These ten books are the favorite YA novels that I read this past summer:
1. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
-Deeply moving and poetic; a story of grief and of young love.
2. The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork
- Two boys find acceptance and peace through their friendship; very spiritual.3. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
- Exciting adventure fantasy set on a planet where all thoughts are heard.
5. Deadline by Chris Crutcher
-How would you want to spend your senior year if you had one year to live?6. Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick
-A soldier in Iraq has trouble with his memory after a bomb explodes near him.
7. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
-In a futuristic time where kids have to scavenge to survive; high adventure.8. The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
-A young girl meets a German POW near her home in Arkansas; a classic
9. The Card Turner by Louis Sachar
- A quirky book about friendship, family, love, and playing bridge.
10. Nothing by Janne Teller (translated from Danish)
- A disturbing tale about how far kids will go to prove their point.
The Cardturner was amazing. It inspired a few of my friends and I to learn how to play bridge! And it is by far the best card game I have ever played in my life!
ReplyDeleteGreat list! I also really enjoyed Patrick's Ness book, and Shipbreaker.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry -- you left a comment on my blog about my review of Nancy Collins' book -- and I didn't see it until now. You had asked about the copyright date on that book -- it's actually out of print (ISBN: 9781565049000). You also asked if it: "would be appropriate for a public high school library or is it too mature?"
I'm a librarian at a public library, and this book was in our collection (but in our adult collection). It was weeded before I took over that section, so I'm not sure how well it circulated here. But, the binding on the book is glued, so I can see it not holding up super-great. The content is a little mature - there are some descriptions of sex -- so I don't know if I'd put it in a high school library. However, if you look up the ISBN in OCLC, that'll give you an idea of which libraries have this, and where.
Sorry for the long comment -- I couldn't find an email on your site here :)
- Jo
Hey, Top Ten Tuesday People I just spent over an hour typing up my blog on the Top Ten Books I'm dying to read and I decided to add a few pictures. I did that and didn't like the placement of one of the pictures so I gave the command to "remove" and it removed my whole blog. I am so ticked I don't think I can make myself retype it! UGH! So you get my top ten books of the summer, instead. -Anne
ReplyDeleteSo many good books! Always LOVE Chris Crutcher, and absolutely fell in love with Last Summer...
ReplyDeleteSo many of these are my favorites too! Deadline is easily the best book I read this summer. The Chaos Walking trilogy got my doubting husband completely hooked on YA. I would really still like to read Ship Breaker!
ReplyDeleteI love these picks...Deadline was a surprise favorite for me. As was The Cardturner. I love Patricia McCormick anyway, and Purple Heart just added to my admiration for her. Mockingjay, The Ask and the Answer were amazing! The Sky is Everywhere was beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Shipbreaker or The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, but I really want to. Shipbreaker is coming to me in the mail. I've never heard of Nothing, so I'll put that on my wishlist because you have such great taste in books--It must be awesome!
Thanks for this list. Love your book taste, so I'll check back regularly to see what you're up to!