elissa's comments (member since Sep 19, 2007)

elissa's comments from the Young Adult Fiction! group.

glad to hear it! :)

BOUND by Donna Jo Napoli is a re-telling of the traditional Chinese Cinderella story, set in China a very long time ago. I'm not sure how old it has to be to be considered ancient. THE KITE RIDER by Geraldine McCaughrean is set in 13th c. China, which probably isn't ancient, but certainly a long time ago. The 2nd is more middle grade/middle school, but I'm sure there are high schoolers who would enjoy it, too. BOUND is definite YA.

I have a GLTBQ shelf of 17 YA books (BOY MEETS BOY is one that I love, too). Maybe my shelf will give you some ideas. They all have brief reviews, but let me know if you have any questions. Two of the books are also on my "favorite booktalks" shelf, but they're the oldest titles on the list.

Oh, another one that just popped in to my mind was THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Margaret Atwood, but that's more heavy than GATHERING BLUE. My favorite "weepie" at age 11 was A SUMMER TO DIE (also by Lois Lowry!), and a more recent sad YA that I loved was STAY WITH ME by Garret Freymann-Weyr. Both of those are also realistic fiction. And I'm right now reading BEFORE I DIE by Jenny Downham. I've only read 70 pages, but didn't want to put it down and go to sleep last night. OK, I'll stop now!

Not quite sure what you're asking. I don't remember whether GATHERING BLUE made me cry or not, but you're right that it's melancholy, and definitely a book that I love. I can't think of another book with exactly that same feeling, though! (Or really, not one that even comes close.) Certainly no other fantasy/SF comes immediately to mind. The book that does pop immediately in to my head is SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE by Julie Reece Deaver, but that's realistic fiction about grief. And a recent one that was pretty melancholy that I liked a lot was SOMEDAY THIS PAIN WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU by Peter Cameron. I'm interested to see what other responses you get!

bj~I noticed that the link wasn't working when this came up on my daily digest for the group. I tried changing the link to our whole list of teen lists. Once you get to that page, then you just click on the "Literature of Desolation" link. Hopefully it'll work now!

http://citycat.dclibrary.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/ML-KING/x/1/1197/X

At DC Public Library we put together a list of recommended "issue" books a few years ago. It was part of a set of lists that won an award from ALA. Here's a link to the books on our "Literature of Desolation" list:

http://citycat.dclibrary.org/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/ML-KING/x/1/1197/X

Hopefully this link will work to get to the booklists for teens, and then you click on "Literature of Desolation".

There are many more, and ones that came out too recently to be included, but those are a start for some issues. I also have a mental_illnesses shelf in my goodreads shelves. It has some of the same books as the DCPL list and some that are different.

One of this year's Printz honor books is a book that made me very happy! ONE WHOLE AND PERFECT DAY by Judith Clarke. The writing is excellent, and I highly recommend it, especially if lots of coincidences don't bother you.

Jgerstenblatt~I love PART-TIME INDIAN, too! It's on my 2007favorites shelf, along with a bunch of other books that came out last year that I love.

ELSEWHERE was one of my very favorite books of 2005! I've currently reading MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC and enjoying it. I don't think it's quite as good as ELSEWHERE, but still good.

Newengland~I liked WEDNESDAY WARS, but didn't love it (3 stars). I think if I was a teacher I might have loved it, though! And that one will be perfect in classrooms (late elementary and middle school, probably). And yes, LOST of things are happening in YA these days!! YALSA is the fastest growing division of ALA. I read Mal Peet's TAMAR last year, and thought the writing was excellent. I didn't realize that KEEPER had magical realism in it. I've never been able to get past the cover, but I've heard lots of good things about it. Thanks for letting me know about the MR!

I'm a librarian in Washington, DC, and I'm not that active in YALSA (the division of ALA that gives the Printz) at the moment, but I have been a member for about 18 years, and I participate on YALSA listservs (plus a yahoogroup called adbooks that includes librarians, teachers, parents, and some teens). I've heard A LOT about all of the books that won, and had already read 3 of them. I absolutely love all 3 of the ones that I've read (DREAMQUAKE, ONE WHOLE AND PERFECT DAY, and YOUR OWN, SYVLIA--you'll find 2 of them on my 2007favorites shelf, and the 3rd isn't there because I just read it at the beginning of this month), and REPOSSESSED is a book I've been interested in reading. The only reason THE WHITE DARKNESS wasn't on my TBR list is that I'm thinking it might be a little scary and/or "dark" for me (in terms of my personal taste), but I WILL read it now, as I've heard good things about it, and I like to read all of the Printz winners/honors.

Newengland~ONE WHOLE AND PERFECT DAY could definitely be used in classrooms. Since I'm not a teacher, I don't read with that in mind, but I definitely can't remember anything that would keep it out of a classroom (even middle school, I'm pretty sure). It's full of satisfying coincidences and serendipitous occurrences, it's funny & quirky, and it's in one of my favorite subgenres--magical realism. As Beckie already said, this award goes to the best books in terms of literary merit, regardless of what end of YA they appeal to. There have just been so many great books pubished on the higher end of YA in the past few years. LIZZIE BRIGHT AND THE BUCKMINSTER BOY is one that was both a Newbery and a Printz honor a few years ago, though, so there's definitely some overlap.

I've got 2 boys of my own (9 and 7 at the moment), and I'm also a children's/YA librarian at a public library. There's nothing more popular with first-fifth grade boys than the CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS series by Dav Pilkey. There's also an excellent, fun website about books for guys of all ages, by a children's author (Jon Sczieska). Here's the URL: www.guysread.com

My older son isn't a typical "boy reader", but my younger son is, so anything in my readwith_l shelf went over really well. My readwith_jandl, 00s_re-readswith_l, and 00s_re-readswith_jandl are mostly books that I highly recommend. I don't always list age levels, but I'd be happy to answer questions about specific titles.

Newengland,

Here's a very active yahoogroup of middle school lit discussions that you might want to look in to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_sch...

And a link to a list of "Gentle" YA reads by DC Public Library (in Washington, DC), where I'm a librarian:

http://citycat.dclibrary.org/uhtbin/cgis...

And another list of 24 "Books that Don't Make you Blush" from YALSA, the YA division of ALA:

http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsaw...

A few of the books on the lists have already been mentioned above, but I hope some of that is helpful!

elissa

A well-done YA novel set in college is BETTER THAN RUNNING AT NIGHT by Hillary Frank. I don't love the main character, but she's fairly memorable. The last TRAVELING PANTS book is set the summer after the 4 girls' first year of college. And there's Cynthia Voigt's novel (definitely not new, but not ancient) TELL ME IF THE LOVERS ARE LOSERS, depending on whether you consider the early 60's "contemporary" or not. :)

Two that quickly come to mind are BECOMING NAOMI LEON (not quite as good as ESPERANZA RISING, but still very good), and BREAKING THROUGH by Francisco Jimenez.