YA Books

We are BOOKAHOLICS...and have no plans to recover!! Being teachers, Young Adult books help us keep up with what our students are reading...but they are also pleasurable reads too!! Don't be afraid, go pick one up today!

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Addie's Recommendation:

I have a real addiction to happy endings and fairy tales...I know, cliche! I can't help it...that's why it is an addiction! I grew up on fairy tales and just can't shake the habit. The best part of being a middle school teacher (ok, the best part for my book addiction) is the recommendations from my female students (weird, but the boys just don't want to read fairy tales!).

I found a list on Pinterest (I know, lots of addictions here!) that broke the fairy tales down into categories and gave the titles and authors for each classic fairy tale. http://www.epicreads.com/blog/an-epic-chart-of-162-young-adult-retellings/

Imagine my delight when my favorite fairy tale (Cinderella) and one of my student's

recommendations met up on this list!! The book is Cinder....the author is Marissa Meyer. Cinder is the first book in the Lunar Chronicles Series. I personally (and my student agrees) think this is the best book of the series. It is such an amazing and different twist on the classic cinderella tale. Cinder is a cyborg, a gifted mechanic, a second-class citizen, and of course, has an evil step-mother and a step-sister with an illness. She meets none other than a prince but after that, it is crazy twist after crazy twist!! I really recommend this book but would probably be satisified if the series had ended here. I will also admit, the cover drew me in.

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Hilary's Recommendation:

Keeping with the theme in our books of the summer I recommend The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This is a powerful novel in many ways. Set in Germany during World War II, a family grapples with difficult moral decisions to fight against their country's leader or protect their own lives.

The themes of love, hope, and courage run throughout the entire book. However, I think the most powerful message that young readers pick up are the can-do attitudes of the main character Liesel and her friend Rudy. I always tell my students to believe that they can do anything no matter what their age. This book proves it (even though it is fictional). Just try not rooting for Liesel throughout this novel.

Zusak has written other award winners such as The Messenger, When Dogs Cry, and Fighting Rueben Wolfe. I think I just found my next great read!

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Shannon's Recommendation:

Fantasy is not just for young adults... BUT young adults do LOVE fantasy! (Just look at my group of fantasy readers!) My recommendation, Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes, was my first read of the summer and was a fabulous tip from my daughter Mallory who inherited my love of a good fantasy novel and sometimes even knows my reading likes better than I do! This novel is escapism at its best!

As with any great fantasy, we have unrest (among the three kingdoms of Mytica), power struggles (rulers grappling for POWER), betrayal (from even your own family member...HISS), and unforseen love (developing with the unlikliest of two characters). Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnas are challenged to become stronger than they had ever imagined that they would need to be and to pursue alliances necessary to insure their own survival. Falling Kingdoms delivers excitement and engagement from Page 1 and leaves you anxious to begin Rebel Spring the next installment in this magical series.

George R.R. Martin wrote, "We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of OZ and north of Shangri-La." I agree!

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