Best Young Adult

PitcherBooks: YA, All Ages. 1974 Multiple Award Winner. Historical Fantasy. The 'Tam Lin' legend retold [human kidnapped by & kept by the faerie]. Set in 16th century Elizabethan England. Very well done.

PitcherBooks: YA, All Ages. 1958 Award Winner. Historical Fiction. Colonial Era, 1687 New England. 16 y/o orphan Katherine "Kit" Tyler leaves the relaxed and open Barbados islands to live with her aunt & uncle in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Superstitious Puritans immediately think her a witch for knowing how to swim. The strict and odd beliefs of the Puritans seem to continuously put Kit at risk for what would be non-issues for normal everyday peoples. A sometimes frightening culture clash. Excellent read!

PitcherBooks: YA, All Ages. 1983 Multiple Award Winner. Fantasy of wishes gone awry set in New England. Be careful how you state your wishes!

jain : Adult memoir.

PitcherBooks: YA, All Ages. 1861 NF Classic. One of those life-changing books! An autobiography and an American slavery exposé written by an escaped slave from the period. Not your typical overwrought melodramatic Victorian writing. Forget Uncle Tom's Cabin (which, btw, I like and respect). Not preachy. Not the self-pitying, poor me, whiny stuff from today. Not salacious but one gets the picture of a pretty young woman's lot. An honest, authentic, inspiring and amazing voice from the past. An excellent writer and an altogether admirable woman! You feel her joys, her pain, her loves, her hates. Her personality. Her life. You are there! And there but for the grace of God, you could have been her. Man, I wish I could have met this lady. An unsung hero! This book should be on every list of classics! Eminently readable and a compelling read. This is the kind of book that opens your eyes even when you didn't know they needed opening. I recommend this book to people of all races, creeds, colors, national origins, ancestry. To anyone who has ever felt sorry for themselves. To anyone who has ever struggled. To anyone who has ever followed their hopes. Her voice reaches out from the past and grabs your attention. You will never again take for granted the amazing opportunities that freedom gives us! More info at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Jacobs ... Free e-book at Gutenberg.org ... BTW, slavery still exists today.

jain : Adult fiction.

aspirit : Not YA

jain : Adult fiction.

PitcherBooks: YA, All Ages. 1983, Fantasy, Humor. The first of Pratchett's amazing & funny Discworld Series. One of the few authors I've found who's been able to maintain a quality (& lengthy) book series due to his excellent writing & top-notch humor. A good number of the books are award-winners. Series best read in order. You read one, you'll want to read them all. And you won't be disappointed!

pwaites : Not young adult (crosses age boundaries, but is primarily aimed at adults)

jain : Adult fiction.

jain : Adult fiction.

jain : Adult fiction.

jain : Adult fiction.

aspirit : Taught in high schools, but it isn't YA

jain : Adult fiction.

sturlington: Yes, I did read this as a young adult and it became a lifetime favorite.

jain : Adult fiction.

aspirit : Not YA

jain : Adult fiction, as well as vastly inferior to the short story.

merrystar : Read the short story instead

sturlington : Better for younger children.

jain : Adult fiction.

PitcherBooks: YA, All Ages. Multiple Award Winner. 1959, Historical Fiction, Domestic Fiction. A missionary moves his family from Georgia, USA to the small rural village of Kilanga, Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River. An altogether interesting book about a well-meaning but pretty clueless fundamentalist missionary in the 1950s Congo with his wife and four daughters who adapt much better than he to the realities of this new world. As the girls grow, age, & mature, they are able to interact with local people on a more human and realistic level than any of the white adults. A keeper to read more than once. ... Dystopias are a popular theme in YA lit today. This fits right in - just a bit more realism in highly readable literature.

sturlington : Adult novel

jain : Adult fiction.

PitcherBooks: JF, YA, All Ages. Politically Correct Kids Versions Available. Swift's Masterpiece. 1726 BritLit Fantasy Adventure Satire Classic. The original adult edition contains 4 voyages: 1. Lilliput (tiny people); 2. Brobdingnag (Giants); 3. Laputa (Flying Island, Impractical Music & Math, Preposterous Schemes & Silly Science), Balnibarbi, Luggnagg (Aged & Infirm Immortals), Glubbdubdrib (Magician & Ghosts), and Japan; 4. Houyhnhnms (Intelligent horses rule, Human animals act as beasts of burden). Milo Winters did excellent illustrations for an unedited edition. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, poet. Free ebook at Gutenberg.org ... Gang: Seriously, there are JF & YA editions of just about every classic title. And classics are classics for a reason - they stand the test of time. YAs certainly are capable of understanding satire. I read the original as a young teen. I think that each of us has to realize that not every reader has the same interests or reading ability. I appreciate your comments and views and keep 'em coming... On the flip side, I will state, not all PopLit is worth reading (case in point: Twilight and its baseball-playing vampires - does anyone think this series should be listed as a must-read classic that generations to come will derive great insights from? Not me)

sturlington : This is political satire, not YA

pwaites : Not all classics are young adult novels.