Good YA books

sushisamba · November 2011

We want to get books for my nieces for Christmas this year (ages 11 and 14), but don't really know what's new and hot. They're not huge readers, but would probably be interested if something is fairly popular. One of them liked the Twilight books and the other liked the Hunger Games series. Any recommendations?

kaesha · November 2011

The one who liked Twilight might like the Vampire Academy or the Cassandra Clare series. The first is on one of my grade 8 reading lists and it's pretty popular. As for the 11 year old, my grade 7s are really into The Alchemyst Series.

sushisamba · November 2011

Thanks! I'll take a look at those. In doing some searching, I saw the Pretty Little Liars books, have you heard anything about those? Seemed like a bit of a divergence from all the fantasy type books, which one of them isn't into too much.

blenderdance · November 2011

I will give you a shameless plug for my best friend's book for the 11 year old. It is called Flutter by Erin E Moulton...about a girl and her sisters and a quest for a miracle. I really enjoyed it and my 6th graders last year liked it a lot (I am starting to read it to my kids this year tomorrow!)

Also, I loved the entire Lightning Thief series (Rick Riordan) and have enjoyed The Red Pyramid series (not as good) and The Lost Hero series (a spin off/continuation of the Lightning Thief series. They are all about blending modern world with ancient cultures (first and third are Greek/Roman--gods/goddesses/myths, the second is Egyptian). My kids LOVE them and the author was a middle school history teacher, so they have some useful information in them too.

ring_pop · November 2011

So... Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High are out? Stick out tongue

kaesha · November 2011

I haven't read Pretty Little Liars! Do they like the tv show?

The Lightning Thief is great too. For something a bit more mature (they have swearing and adult situations), I LOVE Spanking Shakespeare and The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian.

The Wednesday Wars is a sweet read too.

sushisamba · November 2011

ring_pop:
So... Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High are out?

I know, right? And I even still have all my old SWT/SWH books at home.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll take a peek tonight and see what DH thinks, and maybe bounce some ideas off their parents. I feel so out of my element - I take a look at the descriptions of some things and it seems so mature! I have no idea what's appropriate for certain ages anymore.