The Next Best Book Club discussion

I am a huge fan of the Otori series, but I never considered this as YA.

Interesting, it's always in the sci-fi sections in bookstores here in the US. In fact, I would be surprised to find it in YA considering some of the content.

Just started reading Twilight which falls under YA. I've also enjoyed The Harry Potter Series and His Dark Material Trilogy by Pullman. For individual books I enjoyed Holes. I've probably read other books not realizing they fall under Children's/YA.

Well, I am a Harry Potter fanatic and eventually I plan on reading the Gemma Doyle trilogy as well as the Twilight series.

Yeah, that's true and I was thinking the same thing!

I'm not reading any YA now, but others that I've enjoyed as an adult are:

Harry Potter series
Twilight series
Chronicles of Narnia (always a fave)
Series of Unfortunate Events (haven't finished this series yet)
Artemis Fowl series (haven't finished this one yet either)
Animal Farm

I'd like to read the following (I'm sure there are more but these are off the top of my head):

Spiderwick Chronicles
Inheritance series
Gemma Doyle series
Uglies series

And I'd like to RE-read these as an adult:

A Wrinkle in Time
Charlotte's Web
The Little Prince
Alice in Wonderland
The Secret Garden

Fiona, I worked at a couple high school graduations this summer and in one of the speeches, one the teachers compared the students journey to Harry Potter's. Those kids were in 1st grade, just kind of starting school, when the 1st Harry Potter book came out and Harry's journey ended just as they were beginning their last year of high school. It was a fun parallel that I enjoyed hearing, even if it wasn't my graduation!

Fiona, you might want to try The Frog Princess series by E.D. Baker. It's kind of right in the middle of children's and young adult. It's not a kid book, but it's not on the level of Harry Potter or Twilight. I've read the first two and have enjoyed them.

Oh yes, how could I forget His Dark Materials!? I really enjoyed those as well.

I didn't even think about the Chronicles of Narnia or The Inheritance Series. I've started both but haven't finished them. Some of the other ones mentioned here are on my TBR list. I don't really care what genre or level a book falls in...if it's good I want to read it. I don't understand why other people are so snobby about it.

I've read The Book Thief, which was fantastic and Something Wicked This Way Comes, didn't like it (gave up on it). Right now, I am reading Holes and thoroughly enjoying it.

I enjoyed the Twilight series...and also The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants books are pretty good.

I recently read the book thief. I loved it!!

I just started The Book Thief this morning. I'm only a few pages in to it, but so far so good! I liked Harry Potter (really, I LOVED Harry Potter), His Dark Materials, and everything by Judy Blume. I vacilate on whether or not I like Twlight. (My brain says no, but I can't deny I was totally addicted to them!)

I love YA books. I even started a blog devoted to rereading books I read in my youth and recapping and reviewing them from an adult perspective. Umm....I don't wanna give the blog link here because it's not in the right folder and I don't want to make super-mod angry. I think I did post it in the correct folder a few months ago though.

:)

Aw Fiona start it! :) I put it off for aaaaages, coz of the weird writing. I started reading it and have to admit I wasn't hooked, but you reach a certain part of the story (first lot of pics) and the whole book changed for me. It really is amazing and I never say that about books, I'm extremely hard to please!! I also had never ever cried at a book in my life (I'm a heartless cow what can I say) until I read this. Maybe it was hormones, who knows :P

Fiona, age doesn't dictate how long or much one can enjoy children's and young adult books. I'm 54 and have always enjoyed them. So, keep enjoying them forever, darling. I do understand, though, how there is that snobbish sector of readers that might think themselves superior to us. Just think of all the great reading that they are missing.

A sampling of some of my favorite children's and YA lit and authors are as follows (YA and children's mixed together):

Roald Dahl--especially The BFG

Elizabeth Winthrop--Castle in the Attic and Battle for the Castle

Jack Prelutsky (poetry, mostly his beautifully illustrated older children's ones) -- The Dragons Sing Tonight, The Gargoyle on the Roof, Awful Ogre's Awful Day

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Jon Scieszka--The Time Warp Trio series and all his other great books

Shel Silverstein--everything he did

Judy Blume--Fudge series, The Pain and the Great One, Forever, and more

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling--all of them

The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer

Cornelia Funke--Inkheart series

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynee Jones

Whirligig by Paul Fleischman

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Lois Lowery--The Giver, Number the Stars

The Day They Came to Arrest the Book by Nat Hentoff

The Catwing series by Ursula LeGuin

Holes and Sideways School books by Louis Sachar

Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville

John Bellairs--The House With a Clock in Its Walls and other Lewis Barnavelt books plus other Bellairs' mysteries

Lostman's River by Cynthia DeFelice

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Paul Jennings--Unreal, Unbearable, and all his other quirky short story books

The Boxcar Children
Nancy Drew

OK, I'm going to stop, but this list is not complete.

I've "recently discovered" some great YA books. I enjoyed Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle books, Annette Curtis Klaus's Blood and Chocolate, and I just started Twilight.

Oh and btw, I'm 30 :)

Good writing goes well beyond age. I love the Harry Potter books and look forward to Rowlings story book coming out in December. I've enjoyed the Inheritance series and things by Tamora Pierce.

Roald Dahl, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Book Theif, Chronicles of Narnia, Frank Peretti's YA series, Libba Bray, the Uglies series (haven't yet read the fourth one). This could definately go on. Maniac McGee, Island of the Blue Dolphins...

Nikki-I just started The Book Thief today on my lunch break.

I also really liked Twilight and also Meg Cabot's YA books are pretty good.

I have read The Babysitters Club and I also tend to read Young Adult books from the library to boost my monthly books that I have read.

How. Did. I. Not. See. This. Thread.



GUESS!
JUST GUESS!

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy first off.

:D

Stargirl.

Sarah Dessen

Maggie L Wood

Maureen Johnson

John Green

Eva Ibbotson

You got the name right.

I need to read The Morning Gift, Company of Swans and A Song for Summer.

I really loved A Journey to the River Sea and The Star of Kazan (probably because I read them when I was a tad bit younger) and The Secret Countess was really good too.

In terms of Roald Dahl, my two favorite books are Fantastic Mr. Fox and George's Marvelous Medicine. I'm definitely going to have to add some of these authors to my to read list!

Yeah, I understand that....

I wonder if my perception of Star and Journey would be different now.

Fiona, I haven't read anything else by Diana Wynne Jones, but I have meant to. With your hearty endorsement, I plan on rectifying that situation. I'll start with the ones you mentioned in another posting here. I, too, have kept meaning to start The Book Thief. I'm amazed at myself that I haven't read it yet. I have it on my short list for November and December, but, gee, the time seems to be flying out of here for this year.

Fiona, I think any child will be lucky to have you as his/her mother with your love of reading and especially your enjoyment of children's books. You know, I didn't even mention any of the many wonderful picture books that I love. Let's face it, we are just completely and utterly in love with books, period. Ha, ha.

Thanks, Heather. I'm going to confess something that I've never confessed to anyone before. I have not read Anne of Green Gables. OK, now that you have picked yourself back up off of the floor, I promise you that I will read it in the near future. I don't understand how I let that classic slip away from me. If people who know me and how much I've read and read knew that I hadn't read this book, I might lose all kinds of respect in their eyes as a book connoisseur. Feel free to give me 50 virtual lashes.

I often find myself reading YA books. I am better able to recommend good reads to school age children that way. I am not fond of series, but I like adventure stories. For 4th-6th grade, one of my favorite reads was Silverwing and Sunwing by Kenneth Opel. I also enjoyed
A Single Shard.

I too have not read "Anne"! I own it and have done for simply years. I have it in a seperat bookself that I don't look at that often. I will need to move it and read it very soon.

I also loved reading and do re-read these books

The mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
Time at the Top
The Tripod series
The Forever King
Frindel

Just to name a few
:)

My sis and I just found Anne of Green Gables at my parents' house on Wednesday. I will definitely be adding that to my list.

T.A. Barron- The Young Merlin Series- there were five or six. I really enjoyed them.

Has anyone else read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian? One of my fave reads of the past year. Also, I love anything by Richard Peck, Gail Carson Levine or Sharon Creech.

Michelle, I just bought The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian and plan on reading it soon largely due to endorsements such as yours. Also, you mentioned Richard Peck. I met him at the National Book Festival in D.C. a few years ago, and he was such a nice man and an interesting speaker. I, too, enjoy his books. He and I talked about the fact that I was the only person who had thus far brought his book, The Last Safe Place on Earth, for him to sign. It involves book censorship, something that I am adamantly against, as is Mr. Peck. I recommend this book if you haven't read it.

I like a lot of young adult and children's books. I love Rainbow goblins. Great story.

Loved the Chronicals of Narnia.

I've read and agree with a lot of these recommendations. (I just added Howl's Moving Castle to my tbr, Fiona!) If you haven't read Anne of Green Gables, you really should. She's an orphan girl who is sort of mistakenly adopted by a brother and sister. Anne is wonderful. She has a huge imagination and is a writer/reader. I've read the whole series numerous times.

The only thing I can think of to add is The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I just read the first one, and it is aimed at a fairly young audience (my 10-year-old cousin recommended it to me--I'm 30), but it's a great, action-packed story that gives a modern twist to mythology.

His Dark Materials gets my vote.

Fiona, escalate The Book Thief to somewhere near the top of your To Read list. It's a great read.

I read A Sudden Wild Magic by her a long long time ago. I may have even read it twice. I don't remember anything about it except that I liked it. But that one was shelved in the adult section of our library and I never realized that she really writes YA books. I only wander into that section if I'm looking for something specific. I'm sure I'll enjoy this Howl book.

Maybe I could photocopy the whole book and mail it to you? :-) I have a co-worker who actually did copy an entire book like that. Don't tell our paper police or the copyright police! Well, actually, that guy pisses me off pretty regularly these days, so maybe I should tell someone... Mwahahahahahahaahaha! (My best attempt at an evil laugh)

Like everything else, we probably just ignore it and do whatever we want.

It doesn't make sense that it says not to resell it though. Who cares? They got the money in the first place.

Hi everyone!

I'm new to posting here. I'm a bookseller who is planning to be a librarian and I love YA and younger books. Although right now I am dashing through Atlas Shrugged with nary a glance at another book.

I recently read , , and . I'd rate them all 4 stars and up.

My favorite fantasy series, , is being transitioned to YA this month--they are putting new covers on the first 2 books for youth appeal, and if those go over well they will release the 3rd book too.

Everyone I know is raving about , so that's on my nightstand right now. And I just joined The YA Book Club (I also have a face-to-face local group called YA Book Council) so I will be reading a lot of John Green this month if I can bear to put the Ayn Rand down for a moment! I will also be leading the group discussions for next month.

I have a while more before I can read , though I do have the book! I promised to read so many others, it may be Spring before I can start on Gemma Doyle.

Kathy, you'll enjoy the Indian book. That's so interesting about Richard Peck, and I haven't heard of that book! I'll have to check it out since I agree with you about book censorship, thanks!

I really like YA books! I am 20, and I really like to read them. The plots are simple and relaxing. I am currently in love with the Private series by Kate Brian. Once you start, you just can't stop!

Has anyone read The Bartimaeus Trilogy? They were recommended by a client of mine that said "If you loved Harry Potter, you'll love these!" I'm so glad this topic was posted! I'm so psyched to look up the authors/titles that you guys have gushed about!

i love to read YA/children's books.
especially ones that i loved growing up.
some of my favorites:
roald dahl- everything is fantastic
shel silverstein- again, everything is fantastic
harry potter- of course
charlie bone series by jenny nimmo- it's about a boy wizard too, but it's so different from harry potter
nancy drew series
madeline l'engle- my absolute favorite is many waters
john bellairs- he has quite a few series that are very good
his dark materials
chronicles of narnia

JG,

Photocopying the entire book would probably cost you more in paper and ink, even if you did it at home, than a second hand copy would cost from Amazon or any other online retailer.

So, I guess your co-worker didn't use his own resources?

The problem is that photocopying isn't much more trouble than scanning, and once a paper book is scanned, any kind of distribution/sharing/copying becomes unauthorized "publishing" and is piracy.

:-)

Well, JG,

One book can only be borrowed and lent so many times before it falls apart, or someone loses it in a TBR pile. However, if someone creates an e-book and sells/lends/shares that, hundreds or thousands of copies could be circulated, and the money for the one original book doesn't cover the loss of potential sales.

Most authors start off being offered between $1,000 to $5,000 for their debut novel. This is called the advance, and it is like a loan of the author's share of the profits that the book makes.

If the first book doesn't "sell through" which means sell enough copies for the loan to be paid off within a reasonable period of time, then that author may never sell a second book or third, and may go out of business.

Even $5,000 doesn't go very far when you consider the cost of paper, a computer, a printer, toner, advertisements, bookmarks, running a website, phone-calls, copyright registration, and all the other things an author has to pay for.... and taxes, too.

That's why scanning is bad. Photocopying... isn't so bad, because it's not cost-effective for the person doing the copying and Kinkos and Libraries etc discourage it being done on their machines,

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry

Tara, I have the Bartimaeus Trilogy waiting to be read. I have it on good authority from some young readers that these books are great.

To all those of you who are reading or are going to read The Book Thief, it is a fantastic book. I
would be interested to find out what you think of it. It is my favorite book of all-time.

Thanx Kathy-I plan on scouring the YA section of my local used bookshop tomorrow!

I think the book he photocopied on the company copier was out of print. And this was several years ago, so I don't know that ebay or amazon was really an option at that point.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy...I mostly loved it. And that's all I'll say for fear of giving anything away.

Is there a way I can be sure it is a YA book? Besides Dahl books(which I didn't read, yet) I am not sure which ones they are. I kind a skip this part always and not because i don't want to read them.