Comments on: Youth fiction without the whining

By: deirdremundy

deirdremundy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:01:11 +0000

Tracy– I read very little YA in high school… because I was into Fantasyy/Sci Fi… I think it’s wonderful that FSF is finally a LEGIT teen genre…

Oh, btw— Another awesome teen series is Scott Westerfield’s Uglies.

And for the fantasy-minded, check out Jessica Day George’s – Dragon Slippers, Flight of Dragons, and Princess at the Midnight Ball.

Also, Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, Margaret Mahy, Dianne Wynne Jones, Jane Yolen and Patricia McKillip are still writing, and still good!

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:53:35 +0000

(Like the people when we were young whose entire book collections consisted of those ’someone I love died from cancer’ books…..)

The one I never got was the fascination with horse stories–but I had several friends who went there.

By: Tracy W

Tracy W — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:13:50 +0000

Deirdre Mundy – my grandmother kept trying to get me to read those whiny, angst-ridden YA books, as a change from my fantasy and SF diet. She had some idea that I should be reading “literature”. I thought the books were about as remote from my life as the fantasy and SF anyway.

By: Little Teacher in DC

Little Teacher in DC — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:01:43 +0000

There’s also Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. It’s definitely got very little whine!

By: deirdremundy

deirdremundy — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:47:17 +0000

Don’t forget “The Hunger Games”—- I mean, sure it’s all post-apocalyptic-fight-for-the-death-reality TV like, but it’s actually MORE about triumph of the Human spirit… and the MC DOESN’T whine….

Also, for the less sci-fi oriented Meg Cabot’s “Airhead” series is fun—think Peter Dickinson’s “Eva” but with a supermodel playing the role of chimpanzee…..

And, for pure, non-angsty fun, give Ally Carter’s Gallagher Girls series a try.

Honestly, I think most of these people complaining about YA must not READ any. If all the books in your daughter’s room are whiny and angst-ridden, it’s probably because that’s what she likes to read….

(Like the people when we were young whose entire book collections consisted of those ’someone I love died from cancer’ books…..)

By: Tracy W

Tracy W — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:29:02 +0000

I’m going to recommend my cousin’s, Fleur Beale, book Red Dog in Bandit Country. This guy showed up at one of her writing classes, couldn’t write anything, but had some amazing stories so they wrote the book together. The guy, whose air-force call name was “Red Dog” gets a job flying payroll where the plane was hijacked the last few runs, then takes on explosives work in the same bandit-infested area.
Lots of details about munitions, dodging bandits, etc.

By: Joanne Jacobs

Joanne Jacobs — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 08:27:00 +0000

I loved Weirdstone of Brisingamen when I was a kid.

By: Ragnarok

Ragnarok — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:39:56 +0000

"Weirdstone of Brisingamen" and "Moon of Gomrath" by Alan Garner; also "Sand Dune Pony", beautiful writing. "Red Sky at Morning", Richard Bradford.

By: linda seebach

linda seebach — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:12:58 +0000

(Cross-posted to Jay’s blog)
Young adult science fiction is a rich (and varied) mine of great reading.

The 2009 Locus finalists for Young Adult Novel are:

Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor);
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury);
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf);
Nation, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins);
Zoe’s Tale, John Scalzi (Tor)

The only one I’ve read is Little Brother, but I’m also a fan of Gaiman and Scalzi (and all three of those books are Hugo finalists as well).

Nebula finalists for 2008 were:
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)

Lamplighter, by D.M. Cornish (Putnam)

Savvy, by Ingrid Law (Dial)

The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary E. Pearson (Henry Holt)

Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room), by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Harcourt)