Would love to read these soon!!!

Me too!

I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. Boys love to read too — and not just the sports page.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..." I so agree with you, Deb. I love books about strong girls and women, but I also love books about strong boys and men. And I recognize the need for such books. That's one of the reasons I wrote my new YA, "The F Words," which will be published by City of Light in September 2021. Its main listed genre is "Teen and Young Adult Boys and Men." Second is "Coming of Age." Of course it's on GoodReads! I hope you check it out.

I agree! I have grandsons who love to read. I'm turning again and again to old favourites. Just bought used copies of the Children of the Lamp series. John Grisham's Theodore Boone books were a hit. The only "new" series I've bought for them in a while. Nothing on this list that I find would interest them.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

What makes a book for YA boys vs YA girls?

KnotAnOwl_4238 wrote: I love this question, KnotAnOwl, because I believe that boys and girls can and should enjoy reading both books designated "boys" and books designated "girls." But, in general, I think that books for boys have male main characters, and/or male Point-of-View characters.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

Here's a list of recent-ish YA books with male mcs that span multiple genres, including fantasy, contemporary, paranormal, mystery, romance, and sci-fi.
Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun by Jonny Garza Villa
The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon
The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
The Infinite Noise by Lauren Shippen
Things We Couldn't Say by Jay Coles
May the Best Man Win by Z.R. Ellor
Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian
White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig
How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi
In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens
Infinity Son by Adam Silvera
Spin Me Right Round by David Valdez
A Complicated Love Story Set in Space by Shaun David Hutchinson

This one is more New Adult, but I included it since I've read that it's a good crossover read.
Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie

They missed a murder mystery I am very excited about "When all the girls were sleeping" by Emily Arsenault.

Louie wrote: "Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to..."

Man, is every one of these books on the list LGBT? Is there a book that's come out this year with a straight male mc?

Michael wrote: "Louie wrote: "Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and..."

This site is more and more a joke. I've been here for several years but these lists are just skewed badly. I find myself asking the last few months why I'm even a member.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."
Books are not gendered? A boy can read a lovey dovey romance as well as a action loaded fantasy novel and vice versa. I never went to the bookstore and think "oh, that is more a boyish book"...
Those titles just don't speak to you personally. Stop gendering everything.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

these books are a wide variety of genres and explore numerous themes and topics, so to write them off as "for girls" simply because of....their covers, or that the protagonists are girls is pretty odd.

i think only good things can come from children reading about people who might be different than them (boys reading about girl characters written by female authors, girls reading about boy characters, straight kids reading about lgbt+ kids) but maybe that's just me *shrug*

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

I don't much mind if it is a female main character. I must confess I do not read them as often, simply because of the fact it is hard to imagine myself in their shoes, but I still find them interesting.

And if it is a female main character I will still imagine myself going into the universe and interacting with the characters in the book.

I fully agree that it is getting increasingly more difficult to find new books with male main characters, but I suspect the character gender choices will become more even sometime in the future.

TLDR: Doesn't bother me much, as there are other ways to become immersed.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

Boys can read all of these books too, y'know, but I get what you mean.

"Man, is every one of these books on the list LGBT? Is there a book that's come out this year with a straight male mc?"
Ummm, yes. The majority of books that include a romance are still straight romances. This list does a great job of including diverse characters. You should see nothing wrong with LGBTQ+ characters being promoted and uplifted unless you see something wrong with the LGBTQ+ characters themselves, which I sure hope isn't true.

We often talk about representation in all sorts of arts...the main character was so predominately the strong straight white male for a long time, and there wasn't a lot for girls or people of color or non-straight, non-cis, non-straight-white-guy-who-likes-football-or-whatever-the-stereotype-is. The fact that there are audiences from the not-a-straight-white-boy populations that are hungry to see themselves, in some iteration, on the page has driven the production and publication of more literature that focuses on those groups. Trends in literature tend to lead to gobs of one type of book and scant amounts off others--both writers and publishers want to put out what they're pretty sure can sell, understandably enough. Unfortunately, this means that those whose "type" isn't on-trend can be left without new books where they can find someone who, on a statistical level, represents themselves, and this can be as true for a straight white boy as it can be for a queer black non-binary kid, and..yes...representation does matter.

(And, yes, I know that literature has been predominately pitched to a certain type of majority character for a long time....but that doesn't mean that everything featuring those majority-representation characters needs to have a decades' worth of dust on it.)

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

Last time I checked books weren't gendered but ok...

@Ananya i agree. Books aren't gendered. Many boys ik have read and loved the books on this list

One trend I expected to see here but which seems completely absent -- ecology and nature. This surprises and disappoints me, as non-fic books on nature for young people seem to be quite popular. Are publishers missing a trick?

Louie wrote: "Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to..."

Barbara wrote: "KnotAnOwl_4238 wrote: I love this question, KnotAnOwl, because I believe that boys and girls can and should enjoy reading both books designated "boys" and books designated "girls." But, in general..."

Thanks for the list.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

I think it's a mistake to say that these books aren't for young adult boys. Why should there be a difference between what boys and girls read? If the concern is that many of these books are romcoms, there's plenty on here that are fantasy books where romance isn't even the main point of the book! YA boys don't need a male protagonist in their books (but many of these books do have male characters) to enjoy them and if we tell them that, we're telling them that they shouldn't like things that center women (which sounds really misogynistic to me!). I understand where you're coming from, but I think it's misguided to say boys can't enjoy books with female main characters. After all, girls a generation older than me consumed media with almost entirely male characters because men controlled the game then.

Katie • forevermorepages wrote: but I think it's misguided to say boys can't enjoy books with female main characters. After all, girls a generation older than me consumed media with almost entirely male characters because men controlled the game then."

This exactly! And this is still the case in video games and many of the big tentpole movies. (Starting to change via movies like Black Widow) As a cit-het-male I never noticed. But talking to my wife, it's been very enlightening. People are just reacting to the fact that they're not the default anymore. They now have to do what others have always done - try to see themselves in the other.

ALSO - YA (at least modern YA) is always trying to push boundaries. I find more sex, LGBT characters, female characters, etc in YA than I do in Adult fiction (not counting romance or erotica genres, of course).

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

I don't think there are separate books for each gender. No book says that it's written "for girls" or "for boys" or "for non-binary audience". We really should stop gendering everything.

Micheal wrote: "Man, is every one of these books on the list LGBT? Is there a book that's come out this year with a straight male mc?"

Actually, majority of the books, especially romances are with straight MCs. I agree that a lot of LGBTQ+ content is being released recently, but isn't that a good thing? I mean, for years, LGBTQ+ characters have been excluded from books, so isn't it great that they are finally being represented now? And I don't understand why it matters if a character is straight or queer, the sexuality and gender should not really affect the story, right?

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

I get that most of the covers have girls on them so probably have girl mcs but never, in a day in my life, have I categorized a book I saw as meant for a girl or a guy, I have read so many books with mc guys (I'm a girl) and I've never had an issue with enjoying them or relating to the character's personality because of their gender. We are living in a world where we are still working for more equality, this includes gender stereo types. There shouldn't be a reason a guy doesn't want to read a book with a girl mc unless they think is all gonna be about pink sparkles, books can be relatable to anyone no matter their gender and that is what finding a good book is about. It's all more complex than “those are for guys and those are for girls”. If anything it might be good to open yourself or others up to reading more about the other gender because.. guess what....we live in a world with a lot of them

Anushka wrote: "I don't think there are separate books for each gender. No book says that it's written "for girls" or "for boys" or "for non-binary audience". We really should stop gendering everything"

I agree, well said. Some of the whining here is ridiculous.

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

i agree, but please bear in mind that books aren't gendered and literally any person, nonbinary, girl, boy, genderfluid etc can enjoy whichever book they choose to even if they are not the 'target audience' :)

omg i'm glad everyone is calling each other out because we as a society should really try to stop pursuing the idea that anything has a gender, nothing has a gender except you and only if you want one

Anushka wrote: "Micheal wrote: "Man, is every one of these books on the list LGBT? Is there a book that's come out this year with a straight male mc?"

Actually, majority of the books, especially romances are with..."

I'm not saying it's a bad thing at all (in itself), but with so much of it coming out right now, it feels like...fake? Like it's just a thing authors are supposed to do now? Like it's a trend and authors are just jumping on the bandwagon? I'm not sure exactly how to put it, or what it's triggering for sure. I think it's good, in that LGBTQ+ kids can read books and see themselves represented. Like, a friend of mine had a biracial granddaughter, and she hated that she could never find her books and dolls and Barbies and things that looked like her. She wanted her to be able to see herself in them, or just not have all little blue eyed blondes, you know? That's what I think is excellent about the volume of content coming out. But, at the same time, is it just riding the wave? Will there always be this much diverse content? Check out those covers? There were a ton I'd easily add to my "cover love" shelf! But, again, very diverse. Losts of ethnicities depicted. Which is AMAZING, I love it! But, again, are they just riding the wave of the current climate and media? Where were all of those beautiful, diverse covers 5 years ago? Will they be here 5 years from now?

I'm just wondering...was it all fluid and natural? Is it just authors following trends? Or, are they writing to genuinely support diversity, maybe?

*wanders off pondering*

Haven't read this one yet, but it seems really interesting and I've wanted to read it for a while
Cinder

Meels wrote: "I'm not saying it's a bad thing at all (in itself), but with so much of it coming out right now, it feels like...fake? Like it's just a thing authors are supposed to do now? Like it's a trend and authors are just jumping on the bandwagon? I'm not sure exactly how to put it, or what it's triggering for sure. I think it's good, in that LGBTQ+ kids can read books and see themselves represented. Like, a friend of mine had a biracial granddaughter, and she hated that she could never find her books and dolls and Barbies and things that looked like her. She wanted her to be able to see herself in them, or just not have all little blue eyed blondes, you know? That's what I think is excellent about the volume of content coming out. But, at the same time, is it just riding the wave? Will there always be this much diverse content? Check out those covers? There were a ton I'd easily add to my "cover love" shelf! But, again, very diverse. Losts of ethnicities depicted. Which is AMAZING, I love it! But, again, are they just riding the wave of the current climate and media? Where were all of those beautiful, diverse covers 5 years ago? Will they be here 5 years from now?

I'm just wondering...was it all fluid and natural? Is it just authors following trends? Or, are they writing to genuinely support diversity, maybe?"

Well they are here now and you're still complaining about their existence, what is it with you people? You don't know what oppression is because you've never been oppressed. The topic is "extremely on trend" and equality has been trending more since people are becoming more open minded and accepting, especially with all the movements we had recently. Have you read any of these writers before to think they are faking it now? These people are real and have always lived on this planet, yet its mind blowing to so many that they are suddenly fairly represented. That's what you're finding striking, because you've always had representation but they haven't and it's about time.

Louie wrote: "Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to..."
There's a new Jeff Zentner coming out this summer In the Wild Light, and while I wouldn't say that he writes "YA boys," he's definitely writing with an authentic boy voice--relationships vs. romance, issues about becoming your own person (leaving home, differing views from your parents, etc.)

Shout out to the BTS ARMY? Love it!

another super cool witchcraft book: all our hidden gifts

really recommend this one!

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

What do you mean? Do you mean that there are many female protagonists but not many males? or do you mean that the themes in these books are too "girly" for boys? because thats kinda shitty, boys can enjoy things that society deem as "girly" just as much as girls

Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

What I don't see is why there's a "YA for girls" and a "YA for boys". I don't get why you're putting it that way. I feel like boys and girls can read the same thing. Maybe that's just me, but I read many books for YA 'male audiences'. I'd just love to know what you really meant by that, because every gender can read whatever the heck they want.

Sadly this is true. I don't mind diversity books, or LGBTQ books, but I noticed too that teens don't have Main character Male characters to relate to.
I see many girls and don't get me wrong that's great, I love them, but from time to time I'd like new books so I can get in the mind of a main character, the hero if you want who's a male.
Anyway...
It's not exactly YA, but have you read Temeraire? My friends liked it.
Deb wrote: "I see this time and again — lots of titles for YA girls, and few for YA boys. Publishers are neglecting the YA male audience and then there are fewer titles to review, and thus fewer to recommend. ..."

I really don't think that *These violent delights* should be called anywhere near YA🙄😱😱 have you seen what's inside that book!!??? 👀

Abby wrote: "Haven't read this one yet, but it seems really interesting and I've wanted to read it for a while
Cinder"

You 200% should! The Lunar Chronicles is one of the best series I've ever read!

Kristen wrote: "We often talk about representation in all sorts of arts...the main character was so predominately the strong straight white male for a long time, and there wasn't a lot for girls or people of color..." nonracism content doesn't mean that it should include black characters there are other cultures and people me, myself I am Iranian but there isn't even one Iranian character in books and media and over one-third of these books are LGBT but there aren't this amount LGBT humans that mean LGBT books are more than LGBT people and I assume it can cause bad perspective of LGBT people and black people

Karen wrote: "I agree! I have grandsons who love to read. I'm turning again and again to old favourites. Just bought used copies of the Children of the Lamp series. John Grisham's Theodore Boone books were a hit..."

I like to recommend older books to YA boys. L'Amour's Sackett series or some of the Bova, Creighton and Cussler books have less "adult" material. Guardians of Ga'Hoole and Hunter's Warrior series are fun.
DJ MacHale's Pendragon series is one of my favorites. I like to refer to it as a poor man's Harry Potter when I recommend it. :D
Another favorite is John Flanagan's Ranger Apprentice series and its companion Brotherband series. These are more geared for the younger audience but they still have plenty of action and suspense. Luckily most of the series are already published so the cliff hanger endings in a few of the books are not an issue.

I think part of the problem is that people "gender" books, like they do toys. Many girls love Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling did not use her first name in case boys did not want to read a male protagonist written by a woman), and I know boys who love books by P.C. Cast and Richelle Mead. Moreover, from a financial standpoint, of course publishers are going to market these books primarily to females: they are still the largest consumer group of novels.

I don't get the "books for boys" comments. Reading is the beautiful way to expand and enrich our perspectives. Plus what is really meant by boys titles? Just sharing my take as others have shared theirs.

Happy Reading!

The queer rep on this list is AMAZING. Thank you Goodreads!

Danial wrote: "Kristen wrote: "We often talk about representation in all sorts of arts...the main character was so predominately the strong straight white male for a long time, and there wasn't a lot for girls or..."

I mean, the number of books published about a community isn't proportional to the number of people contained in this said community. Besides, sharing an ethnicity, a sexual orientation etc. doesn't equate to having the same experiences. The Black community isn't a monolith, the queer community isn't either. So I'd say the more books, the better because it would allow us to see a diversity of stories that we weren't able to find before (+, even outside of what the representation can offer to the table, should an author see their book be refused because (for example) "no, we already have enough books about black characters this year, never mind that your ya book is in an other sub-genre than the ones we've already bought" ?).

It's true that some other marginalized communities aren't covered a lot/aren't covered yet in publishing but I think that we shouldn't see the problem as "let's slow down with black-rep and queer rep in books so we can make place for other representations" but rather "let's uplift every kind of representation so we can have an equal and great amount of books about different groups" without pitting communities against each other.

Here are some recommendations for YA books featuring Iranian main characters :
Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi,
Adib Korram's books,
How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi,
Sara Farizan's books,
Abdi Nazemian's books

(And sorry if there are some mistakes in my message, english is not my first language)

Give Me Everything You Got by Iva Marie Palmer should be on this list. 😊

Erica wrote: "Shout out to the BTS ARMY? Love it!"
I think Jungkook, Jimin, V, RM, J-Hope, Suga, and Jin would love the K-poppin' books!

(Hi Army! I *purple* you!)

This thread has prompted a lot of thought and conversation for me this week. The book list ("extremely on trend") is great, and I agree with the assessment that strong female and LGBTQ protagonists as well as focus on cultures outside mainstream US ARE trending, and that's a good thing. BUT - I find it interesting that very few people are answering the query about YA for boys (or YA that the AVERAGE American boy would pick up/read) with any recently published titles. The titles mentioned have also skewed younger than current YA is aimed at (which begs the question of whether or how much YA should include "mature" content).

As for specific, current examples of fiction I'd describe as either boy-friendly or all-readers-friendly, I mentioned Jeff Zentner in a previous comment. Neal Shusterman (SCYTHE) is one that I'd say is popular across the board. I'd add Andrew Smith (WINGER) and Adib Khoraam (DARIUS THE GREAT ISN'T OK), though both are LGBTQ-adjacent. Ernest Cline's READY PLAYER ONE is another that probably leans to a boy audience (both he and Andrew Smith have a slightly --sophomoric? raunchy?-- sensibility that younger adolescent boys respond to. Can this be done reflecting contemporary mores of respect and consent? I think so, but that's also a bit of a tightrope.

The Fantasy Faction Facebook group just fielded a query whether female writers of fantasy are shunted toward YA whereas male writers are shunted toward adult lists, regardless of whether the books in question "should be" YA or adult. (The Fantasy Faction discussion assumed that YA fantasy/sf is held as "lower status than" Adult fantasy/sf). I don't know if that's necessarily true, but is another way of looking at the discussion--are we seeing a female focus in YA because publishers are pushing female-identified writers into YA as opposed to non-YA?

Books themselves aren't gendered, and of course will find readers of all ages and identities, but the category of YA is primarily a marketing category rather than an actual assessment of reader-appropriateness. Cover designs, too, are marketing tools aimed at a specific demographic (interest, age, gender, even class or geographical location). They give the potential reader a message about an intended audience--including a gendered audience identity--that the reader can choose to accept or contradict.

Milian wrote: "I really don't think that *These violent delights* should be called anywhere near YA🙄😱😱 have you seen what's inside that book!!??? 👀"

I've read it and thought it was amazing (very much looking forward to the second one) but man, maybe not YA. - Sex, drugs, death, violence, gang wars etc.