What We Are Reading: Juvenile & Young Adult

For the kids at heart, here is the place to share your juvenile and young adult reading.

I will probably be posting a lot here since these books are about all I can manage along with textbooks!

Thanks for setting this up Jim.

I'm currently reading a lot of books by Joan Bauer. I'm almost finished with Best Foot Forward. The topic of children of alcoholics is dealt with in a no nonsense very insightful way!

I'm reading Michael Ende's The Night of Wishes currently. I'm planning on reading a lot of classic 20th century children's literature through the year, catching up on all the books I never read when I was much younger.

Started today on Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, first in a series of 4 books and a Newberry Honor book from 1997.

I'm reading Anna and the French Kiss and I just can't put it down. It's fluffy, but so delicious.

I just started Danger Along the Ohio by Patricia Willis, a historical book set on the frontier in 1793. It's good so far.

I'm about to dive into Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.

Anna and the French Kiss keeps getting mentioned everywhere, I'm going to have to read it, I like light and fluffy from time to time especially when it's set somewhere interesting.

>5 RBeffa: I just finished book 2 and 3 in that series this week and am starting book 4 today. Enjoy!

I finished both The Thief and The Queen of Attolia. very different from each other. Prefer the first

I'm on book 3 of the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter. While certainly no Rick Riordan, they certainly are a fun, quick read!

I'm almost finished with The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I'm listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban

I am currently reading one of Linda's recommendations, Jumping the Scratch.

#13 - I'm really really considering picking up Harry Potter again. I think its been about a year and a half since I read them. . .

> 15
I had only read the very first one when it came out and had only seen the movies based on the other books, so, I started with the first one again and have been listening to them on audio books when I am driving or doing my housework. Fun!

Oh I *love* the audio version of Harry Potter! So amazing!

I finally got my kids to start reading Harry Potter last year. One of them is on book 4 and the other is reading book 3 at the moment. The best part was when they discovered something in the book that wasn't in the movie, they were very excited by this.

Adrienne - That's so awesome! I cannot wait until my boys are old enough to read them Harry Potter!

Is anyone else doing YALSA's hub challenge? I'm a high school librarian but just started working in a middle school - a lot of the challenge books are too high a level for middle school but I can't give them up. I read Love and Other Perishable Items last year in December, and then this year I've read Wonder Show (which was amazing), Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different, and Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. I also listened to We've Got a Job on audiobook because that's the only format my library had it in. And now I'm working on After the Snow and I just started Steve Sheinkin's Bomb.

Whew! That's a lot. But at least the challenge has got me reading!

For Christmas I got The Four Story Mistake - the second in the series! - so I bought The Saturdays for myself and have started that today.

I've read Shadow and Bone and Seraphina, both very good YA fantasies.

I've also been going through a streak of New York Review Children's Collection reads: Carbonel, the King of the Cats, The House of Arden, and now A Traveller in Time. Charlotte Sometimes is on at the top of the tbr pile, and The Rescuers has been ILL-ed. They're really a lot of fun.

I dropped by earlier, but didn't have anything to post. I've just started The Sisters Grimm; I suspect that the TV series is linked to this.

I LOVED the Sisters Grimm series. One of the few middle-grade books I couldn't find myself putting down. I eagerly hounded my public library when each new volume came out until they purchased it.

I just finished Julie's Wolf Pack and Team Human, both delightful books in entirely different ways.

Julie of the Wolves used to be my favorite book back in 3rd or 4th grade.

I just finished reading The Raven Boys, which was pretty much what I expected it to be.

I am just starting Insurgent by Veronica Roth. Looking forward to this one as I enjoyed Divergent a lot.

I probably read it a couple of months ago, but I just wrote a review, finally, of Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher for Amazon Vine, but I've cross posted it here.

I'm trudging my way through Princess Diaries; I'm currently on book 8 of 10. I'm enjoying the series itself, but I may very well murder Mia and the Moscovitzs slowly and painfully before it's over.

I'm currently reading The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis. It is outstanding.

Just started Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli--totally different, so far, than the other works of his which I've read, but wonderful nonetheless!

I finished Shadow and Bone which was excellent. I also finally got through Insurgent, which I thought was slowing moving through the first half.

I just finished Insurgent as well, and I didn't like this entry as well as the first. That said, it was still a four star read for me and as I am seriously invested in this series, I will be on the lookout for her next book.

#31, Milkweed was one of my top reads in 2011.

#34, and it will definitely be one of my top reads of 2013, no matter how many wonderful books I find!

Now, I'm about to start Green Witch by Alice Hoffman, which quite a few LT folks have recommended!

I am downsizing with the idea of moving sometime later this year and so am going through books. It is so hard to get rid of books!

I read these tonight before planning to release them.

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food by Stan and Jan Berenstain
Review is here

Bicycle Bear by Michaela Muntean
Review is here

I Don’t Want to Go by Justine Korman
Review is here

The Midsummer Banquet – Tales from Fern Hollow by John Patience
Review is here

Pigs in the House by Steven Kroll
Review is here

re-read another children's book:

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore
Review is here

I'm working on the Janie Quartet (Face on the Milk Carton). I started it ages, but am just getting around to finish it. I started Voice on the Radio last night.

Oops - forgot to mention last week that I read Anna and the French Kiss after many LT recommendations. I'm quite happy to add myself to the list of recommenders; it was great fun. I shall look out for the others in the series.

Back on Feb 19 I finished listening to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling and here is my review, such as it is.

http://www.librarything.com/work/2742161/reviews/89097190

In March I finished and reviewed:

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
http://www.librarything.com/work/29144/reviews/89096954

I also finished these books and reviews will follow:
The Cat's Pajamas
The Country Mouse and the City Mouse
The Jungle Book
Horton Hears a Who
My Christmas Treasury
The Owl and the Pussycat

Just finished Indigo by Alice Hoffman, which came highly recommended from a few LT readers... Much as I love Hoffman, I hadn't been thrilled with another of her YA works...but this was absolutely wonderful. I'm so glad I came back to her so quickly, and for this read especially!

I'm reading The Cloud hunters by Alex Shearer. I've loved everything I've read by him so far.

Now reading Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli...

Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

Painfully boring so far. I'm on page 110 (or so) and it still hasn't really picked up. How you make both a murder and a fire boring is beyond me.

I just finished Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz and I found it to be quite bizarre and not at all what I expected. Still not sure what I think of it. Has anyone else read it?

I've seen the movie ANNE OF GREEN GABLES on public television, and loved the story and the actors. Now, i'm finally getting around to reading the book by L. M. Montgomery.

I finished Because of Winn-Dixie earlier this week. I had seen the movie several times, but this was my first experience with the book.

>48 OldDan:, I'd never read Anne of Green Gables until last month, and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully you will too.

I'm currently reading Code Name Verity in which the plot bounces between a Gestapo prison in France and the story of the captive's best friend (who happens to have been the pilot who dropped her off on the continent). Nothing good is going to happen to either of them, but the writing's so compelling, I can't put it down.

Last week I read The Exploits of Moominpappa, one of Tove Jansson's delightful Moomin books. In this one Moomin's father is writing his (slightly embellished) memoirs, and reading them aloud to Moomin and his friends chapter by chapter.

I just finished Code Name Verity and am glad to have been pushed by wanting to find shared reads on TIOLI, and spread my reading between challenges, to pick this up (I bought it in a Kindle bargain sale more than a year ago). I initially found it tough to get into, and then somehow it caught my attention. So sad, though. Goodreads indicates another forthcoming book - I'm a bit puzzled that it suggests a series, but will definitely look out for it.

>52 elkiedee:, Judging from the author's website, Rose under Fire will be a companion novel set in Ravensbrück, not a direct sequel.

I finished Code Name Verity last night and it was heart-wrenching, but amazing. I'm not sure what qualified it for an Agatha, as it's not a mystery in any traditional sense, but more of a World War II Nazi captivity thriller turned on its head. Any way you look at it though, it's totally worth reading.

#49 Because of Winn-Dixie is one of my all-time favorites!!

Out of the many books I've read lately, two series that are still on my mind are The Lux series by Jennifer L. Armentrout and the Existence series by Abbi Glines. These would be older middle school/high school series.

I'm also diving in to Clockwork Princess to finish that series. :)

Oops - forgot to update.

I've read Two Little Trains by Margaret Wise Brown (with my four year old), Tortall and Other Lands by Tamora Pierce (a collection of short stories), Graceling by Kristin Cashore (though we're divided on whether it's YA or not) and Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Good ones.

I just started Code Name Verity last night as a part of YALSA's Hub challenge. Glad to see people liked it - I found the first chapter hard to get into but will push through and see what happens.

I just started the Newberry Award winner, Rules by Cynthia Lord. I am reading this in honor of April Autism Awareness.

57: I found Code Name Verity hard to get into initially but worth the effort.

I highly recommend Please Ignore Vera Dietz. What a wonderful, thought provoking book this is.

My review is

I finished Please Ignore Vera Dietz. It is a wonderful book. I highly recommend this one!!


Judy, I very much liked Rules!

I'm enjoying the audio of Dead End in Norvelt narrated by the author. ALso on the go is a YA historical novel set during the Spanish Civil War, A World between us by Lydia Syson.

I really enjoyed Dead End In Norvelt. It led me on the road to read more of his books.

I've added a World Between Us to the tbr pile.

Here are the rest of my March reviews:

The Cat's Pajamas
http://www.librarything.com/work/29144/reviews/89096954

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse
http://www.librarything.com/work/1858318/reviews/91870973

The Jungle Book
http://www.librarything.com/work/2945549/reviews/94597451

Horton Hears a Who
http://www.librarything.com/work/22979/reviews/89095549

My Christmas Treasury
http://www.librarything.com/work/1662044/reviews/94429191

The Owl and the Pussycat
http://www.librarything.com/work/12783429/reviews/91870897

Catalyst
http://www.librarything.com/work/8531094/reviews/89216555

I'm currently reading I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan. Thus far, very good!

I've started Poison Study (with the view to reading the series, since I inadvertently bought Sea Glass, which is the second book in the following series). I've borrowed it as an e-book from the library, and plan to read it when we go away for the weekend - but it's quite addictive.

I'm starting tonight Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery, the second book in this series.

>67 OldDan:: *happy sigh*

I finished I'll Be There and have mixed feelings about it. It started out so well and ended in a fizzle.

I really enjoyed A World between us by Lydia Syson. It was one of two YA books I picked up when browsing in Foyles Bookshop in London (their smaller SouthBank branch), otherwise I might never have come across this great debut novel.

I've just started three children's books - The Last Minute by Eleanor Updale which follows various members of the public in their last minute before an explosion in their High Street.
Grimbold's Other World by Nicholas Stuart Gray which is an older magical story from the 1960s.
Also a junior fiction by Vince Ford about a sheepdog puppy, Scrap, who learns in chapter one that he is a dog not a chicken or a human, quite cute so far.

I've just added Elizabeth Knox's next book to my wishlist and library requests, it comes out in June - Mortal Fire. Can't wait.
Has anyone read her Dreamhunter books, I loved those.

I'm about halfway through The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh - concerning a boy roaming through the New York underworld with a ghost guide named Euri looking for his mother who died in an accident some years before. Pretty good so far!

Ribbajack for me, right now. It's a good book for kids who want "scary" more serious than Goosebumps, but don't have the backbone for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

I recently finished Things I Can't Forget, by Miranda Kenneally. It's her third YA romance, and so far I've enjoyed all of them.

I broke down and started Quintana of Charyn, the third book in the Lumatere series by Melina Marchetta. (I was going to wait 'til this weekend when I really had time, but instead I think I'm going to be staying up late the tonight & tomorrow to gobble it up...)

Catching up on this thread is dangerous for my wish list!

Going to start Lisel & Po this weekend based on the reviews I've read in this group!

I've read Among Others, Here, There Be Dragons and Princess Ben this month.

Thanks Kerry for leading me to find A World Apart - I'm sorry I didn't know you were visiting London recently. I saw it when you listed it on TIOLI and looked it up, and had to read a Spanish Civil War story - it was a great read and I just need my own copy now (borrowed it from the library). She sounds really interesting from her website etc too.

I've put The Iron Thorn on hold for a bit and now I'm reading The Grand Tour; or The Purloined Coronation Regalia by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer.

A book on the library shelves in the YA section caught my attention. I highly recommend the Printz award winning book Stuck in Neutral. by Terry Trueman.

#77: Lucy - A world between us was good wasn't it. I was in London for a few days back in February and staying with my daughter, Yasmin, in Tufnell Park. As I was travelling with my son, Yaron, and he had lots of places he wanted to see it didn't seem worth trying for any meetups. My daughter took a couple of days off work and came with us as well. We got to a couple of events at Jewish Book Week - Naomi Alderman and Austin Ratner and I had a couple of hours to myself in Bloomsbury on our last day when Yaron went back to the British Museum.

Syson's book has been shortlisted for a number of awards, so we're not the only ones to think it's a good read. I thought it was right up with The Freedom Tree and can't wait to see what her next book will be like. I've been reading more of James Watson's books, he no longer has a publisher. He's got most of his backlist available on Amazon kindle and I downloaded a few favourites. I got my library to get one of his latest books, Fair Game: the Steps of Odessa and was surprised to see it was a self-published 'print on demand' edition.

I read Magic Study, which is the sequel to Poison Study.

While they were both in the YA section of the library, and the first book certainly qualifies as YA, the second might not. In both of them, the villain is an evil magician who builds power through torture and rape. In the first book, it is mentioned, but not in detail. In the second book, while there are still not a lot of details, it is a bigger part of the story.

Today I finished Jimmy the Kid by Donald Westlake which was just what I expected it to be. Fun, Fun, Fun!
My short review is here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/337513/reviews/89137907

And earlier this week I completed two children's books (photographs):

Animals Say Wacky Things: Forget the Chocolate...I Want Bacon! (Share a Laugh Books) (Animals Like Us)… by James Mayrose
review is here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/14046904/reviews

Animals Pray Too: Dear God… Twenty-six Caught-on-Camera Prayers for Children (To Inspire and Make Them Smile)… by James Mayrose
review here:
http://www.librarything.com/work/14046925/reviews

I've just read Over Sea, Under Stone the first in The Dark is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper.

I finished a YA thriller The Hit by Melvin Burgess and have started The Center of Everything by Linda Urban which is set in a town named after the man who put the hole into the doughnut.

I'm currently reading a Texas legend, The Original Adventures of Hank the Cowdog, the first in a series about the hardest working "Head of Ranch Security" in the Panhandle, his lazy sidekick Drover, his archenemy Pete the Barncat, and a bunch of stinking coyotes.

I'm currently on The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier, which I'm enjoying. I've finished several other YA / juvenile books : The Dark is Rising, which is the second in the sequence - highly recommended, and Newbery nominated; A Spy in the House by Y. S. Lee (an LT recommendation), with some interesting period details.

80: Kerry, I've only just seen your post. I saw Lydia Syson speak at the Wood Green Literature Festival the other day, along with Catherine Johnson who also writes historical novels set in London, eg Sawbones (which I definitely want to buy/read). Both of them were fascinating to listen to. I would have bought her books if I'd had the cash on me but I didn't, and we were a few minutes walk to the high street so not quite time to run to the cash till. So I've bought the second book on Kindle.

Sawbones looks like a good read, I'll have to check that one out. I think Lydia Syson would be interesting to listen too as well.
I've just finished Rose under fire and have been underwhelmed especially as Code Name Verity was so good. It's mainly set in Ravensbruck concentration camp but the main character was just too implausible.

Currently reading Countdown by Deborah Wiles, The Ship that Flew by Hilda Lewis and listening to Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley.
Countdown is about a young US girl growing up under the shadow of the Cold War and starts with one of those futile atomic bomb 'hide like a tortoise' drills.
The ship that flew is an older book about a boy that buys a model ship with magical powers
I enjoy reading Chris Priestley who deals in light horror or gothic and his latest two books sound really interesting, one is based on The Ancient Mariner, The dead men stood together and the other Through dead eyes is set in Amsterdam, but I've had Mister Creecher on my tbr list for so long I thought I should tackle that first. It's a 'sort of' Frankenstein-golem type of story.

Also finished of late; The Goats by Brock Cole, Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff, Black Friday by Robert Muchamore, The children of the king by Sonya Hartnett and Sweet Clarinet by James Riordan.