39. A book from the TIME list of 100 Best YA Books of All Time

[Mandy]

Trish wrote: "Steve wrote: "It's incredible how many of these I've never heard of, and how many of my favorite YAs aren't on there. I feel like it's too contemporary. Where's Ender's Game?? Where's The Outsiders..."

that's my choice as well. i've read about 17 of the ones listed.

[Evelyn]

What are you reading for this prompt, and do you have any recommendations?
I read We Are Okay by Nina LaCour.
I recommend I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and March: Book One.

[Adam]

Read The Giver.

I’ve been meaning to read this one for years now, but always kept putting it off because it seems like one of the ones they force upon you in English class. Imagine my surprise when after starting it, I felt compelled to finish it in one sitting. Very strong start with excellent world building, even if the end didn’t hold up quite as well. Still, I am planning on looking into the other books in the series when I have the time.

[Severina]

I read Dumplin' by Julie Murphy.

[Liz]

I read We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

[Marie]

I read Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.

I usually enjoy YA, but there aren't that many on this list that I'd recommend. I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, The Fault in Our Stars, The Hunger Games and also the audio version of To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

[Sofia]

I read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

[Samantha]

Stargirl is one of those books that I have heard about for years but never felt inclined to read. This seemed like a good opportunity to see what the hype was about. In the end I just don't think I am the audience for this I can see why people like it but and if I was younger I probably would have loved it but for me that I am now it was just ok.

I would recommend:
Firekeeper's Daughter
Anne of Green Gables
Scythe

[Eujean2]

Out of curiosity, I took a look at the list from 2015. The new lists includes a lot more diversity and eliminates some of the more problematic titles. There is still some in this list that I would consider middle grade, but less than the last list. We are a self-selecting group that has chosen to do a book challenge for fun. It does not surprise me that this group was reading YA books as pre-teens.

I am an adult who reads a lot of comics and YA, so feel free to take my recommendations with a grain of salt. I've read about 30 of the books on the list, many in the last five years.

All the comics listed are excellent. In fact, they are some of the titles I would suggest for an adult who is curious about comics:
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
- March: Book One
- March: Book Two
- American Born Chinese
(Persepolis had a big influence on me becoming an adult comic reader.)

Other high ratings from me (listed in the order of the listopia)
- The Hate You Give
- Anne of Green Gables
- The Marrow Thieves
- The Westing Game
- Akata Witch
- The House on Mango Street
- When the Moon Was Ours*

This last book might not appeal to everyone, but I am a fan of Anna-Marie MacLemore's lush, dreamy, LGBTQIA+ worlds.

At the moment I am in the middle of Darius the Great Is Not Okay and enjoying it. I also plan to read Pet and Firekeeper's Daughter.

[Joy D]

For this prompt, I read:
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - 4* - My Review

[NancyJ]

I read Felix Ever After by Kacen Callander. I read this mainly for the transgender aspect of the story (for another challenge), which was interesting. The rest was angsty romance with lots of high school melodrama and sneakiness.

On this top 100 list, I really enjoyed
Firekeeper's Daughter
The Book Thief
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
A Very Large Expanse of Sea
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Fault in Our Stars
To Kill a Mockingbird

[Stacey]

I'm so glad I chose The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan, which was a joy to read. I read YA fiction from time to time, but one of my favorite books of all time has to be A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. And although it wasn't on this list (but should have been), I'd recommend the truly beautiful Ida B. . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan.

[Sherri]

I read Salt to the Sea

[Judy]

I read Firekeeper's Daughter. It's very good.

[Dana]

I finished Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi and truly loved it! You should read that, no high expectations.
Just enjoy it.

[Jill]

What are you reading for this prompt?
I read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

[Laurel]

I was having a hard time getting motivated on this prompt, so I ended up going with the classic Anne of Green Gables. It has been years since I read it, so it ended up being a fresh read that I enjoyed.

[Sydney]

I read We Are the Ants, since it's one that's been sitting on my book shelf for way too long. I'm glad I picked it up, I really enjoyed it!

[Tiffany]

I read The Hunger Games and wasn't crazy about it. I wanted to read what the controversy was about, and it left me with more questions. Not impressed, but it did lead me to want to read The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games.

I would recommend: The Hate U Give, Children of Blood and Bone, and Lord of the Flies

[Pam]

I was looking at my Overdrive account and started scrolling down where it shows other available selections, grouped by a genre or topic. I was surprised to find the category Times 100 Best YA Books! That was a convenient way to find a book for this prompt except the book I found I was planning to read for the Game prompt! Hmmmm, I still have one more option, Elsewhere by Gabriele Zevin.

[Katie]

I read The Sun Is Also a Star.

I would recommend Anne of Green Gables, The Giver, The Fault in our Stars.

[GailW]

I read Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. And am questioning myself why it has taken me so long to read her. Loved this book.

[Rachel]

Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez is an award winning YA or middle grade historical fiction set in the Dominican Republic in 1960 and 1961. 12 year old Anita and her family are left behind as others flee to escape the political turmoil during attempts to overthrow the Trujillo dictatorship. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Here is my review

[Joanne]

I read Scythe by Neal Shusterman and am so glad I did. I really enjoyed this one and now I can't wait to get to the rest of the series.

[Rachel]

I just read:
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood which is a graphic novel/ autobiography by Marjane Satrapi about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ here is my review

[Dubhease]

I read Bridge to Terabithia. I can see how it was a classic, but I didn't have the reaction to it that readers did back in the day.

[KP]

I read Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. I'll definitely be reading more by him.

[Trish, Annular Mod]

I read and loved Akata Witch, which had been on my TBR for a couple of years.

[Kylie]

Anne of Green Gables Boxed Set by L.M. Montgomery

[Pam]

I just found a copy of “elsewhere” by Gabrielle Zevin so I think this will be my choice. I’ve read quite a few of the books on this list and the ones I haven’t read aren’t grabbing my interest. I really enjoyed 2 other books by Zevin so, hopefully, this one is good also!

[Hannah]

I read Scythe by Neal Shusterman — in the SFF groups that I'm a part of, this is a YA book that's often recommended to adults, so I wanted to check it out. I'm glad we had this prompt that encouraged me to do so! I'm in this position now of mostly not being drawn to YA books anymore, but also feeling like I want to keep up on some of the significant ones, so I need prompts for motivation! Anyway, I enjoyed this book, I read it super quickly, and I thought it was unique and compelling. I had actually read Neal Shusterman's Unwind when I was an actual teenager, and I thought this book had a lot of similarities in feel (I found Unwind to be incredibly compelling as a 14 year old, but in retrospect the messaging of that book really doesn't sit well with me — Scythe has the same eerie worldbuilding, but is tackling a less controversial topic.)

As a kid/teenager, I was obsessed with The Book Thief, Ella Enchanted, The Lightning Thief, Feed, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Giver, and Tuck Everlasting. As an adult, I read and loved Anne of Green Gables for the first time a few years ago. I kind of think that this list was made exactly to appeal to someone of my age, as it seems like a lot of the books on the list were ones that were popular in the 2000s and early 2010s, when I would have been reading YA, with only the last quarter of the list being after my time.

[Udari]

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume