Oh, teenagers and young adults. We love you, but you’re so hard to buy for. Except for the ease of snagging you an iTunes gift card (that gift works for pretty much anyone), you’re kind of a mystery to the peripheral adults in your lives — aunts, uncles, grandparents, friends of the family, etc.
So just email, Facebook, Tweet or even print out (whuh?) this list of books we know you’ll enjoy, and voilà! Uncle Mario and Aunt Julia will be so pleased.
The Hunger Games Trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. Yes, it’s a little repetitive, and it’s annoying that the capable Katniss of book one turns into passive toy for everyone around her in books two and three, but the action’s swift and dramatic enough to keep almost anyone reading for the pure adrenaline. Also, the first movie’s coming out soon, so you need to get your book on ASAP. (Secret! If you want to read a better-written series by Collins, snatch up all of the Gregor the Overlander books. They’re for younger people, but they’re just as full of action and just as engrossing as the Hunger Games.)
Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys. The difference between a day spent at home creating art and mooning over a boy, and a day in a transport train to Siberia? That’s a thin line in 1941 in Lithuania as the Soviet infrastructure crushes dissent and sweeps families up in its net of fury. What will 15-year-old Lina have to do to survive, and will her mother and brother make it? Sepetys gives the deeply grim reality of Soviet history a gorgeous narrative in this harrowing, compelling tale of a young woman walking the line between rebellion and survival.
Hunted, by Cheryl Rainfield. You can’t help being born a telepath, but that doesn’t make it legal—and it doesn’t mean the government won’t hunt you down. Caitlyn, a Para, and her mother have been on the run both physically and mentally for years, but Caitlyn thinks she’s found a home in a new high school where she meets Normal boy Alex. Then her brother shows up, and he’s got dangerous plans. Yes, it’s another YA dystopian novel—and it’s one of the best so far. Hunted comes out in mid-December, just in time for a cheery read for Winter Break!
Chime, by Franny Billingsley. What the heck is going on in this book? Can we trust anything narrator Briony says? She’s sure she harmed her sister and killed her stepmother, and her father’s been horrible to her for years, and she’s also sure she’s a witch—and where she lives, witches are sentenced to death. Then sexy, kind, loving Eldric comes to town, and Briony lets her guard down. I read this book desultorily at first, but sped up as tangled strands of lies and hatreds and loves and deaths whirled together to the terrifying and then cathartic conclusion.
Girl Meets Boy, edited by Kelly Milner Halls. Halls—who writes wonderfully enjoyable nonfiction books and works with Chris Crutcher—invited pairs of YA authors to submit stories from differing points of view in a story. That is, one writes from a boy’s POV, one from a girl’s, but it’s the same story. Or is it? The list of great YA authors in this anthology includes Ellen Wittlinger, James Howe, Rita Williams-Garcia, Terry Trueman, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Joseph Bruchac and more—and my favorite story, one that’s on the slightly more adult side of young adult, comes from Portland’s Sara Ryan and Randy Powell. That is a power group—and most of the authors really come through. A lighter book than this list’s dystopian heavy-hitters (and the psychological thriller that is Chime), Girl Meets Boy provides both pleasure and thoughtful contemplation for those who crack it open and dive in.
Two others of note that I haven’t found time to read (hello, winter break!): Goliath, the final book in Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series, and Delia Sherman’s universally praised The Freedom Maze.
What books are you planning to get to this holiday season? Tell us in the comments—and tell potential gift-givers as well.
Happy holidays to you all, and may everyone be warm, well fed, happy and full of excellent books this season.
That looks like a beautiful selection of YA books. I love the covers. Christmas wasn’t Christmas unless I found a new book under the tree.
Thank you Literary Duck Blog