one of the things I loved about being a mom of reading children, is I just went ahead and read everything they read... and what an adventure it was. They read many of my childhood and teenager favorites, and also all of the newer ones that were published in their era. I miss this. I still read things they read but one is a graduate student in contemporary German culture and the other is a surgeon so it's less likely "reading" and more like "floundering ". I still do try, though. Maybe someday, I will get to go all through childhood and young adult literature once again with with grandkids. :)
I sometimes want to rent myself out as a grandmother so I can read books to kids again and experience a taste of what that might be like. It would be so much fun to go through all the books again.
I have discovered a lucky thing in my life recently, involving YA books! My son is a 24-yr-old adult with autism who lives with my husband and I and needs 24/7 support. When he went through school, he missed out on YA literature, as I imagine many with developmental disabilities do. He reads at the picture book level (which is still fun for both of us) but in the past few years, he’s allowed me to read to him in small bits, so I’m choosing YA books that I loved, or that I missed out on. It’s so great.
I’d already read Harry Potter, but really enjoyed re-reading some of that series with him. I just recently read Because of Winn Dixie for myself – loved it so much, so will read that with my son next (he’s loved Kate DiCamillo’s Mercy Watson books). Back in the day, I loved Judy Blume’s books, A Wrinkle in Time, Sci Fi and mysteries, and Choose Your Own Adventure books – I’m eager to show him these, too - but I really want to read with him the books of his generation.
Right now, we are reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and it’s so touching and real and funny. It’s been a weird experience reading aloud about girl crushes and other, um, private activities of young men, not to mention the hard truths of racism and bullying and family struggles, but my son absolutely needs to hear these stories, too. He may not get all of the nuance, but then again, he just might. I’m so grateful to authors who create young characters and situations that speak to important issues in accessible ways. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable way to connect with my kid - and I get to read some really great books!
Reading aloud to a loved one makes for precious moments and precious memories. I love that you are both taking pleasure in the books you're finding. I've had a copy of Sherman Alexie's book for a long time but have only read the opening pages. I must finish it.
"Adolescent" covers a lot of ground, but I'll go from 13-15 because by fifteen many kids start reading"adult' fiction. When I was 13. it was 1958. I was a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, the sports novels of John Tunis, and I was crazy about the hilarious Damon Runyon whose story collecitons weree raided to make the best selling play GUYS AND DOLLS.
The YA Market was about 99.9 percent, and it seemed about 99percent fantasy and/or taking place in rural America with lots of beloved dogs and horses - Old Yaller, Old Red, Lassie, Lassitude, The Yearling, The Monthling, The Dayling, My Friend Flicka, My Friend Micka Bicka HICKA.
I couldnt find barelyone book about the city, or city kids, or cityfeeeeeeeee.
but there are many TERRFC YAL BOOKS. Here are some.
1) the novels of Lawence Yep, especially Dragon Wings about one of the country's first aviator.
2)In Nueva York by Nicholasa Mohr, immigrant Puerto Rican families in New York.
3) A Hero Aint Nothin' But A Sandwich by Alice Childress. A brilliant multiple point of view novel about a feisty teenager battling heroin addiction with help from family and teachers. I taught this novel for ten years 7-9th graders with great success.
4)Night - Eli Wiesel. A classic about a father and son in the European holocaust.
5) Soulcatchers- Charles Johnson. Gripping historical short stories about the rising resostamcepf the Underground Railroad.
6) Tituba, Witch of Salem by Marys condsz. Arthur Miller's play The Crucible has a slave accused of bewitching a group of susceptible teenage girls.
7) For teenager readers who read pretty well, I'd challenge them with the amazing novel SEGU by Marys Conde, a big novel about slavery IN AFRICA depicting the activities of Americans raiding African villages and killing and kidnapping.
7. I had a secret pleasure of reading almost alll the Nancy Drew mysteries before tackling the great classics of Wilke Collins although an easier read might be an author so widespread he is almost forgotten- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Some of these stories could be used in middleschool and highschool science classes in lessons on observation and deductive reasonings ( as could a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe stories including The Pit and The Pendulum, Descent Into the Maelstrom. The Case of M. Valdemar, The Goldlbug, and The Purloined Letter.
8. A very popular YA novel is Sherman Alexie's Diary of A Part Time Indian. Alexie is one of the finest and funniest US writers and students and teachers alike adore his work ( as I do, owning most of his ten or eleven books)
9) Another classic YA novel is Bless Me Ultima by Rudolpho Anaya about the clash of values in a Chicano neighborhood between Catholicsm and indigenous rellilgious beliefs when a familywelcomes a "curandera", a healer, into their lives to the fearful chagrin and hatred of ssosme in their community..
Even after 25 years in publishing I can't answer the question of what makes a book YA, or not. I have read and loved so many. I won't repeat all the same lists here but I will add The Hunger Games trilogy and of course The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Have read them allat least twice. Such fun action in such a real world and such emotion, too.
Both of those trilogies were on the top 100 list that NPR assembled. I've never read The Hunger Games books. Always meant to but they looked so dark from a distance. Having read Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, though, I can't imagine Hunger Games is any darker.
Actually I have never been able to get into Pullman, so we're even! I think of the Hunger Games as dystopian lite. There's a lot of action but also a lot of beauty and bravery.
I love books of all kind. I love children’s books and the chance to read them. I love YA books. I have to keep up with YA titles for my job but it’s a joy not a hardship. Kate di Camilo has written in every genre, I think. I love the Mercy Watson books. I agree with many of the recs here. I will throw in Bronx Masquerade, I lived on Butterfly Hill and anything by Elizabeth Acevedo.
My favorite YA book ever is Eggplant Alley, by David Cataneo (Bunker Hill Books, 2013). Full disclosure: Dave, a former sportswriter for the Boston Herald Traveler, is a friend. The book is set in a poor neighborhood in the Bronx, circa 1970. The protagonist is Nikky Martini, 13. The running plot is Nicky's attempt to revive the game of stickball against a backdrop of the not-so-distant Vietnam War (his brother considers enlisting), the changing culture around him (his brother's girlfriend, Margalo, is a hippie), racial tension, and family issues. To borrow a phrase from Betsy, it's heartbreaking in a good way. And you can still get it on Amazon. Small spoiler: Willie Mays makes a cameo appearance.
I do read the theme in adult books as well. I've been horrified by the resurgence of racism in the US in recent years. It's especially troubling how the police treat Black and Brown people vs. white people.
I would highly recommend one of our country's finest authors earlier novel- The Autobiography of Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines, Mcarthur Award and Pulitzer Prize winner.It follows a young ( eleven year old) from the end of the Civil War to her at age l00 drinking from a WHITES ONLY water fountain during the sixties' civil rights movement. Gaines is a tremendous writer.Few authors anywhere have his gift for dialogue and perfectly cadenced sentences. And few male authors anywhere can write about women of varied ages as full characters and not simplly foils for me. Even fewer have Gaines'sense of humor. I taught highschool in Northampton Mass for twenty years and always used Gaines' book in a unit with To Kill A Mockingbird and Richard Wright's powerhouse first book- Uncle Tom's Children and Other Stories. The unit was a great success;the kids loved the books. I would also recommend a verygifted writerfrom theSouth Bronx- Abraham Rodriguez, author The Boy Without a Flag, and Spidertown, about a nerd whowants to stop beiing a "lookout" for a local gang. great book! ALSO, CHECK OUT LAWRENCE YEP, ESPECCIALLY DRAGON WINGS.MY STUDENTSLOVED THAT BOOK AND DID GREAT PROECTS WITH IT.
I lived from 1949 -1959 in a housing project in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. We could not have dogs, cats, or pelicans. Our list was limited- hamstes,guinea pigs, turtles, small fish ( no string rays or barracudas), snails, parakeets and canaries (no cocatoos or vulturess). I never ONCE read a book about any of these animals altlhough in third grade I won a prize for "The Shortest Animall Story Ever Written." I thought it was pretty good; so didmy parentsand relatives. 70 years later it remains unpublished although a newunderground magazine , The Rodent Review, is taking a look at it.I It is short and lucid:
The Guinea Pig. by Ernest Brill August 19, 1953
I am a guinea pig. I came to 2975 Avenue W Apt. 1y in Brooklyn. I eat lettuce and go to the bathroom.
There are the in-between years too, when we are no longer school children, nor are we old (in my case from when I started work at 15 until I drew my state old age pension at 65). At 23 I was buying books for our daughter and at 43 for our first granddaughter. Many they found for themselves in bookshops and so I got introduced by them to authors and books I have loved ever since. ‘Harry Potter’ was top of their list until they discovered Terry Pratchett. My grandchildren gave me Graham Oakley’s ‘Church Cat’ picture book stories and then my favourite, ‘The Paper Bag Princess’ by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko. ‘Anne of Green Gables’ is my own personal favourite from my childhood, re-read during lockdown, and from more recent years, ‘Alice in Sunderland’ by Bryan Talbot, a 320 page graphic novel. I could go on. Illustrated stories are often far more than adult comics and deserve a place at at any top table there is for writing. Robert 🐰
I love this list, Robert. I have to admit, I am a diehard Pratchett fan (although I stop well short of fanatic) I've read and re-read those books a LOT. I only discovered by looking at the NPR list that the books about Tiffany Aching were considered "YA" faves. Pratchett could write for any every age all at once.
I'm reading Fair Game right now! And Lucy Jane Bledsoe's No Stopping Us Now was one of my top fave books last year. I read whatever catches my eye, or is recommended. I never saw a YA book until we moved to town (I was 11) and went to the library for the first time. They wouldn't let me check out "adult" books, which I was accustomed to reading, so I read Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, etc. I like reading YA to keep up with the young people's way of talking and thinking.
I did not know about Bledsoe's book. Like you, I also like to read books aimed at younger readers so I can keep in touch with how they are handling universal themes in their own ways with all the challenges and language of their time.
Yes. For me, nostalgia plays a role here, especially with movies or shows aimed at younger audiences. I can't watch The Jungle Book without thinking of how much I loved watching it with my son when he was small.
There also seems to be a dynamic where many adults feel they need to grow out of cartoons and animation to be mature. I can't tell you how many times I saw some great animated TV show or movie, recommended it, and many wouldn't consider it because it was animated. I tried to convince them but to no avail, so had to develop an it doesn't bother me attitude, & it is their loss.
I suspect for many it has to do with some negativity directed towards cartoons in their childhood? This dynamic has been very noticeable over the years for this early GenXer. Hopefully it is changing with younger gens due to the merging of live-action and animated. Gen Z seems so impressive ; )
Thanks so much for this, Betsy. So interesting to see the differences in Julia's experiences and mine. For a while in publishing, new adult was all the craze, which was books for like, college-age kids? I don't know if it's still a thing. It certainly doesn't show up as a shelf in bookstores, but there was so much debate about exactly what new adult was and if it was a thing. But mostly, yes, I think, if it's a good book, who cares what shelf it's on?
I never hear of "New adult" It seems to parse the distinctions pretty fine. I guess a good argument for categorizing books is that it helps readers gravitate to the books they think they will like and check out first. After all, they have feet and can move from shelf to shelf.
one of the things I loved about being a mom of reading children, is I just went ahead and read everything they read... and what an adventure it was. They read many of my childhood and teenager favorites, and also all of the newer ones that were published in their era. I miss this. I still read things they read but one is a graduate student in contemporary German culture and the other is a surgeon so it's less likely "reading" and more like "floundering ". I still do try, though. Maybe someday, I will get to go all through childhood and young adult literature once again with with grandkids. :)
I sometimes want to rent myself out as a grandmother so I can read books to kids again and experience a taste of what that might be like. It would be so much fun to go through all the books again.
I have discovered a lucky thing in my life recently, involving YA books! My son is a 24-yr-old adult with autism who lives with my husband and I and needs 24/7 support. When he went through school, he missed out on YA literature, as I imagine many with developmental disabilities do. He reads at the picture book level (which is still fun for both of us) but in the past few years, he’s allowed me to read to him in small bits, so I’m choosing YA books that I loved, or that I missed out on. It’s so great.
I’d already read Harry Potter, but really enjoyed re-reading some of that series with him. I just recently read Because of Winn Dixie for myself – loved it so much, so will read that with my son next (he’s loved Kate DiCamillo’s Mercy Watson books). Back in the day, I loved Judy Blume’s books, A Wrinkle in Time, Sci Fi and mysteries, and Choose Your Own Adventure books – I’m eager to show him these, too - but I really want to read with him the books of his generation.
Right now, we are reading Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and it’s so touching and real and funny. It’s been a weird experience reading aloud about girl crushes and other, um, private activities of young men, not to mention the hard truths of racism and bullying and family struggles, but my son absolutely needs to hear these stories, too. He may not get all of the nuance, but then again, he just might. I’m so grateful to authors who create young characters and situations that speak to important issues in accessible ways. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable way to connect with my kid - and I get to read some really great books!
Reading aloud to a loved one makes for precious moments and precious memories. I love that you are both taking pleasure in the books you're finding. I've had a copy of Sherman Alexie's book for a long time but have only read the opening pages. I must finish it.
What a wonderful gift... I was going to say "that you are giving him" but you are both giving and receiving a priceless gift.
Yes! I definitely feel like it is a gift he is giving to me :)
A mutual giving. The best kind.
"Adolescent" covers a lot of ground, but I'll go from 13-15 because by fifteen many kids start reading"adult' fiction. When I was 13. it was 1958. I was a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, the sports novels of John Tunis, and I was crazy about the hilarious Damon Runyon whose story collecitons weree raided to make the best selling play GUYS AND DOLLS.
The YA Market was about 99.9 percent, and it seemed about 99percent fantasy and/or taking place in rural America with lots of beloved dogs and horses - Old Yaller, Old Red, Lassie, Lassitude, The Yearling, The Monthling, The Dayling, My Friend Flicka, My Friend Micka Bicka HICKA.
I couldnt find barelyone book about the city, or city kids, or cityfeeeeeeeee.
but there are many TERRFC YAL BOOKS. Here are some.
1) the novels of Lawence Yep, especially Dragon Wings about one of the country's first aviator.
2)In Nueva York by Nicholasa Mohr, immigrant Puerto Rican families in New York.
3) A Hero Aint Nothin' But A Sandwich by Alice Childress. A brilliant multiple point of view novel about a feisty teenager battling heroin addiction with help from family and teachers. I taught this novel for ten years 7-9th graders with great success.
4)Night - Eli Wiesel. A classic about a father and son in the European holocaust.
5) Soulcatchers- Charles Johnson. Gripping historical short stories about the rising resostamcepf the Underground Railroad.
6) Tituba, Witch of Salem by Marys condsz. Arthur Miller's play The Crucible has a slave accused of bewitching a group of susceptible teenage girls.
7) For teenager readers who read pretty well, I'd challenge them with the amazing novel SEGU by Marys Conde, a big novel about slavery IN AFRICA depicting the activities of Americans raiding African villages and killing and kidnapping.
7. I had a secret pleasure of reading almost alll the Nancy Drew mysteries before tackling the great classics of Wilke Collins although an easier read might be an author so widespread he is almost forgotten- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Some of these stories could be used in middleschool and highschool science classes in lessons on observation and deductive reasonings ( as could a bunch of Edgar Allan Poe stories including The Pit and The Pendulum, Descent Into the Maelstrom. The Case of M. Valdemar, The Goldlbug, and The Purloined Letter.
8. A very popular YA novel is Sherman Alexie's Diary of A Part Time Indian. Alexie is one of the finest and funniest US writers and students and teachers alike adore his work ( as I do, owning most of his ten or eleven books)
9) Another classic YA novel is Bless Me Ultima by Rudolpho Anaya about the clash of values in a Chicano neighborhood between Catholicsm and indigenous rellilgious beliefs when a familywelcomes a "curandera", a healer, into their lives to the fearful chagrin and hatred of ssosme in their community..
Hope this helps.
Nancy Drew here!
Yes! Me, too! I read these beginning around eight years old and just kept at it.
Great list. So many memories, and you made me laugh too! I did love all the dog and horse books, btw.
do you ever have yard sales?
What a great list! I like the additions you made in your later comments too, Ernie. Thank you!
Even after 25 years in publishing I can't answer the question of what makes a book YA, or not. I have read and loved so many. I won't repeat all the same lists here but I will add The Hunger Games trilogy and of course The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Have read them allat least twice. Such fun action in such a real world and such emotion, too.
Both of those trilogies were on the top 100 list that NPR assembled. I've never read The Hunger Games books. Always meant to but they looked so dark from a distance. Having read Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, though, I can't imagine Hunger Games is any darker.
I love reading books for people of all ages -there is always something to enjoy
In the wonderful world of YA, I highly recommend M.T. Anderson's series, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing.
Actually I have never been able to get into Pullman, so we're even! I think of the Hunger Games as dystopian lite. There's a lot of action but also a lot of beauty and bravery.
Check out The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo!
I have never read Acevedo and she is on virtually everyone's list of favorites. I am going to read her. I'll start with this one. Thx, Marilyn!
I love books of all kind. I love children’s books and the chance to read them. I love YA books. I have to keep up with YA titles for my job but it’s a joy not a hardship. Kate di Camilo has written in every genre, I think. I love the Mercy Watson books. I agree with many of the recs here. I will throw in Bronx Masquerade, I lived on Butterfly Hill and anything by Elizabeth Acevedo.
Thank you, Mary! Another recommendation for Elizabeth Acevedo. I need to read her.
My favorite YA book ever is Eggplant Alley, by David Cataneo (Bunker Hill Books, 2013). Full disclosure: Dave, a former sportswriter for the Boston Herald Traveler, is a friend. The book is set in a poor neighborhood in the Bronx, circa 1970. The protagonist is Nikky Martini, 13. The running plot is Nicky's attempt to revive the game of stickball against a backdrop of the not-so-distant Vietnam War (his brother considers enlisting), the changing culture around him (his brother's girlfriend, Margalo, is a hippie), racial tension, and family issues. To borrow a phrase from Betsy, it's heartbreaking in a good way. And you can still get it on Amazon. Small spoiler: Willie Mays makes a cameo appearance.
This seems like a book that flew well under the radar but should not have. I'm looking forward to checking it out some day.
I read YA novels that generally have a social justice theme. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely is one of my most recommended reads.
That's interesting, Kathy. Do you seek those out specifically in YA or is that a theme you like to pursue when reading "adult" books as well?
I do read the theme in adult books as well. I've been horrified by the resurgence of racism in the US in recent years. It's especially troubling how the police treat Black and Brown people vs. white people.
I would highly recommend one of our country's finest authors earlier novel- The Autobiography of Jane Pittman by Ernest Gaines, Mcarthur Award and Pulitzer Prize winner.It follows a young ( eleven year old) from the end of the Civil War to her at age l00 drinking from a WHITES ONLY water fountain during the sixties' civil rights movement. Gaines is a tremendous writer.Few authors anywhere have his gift for dialogue and perfectly cadenced sentences. And few male authors anywhere can write about women of varied ages as full characters and not simplly foils for me. Even fewer have Gaines'sense of humor. I taught highschool in Northampton Mass for twenty years and always used Gaines' book in a unit with To Kill A Mockingbird and Richard Wright's powerhouse first book- Uncle Tom's Children and Other Stories. The unit was a great success;the kids loved the books. I would also recommend a verygifted writerfrom theSouth Bronx- Abraham Rodriguez, author The Boy Without a Flag, and Spidertown, about a nerd whowants to stop beiing a "lookout" for a local gang. great book! ALSO, CHECK OUT LAWRENCE YEP, ESPECCIALLY DRAGON WINGS.MY STUDENTSLOVED THAT BOOK AND DID GREAT PROECTS WITH IT.
I lived from 1949 -1959 in a housing project in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. We could not have dogs, cats, or pelicans. Our list was limited- hamstes,guinea pigs, turtles, small fish ( no string rays or barracudas), snails, parakeets and canaries (no cocatoos or vulturess). I never ONCE read a book about any of these animals altlhough in third grade I won a prize for "The Shortest Animall Story Ever Written." I thought it was pretty good; so didmy parentsand relatives. 70 years later it remains unpublished although a newunderground magazine , The Rodent Review, is taking a look at it.I It is short and lucid:
The Guinea Pig. by Ernest Brill August 19, 1953
I am a guinea pig. I came to 2975 Avenue W Apt. 1y in Brooklyn. I eat lettuce and go to the bathroom.
The End. copywright Ernest Brill August 1953
There are the in-between years too, when we are no longer school children, nor are we old (in my case from when I started work at 15 until I drew my state old age pension at 65). At 23 I was buying books for our daughter and at 43 for our first granddaughter. Many they found for themselves in bookshops and so I got introduced by them to authors and books I have loved ever since. ‘Harry Potter’ was top of their list until they discovered Terry Pratchett. My grandchildren gave me Graham Oakley’s ‘Church Cat’ picture book stories and then my favourite, ‘The Paper Bag Princess’ by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko. ‘Anne of Green Gables’ is my own personal favourite from my childhood, re-read during lockdown, and from more recent years, ‘Alice in Sunderland’ by Bryan Talbot, a 320 page graphic novel. I could go on. Illustrated stories are often far more than adult comics and deserve a place at at any top table there is for writing. Robert 🐰
I love this list, Robert. I have to admit, I am a diehard Pratchett fan (although I stop well short of fanatic) I've read and re-read those books a LOT. I only discovered by looking at the NPR list that the books about Tiffany Aching were considered "YA" faves. Pratchett could write for any every age all at once.
I'm reading Fair Game right now! And Lucy Jane Bledsoe's No Stopping Us Now was one of my top fave books last year. I read whatever catches my eye, or is recommended. I never saw a YA book until we moved to town (I was 11) and went to the library for the first time. They wouldn't let me check out "adult" books, which I was accustomed to reading, so I read Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, etc. I like reading YA to keep up with the young people's way of talking and thinking.
I did not know about Bledsoe's book. Like you, I also like to read books aimed at younger readers so I can keep in touch with how they are handling universal themes in their own ways with all the challenges and language of their time.
I feel the exact same way about TV & Movies. If it is good (or just my taste), it's good.
Yes. For me, nostalgia plays a role here, especially with movies or shows aimed at younger audiences. I can't watch The Jungle Book without thinking of how much I loved watching it with my son when he was small.
There also seems to be a dynamic where many adults feel they need to grow out of cartoons and animation to be mature. I can't tell you how many times I saw some great animated TV show or movie, recommended it, and many wouldn't consider it because it was animated. I tried to convince them but to no avail, so had to develop an it doesn't bother me attitude, & it is their loss.
I suspect for many it has to do with some negativity directed towards cartoons in their childhood? This dynamic has been very noticeable over the years for this early GenXer. Hopefully it is changing with younger gens due to the merging of live-action and animated. Gen Z seems so impressive ; )
Thanks so much for this, Betsy. So interesting to see the differences in Julia's experiences and mine. For a while in publishing, new adult was all the craze, which was books for like, college-age kids? I don't know if it's still a thing. It certainly doesn't show up as a shelf in bookstores, but there was so much debate about exactly what new adult was and if it was a thing. But mostly, yes, I think, if it's a good book, who cares what shelf it's on?
I never hear of "New adult" It seems to parse the distinctions pretty fine. I guess a good argument for categorizing books is that it helps readers gravitate to the books they think they will like and check out first. After all, they have feet and can move from shelf to shelf.