Day 5: Young Adult Book Recommendations

Thursday, May 29, 2014

The Young Adult has always been a great genre to me, I have always read and loved it! I started with books like The Secret Garden, A Wrinkle in Time, The Harry Potter series, The Hobbit... and loved all the coming-of-age themes that come with it.
The YA genre nowadays have definitely boomed, and I think that whatever gets people to read more is a good thing! I do think though that the YA genre sometimes isn't for everyone, but I believe there's some specific titles that everyone will enjoy, love, and appreciate! Here are usually the books I recommend for all ages, whether you do typically read YA or you don't at all.

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  • The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
    - narrated by Death, this is set in World War II about a girl who loved words. Beautiful and poignant book with wonderful writing and unique style! One of my all time favorite books. I will always recommend this book.
  • Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
    - Great science fiction with a young adult character. Do not judge the book by its movie. This book is a classic!
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
    - Another classic that must be read. The original dystopian book, I think!
  • Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
    - Beautifully told and painfully accurate story of a teenage girl suffering through self-esteem and self-image issues as well as an eating disorder.
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
    - Heartfelt coming-of-age story. I read it in high school. Liked it. Reread it in college. Loved it. Saw the movie adaptation, fell in love even more. It's not a perfect book, but it's a must read!
  • The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - about a Native American boy who goes to an all white school. This is quite a profound, heartwarming and realistic story. 
Those are just some of the fool proof YA recommendations that I think everybody of all ages and tastes would appreciate! What are in some of your immediate YA recs list? 

13 comments:

  1. Loved Perks and The Book Thief! I haven't read the others.

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  2. Several of these are on my tbr but have not read them yet

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  3. I wanted to read Ender's Game. I saw the movie and thought it was great. Another book I've been wanting to read is The Book Thief.

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  4. I recently met someone who hadn't read the Giver and I wanted to run to the library and shove it in their hands. Come on, it's Giver!

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  5. I loved The Book Thief too, especially that it was narrated by Death. I love horror and certainly war is horrific. Great selections.

    My first YA read was Twilight, but way after it was published. Actually after I had purchased and watched all of the DVDs.

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  6. Great suggestions here! I always promote Ender's Game as I think even non-readers like it.

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  7. Excellent choices. Really need to read Alexie's novel!

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  8. Somehow my stupid brain never connected books like the Harry Potter series or The Hobbit with YA because I thought it all had to be about teenage romance. It wasn't until later I understood that the YA refers to the audience it is written for rather than its own characters. Sometimes I don't know where my brain is... I do really want to read Ender's Game, because so many people have been telling me it is amazing! Thanks for your post :)
    Juli @ Universe in Words

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  9. Thanks for sharing. I featured some more unknown (at least it seems to me) recommendations for my Armchair BEA Day 5

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  10. Great picks! I've read four of six. You definitely can't go wrong with The Book Thief and Perks of Being a Wallflower. I finally read Ender's Game this year with a book group, and the whole group really seemed to enjoy it.

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  11. I've loved all of these books (well haven't read Ender's Game but enjoyed the movie!). Great suggestions!

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  12. Thanks for the recommendations! I love YA, but it's so hard sometimes to filter the gems (The Hunger Games, Divergent) from the I-cannot-believe-someone-published-this junk (The Uglies)

    I have already read The Book Thief and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (awesome read), and Ender's game is on my list, as is The Maze Runner – have you read it?

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  13. Those look like fantastic recs. You're the 3rd or 4th person that has recommended Part Time Indian. I'll have to add it to my to-read pile.

    AH@badassbookreviews

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