Young Adult Books

I started a thread about Children's Books (Children's Books | The TFP) to look for recommendations for BabySquirrel. Now I want to know about Young Adult books that you would recommend.

BabySquirrel isn't quite ready for this genre, but a Japanese woman who is staying with me and working on her English told me she read The Giver and that's about as much as she can understand now. While looking for some books to suggest that she reads, I thought I'd ask you bibliophiles what you suggest.

She has read Harry Potter in Japanese, but would like to read it in English. I am letting her have free reign of my bookshelf, but I don't think she would like most of what is there. (I still have quite a bit of literature on the shelf that was influenced by my "am I or am I not a lesbian" phase of college. Decided upon not labeling myself and going with the flow. That may or may not have lead to the trashy chick-lit phase. But anyhoo...)

I have taken to amazon to purchase some of my favorite YA books to build a library for BabySquirrel for when she is ready for that stage in her life. I don't have a lot of the books from my childhood anymore, so I am rebuilding. I am looking for Roald Dahl books and I LOVED "The Book Thief". She will need "Little House on the Prairie" books. Any more suggestions?

Don't worry about the YA Lit Shame: The YA Lit Shame | The TFP

 

The Wheel of Time series was great. The Phantom Tollbooth, almost every Judy Blume (heh, oh the nostalgia!), Franny and Zooey, and The Outsiders... Man, those were the days.

 

Hmmm. The Wrinkle In Time books, by Madeleine l'Engle.
The Dark Is Rising sequence, by Susan Cooper.
The Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander (although those Welsh names would give a Japanese ESL reader the hissy fits).
The Hobbit, of course.
LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy (the original three-- the ones she came back and wrote way later suck).
Harry Potter, of course.
The Hunger Games trilogy.
Goldman's The Princess Bride.
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy-- gorgeously written, though the denouement is a bit anti-theistic for my tastes.
London's Call of the Wild.
The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley.
Louis Sachar's Holes.
Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth.
The Chosen, by Chaim Potok.
Stuff by Roald Dahl, I guess, though he is just fucking weird, and seems to only get creepier as I get older.
The All-0f-a-Kind Family books, by Sydney Taylor.
The Riddle-Master trilogy by Patricia McKillip.
Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman.
Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall trilogy, and maybe the original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy as well.
Black Beauty, by Anna Seawell.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor.
White's The Once And Future King.
EB White's Charlotte's Web.
E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Baum's Oz books, which get progressively weirder as you go, IMO.
The Lemony Snicket books, which are cleverer than one tends to think.
Sue Townsend's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4, and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole; these first two books were absolutely wonderful, the rest of the Adrian Mole series really not so much.

I'll try to think of more later....

 

Oh @levite fun list

I told her about the Lemony Snicket books!!! I loved those. Hated the movie.

 

I think I've already suggested some of these via text, but regardless:

• The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi
• Hatchet, Gary Paulson
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Spear
• The Wayside School books, Louis Sacher
• Lisa's War, Carol Mates
• Maniac Magee, Jerry Spinelli
• Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt
• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien
• Redwall series, Brian Jacques
• Song of the Lioness series, Tamora Pierce
• The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
• The Ordinary Princess, M.M. Kaye
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
• Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
• Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson
• Where the Red Fern Grows, Wison Rawls (major tears warning on this one and Bridge.)
• The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Beverly Cleary
• Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan
• The Trumpet of the Swan, E.B. White
• Remember Me to Harold Square, Paula Danziger

And I feel like I'd be remiss not to mention L.J. Smith, R.L. Stine, Caroline B. Cooney, and Christopher Pike, along with Sweet Valley Twins, the Baby-Sitters Club, Pen Pals, Girl Talk, and Sleepover Friends. Not especially notable, but easy reads, and I read a LOT of them from 9-14ish.

 

I created this post before thinking, "I should just text @CinnamonGirl."

I forgot all about Maniac Magee until I read this list. It was one of my FAVORITE books.