So with out further ado, here are my picks:
Ha! In your face book snobs! Yes, this is a Pulitzer-Prize-winning, much-loved-by-adults, YA book. Just last week, it was revealed by the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, that their #ThisBook campaign/survey had revealed Lee's novel as the book written by a woman that "most impacted, shaped or changed readers’ lives". And that's one of the things about YA fiction, teenagers are very concerned with injustices, so many novels written for and about young people will examine and challenge prejudices.
This book is set in an alternate world where black and white people live in segregation, similar to 1950s USA, but with one significant difference: this time, it is the black population that makes up the ruling class, whereas the white people are very much treated as second-class citizens. At it's heart, this book is a love story, a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, that tells the tragic story of two teenagers who enter into a forbidden romance, challenging the prejudices of the characters in the book, but also some prejudices that sadly are still present in some parts of our society.
This year's winner of the Carnegie Medal has been massively controversial. Lorna Bradbury's headline in The Telegraph read, "The Bunker Diary: why wish this book on a child?" She went on to describe it as "a vile and dangerous story", with many of it's critics saying that it won on shock value rather than on literary merit. By including issues such as heroin addiction, attempted rape, physical and mental abuse, torture, murder and enforced imprisonment, many people were outraged that this book had won such a prestigious award for children's literature. Ah, but this is the generation of children who have all watched the Saw movie franchise by the time they're in Year 8, and laugh at how ridiculous the later movies are. Read it for yourself, and then make your decision about who you think this book is for.
I absolutely love these books - Riordan writes a rollicking good adventure, with an equal measure of goofball laughs and classical mythology! Testament to how readable they are - the first series of five books, are the only five books my husband has read since I've known him (opposites definitely attract!). If you've seen the films, you absolutely must read the books, because they are sooo much better! And when you're through with them, you have The Heroes of Olympus series to enjoy: good times.
Based on Kipling's The Jungle Book, Gaiman puts his inimitable eerie spin on this classic tale, by transposing it into a graveyard, where Bod is raised by ghosts and in turns mentored, befriended, and pursued by a host of supernatural beings both good and evil. Adult readers will appreciate the inter-textual nods to the original text that inspired it, as well as myths and folklore from across Europe. Like so many books that feature a cast of non-human characters, this is a book that explores exactly what it means to be human and alive.
Put simply, this is one of the most moving books I've read. It's not an obvious tear-jerker like Green's children-dying-of-cancer-but-still-experiencing-the-beauty-of-love bestseller, The Fault in Our Stars, but maybe more powerful because it confronts a number of traumatic things that many teenagers experience. Things such as family breakdown, poverty, being different, peer pressure, bullying, sex, becoming more independent, moving on and moving away. Everything about this book feels real and sincere; Rowell does not patronise her young readers by telling them everything will be okay, she just shows what happens and how the characters in her book deal with it. The ambiguous ending has left many fans desperate for a sequel...
This is a beautiful book (especially if you read the edition illustrated by Jim Kay) with many layers to the storytelling. Conor has nightmares. Conor also has a mother who is dying of cancer. He is visited by a wandering, monstrous yew tree who tells him stories, but there is a price that Conor will have to pay once the monster has told his third tale. Unlike other books for young people that deal with themes of loss and death, this is not a sentimental book. Ness shows the confusion, the anger, and all the negative, destructive behaviours that grieving people can go through, as well as the fact that life does indeed go on.
Yes it has a kick-ass heroine and no, I don't care whether feminists like that or not, for whatever reasons they have. Yes it has some scenes of gory violence - the eponymous games feature 24 children killing each other off until there's just one survivor. Personally, I found it to be well-written, gripping and not at all gratuitous. I've actually used this book in school with Year 11s for their coursework, and we got an awful lot out of it, making links to Shakespeare, classical history, contemporary dictators and Blackman's Noughts and Crosses. If you do in fact carry on with the trilogy, the political issues become even more apparent and the morality of rebellion and revolution is explored. Great stuff for teens and adults alike.
I absolutely adore a bit of magical-realism, and this book, set in the Amazon rainforest, and populated with mysterious beasts, shaman and spirits, is a perfect example. In fact, this is one of my all-time favourite books. Ever. It's a travel-writing, spirit-guiding, family saga, coming-of-age adventure! Phew! It is also very difficult to say much more about it without spoiling the weird and beautiful mystery of this book. Just read it!
I reviewed this recently, and said it was the best book I'd read so far this year. It still is! So much so, that I now own two copies of it, as I had to by a signed on when I was at YALC. Just how Sedgwick incorporates philosophy, patterns of the universe, and the true (and thorough) logic behind coincidences into a YA adventure/mystery is stunning. Throw in the fact that his main character (and narrator) is blind, and you end up with one absolutely unique novel without a single physical description, but a very clear idea about the world in which she inhabits. An absolute must-read!
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