Random House list of YA novels Every Adult Should Read

This is a pretty good list, entitled 11 YA Novels Every Adult Should Read.

I’m typing it out here for you, because I am annoyed by those lists that you have to click ‘next’ to see each individual item, like a slide show. (Perhaps I am rather too easily annoyed.)

1. Blood Red Road – Moira Young (2011)

2. Anne of Green Gables – Lucy Maude Montgomery (1908)

3. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – Ransom Riggs (2011)

4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling (1997)

5. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (2006)

6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon (2003)

7. The Giver – Lois Lowry (1993)

8. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins (2008)

9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky (1999)

10. Wonder – R.J. Palacio (2012)

11. The Taming – Teresa Toten and Eric Walters (2012)

I’ve added the years of publication because, amusingly, the Random House site says

The genre ‘young adult’ clearly signifies that the books are meant for teenagers, but sometimes it’s nice to take a trip down memory lane and relive our younger days.

Since most are relatively new books – 4 were released in the last 2 years – I’m not sure what kind of nostalgia factor is involved here. Perhaps they are talking to Adults who have just turned twenty-one…

For some older classics I might add The Secret Garden, Treasure Island, The Hobbit, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Phantom Tollbooth..

What do you think? What great pre-2000 YA novels would you add?

Going Solo

 

Going Solo

by Roald Dahl

London: Jonathan Cape, 1986

210 pp.

Age: 10+

Interests: biography, travel, Africa, adventure, airplanes, war, history

Also by Roald Dahl: Boy: Tales of Childhood (autobiography about the years preceding this book)

Related Posts: A Roald Dahl Reading List More

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth

by Norton Juster

Jules Feiffer, illustrations

Alfred A. Knopf, 1961

256 pp.

Age: 10+

Interests: word play, puns, adventure, nonsense, fantasy, science, math, modern fairy tales, philosophy

Also by this author: The Dot and the Line, The Hello, Goodbye Window, Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie, Otter Nonsense

Also by this author & illustrator: The Odious Ogre

More

The Highwayman

GREENAWAY MEDAL WINNER – 1981

The Highwayman

Alfred Noyes, text

Charles Keeping, illustrations

Oxford, 1981

32 pp.

Age: 10 +

(Reading Level: 9 +)

Interests: poetry, romance, history, horror, ghost story

Also by this illustrator: Charley, Charlotte and the Golden Canary, The God Beneath the Sea, Beowulf, The Lady of Shalott, Through the Window, Charles Keeping’s Classic Tales of the Macabre

More

Horses in Battle

GREENAWAY MEDAL WINNER – 1975

Horses in Battle

by Victor Ambrus

Oxford, 1975

39 pp.

Age: 10+

Interests: nonfiction, history, horses, war, knights

Also by this author: The Three Poor Tailors, Mishka, Drawing Animals, Drawing on Archaeology

More

A Bundle of Ballads

GREENAWAY MEDAL WINNER – 1959

A Bundle of Ballads

compiled by Ruth Manning-Sanders

illustrated by William Stobbs

London: Oxford University Press, 1959

245 pp.

Age: 10+ ?

Interests: medieval history, British history, poetry, legends, folklore, Robin Hood

Also by this illustrator: Kashtanka

More

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