kanye & Jay-Z popularized it.

RIYL: Stephen King, H.P. Lovecraft, the August Van Zorn sections of Wonder Boys, Cthulthu

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma



Oh, man. I will confess, this is a personal favorite. Two sisters, bound by devotion and love and something more sinister, in a tiny Hudson Valley town, and not incidentally, some of the best damn literary creepiness I have ever read. I mean, just look at how Suma establishes Ruby’s power over everyone here: “The night shut up for a beat. The fire stopped its crackling. The kids beside it stopped talking. The wind stopped spitting up gravel and howling at the trees. You heard ground crunch under your shoes if you couldn’t keep you fet from moving, but other than that you heard nothing. Then, breaking up the absolute stillness, you heard a breath in and a breath out. You heard her.” (p.89) I might not be completely coherent or rational about the awful majesty of this book, though I will acknowledge that it reveals its mysteries at its own pace and basically tells you to take a flying leap if you don’t like that. BUT. If you like stories that are as beautifully sad as they are gooseflesh-inducing, ones that reward re-reads and will stay with you for months & months after you read them, Imaginary Girls could be just the ticket.

RIYL: The Twilight Zone, Shirley Jackson, Twin Peaks


The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff
The world is divided into two types of people: those who see this cover and recoil as if from a snake (“wait, are those knives over that bassinet? Moving on!”) and those who see it and say, “Sold!” The town of Gentry is blessed with economic prosperity and cursed with a child’s death every seven years. Residents are as supersitious as they are wilfully ignorant of the cause of the child deaths. Changelings, blood sacrifice, some scary-ass fairies and sibling love are all in the delicious mix in this urban fantasy.

RIYL: The Unexpurgated Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Adventure!


The Abhorsen Series by Garth Nix

I read the first three novels in this series with my ears, as Teri Lesesne would say. They are tremendous, not least because they are performed by the outrageously talented Dr. Frank N. Furter, himself, Tim Curry. It’s a classic hero’s journey (Sabriel learns that she’s got to save her father and possibly the world by keeping the spirits of the dead bound where they belong, rather than walking among us) with romance and humor nicely woven into the tapestry. For my money, Nix has few peers as a world-builder and his plotting is top-notch. These are big books, but they’re page-turners, too. As a twofer, I’d include a very upper-middle grade recommendation for Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom series, which I’m going to have to reread in its entirety because I didn’t read the last two and it’s been so long that I need to go back to the beginning.

RIYL: The Lord of the Rings, early Tamora Pierce


The Returning by Christine Hinwood
What is peace? Is it merely the absence of war? Or is it a goal every person must work towards? How does a community heal after a war? To whom does war do more damage — the winners or the losers? What does it mean to be A People? Do wartime & its aftermath create time and space (both emotional and physical) for people to make their own destinies, find their own loves and fates? The Returning asks all of these questions, and answers most of them, in 17 interlocking chapter-stories about two communities and their peoples’ experiences before, during and after a long war. This is a book in search of a specific kind of reader, one who enjoys seeing how things unfold in their own time. It reminded me very much of the filmmaker Robert Altman. You know how in his movies, there are all these characters and it takes you a while to see how they & their respective plot lines intersect and fit together? And how utterly satisfying it is when you finally do see it? That’s what it’s like reading this book.. Full disclosure: this was one of the Printz Honor titles the year I was on the committee, so, you know. I feel strongly about it.

RIYL: Alternate history, Robert Altman.

What It Feels Like For A Girl

Not That Kind of Girl and Same Difference both by Siobhan Vivian
Oooh, do you see what I did there? Recommending two books by the same author. I’m wild! I’m on fire! You can’t stop me! It is so important to have books like these, which prompt readers to think about the kind of people they want to be. Both Natalie and Kate think they know, find their self-perceptions challenged, and rise to those challenges — messily, imperfectly, realistically. Vivian gets better with every book. The only reason The List isn’t on here is that I haven’t read it all yet (it’s on my nightstand, where it’s sat for months, a casualty of my post-Printz reading mojo loss).

RIYL: Sassy Magazine, Marisa de los Santos, Nora Ephron, Jennifer Weiner
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Sometimes, a little creative civil disobedience is just what the doctor ordered. Frankie, a sophomore at a ritzy boarding school, discovers that her popular senior boyfriend is a member of a secret society. A boys-only secret society. And she proceeds to take it over, with an elan and panache the boys themselves had been unable to muster. A lively skewering of gender assumptions, filled with humor, witty wordplay and challenging questions.

RIYL: Straight Man and other campus farces, P.G. Wodehouse, wordplay in general.



Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Do you like sad books that are also filled with guts and hope? Do you like to meet a character whose life is so outwardly fine but inwardly desolate that you just want to lift her out of the pages, make her a nice cup of tea and give her a big hug? (After you let her go through your wardrobe and choose a sweater or two to take home, I mean.) Do you want to stick with her, through her struggles to figure out how to be in this world where she is utterly alone? Do you want to see her through the crummy times (doling out handjobs on the school bus, realizing the guy who’s gotten her pregnant is not The One, not by a long shot) and the blessed, eventual good times? Sure you do. Read this debut novel and try — just try — not to fall in love with Anna. A Morris Award contender, for sure, and a life-changing read.

RIYL: Ellen Hopkins, My So-Called Life.

So You Want to Read YA?: Guest Post by Rae Carson (author of Girl of Fire and Thorns)

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This week’s addition to the “So You Want to Read YA?” series comes from YA author Rae Carson.

Rae Carson is the author of Fire and Thorns trilogy. Locus, the premier magazine for science fiction and fantasy, proclaimed, “Carson joins the ranks of writers like Kristin Cashore, Megan Whalen Turner, and Tamora Pierce as one of YA’s best writers of high fantasy.” Rae’s first novel was a finalist for the Morris YA Debut Award and the Andre Norton Award, and was named to ALA’s 2012 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. She dabbled in many things, from teaching to corporate sales to customer service, before becoming a full-time writer. She lives with her family in Ohio. You can follow her on Twitter at @raecarson.

“So, Rae, I read your book (or The Hunger Games or Harry Potter), and I want to try some more YA. Where should I start?”

*rubs hands*

I love this question. I’m hearing it a lot lately. According to this article in Publishers Weekly, 55% of YA books are bought by adults. Of those, a whopping 78% are purchased for their own reading.

So why are so many adults gobbling up young adult literature? My totally not-scientific survey of fanmail, fellow authors, and internet articles suggests that most crossover adults are prolific genre readers, often drawn to the faster pacing, tighter (angstier?) POVs, and even the bright, shameless covers of many young adult novels. In other words, adult readers of YA are not crossover Criterati. Maybe YA is appealing to their inner teenagers. Or maybe it’s a good match for already established genre sensibilities.

(This is a sweeping generalization. There are crossover readers from every literary tradition currently enjoying YA. And rightly so.)

So if you’re interested in YA, here is a list of books you might enjoy based on your reading preferences— with an emphasis on speculative romance. (Why speculative romance? Because that’s what I write, and it’s my list, dang it.) Thanks to my totally not-scientific survey, I resisted the temptation to only choose mind-blowing masterworks of literary acclaim. But I promise that each book listed below is someone’s favorite read.

Do any of these scenarios describe you?

You read mostly inspirational romance. You prefer books that are tender, beautifully written, and chaste. Francine Rivers and Karen Kingsbury are among your favorite authors. Try:

1) Incarnate by Jodi Meadows
2) Entwined by Heather Dixon
3) Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale


You love psychological thrillers. Bonus points for unreliable narrators or a hint of paranormal. You’ve enjoyed books by Gillian Flynn, Dennis Lehane or Alice Sebold. Try:

1) The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
2) Madapple by Christina Meldrum
3) Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma

You read a lot of fantasy. Detailed worlds and epic stakes make a romance even sexier. Some of your favorite authors might be Robin McKinley, Juliet Marillier, or Maria Snyder. Try:

1) Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst (My favorite fantasy of 2012!)
2) Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
3) Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

You prefer your romance with a hearty dose of science fiction. The juxtaposition of new ideas with classic themes makes you swoon. You’ve enjoyed books by Lois McMaster Bujold, Marion Zimmer Bradley, or Sharon Shinn. Try:

1) For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
2) Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
3) Arclight by Josin McQuein (forthcoming April 2013)

You’ll tolerate a little romance if it doesn’t get in the way of the action. You want sharp dialog and high- octane set pieces. Bonus for explosions.

1) Divergent by Veronica Roth
2) Unwind by Neal Shusterman
3) The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

You love a heroine who’s in charge. Even better if she wields supernatural powers and snark. Some of your favorite books are by Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, or Kim Harrison. Try:

1) Hourglass by Myra McEntire
2) City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
3) Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins

You hoard Twinkies and toilet paper in preparation for the inevitable apocalypse. You love World War Z, The Road, and I Am Legend. Try:

1) Ashfall by Mike Mullin
2) This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
3) Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

You often loathe books other people love, and love books other people loathe, because you’re not afraid to try something risky and unusual. It’s worth it to discover a hidden gem you can be passionate about. Try:

1) Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
2) Above by Leah Bobet
3) Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Any egregious omissions? Tell me in the comments!

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Rae Carson is the author of the Fire and Thorns trilogy, which begins with The Girl of Fire and Thorns. The third and final installment in the series, The Bitter Kingdom, will be available on August 27 of this year.