In conjunction with the presentation at YALSA’s YA Lit Symposium and following the fascination and obsession I’ve developed this year with flow charts and visual representations of data, I thought it about time to take a stab at my own.
Ever wanted to read contemporary YA fiction? Or are you a seasoned reader and looking to expand your reading horizons with a new book or author with a theme that interests you? It’s my hope this reading web will help you do just that.
The image below is microscopic because as I started creating this graphic, it kept expanding outward. I couldn’t imagine leaving things off, and in fact, I wanted to add a lot more than is here. But space became problematic. This image can be saved and can be blown up easily, and the quality should be good when you zoom in. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t let me post the image as big as I want to, but the save and zoom method will then let you have your own copy.
Start in the middle of the chart with the big blue box and from there, it’s a choose your own adventure! Note that some titles may creep close to non-contemporary, but because the stories contained enough contemporary elements, they were kept there (this is primarily in the far right side of the chart and only a very small handful of titles). Almost all of the books are published between 2009 and now. I tried to keep it to titles that might not be as familiar to readers, so there may be some well-known titles not on the chart. That’s purposeful.
Enjoy! This was a blast, and I hope others find it as interesting and worthwhile as I do. Feel free to save and share it, but if you want to report it, pass back the credit (it is listed on the chart, too).
I was asked if I could make a .pdf version of this, so I did. You can download it here.
Wow! This is crazy cool! Do I tell you enough what an asset you are to the YA community? <3
Thanks!
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for putting this together! I'm actually writing a contemporary right now but am a little lost because I don't read that much of it — I will definitely be using your awesome chart for future reading.
Oh my gosh, this chart is absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much for putting this together!
This is awesome!
Is it final and fixed? Any way we can talk you into adding a single or few titles? LIke Chasing AllieCat (abuse, grief, with a sports theme, losing sibling, mysterious, female POV).
Hi! This is great! I'm trying to print it and it's tiny — any tips?
I wish I had an answer, since I can't print it myself. Maybe use the .pdf and zoom in and print it across multiple sheets of paper (making the file itself bigger on your print options)? If someone else has suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
I have tried to get this to download and can't. It makes me very sad. Is there another way to get this?
Give this a shot — Drea loaded it on her server: http://bookblather.net/?p=4694
Thanks for the new link. This is great!
I, too, saw your outstanding presentation and wish the flowchart was printable. I can only view it, it's too big to print.
I have no idea how to do that and so wish I did. I'm obviously not a graphic design person, but I'm going to think this through and maybe someone will have a solution? I think the problem is that it's huge.