Children's and Young Adult Novels

[Miss Chicken]

I am a member of LibraryThing and one of the groups I belong to over there is "75 Book Challenge for 2012". In my thread in that group I have been recording the books I have read this year.

This morning I realised that someone else had posted a comment on the thread saying

'looking through some of the other threads on here there seem to be several slightly dubious ways to inflate your books read total'

He was referring to the fact that I had novels in my list that were aimed at children/YA


my list included

Catching Fire
Mockingjay
The Takers (Oz Chromicles) (no age given, the hero is 13 year old boy )
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (13 years and up)
Into the Wild (Warriors book 1) grade 5 and up. The Warriors in this series are all cats.

So I am asking people here -

1) Do you read children/YA novels
2) Do you/would you include them in your reading list
3) Do you have any recommendations for me?

 

[Professor Zoom]

So I am asking people here -

1) Do you read children/YA novels
2) Do you/would you include them in your reading list
3) Do you have any recommendations for me?

1. From time to time...
2. I don't make reading lists per se, but I would include them. Why not? Would that guy who made the comment not include Harry Potter? They are novels, regardless of age of the intended readership.
3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman... it's been a fun read.

 

[cardinal biggles]

1. Yes. I'm a librarian in a small public library, and while I'm officially on the adult side of the library, I'm frequently being asked to not just find books for kids and teens, but also recommend books for them. Can't recommend 'em if you haven't read 'em (or at least read reviews of them).

2. I don't see what's wrong with including them on a reading list. At least the books you're reading were written by the actual author. If you had a list of James Patterson novels, I might accuse you of padding.

3. Miss Peregrine is on my to-read list, as is Mockingjay. I'm currently reading The Future of Us, by Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why) and Carolyn Mackler (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things). Really cool concept about two teenagers in 1996 who get an AOL CD in the mail, fire it up, and discover Facebook, showing them what they'll be like in 20 years.

 

[Lonemagpie]

So I am asking people here -

1) Do you read children/YA novels
2) Do you/would you include them in your reading list
3) Do you have any recommendations for me?

1) Rarely, but it's not unknown, and of course some books I read when I was a kid have stuck with me

2) Yes

3) Harry Potter obviously...

 

[Hunter X]

1. Yup. I am right now actually, as a little breather between the heavier school books. I also find that YA novels have some of the best stories. The book is called Gathering Blue. It's a companion novel to The Giver. So far it's enjoyable. My wife read it before me and liked it too.

2. Yup.

3. The Giver, Redwall, Holes, any YA novel by Madeline L'Engle (both Chronos and Kairos series), any YA Lloyd Alexander novel (the Prydain Chronicles being his most well known), The Indian in the Cupboard series, The Great Brain series...I suppose I'm not up on current stuff aside from The Hunger Games.

 

[auntiehill]

I don't usually read young adult novels, but occasionally someone will give me one---either a friend or my nephew.

The ones I would truly recommend are:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Absolutely wonderful. It's dark yet charming, foreboding yet friendly. It's one of those rare books where I had to force myself to not read it all in one go; that way, I would still have a little bit left to look forward to.
The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. I didn't even know this WAS for young adults or teens. It could just as well be for a general audience. If you haven't read it----DO! It's one of the most brilliant first-person novels I have ever read. It's the story told by a teenager who is autistic. His neighbor's poodle is mysteriously killed and he sets off to discover what happened. This character's perspective of the world is both unique and fascinating.

 

[The Lensman]

1) Do you read children/YA novels

Sorta. Around October, if I remember, I re-read "The House With A Clock In It's Walls" and "The Figure In The Shadows". Both books are by John Bellairs and are part of a series.

2) Do you/would you include them in your reading list

I'm guessing this is a list of books currently being read? Sadly, I don't read anywhere near like I used to.

3) Do you have any recommendations for me?

Yes, the aforementioned books. Written in the 70's, they're the proto-Harry Potter except on a much smaller scale. They deal in "everyday" magic....as in regular items with some sort of basic enchantment. It has a pretty small cast that lives in a small New England town. Lewis, the main character, has been taken in by his kindly Uncle after his parents are killed in an accident.

The uncle is that cool uncle archetype who's laid back, lives in a Victorian mansion with a crapload of rooms (and the occasional hidden room) and he lives next door to a kindly witch. IMO, perfect books for autumn and especially October.

The first book has illustrations by Edward Gorey

There's more than just the two books in the series, but I've never felt the urge to go farther than these two. Mainly because I didn't realize there were more than the two books until I was close to 30, about 15 years ago. These two books are a fondly remembered childhood thing.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Apart from Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which I would recommend wholeheartedly, I've read the "Deepwater" trilogy by Ken Catran as an adult. I felt that the issues explored in the Deepwater novels would have more impact and relevance to a teenager than to a somewhat cynical and jaded adult such as me. I didn't know that "The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time" was intended as a novel for young adults. It won the Whitbread Book of the Year in 2003 and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in 2004, so I assumed it was intended for a general audience. It has subsequently been criticised as giving an inaccurate depiction of autism.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Oh, I'll chuck in a quick recommendation for China Meiville's YA effort, UnLunDun, which has kind of a similar vibe to bits of Kraken, but with less gore and swearing. (So similar, in fact, that I actually suspect Kraken was orginally started as a sequel, but that he decided to stop trying to make it a YA novel about fifty pages in and went with the flow)

Oh, and maybe Skulduggery Pleasant as well

 

[Deckerd]

Nope, don't read them. I do however buy them for young adults. Since nobody's recommended them yet, may I suggest Carl Hiaasen's books for young people. He's lots of fun. Flush, Scat and Hoot are 3 that come to mind. They were well received anyway.

 

[ladyheather69]

Yes, I read them. I enjoy most of them as well.
I don't usually make lists of books to read since it would be about a mile long
I would recommend a YA novel, kinda 'fluffy' but it was written by my sister-in-law. I know you can find it on kindle and the like, and definitely on line on Amazon. It's called "The Sweetest Thing" by Christina Mandelski. (it is definitely a read for girls more than boys)

 

[Miss Chicken]

I found an article by Joel Stein about an hour ago and I don't think I could disagree more

The only thing more embarrassing than catching a guy on the plane looking at pornography on his computer is seeing a guy on the plane reading “The Hunger Games.” Or a Twilight book. Or Harry Potter. The only time I’m O.K. with an adult holding a children’s book is if he’s moving his mouth as he reads.

I’m sure all those books are well written. So is “Horton Hatches the Egg.” But Horton doesn’t have the depth of language and character as literature written for people who have stopped physically growing.

I appreciate that adults occasionally watch Pixar movies or play video games. That’s fine. Those media don’t require much of your brains. Books are one of our few chances to learn. There’s a reason my teachers didn’t assign me to go home and play three hours of Donkey Kong.


I have no idea what “The Hunger Games” is like. Maybe there are complicated shades of good and evil in each character. Maybe there are Pynchonesque turns of phrase. Maybe it delves into issues of identity, self-justification and anomie that would make David Foster Wallace proud. I don’t know because it’s a book for kids. I’ll read “The Hunger Games” when I finish the previous 3,000 years of fiction written for adults.

est of article here

Reading the comments I see that many people disagree with him.

I usually read YA for entertainment especially when I am not well. Before I started to read YA I used to cosy mysteries when I was in bed sick especially the Cat Who books and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books. I don't think I learnt anything more from the Cat Who books than I did from any YA book.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Well, I can understand people feeling somewhat uncomfortable, and that's why they did make adult versions of the HP books with different more serious looking covers, but yeah. In general, I don't agree with it either. I think in certain respects, YA can be just as good, if not better than adult novels, so there really isn't anything to be ashamed of.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I found an article by Joel Stein about an hour ago and I don't think I could disagree more

The only thing more embarrassing than catching a guy on the plane looking at pornography on his computer is seeing a guy on the plane reading “The Hunger Games.” Or a Twilight book. Or Harry Potter. The only time I’m O.K. with an adult holding a children’s book is if he’s moving his mouth as he reads.

I’m sure all those books are well written. So is “Horton Hatches the Egg.” But Horton doesn’t have the depth of language and character as literature written for people who have stopped physically growing.

I appreciate that adults occasionally watch Pixar movies or play video games. That’s fine. Those media don’t require much of your brains. Books are one of our few chances to learn. There’s a reason my teachers didn’t assign me to go home and play three hours of Donkey Kong.


I have no idea what “The Hunger Games” is like. Maybe there are complicated shades of good and evil in each character. Maybe there are Pynchonesque turns of phrase. Maybe it delves into issues of identity, self-justification and anomie that would make David Foster Wallace proud. I don’t know because it’s a book for kids. I’ll read “The Hunger Games” when I finish the previous 3,000 years of fiction written for adults.

est of article here

Reading the comments I see that many people disagree with him.

I usually read YA for entertainment especially when I am not well. Before I started to read YA I used to cosy mysteries when I was in bed sick especially the Cat Who books and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books. I don't think I learnt anything more from the Cat Who books than I did from any YA book.

He's a closed minded wilfully blind idiot, revelling in his ignorance and stupidity.

I know, cos I used to hold the same view - until I came to learn that (aside from the fact that a lot of novels we now consider adult were originally intended for older children - Tolkien springs to mind here) YA isn't actually an age thing, it's a *marketing genre*. The YA label is a fashion tag used by marketing departments, and you can't really tell until you read the individual book whether it's actually intended for older children, or was written as a straightforward adult novel that the publisher decided would generate the most sales in the format of a YA book.

He's 100% wrong on everything he says about videogames as well, as a casual glance at either player demographics (the average gamer is 30-something and AAA games are made with that in mind) or any reputable scientific study (yes, they teach and have medical applications).

 

[Miss Chicken]

I think that if they were written today publishers might very well put such classics as "To KIll a Mockingbird" "Catcher in the Rye" and "Oliver Twist" into the YA genre.

 

[StolenThunder]

I think you would enjoy Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo, Miss C.

 

[Deckerd]

I found an article by Joel Stein about an hour ago and I don't think I could disagree more

The only thing more embarrassing than catching a guy on the plane looking at pornography on his computer is seeing a guy on the plane reading “The Hunger Games.” Or a Twilight book. Or Harry Potter. The only time I’m O.K. with an adult holding a children’s book is if he’s moving his mouth as he reads.

I’m sure all those books are well written. So is “Horton Hatches the Egg.” But Horton doesn’t have the depth of language and character as literature written for people who have stopped physically growing.

I appreciate that adults occasionally watch Pixar movies or play video games. That’s fine. Those media don’t require much of your brains. Books are one of our few chances to learn. There’s a reason my teachers didn’t assign me to go home and play three hours of Donkey Kong.


I have no idea what “The Hunger Games” is like. Maybe there are complicated shades of good and evil in each character. Maybe there are Pynchonesque turns of phrase. Maybe it delves into issues of identity, self-justification and anomie that would make David Foster Wallace proud. I don’t know because it’s a book for kids. I’ll read “The Hunger Games” when I finish the previous 3,000 years of fiction written for adults.

He's a closed minded wilfully blind idiot, revelling in his ignorance and stupidity.

I know, cos I used to hold the same view - until I came to learn that (aside from the fact that a lot of novels we now consider adult were originally intended for older children - Tolkien springs to mind here) YA isn't actually an age thing, it's a *marketing genre*. The YA label is a fashion tag used by marketing departments, and you can't really tell until you read the individual book whether it's actually intended for older children, or was written as a straightforward adult novel that the publisher decided would generate the most sales in the format of a YA book.

He's 100% wrong on everything he says about videogames as well, as a casual glance at either player demographics (the average gamer is 30-something and AAA games are made with that in mind) or any reputable scientific study (yes, they teach and have medical applications).

I think your response is OTT. F'rinstance what he said about video games is incorrect but 100% wrong? Hardly, as your own statistics go on to prove.

He could have worded it better but I see where he's coming from. I think he sees the trend of adults to read books designed for teenagers is intellectual laziness. Grown-up books are too hard, I'll read my kids' books instead.

People should be left to read what they want to read. However nothing stirs up more passion than talking about one's favourite author and least favourite author. If they're discussing teenagers' books with that kind of passion then I'd say their horizons are pretty limited and yes, they're going to get the label of immaturity fired at them.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Apparently I've been incapable of saying anything right in any post on here in the past week...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Who the hell is Joel Stein? He sounds like he's a pretentious, elitist dick. Is it the same Joel Stein as this closet racist?

 

[Miss Chicken]

I think your response is OTT. F'rinstance what he said about video games is incorrect but 100% wrong? Hardly, as your own statistics go on to prove.

He could have worded it better but I see where he's coming from. I think he sees the trend of adults to read books designed for teenagers is intellectual laziness. Grown-up books are too hard, I'll read my kids' books instead.

People should be left to read what they want to read. However nothing stirs up more passion than talking about one's favourite author and least favourite author. If they're discussing teenagers' books with that kind of passion then I'd say their horizons are pretty limited and yes, they're going to get the label of immaturity fired at them.

But many YA books are on par intellectually with many adult books and it is a pity that Joel Stein is too ignorant of the genre to realise it.

I started reading Agatha Christie books when I was in grade 7. Between 14-15 years of age I read all of my mother's Jean Plaidy books. These sort of books were typical of the sort of books my mother read thoughout her life. I don't think I ever saw her reading a non-fiction book.

The concepts explored in The Hunger Games (especially in Mockingjay) are more complex and adult than anything you would find in an Agatha Christie novel. I have no doubt that some of the themes explored in The Hunger Games (the trauma of war and torture, and the effects of PTSD) fly staight over the heads of many young girls but they are still there and are themes that both teenagers and adults should explore. I have no problems with adults talking passionately about how Katniss was affected by PTSD because I believe that Mockingjay covered it extremely well.

Of all the adult readers I know who read YA novels there are none that restrict themselves to only to the YA genre. They simply included some YA books in their broader reading habits. To call someone lazy when they occasionally choose to read a YA book is wrongly judging them.

I know there are plenty of adults that read comics. I bought myself the Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Am I lazy because I enjoy these?