Top Young Adult Books
Shan and Pam's Picks -- The A's

Shan and I are friends and book fiends. We met at Amazon, of all places, where we began discussing books and passing suggestions back and forth. But long before that we had been piling books on our shelves.

Our tastes run to Science Fiction, the Classics, Dystopia's of all sorts, and Fantasy; and consequently this is the sort of read you are likely to find suggested below.

Our site (which we share with another buddy, Don... who tends to read kidlit instead of YA) has various lists of Young Adult suggestions, but we haven't been entirely happy with them. For example there's my list of the best YA books I read in 2010, and Shan's list of bests Middle-grade books she read in 2010, and my list too of suggested MG reads ....

As well there is our "Master List" of YA book suggestions that are presented visually, with pictures only. We find these lists helpful for quite a few people, especially those who tend to browse by cover-and-title, but it doesn't serve those who want more info.

Soooo, Shan and I are resorting to our standard presentation format sans the Technical Stuff information, because most Young Adults don't need to take AR Quizzes. We're digging back through our lists at GoodReads and LibraryThing and Amazon (and hopefully one day the basement) to come up with a 5-and-4 Star List of suggestions.

We hope this will help you decide what to add to your own Mt. TBR.


HERE ARE the Numbered and "A" book suggestions.



100 Cupboards (100 Cupboards#1)
by Nathan D. Wilson

Description: Twelve-year-old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall above his bed and one of them is slowly turning . . .Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room–with a man pacing back and forth! Henry soon understands that these are not just cupboards, but portals to other worlds.



2041: Twelve Short Stories About the Future by Top Science Fiction Writers
by Jane Yolen

Description: Leading science fiction writer Jane Yolen presents twelve humorous to horrific, entertaining and intriguing stories about the future by top writers, including Joe Haldeman and Anne McCaffrey.

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Laurel Leaf
  • ISBN-10: 0440218985
  • amazon



Across the Universe
by Beth Revis

**Starred Review** Kirkus

Description: Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone--one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship--tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

Now, Amy is caught inside an enclosed world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader, and Elder, his rebellious and brilliant teenage heir.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she? All she knows is that she must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Razorbill (January 11, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 1595143971
  • amazon



Across the Wall: A Tale of the Abhorsen and Other Stories
by Garth Nix

Description: Nicholas Sayre will do anything to get across the Wall.

Thoughts of Lirael and Sam haunt his dreams, and he has come to realize that his destiny lies with them, in the Old Kingdom. But here in Ancelstierre, Nick faces an obstacle that is not entirely human, with a strange power that seems to come from Nicholas himself.

With "Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case," Garth Nix continues to explore the magical world of the Abhorsen Trilogy. In additional short stories that range from two widely different takes on the Merlin myth to a gritty urban version of Hansel and Gretel and a heartbreaking story of children and war, Garth Nix displays the range and versatility that has made him one of today's leading writers of fantasy for readers of all ages.




The Adoration of Jenna Fox
by Mary Pearson

**Starred Review** Library School Journal

Description: Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers? This fascinating novel represents a stunning new direction for acclaimed author Mary Pearson. Set in a near future America, it takes readers on an unforgettable journey through questions of bio-medical ethics and the nature of humanity.




Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, #1)
by Tamora Pierce

Our Description: In Tortall women aren't allowed to be knights, and yet Alana knows this is exactly what she's supposed to be. So it's the old switcheroo with her brother Thom who is certainly not suited for knighthood and who scurries off to school.

The genius of Ms. Pierce's writing is that she makes this story work without sounding trite or hackneyed. Warrior-Chicklit.



Alien Secrets
by Annette Curtis Klause

Description: Twelve-year-old Puck, expelled from boarding school on Earth, is on her way home to her parents when she befriends an alien named Hush and joins him on his desperate hunt to find a valuable treasure. A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, ALA Notable Children's Book, and Booklist Editors' Choice--from the author of The Silver Kiss.
  • Mass Market Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Laurel Leaf
  • ISBN-10: 0440228514
  • Look Inside
  • amazon



The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Discworld, #28)
by Terry Pratchett

Description: For this outrageously cheeky tale, British writer Pratchett pairs a dynamite plot with memorable characters a group of intelligent rats sporting such monikers as Hamnpork, Big Savings and Darktan (they've been foraging in the University of Wizards' garbage dump and come up with "the kind of name you gave yourself if you learned to read before you understood what all the words actually meant"), plus a "stupid-looking kid" with a flute and a criminal kitty mastermind named Maurice. The motley con artists' pied piper scam is highly successful until the rats develop a conscience. Reluctantly, they agree to one final heist, but in the town of Bad Blintz things go horribly, hilariously wrong. First, they're twigged by Malicia Grim (granddaughter and grand-niece of the Sisters Grim), then they encounter a pair of conniving rat-catchers, a real pied piper and an evil something lurking in the town's cellars. They triumph, of course, and there's even a glimmer of redemption for the deliciously self-centered Maurice, who tackles the "Grim Squeaker" and bargains for the life of his rat comrade Dangerous Beans. In the end, while the others settle down, Maurice hits the road and is last seen approaching another "stupid-looking kid" with a money-making proposition. Could this mean more tales to come? Readers will eagerly hope so. Ages 12-up.

  • Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins
  • ISBN-10: 0060012358
  • Look Inside
  • amazon



American Born Chinese
by Gene Luen Yang

Description: A tour-de-force by rising indy comics star Gene Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he’s the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny’s life with his yearly visits. Their lives and stories come together with an unexpected twist in this action-packed modern fable. American Born Chinese is an amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax.




Among the Dolls
by William Sleator

Description: A dark awakening . . .
When her parents give her a gloomy old dollhouse for her birthday instead of the ten speed bike she’s expecting, Vicky is disappointed. But she soon becomes fascinated by the small shadowy world and its inhabitants. The hours she spends playing with the dolls is a good way to escape from her parents’s arguments. As Vicky’s life becomes more troubled, she starts to take out her frustration on the dolls, making their lives as unhappy as hers.

Then one day, Vicky wakes up inside the dollhouse, trapped among the monsters she’s created. Bewildered, Vicky is sure she’s dreaming. Can she find her way out of this nightmare world?




Among the Hidden (Shadow Children, #1)
by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Description: Luke has never been to school. He's never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend's house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend. Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family's farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside. Then, one day Luke sees a girl's face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he's met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows -- does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?

  • Paperback: 153 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children
  • ISBN-10: 0689824750
  • Look Inside
  • amazon



Among the Impostors (Shadow Children, #2)
by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Description: Luke Garner is an illegal third child. All his life has been spent in hiding. Now, for the first time, Luke is living among others. He has assumed a deceased boy's identity and is attending Hendricks School for Boys, a windowless building with cruel classmates and oblivious teachers. Luke knows he has to blend in, but he lives in constant fear that his behavior will betray him.

Then one day Luke discovers a door to the outside. He knows that beyond the walls of Hendricks lie the secrets he is desperate to uncover. What he doesn't know is whom he can trust -- and where the answers to his questions may lead him...
  • Paperback: 172 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
  • ISBN-10: 0689839081
  • Look Inside
  • amazon



The Amulet of Samarkand (The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Book 1)
by Jonathan Stroud

Description: Nathaniel, an eleven-year-old magician-in-training, thinks he's ready to take on more challenging spells. With revenge against the proud and ambitious Simon Lovelace on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a 5000-year-old djinni, to assist him. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.




The Amulet of Samarkand Graphic Novel
by Jonathan Stroud

Description: Nathaniel, an eleven-year-old magician-in-training, thinks he's ready to take on more challenging spells. With revenge against the proud and ambitious Simon Lovelace on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a 5000-year-old djinni, to assist him. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion. Jonathan Stroud, along with acclaimed comic books-writer Andrew Donkin and artists Lee Sullivan and Nicolas Chapuis, turns the beloved and internationally best-selling first book in the Bartimaeus trilogy into a spellbinding graphic novel sure to excite and delight fans across all magical planes.

  • Hardcover: 144 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
  • ISBN-10: 142311146X
  • amazon



Angel with the Sword (Merovingen Nights, #1)
(Alliance-Union Universe) by C. J. Cherryh

Description: In Merovingen, a watery canal-laced city, much like Earth's Venice, society is segregated along class lines between the lower and upper cities. Against her better judgment, Altair Jones, 17, rescues an unconscious man from a canal near her poleboat. She is fascinated by Mondragon's good looks and elegant ways and begins to fall in love with him. Even though she knows there is no future for a water rat like herself with such a man, she decides to watch over him and rescue him from his enemies; enemies who turn out to be the most powerful people in the upper city...

Note: not strictly YA, but close enough and definitely worth checking out...
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: DAW
  • ISBN-10: 0886771439
  • amazon



Another Heaven, Another Earth
by H. M. Hoover

An American Library Association
“101 Best of the Best Books in the Past 25 Years”

Description: Of the original population that colonized the planet Xilan five centuries before, a mere handful of descendants remain, including Gareth. Despite disease, starvation, and hardship, they survived. Much, including their technology, was lost as they learned to adapt to Xilan’s primitive conditions. When a new expedition from Earth lands with bold plans to re-colonize Xilan, however, a clash between the “primitives” and their “rescuers” becomes inevitable.

Gareth must make a decision: accept the new ways and risk losing their identity, or cling to the past...and risk extinction.
  • Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Starscape
  • ISBN-10: 0812567617
  • Look Inside
  • amazon



As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth
by Lynne Rae Perkins

**Starred Review** Booklist
**Starred Review** Good Books for Kids (Best of 2010)

Our Description: Lynne Rae Perkins proves that it's still possible to 'fall off the face of the earth' in this amazingly endearing book.

Ry manages it. His grandfather does. And so do his parents despite having GPS and cell phones.

It's a tight book with fabulous secondary characters. (Pam voted it one of the best books of 2010.)




The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2)
by Patrick Ness

**Starred Review** Good Books for Kids

Description of book #1: The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1) which you must read first... it's so good. **starred review** Booklist, **starred review** Us!

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World?

Note: We aren't giving you a description of book#2 because it would contain spoilers! Read book 1!



The Arrival
by Shaun Tan

**Starred Review** School Library Journal
**Starred Review** Booklist
**Starred Review** Good Books for Kids

Description: In a heartbreaking parting, a man gives his wife and daughter a last kiss and boards a steamship to cross the ocean. He's embarking on the most painful yet important journey of his life- he's leaving home to build a better future for his family.

Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant's experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can't communicate in words, the book forgoes them too. But while the reader experiences the main character's isolation, he also shares his ultimate joy.

  • Hardcover: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
  • ISBN-10: 0439895294
  • Look Inside
  • amazon



Arrows of the Queen (Heralds of Valdemar, #1)
by Mercedes Lackey

Description: Talia, a young runaway, is made a herald at the royal court after she rescues one of the legendary Companions. When she uncovers a plot to seize the throne, Talia must use her empathic powers to save the queen.





Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel
by Eoin Colfer

Description: In 2001, audiences first met and fell in love with a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind named Artemis Fowl. Since then, the series has sold over seven million copies in the United States alone. Now, this phenomenally successful series is being translated into a graphic novel format. Eoin Colfer has teamed up with established comic writer Andrew Donkin to adapt the text. For the first time, rabid fans will be able to see what Foaly's tin hat looks like; discover just how "Beet" Root got his name; and of course, follow their favorite criminal mastermind as he plots and connives in action-packed, full-color panels.




Ashling (The Obernewtyn Chronicles, #3)
by Isobelle Carmody

Description: As head of Obernewtyn’s Farseeker guild, Elspeth Gordie must travel to the lowlands to seal an alliance between Obernewtyn and the rebel forces that oppose the totalitarian Council. Yet her dreams call to her with an altogether different purpose: Elspeth must destroy what remains of the weapons that brought unimaginable chaos, death, and mutation to her world. Leaving the relative safety of the mountains, Elspeth embarks on a journey that takes her across the sea and into the heart of the mysterious desert region of Sador.

  • Mass Market Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
  • ISBN-10: 0375857699
  • Look Inside
  • amazon

here's the first book in the series...

Obernewtyn (Obernewtyn Chronicles, #1)
by Isobelle Carmody

Description: In a world struggling back from the brink of apocalypse, life is harsh. And for Elspeth Gordie, it is also dangerous. That's because Elspeth has a secret: she is a Misfit, born with mysterious mental abilities that she must keep hidden under threat of death. And her worries only multiply when she is exiled to the mountain compound known as Obernewtyn, where—for all her talents—Elspeth may finally and truly be out of her depth. Then she learns she’s not the only one concealing secrets at Obernewtyn.

  • Mass Market Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
  • ISBN-10: 0375857672
  • Look Inside
  • amazon





Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons
by Bill Watterson

Description: What can we say. A great way to chill out. Calvin and Hobbes!

  • Paperback: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
  • ISBN-10: 0836218833
  • Look Inside
  • amazon



The Awakeners: Northshore & Southshore
by Sheri S. Tepper

Description: Come to the world of the River. Come to a world distant in time and space, a world where the pace of life is counted by tides of the great River, but where, as in the river itself, there are swift dark currents flowing under a placid surface. Meet Pamra Don--a young woman scarred by her mother's death, lured to a preist-hood where the truth must be hidden from the faithful. And meet Thrasne, a young boatman who trades from town to town, free from the iron control of the towers of the Awakeners, and the priests of the world of the River--free, that is, as long as he never speaks his mind. These two, by design and accident both, are about to discover many truths. And on the Northshore of the River, the truth can kill you.

Note: not strictly YA, but close enough and definitely worth checking out...

Northshore - the Awakeners
(if you want to try the first book first) Sheri S. Tepper
  • Mass Market Paperback: 248 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books
  • ISBN-10: 0812556178
  • amazon
Labels: Good Books for Young Adults , Great Books for YA , YA picks , Young Adult

No comments :

Post a Comment

http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6276921/?claim=y89bz5f8z6d