STACKED

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So You Want to Read YA?: A Series Wrap-Up & Survey

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Five months. Twenty guest posts. Hundreds of recommendations for where to start if you’re looking to dive into YA fiction as a new reader or if you’re a seasoned YA reader and are looking to fill in the gaps you may have missed. Putting together this series has been such a great experience, and we are beyond grateful to both the guests who took the time and energy to write such thoughtful, creative, unique and insightful posts about YA books and to everyone who took the time to read the posts, comment on them, and share them. To say we were blown away would be an understatement.

We’re sad to see this series end because we learned about a ton of new-to-us titles, and we loved seeing just how differently everyone approached the question posed.

So my original idea in wrapping up the series was to create a massive list of every title mentioned, but about three posts in, I realized that was way too ambitious. Instead, I’m going to link to everyone’s posts here and hope you take the time to catch up on any you may have missed:

OUR picks: Kelly Jensen, Kimberly Francisco, & Jen Petro-Roy

Kathleen Peacock (author of Hemlock)

Liz Burns (blogger at A Chair, A Fireplace, and A Tea Cozy)

Laura Arnold (editor at Razorbill)

Julie Cross (author of Tempest)

Janssen Bradshaw (blogger at Everyday Reading)

Susan Adrian (writer)

CK Kelly Martin (author of My Beating Teenage Heart and more)

Lee Wind (blogger at Lee Wind)

Victoria Stapleton (director of school and library marketing at Little, Brown)

Sarah Andersen (blogger at YA Love Blog)

Nova Ren Suma (author of Imaginary Girls)

Catie, Flannery, and Tatiana (bloggers at The Readventurer)

Courtney Summers (author of This is Not a Test and more)

Andrew Karre (editor at Carolrhoda)

Kate Hart (blogger at Kate Hart / YA Highway)

Swati Avasthi (author of Split)

Brian Farrey (editor at Flux)

Trisha Murakami (blogger at The YA YA YAs)

Kirstin Cronn-Mills (author of The Sky Always Hears Me and the Hills Don’t Mind)

Lenore Appelhans (blogger/author of Presenting Lenore and Level 2)

When the end of June rolled around and I saw our posts were getting fewer and fewer in the series, I started brainstorming what to do next. I had a lot of requests for continuing this particular series of bringing it back again next year with new voices. I’ve got a couple of ideas in the works for this year, but seeing how “So You Want to Read YA?” was really designed out of answering a question I was asked by others, I thought I’d throw out the opportunity for our readers to weigh in on what they’d like to see in the future here on STACKED. If you read this series, participated in it, or have an interest in anything YA-related on the blog, chime in.

Thank you all again — and we hope you enjoyed the series as much as we did. 

So You Want to Read YA?: Guest Post from Lenore Appelhans

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Today’s post in our “So You Want to Read YA?” series is also the very last post in the series. We’re thrilled to welcome Lenore Appelhans — blogger turned author-blogger — to round out what has probably been the most enjoyable project we’ve taken on here at STACKED. There will be a roundup of all the posts in this series shared later today, in the event you missed one or you want to recall the fantastic recommendations from all our guest posters. 

Lenore Appelhans has been blogging about books since 2008 and is the author of the forthcoming novel LEVEL 2 (Simon & Schuster BFYA: January 15, 2013). Visit her at Presenting Lenore and follow her on Twitter @Lenoreva.

Many of my IRL friends are self-proclaimed “literary snobs” who turn up their noses at YA like it’s something lesser. (I should get new friends, right? j/k) So this is a list of recommendations aimed at them (beyond The Hunger Games, which I’ve already pressed into many adult hands with mixed results), and may help you win over the literary snobs in your own life.
For those who love the innovative, experimental structure and POV of books like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler, and/or Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End try:

Anything by AS King. Dust of 100 Dogs features passages from the POV of dogs while Please Ignore Vera Dietz gives us insight into the mind of a pagoda (in addition to the human characters).
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. The structure is seven takes on the same day where subtle changes can have big effects.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Narrated by death.
For seekers of the clever satire of Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea, Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley, and/or Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff try:
Bumped and its sequel Thumped by Megan McCafferty. Feed by MT Anderson. The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry.
Lovers of the twisty plots of Sarah Water’s Fingersmith, Sebastien Japrisot’s Trap for Cinderella, and/or Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessel might try:

The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, The Catastrophic History of You and Me by Jessica Rothenberg.
For fans of the deep character studies and lyrical prose of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett,  Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver and/or The Hours by Michael Cunningham try:
The short story “Goblin Fruit” in Lips Touch by Laini Taylor, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, Undercover by Beth Kephart, Sweethearts by Sarah Zarr.
For those who enjoy books that focus on important issues of novels like We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (school shootings), Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (transience/homelessness), Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates (girl gangs) may I suggest:

Cracked by KM Walton (bullying), Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (rape), Willow by Julia Hoban (cutting), also — anything by Courtney Summers.
For those into dystopian and post apocalyptic literary fare such as The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro and/or The Road by Cormac McCarthy try:

The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Wither by Lauren DeStefano.
For those who prefer to immerse themselves in emotionally harrowing reading experiences like Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami, and/or The Awakening by Kate Chopin try: 

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, If I Stay by Gayle Forman, The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo (ok, so that’s middle grade, but it’ll make you cry!)
I could go on and on, but I hope these recommendations are a good starting point.  And if you come from the YA side, the adult titles I mention are some of my favorites and well worth checking out.

Links of Note

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You should all be pleased to know there is a new Lana Del Rey video to share with you in this edition of Links of Note. I know that’s why you all come and visit, so fear not. I’m going to make you read through some other stuff before we get there, though.

  • Kate Hart is amazing, absolutely amazing. This time, it’s because of her publishing road map infographic. If you are interested in writing, in getting published, in blogging, in librarianship, there is something here for you. The whole graphic is well done, but I’m particularly enjoying the “Link Bait Leviathan” image.
  • Is there such thing as a balanced reading diet? According to Harvey Schachter there is. Can you hear me gagging? This is why some people hate reading. There’s no prescription. Read what you want, when you want, and in the style you want.  
  • Put this on the list of things that left me speechless: Hunger Games inspired weddings (that’s two links for two different HG wedding inspirations!). Uh. Aside from missing the entire point of the story, to me, this looks like it’s more, how to say, Earth inspired than Hunger Games inspired. This…really? That’s all I can say.
    • School Library Journal is hosting a virtual day-long teen lit conference called SummerTeen. There is a cost to attend, but it’s reasonable, and the program itself looks like a great opportunity to learn for both new YA lit folks and seasoned YA lit folks.     
    • Shortlist asked artists to consider alternate covers for classics, and here are the 30 favorite results. Some neat ideas going on here. The cover on the right here might be my favorite (I hate Romeo & Juliet so much so you know but don’t they look way older than 14 here?).
    • The Guardian offers up ten “feel good” books with happy endings. I’ve actually read three of these. I don’t remember much of any of the three I read, either. Happier books don’t tend to stick with me as much as books that require a lot more of me to find some sort of satisfactory conclusion (happy or not!).
    • How this news slipped past me in May I don’t know, but here it is: did you know Caroline B Cooney is writing a final book in the Janie series? She explains why and what it might look like. I’m not sure I’ll read it or I’m interested, since it’s been so long since I read the series in the first place. I don’t want to go back and reread for fear of thinking they’re no longer worth the time. There’s something to be said about nostalgia remaining that way. 
    • I really liked this post by Paul Hankins about all of the “F-words” he has known. It’s not really about F words in the profane sense but in the opposite sense — those F words we find when we read a book that aren’t there to see and feel explicitly. He writes with his students in mind, but what he talks about is on a much grander level about the power of the right book in the right reader hands. 
    • Another Shortlist link, and this one is to famous meals from literature. In photographs.  
    • What happened to the Sweet Valley Twins when they grew up? What about the kids who went ahead and plotted to kill their teacher a la Lois Duncan? Well, now you know.  

    And now what I know you all came here for in the first place: the promised Lana video. This is for “Summertime Sadness.” I’m not a huge fan of either the song nor the video (so much falling) but I do it for you:

    I know there is a ton of stuff I missed from the last two weeks about reviews and Goodreads and bullying and I’ve been silent on the whole issue. My comment on that is this and only this: I know how much it sucks to be bullied when you post your opinion on something. It. Stinks. This has been a long month, and I feel for everyone getting the brunt of this and it’s not going to go away for a while. Let your words and your beliefs stand for themselves.

    The Raft by S. A. Bodeen

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    When teenager Robie needs to get a quick flight from Honolulu to her home island of Midway, she jumps aboard the next cargo plane. She’s done it many times before, and it’s not unusual for her to be the only passenger. This time, she’s on the plane with the pilot, whom she knows, and the co-pilot, a young man named Max whom she’s never met. 
    Unfortunately, things go wrong and the plan crashes in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Robie and Max survive, but they’re cast adrift at sea on a raft with very few tools and no real way of contacting anyone for help. They have to deal with food and water shortages, sharks, the sun, and each other. It’s a fast-paced story that throws a new obstacle at Robie and Max every few pages.
    Partway through the book, Bodeen throws us for a pretty major loop. It’s not totally unexpected, but it does make the book stand out from the usual survival fare. She uses this twist to try and add a bit more character depth, but the results aren’t totally successful. It seemed more like a cheat than an organic part of the story. Since I want to avoid spoilers, I can’t really explain this any more clearly. Suffice to say that if you read the book, you’ll know what I mean.It certainly adds interest and prevents the story from descending into boring stretches of Robie just sitting on the raft twiddling her thumbs.
    That said, I thought the book was a good one, on the whole. Fans of survival stories will really dig it. I personally loved reading about the details that made Robie’s survival possible: how to get drinkable water, how to stretch your Skittles for maximum sustenance, how to catch a fish when you don’t have any traditional fishing equipment, and so on. I also found this to be a very suspenseful read. I was pretty sure I knew whether or not Robie would survive from page one, but Bodeen still managed to keep the tension high.
    I’ve read several reviews that called The Raft boring and slow. I’m a little surprised by that, since I didn’t find it slow at all. On the contrary, I read it in a single sitting and it seemed very action-oriented to me. But I’m also a person who used to loathe survival stories as a kid, so clearly this is just a matter of taste.
    Review copy received from the publisher. The Raft will be published August 21.

    One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

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    Carley doesn’t want to be a foster child. Even though her life in Las Vegas with her mother wasn’t perfect, with her mother staying out all the time and bouncing from boyfriend to husband, it was what she had always known. But after what happened with her mother’s new husband Dennis, she couldn’t go back to her mother even if she wanted to. But for a girl who hasn’t exactly known unconditional love, the Murphy’s, the family in which she is placed, are way too perfect. Julie, the mother, is perky all the time, and doesn’t back off, no matter how much Carley pushes her away. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy are actually in love, and their two younger sons are adorable, giving Carley a sense of family and adoration that she hasn’t ever felt. She just doesn’t feel like she deserves all this love, especially after the way she’s been treated her whole life, alternately doted upon and then ignored. Carley has never been given a room all her own, never been taken back-to-school shopping to get an entire new wardrobe. She’s never been cared about so much that when she pushes, she isn’t then pushed away. She’s more used to the way Daniel, the suspicious older son, treats her, with jealousy and angry frustration, and to the way Toni, an offbeat girl at her new school, immediately rejects her because of her wardrobe. But over time, the Murphy’s slowly make their way into Carley’s life and into her heart. But when her mother re-enters the picture, Carley must come to terms with the fact that the family she has grown into may not be her happily ever after.

    One for the Murphys, though a fairly straightforward and predictable read, was a heartwarming book that portrayed the growth of both one very lost girl and the family that reached out to her. Carley is a winning heroine, whose snarky and sarcastic sense of humor covers up her genuine hurt and pain. Lynda Mullaly Hunt does a wonderful job of showing Carley’s growth throughout the novel by her interaction with the other characters: Carley’s increasing closeness to Mrs. Murphy, both emotionally and physically, Carley’s evolving relationship with Daniel as they realize they have basketball in common, and Carley’s new friendship with Toni once they realize they are both outsiders. I also really enjoyed the way that Hunt melded the storyline of the musical Wicked into Carley’s evolution.

    While I obviously didn’t love the storyline with her mother and Dennis (I’m being vague to avoid spoilers), the ultimate discovery that her mother wasn’t to blame for what happened almost seemed to arise too suddenly, which negated the absolute horror that I felt at the beginning of the book. This quick shift jarred me a bit, and gave me a bit of disconnect from the feeling that I knew I should have at One for the Murphys‘ conclusion: that Carley would be okay.

    And one more minor quibble: I realize that Hunt was trying to impart a sense of place with her regional dialect and her characterization of Mr. Murphy as a Red Sox fan, but the family’s use of “wicked” was a bit over the top, especially for residents of Connecticut. I’ve lived in Massachusetts my entire life, and we don’t even use the word that much!

    Regardless, I fully admit that I teared up at the ending of One for the Murphys. A lovely, heartfelt middle grade read.