What 2009 YA Book Should I Read?
Okay. The time has come, the walrus something something something.
Each year I read one YA novel. Just one. In theory anyway. So far I’ve already read Fire, Catching Fire, and Leviathan (which should really have had the word "fire" in its title in some way). This year I turn to you, o smart readers. You are not like me. You do not cruelly cut yourself off at age 12 when it comes to your reading material. So here is the million dollar question:
If you had to suggest that I read only ONE YA novel this year, what would it be?
Leave your comment on this post. Failing that, send me an email. I’ll wait until this post disappears from the front page of my blog, then tally the results and announce the book in question. Exciting! I have absolutely no idea where your little hearts lie. Inform me!
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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It’s not within the rules but I would go back to 2008 stock and read the Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks. Hmmm- I will have to think for 2009.
I’d say Liar by Justine Larbalastier. You’ll love it or you’ll hate it.
Marcello in the Real World for its story, characters, and language.
Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan was my absolute favorite YA book of the year, and gets my vote for your “One Book” this year.
Marcello in the Real World by Marcello Stork
Sorry the author is Francisco Stork
Another vote for Liar by Larbalestier. It’s amazing.
I’d say: Ways to live Forever by Sally Nicholls
I would say The Ask and the Answer, but you really must read its predecessor, The Knife of Never Letting Go, first. So … what about Lips Touch, Three Times or Andromeda Klein … or the book I finished this weekend, Days of Little Texas (which I think is probably better in audio — which is how I experienced it).
hunger games!
I would also recommend Marcello in the Real World. I found it extremely moving.
Wintergirls!
(If you read Love is the Higher Law you’ll have read both Levithan and Leviathan.)
Going Bovine by Libba Bray. When you read it you’ll say “why didn’t I read this earlier?! This is fantastic.”
Frankie Landau-Banks was last year’s winner, so I’ve read that. Read Hunger Games. Read Ways to Live Forever.
Thought Leviathan was by Levithan for a while there. Was disappointed to learn that this wasn’t the case.
Seeing a lot of Stork and Liar love. Interesting.
GIRL IN THE ARENA by Lise Haines!
Definitely MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD.
Didn’t I see a blurb from you on DREAMDARK: BLACKBRINGER? Well, SILKSINGER, the next book, is even better. Are you a Shannon Hale fan at all? If so, I need say no more than that she had a new book out this year, FOREST BORN. But if you really want to keep your titles’ theme going, try Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson’s book of wonderful short stories, FIRE: TALES OF ELEMENTAL SPIRITS.
Lips Touch!
Sorry! Silly me! I almost completely forgot about one of my very favorites: RAMPANT, by Diana Peterfreund, about Killer Unicorns. Turns out all the fairy tales have it wrong, and the heroine’s from a family with a long history of slaying those vicious, bloodthirsty beasts. Have to stay virgins, though.
All my ‘Top’ selections for this year were came from scifi/fantasy genre but one. So I’ll give you that one. “Wild Things” by Clay Carmichael.
Another vote for LIAR. It’s a mystery/scifi/fantasy/horror/romance/contemporary all at once, so you can hit all the sub-genres, too! It really is a thought-provoking magic trick of a book.
One more vote for Francisco X. Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World. I absolutely fell in love with this book.
I came here to vote for Liar, too, but there are so many other votes already that I’m going to throw in a good word for Cindy Pon’s absolutely fantastic Silver Phoenix.
I was thinking about titles, but in a battle between Marcelo and Liar – go for Liar.
I also nominate MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD.
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Diary of a Chav, by Grace Dent. Also published in the U.S. as Diva Without a Cause. About an Essex girl who really grows on you– great slang, a lot of heart. I can’t wait to get Posh and Prejudice.
Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman
Another nomination for LIPS TOUCH!
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson – haunting in the best way!
Lips Touch again here.
Definately Liar! I don’t think anyone’s read it and not felt strongly about it one way or another.
AS YOU WISH by Jackson Pearce, if you’re interested in romance.
For 2009 Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World. For 2010 Happyface by Stephen Emond.
Since no one else is talking graphic novels, and I’ve got GNs on the brain from the Cybils (and that’s about the only YA I read, too), how about the fantastic historical fiction/time travel/romance web comic The Dreamer: The Consequence of Nathan Hale by Lora Innes? You can find it online for free, but the first issue was published this year in book form.
Many fine suggestions above, but my favorite this year was We Were Here by Matt de la Peña.
Ooo, I loved Marcelo in the Real World too, but I have not read Liar yet. I’d name some others for you, but nothing else is really sticking out.
MARCELO and LIAR were definitely in my top ten, but I’m going to go with HOLD STILL by Nina LaCour.
Another vote for MARCELO (plus bonus gnome vote for GOING BOVINE).
How rude is it of me to suggest Mare’s War?
Fairly. And yet: this does not stop me.
Marcelo in the Real World. Absolutely brilliant.
I find it hard to believe you haven’t read Laini Taylor’s Lips Touch Three Times yet, so I won’t even consider the possibility.
Liar is a very strong contender, and Andromeda Klein is as well. I want to try and assemble an analogy for Andromeda Klein….like…Octavian Nothing is to the Revolutionary War and subjugation as Andromeda Klein is to slightly deaf teenage girls and the occult. As in…both books manage to stand as vividly unique entries in that particular genre, with a density and intelligence that roars off the page. However, if I make that analogy, I have to concur that I could include Liar with that as well…those two books are to their things what Liar is to outsiderness, murder mysteries, and basketball. What a quandary, Ms.Bird.
A quandary indeed. Keep ’em coming.
OH. Sarah Rees Brennan’s The Demon’s Lexicon!
I loved that book!Favorite of the year.
I would recommend Maze Runner by James Dashner. But if you prefer paranormal romance than I would go with Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.
Lips Touch and Flash Burnout
Marcelo in the Real World. Yeah, it’s gotten a lot of hype, but it’s a beautiful novel.
In the Path of Falling Objects, by Andrew Smith. Great writing and great pain. And some redemption. Did I say GREAT WRITING?!
I think I’ve read more than half the YA that came out this year. If I could only have read one, I would have chosen THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH without hesitation.
(Or FIRE, but you’ve already read that.)
Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Love Marcello, too. Both break into new territory, but Libba goes for broke doing so.
I vote for Libba Bray’s Going Bovine that book turned me on my head and had me laughing out loud!!!! A trip!
Marcello in the Real World
Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney
Tanita’s “Mare’s World” is wonderful and I second her rec on that one. I’d also put forth Melissa Wyatt’s “Funny How Things Change” which is about an actual real normal, typical teenage boy and is an absolute sweetheart of a book. It still makes me smile.
LOST by Jacqueline Davies for literary, page-turning historical fiction.
I would say The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness which a sophisticated reader could get into without reading Knife first, or In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith which might be the best YA suspense book in years as well as a great “western.” (Why is no one reading this book?)
Gonna have to put my vote in for Going Bovine, and for 2010 read Ship Breaker.
:paula
Hmm- I started reading about the various titles suggested and remembered why I don’t read much YA. Books that deal with eating disorders described in gruesome detail, main characters dying of leukemia, those addicted to violence, brain eating zombies- yes we are in YA land. Not sure my vote counts because I have not read the books- but out of all the titles suggested the two I am going to try are Andromeda Klein and Marcelo in the Real World- so I vote for either of those. Mare’s War was a close contender.
EON: DRAGONEYE REBORN by Alison Goodman. Terrible title, fan-frickin-tastic book. Gender issues! Social issues! Class issues! Power dynamics! And, yes, dragons. Invisible ones.
Failing that, FIRE.
Definitely go for Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor!!
Another vote for Marcelo’s World.
So, I was so excited to recommend books that I just skimmed the part where you said you’d already read FIRE. Oops. Sorry!
So I’m just emphasizing my suggestion of EON. It’s really good. And if you look at a listing and see that it has a 2008 pub date… well, it has a *December 25, 2008* pub date, which is so late that it couldn’t possibly get in when you asked us what YA book you should read last year, and every book should get one shot, right? So it’s totally valid.
And you should read it.
To be redundant:
Marcelo
Marcelo
Marcelo
Marcelo and Wintergirls are both excellent, but the one I enjoyed the most was probably Justina Chen Headley’s North of Beautiful.
LIPS TOUCH!!!
Although many of my favorite YA’s of the year have been mentioned. I would like to suggest Flygirl by Sherri Smith-as a darkhorse candidate.
Marcelo is great. But…
Lips Touch!
I see someone beat me to my suggestion of
North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley. I have read most of the other suggestions but this one stayed with me much longer.
Another vote for Maze Runner! (coming from an elementary librarian who likes to splurge on YA )
Marcelo is good, but I LOVED Lips Touch: Three Times. It’s beautiful storytelling and shouldn’t be missed. So I vote Lips Touch and read Marcelo if it wins the Printz, which it might.
if I stay by gayle forman
Another vote for Lips Touch, if for no other reason than to hear your opinion on how Jonathan Hunt thinks it should be a Newbery contender (I say nay!).
I have to say without a doubt, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.
Liar was meh. Haven’t read Marcelo so can’t comment there. Flygirl was great but 2008.
While I also enjoyed Marcelo, my Printz hopeful is THE DEVIL’S PAINTBOX by Victoria McKernan.
My favorite of the year was definitely Marcelo in the Real World!
Wintergirls is my top choice.
When You Reach Me (R. Stead) a close second–and a much easier and more fun read!
I vote Andromeda Klein. It is so fricken great. Chock full of magic and crazy and awesome and the characters are just so real… I definitely cried a bit here and there and caught myself thinking that Andromeda (the character) would really like Andromeda Klein (the book) …. then I realized she wasn’t real and it was a very bizarre sort of twilight zone moment that left me a little disoriented.
Andromeda Klein.
WE WERE HERE by Matt de la Pena…heard him talk at NCTE, picked up the book, and couldn’t put it down!
Good thing for Google alerts, or I might have missed my chance to vote: “We Were Here” by Matt de la Pena. And I promise, his good looks are just a bonus and have no influence on my decision whatsoever. I like gritty urban literary writing–too much of this white suburban stuff taking all the attention.
“Tales of the Madman Underground: An Historical Romance 1973” By John Barnes
It’s edgy and has great (older) teen appeal. Hands down one of the best YA books I’ve read this year.
Why only one YA bk per year? I <3 YA lit!
I think teen books are going to start moving in a much more urban and ethnic direction with the popularity of the movie Precious (based on PUSH by Sapphire). That said, Matt de la Pena has the boy teen market cornered when it comes to nailing the “urban” voice. My vote: WE WERE HERE. In homage to “Of Mice and Men” with a cast of characters you can’t help but love (Rondell, with two L’s).
I’m going to second “Lost” by Jacqueline Davies. And I’m also going to “first” “After” by Amy Efaw. “Lost” was nearly up there with “A Northern Light,” one of my all-time favorite historical fiction books. You’ve already read most of the fantasy/sci-fi books I would suggest!
I am getting my own reading list out of these suggestions: grrlpup recommended Diary of a Chav – thank you! Excellent funny book! Next I guess I’ll read We Were Here. Thanks Betsy for polling your knowledgeable readers.
:paula
Looking forward to the list
Hi–
Agog with anticipation, I clicked on the above link (“Comments (85)”) to see what people recommended for your one and only YA annual read.
Dead! It goes nowhere. Are these comments available any more?
thanks
PS I am vastly enjoying the countdown
I can’t see all these comments. Did something make them disappear?