Just one book....

I am fairly new to the YA books....and have found myself loving them (along with chick lit). I often visit these posts to get good ideas for what books to read next, but feel that I may be missing some of the older (in the last couple of years or so) books that are great. I am far past the YA age....30 and a mom of three growing boys, but I love it......any sugg.?

Hmm...I don't know how you feel about fantasy but I love Annette Curtis Klause, her book on vampires is The Silver Kiss and she also does werewolves in Blood and Chocolate. If you're more into realistic fiction, I thought Life in the Fat Lane was amazing, and although this is a new author I can't help but recommend Sarah Dessen for realistic fiction, she does it flawlessly. I also love the "Alice" series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, the series start off when she's in 5th grade but goes on until she's in high school. She's actually still writing the series, the latest one came out yesterday, but she started writing them in the early 90s I think.

Thanks for the recommendations. I have added them to my "to read." I am new to YA too, but have come to appreciate the fact that they are easy to read, but still engaging. Thanks again.

what stories do you like to read?

I have just discovered the Twilight Series and am loving it......I have read a couple of Sarah Dessens novels, and am in love with Meg Cabot........would love to read anything similar..........or different..

I love everything that I've read by Scott Westerfeld thus far. The Ugliesseries was great, as was Peeps. I've only managed to read the first Midnightersbut am really looking forward to getting into the second one.

Cynthia Voight's series, perhaps? Starting w/ Dicey's Song?
Philip Pullmans Sally Lockhart series - great young Victorian detective/heroine.

Have you tried The Mortal Instruments series. City of Bones and City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare? City of Glass is due out next spring, so beware, the suspense!

Oh my...I am so so so excited to start exploring my new choices.....I think I may be addicted to YA, currently I am reading and almost done with Stargirl ....

Deedle dee: try using square brackets like this: instead of parenteses. It works - at least for titles. (Not so much for authors for some reason.)

Forgot that square brackets don't show up, even if you use just one. Anyway, trust me. They do work.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak

Just naming one I'd suggest Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes as many of the others I really like have already been mentioned.

Off the top of my head - Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.

I looked at your site and thought maybe John Christopher (something the boys could grow into also) or Tamora Pierce -- First Test and Page are the two I've read so far. I didn't like Blood and Chocolate I thought it was both too bloody and very unrealistic although I seem to be the minority opinion on it. Susan Cooper is really good too for some pre-Harry Potter English fantasy. I also couldn't get into The Book Thief which everyone else seems to be raving about.

Thank you all for the sugg., and keep them coming.....my wishlist on Bookmooch is increasing every day:) Some of the YA books are hard to find, but I will be patient, I have a HUGE TBR pile---and it is growing every day...just wish I had more time to read:)

Blood and Chocolate has been rec. by quite a few...........so has The Book Thief, I am willing to try them all out, just really tired of chick lit right now---not that I don't love it, but it all I have been reading for awhile......uh oh someone is crying in the backyard....more later

I can not possibly recommend enough times Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede and it's sequels. These are books that I have reread almost yearly since middle school, and still retain all of their charm and humor now that I'm an adult.

#16--Lorabear
Try your local public library! It should have many of these titles...

I can't say enough good things about Hurt Go Happy by Ginny Rorby and I also really liked both Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie and Notes From the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick.

What about Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson? It's a YA book but a great read for adults too.

I loved Speak, and am just about to start reading her book Prom. Thank you all for the great ideas....

I loved Robin McKinley Blue Sword, The Hero & the Crown and Deerskin

Second Speak, as well as Sarah Dessen's books, particularly Just Listen.

Other than that, definitely Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, a book I'm convinced everyone, teen and adult, should read at some point in their lives.

You are so right, Runa. Thirteen Reasons Why was amazing.

And don't forget The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton and her other books. Great books 30 years ago and still great now.

Copied from another thread: City of the Beasts, Kingdom of the Golden Dragon and Forest of the Pygmies by Isabel Allende. These adventures stories take kids around the world and have all the beautiful mysticism of Allende's adult literature.

I'm serious! Please try them!!!

I'll sing these books' praises until the day I die.

Also, try the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.

I wouldn't worry about being over 30 and reading YA material - I'm way way past that, and intend to read YA material forever!
I'm going to recommend William Nicholson's Windsinger trilogy, which is very inventive and quite different - fantasy and adventure rolled into one.
And you absolutely have to read everything by M.E. Kerr, Judy Blume, and Robert Cormier who helped to pioneer the YA genre.
Happy reading - enjoy all the wonderful new books that are going to come your way.

Gentlehands by M.E. Kerr

I'll add So B. It by Sarah Weeks. Really good for middle schoolers. And I love YA.

Another vote here for Stargirl... or Zusak's The Messenger

The China Garden by Liz Berry is one I don't see mentioned here yet.

Speak and Stargirl are great. The Book Thief is an amazing read, set during WWII and narrated by Death. Two newer ones that are topnotch are The Hunger Games and Graceling, the former an engrossing dystopia thriller, and the latter a well-written fantasy.

My Mother the Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow came out a couple of years ago and was excellent.

It's not about rah-rah pompom cheerleaders, but about the white women in New Orleans who would heckle the one black girl entering the white school as a result of integration.