Wednesday 25 June 2014

19 Truly Brilliant Young Adult Book You Can Enjoy at any Age

Whether or not adults should read YA has been in the news quite a bit this month. Ruth Graham really set the cat amongst the pigeons on June 5 in an article at Slate when she loudly proclaimed "Read whatever you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you're reading was written for children."

Well, didn't that create a ruckus? Pretty much everyone has weighed in, from the Washington Post and CNN down.

It's the "should" (Slate's italics, not mine) here that vexes me most. It implies that someone else's hierarchy of taste and personal experience takes precedent over your own, when in reality, letting go of that is one of the great spoils of achieving adulthood.

Exactly. We adults are free to read whatever we like, whatever interests us, and whatever brings us joy. Flavorwire reminds us that "The books worth reading are out there, and they're numerous, trust me -genre be dammed."

I can never go past a good list it seems. And every list makes my TBR grow. On to the list, an Aussie heavy YA list from Buzzfeed.


1. On the Jellicoe Road - Melina Marchetta

2. Wildlife - Fiona Wood



3. Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein

4. Amy & Roger's Epic Detour - Morgan Matson

5. Everybody Sees the Ants - A.S. King

6. Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell

7. Girl Defective - Simmone Howell

8. Jasper Jones - Craig Silvey

9. We Were Liars - E. Lockhart

10. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

11. All the Truth that's in Me - Julie Berry

12. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith

13. The Diviners - Libba Bray

14. Will Grayson, Will Grayson - John Green and David Levithan

15. The Knife of Never Letting Go - Patrick Ness



16. This is Not a Test - Courtney Summers

17. Graffiti Moon - Cath Crowley (see my review)

18. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

19. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen


4/19.

Well that's a particularly dismal result. I've meant to read quite a few of the others for what it's worth. As always there's a few I've never heard of. There are lots of great books out there- we should read them.

3 comments:

skiourophile said...

I actually didn't realise Code Name Verity was YA until I was reading reviews after I'd read it. It is such a blurry category. I am re-reading Nancy Drew at the moment and have no shame in admitting that. I can read the heavy stuff, but surely the pleasure of reading is reading exactly what you want when you want? It's like the debate re real books vs. e-books: nothing is simply right or wrong - there are nuances in every approach to a text in every format.

Louise said...

YA is a totally blurry category. I've never understood why a book about teenagers, must be a book for teenagers? I see absolutely no point in getting upset about someone else's reading choices. I haven't read Nancy Drew since I was a kid, I will be reading it at some stage (the first one is a 1001 book), I am bit worried about it- how I'll find it. Though I did reread a Hardy Boys and found it quaint and nostalgic.

Susan said...

Well, I've read 5 of them. Did Jane Austen know she was writing YA?