AMERICAN AUTHORS CHALLENGE--DECEMBER 2021---YOUNG ADULT BOOKS

This is a "theme" month, although more accurately I'd call it a "category" month. According to the MasterClass website, "young adult fiction refers to books written for readers roughly between the ages of 12 and 18. It is important to understand that the terms do not refer to genre but instead are an age-based categorization that can apply to science fiction, mystery, coming-of-age, and other types of fiction. The terms reflect the reading level, world-view, thematic interests, and maturity of readers." Well, that's MasterClass...for a different, one might say differing, take on what YA is (or ought to be), especially in the 21st Century, pop down to >13 lycomayflower: below.

Many adult readers are very fond of Young Adult fiction, and then there are others who have never considered reading any of it for their own enjoyment. I read a handful of such books nearly every year, so just let me mention a few that have impressed me recently, or that have been on my favorites list for years.

National Velvet by Enid Blyton I never read this as a kid, but loved it when I finally got around to it last month. My full review

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson A gay high schooler steps way outside her comfort zone to run for prom queen. Lots of social stuff very well handled. My full review

Rosemary by Josephine Lawrence I'm stretching down into the middle-grade reader category with this one, but I've loved it ever since I was 8 or 9, and keep re-reading it with pleasure, so I'll mention it here. Set early in the 20th century, this is the story of a family coping after the (presumed) death of their father and an unspecified illness (nervous collapse?) which keeps their mother in a sanitorium. Three young girls and their older brother, who is a doctor and in charge of the household, have an interesting year. It was originally published in 1922, and it has a "feel" about it. If you like that sort of thing, this is JUST the sort of thing you'll like.

Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples
In alternating chapters we get the stories of an orphaned Afghani girl, and an American woman who converted to Islam and traveled to her husband's homeland of Pakistan with him on a humanitarian mission. Eventually, their lives intersect. Excellent.
My review


The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
14-year-old Arnold, a Native American living on the Spokane reservation, determines to attend the white high school in a nearby town. I know Alexie has come under heavy scrutiny, but this book deserves to be read. My review

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
I have loved this all my life, I feel, and I intend to re-read it this month. I've never reviewed it, but I recall it being light on plot, strong on character, and exceptional at immersing the reader in an unfamiliar time and place.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Classic, beloved story whose shortcomings cannot dull its magic for me. I've read it, re-read it countless times, listened to Sissy Spacek's marvelous audiobook version, and seen the movie so often I can almost play it in my head. Now if only I could see Jeff Daniels as Atticus on Broadway...

Here are a couple lists of the "Best" of YA fiction and non-fiction (the latter being a category I've read virtually none of):

Time Magazine's 100 Best YA Books of All Time

DISCOVERY's 115 Best Young Adult Books of All Time

Epic Reads' 16 YA Non-Fiction Books That You Need to Be Reading

ALA's 2021 list of great graphic novels and non-fiction for teens





So what are some of your favorite YA selections? And what will you be reading this month, new or old?

I won't be joining this month but I can highly recommend a few titles I have read by Sharon Creech. Love that Dog, Hate that Cat, Heartbeat were all wonderful (and quick) reads, in my opinion.

I don't currently have any YA books on my shelf (except those 3) and I am trying to avoid the library these days in order to tackle my Mt. TBR. But I will be watching to see what others come up with.

>1 laytonwoman3rd: The Inexplicable Logic of my Life by Benjamin Alire Saenz ranks as my favorite YA.

ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE is another of his inspirations.

>2 jessibud2:, >3 m.belljackson: Thanks for those recommendations! I have heard of Love That Dog and Hate That Cat (the Heartbeat touchstone in >2 jessibud2: goes to a Danielle Steele novel!) but Sáenz is new to me, and he sounds like someone I will explore.

I'm glad you put this up, Linda. Despite having five grands that read a lot, I can't parse an MG from a YA from an adult book. The two oldest got cheesy rain checks from this grandfather on their 20th birthday last June. I don't know the details of how it came about, but my son suggested getting durable sets of favorite books: Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for one, the Percy Jackson series for the other. On-line, the latter books are said appropriate for 5th through 9th grade readers. Olivia, who is ten, has already read Christopher Paolini's 4-book Inheritance Cycle and is fully engaged with the Lord of the Rings.

The book lists in >1 laytonwoman3rd: are helpful. Seems that a lot of titles I've always thought of as adult books are for all ages. I must lift my sights. Seemingly, most any book can be YA. I can work with that.

>5 weird_O: Books are just as hard to pigeon-hole as readers are, and "most any book can be YA" is a fair statement. It's really hard for me to assess anyone's "reading age". My husband started reading Tolkien's trilogy to our daughter when she was 4 or 5. How much did she get out of it that first time? Mostly the joy of having Daddy read a big book to her, I suppose, but she has loved LOTR ever since. I read To Kill a Mockingbird when I was about 14, I think, but many years later, I thought it was mighty strange to see it tagged as YA ! I don't recall ever hearing that Harper Lee intended it to be for any given age group. If an author sets out to tell a story directed at 12-year-olds, it's probably less likely to appeal to a wider audience. But some stories just defy the boundaries, and those are the ones likely to be classics. As always, no hard and fast rules apply here. If you think it's YA, read it!

>4 laytonwoman3rd: Benjamin Alire Saenz may be your new favorite!

>7 m.belljackson: You may be right! I have Aristotle and Dante on hold at the library.

I used the Discovery/TIME lists, ran a merge/purge, and came up with ten meritorious books I own.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (D)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (D)
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (D)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (D/T)
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (D)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (D/T)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (D/T)
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (D)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (T)
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (T)

You can see that three titles were on both lists. Both Little Women and Anne of Green Gables were also on both lists and are on my shelves. I'm summarily disqualifying both for reasons. Most disposed to read the checked books. Current whims.

>8 laytonwoman3rd: And, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World just made Goodreads top final 2021 YA books.

As I have done in other challenges, when I find my own familiarity with a genre may be wanting, I have invited (at her behest!) my counselor/consultant/kid lycomayflower, to chime in on the whole "What is YA" question. So watch this space for that.

Also, she reminds me (hey, nobody's brain works like it used to) that she has advocated including Benjamin Alire Saenz in next year's challenge, so we'll have to see about that, won't we?

>1 laytonwoman3rd: I enthusiastically recommend A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird.

>9 weird_O: Ender's Game is an excellent read, as well.

I didn't read any of those until I was well into my middle age, so don't let the YA genre prevent you from trying one or more.

Heigh oh, lovely people!

I just wanted to make a quick and gentle plug for checking out some more recent young adult fiction.

Young adult fiction has been around for a long time, and one could make all manner of arguments about when what we now call the YA genre started. (I would probably make my stand with The Outsiders. Others would go earlier (or later).) Originally young adult fiction was simply books written about and for young adults and some books written for adults that appealed to young adults. But in the later half of the twentieth century (and especially the 21st century), the YA genre emerged, a genre with its own expectations and tropes. When I pick up a YA novel I expect certain things, things beyond that the book will feature teenagers and be appropriate material for thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds.

Some expectations for YA today:

--immediacy (created through close points of view, vibrant language, and/or quick pacing)
--high stakes (or perceived high stakes)
--high emotion (EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT OMG)
--timeliness (especially in contemporary-set YA, the setting is NOW and the references will reflect that)
--diversity (not perfect, but you will find more queer and BIPOC and disabled characters in YA than in most any other genre)
--teenager's point of view (not the teenager grown up; not an omniscient, probably adult narrator)

Not every recent YA novel will have all of these things, but this is the *feel* I expect from YA: emotional and immediate. Compare the opening lines of To Kill a Mocking Bird (“When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow”) or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (“Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York”) to the beginning of The Outsiders: “When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.” Scout is narrating an important time from her childhood as an adult and starts with a recollection, not a scene. Francie’s story is told in an omniscient point of view and also does not start with a scene. But we are right there with Ponyboy, in a scene. Lee and Smith start with their “cameras” up high and slowly zoom in. Hinton begins with her camera already hovering right over Ponyboy’s head.

I love so many of those classic “precursors” to the contemporary YA genre (and I read many of them as a young adult) and I always love to see them get new readers. But if you are unaccustomed to reading the sort of YA written in the last ten or fifteen years, I encourage you to challenge yourself to one of those as well.

Here’s a list of some big names (at the bottom of the post I’ll also rec some of my personal YA favorites):

(Do your own doublechecking that these are Americans. An Australian or Canadian maaay have slipped in here. Soz. Some of these folks also write for adults, so also check you're picking one of their YA works.)

John Green
Rainbow Rowell
Stephanie Meyers
Kwame Alexander
Maggie Stiefvater
Stephanie Garber
Suzanne Collins
Sarah J. Maas
Ruta Sepetys
TJ Klune
Shaun Hutchinson
Adam Silvera
Becky Albertalli
David Levithan
Zoraida Cordova
Jacqueline Woodson
E. Lockhart
Marissa Meyer
Laurie Halse Anderson
Leigh Bardugo
Aiden Thomas
Elizabeth Acevedo
Sarah Dessen
Nina LaCour


Some of my personal YA favs:

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Simon vs. the Homo sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
Autoboyography by Christina Lauren
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon
The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater

>13 lycomayflower: Thank you. I intended to mention Jacqueline Woodson, because Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn were both amazing.

>13 lycomayflower: how about Gary Paulsen?

>13 lycomayflower: Typo: Suzanne Collins. Susan Collins is Maine's senior representative to "the world's greatest deliberative body".

>13 lycomayflower: But really. Great post, Laura. Thank you.

---------------
I finished the first of 13 books in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I don't feel any need to plow through the remaining dozen books.

On to Ender's Game.

Also too. I aim to get a copy of Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief, because it is the first in Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which my three oldest granddaughters devoured as teens and which influenced one of them to major in classics in college.

>14 laytonwoman3rd: :-)

>15 fuzzi: Oh, I loved Paulsen's Hatchet, though I haven't read more by him. I think I'd put him more in middle grade, but I suspect that one would depend very much on who you ask. Kind of straddles the line between late MG and early YA for age range, I think.

>16 weird_O: Thanks.

>1 laytonwoman3rd: My wife described A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as a magnificent book and her favorite ever. As I recall she thought it a book more for women rather than young women. It is also a special book for my daughter that she read in her early 20's. I picked up a copy for myself then and have never gotten to it. Maybe now is the time.

ETA: I've read the first 30 pages and I can see why people would love this. It is like getting into a time machine to 110 years ago. And yet young Francie waiting for the library to open and then with a plan to read every book and to somehow save enough money to one day actually own her favorites such as If I were king by Justin H McCarthy is so timeless and sweet and something I imagine many readers can identify with.

I'm somewhere past a quarter done with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. A couple things have struck me. These feelings may very well change by the time I am done with the book. First off, I think I would have liked this book more if I had read it when I was younger and didn't have so many books already read. I think this partly because #2 I was thinking this was like Angela's Ashes for an earlier generation. McCourt's book I truly loved. Both of these books could be read in high school and I think the coming of age aspect would qualify them as young adult books.

>19 RBeffa: Interesting about the comparison to Angela's Ashes. I just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (and I think it's the third time I've read it), and I'm surprised that didn't occur to me. Maybe because the story is now so familiar to me that I'm not thinking about it much as I'm reading it. My main impression was that this was not so much a young adult story as I had thought. There's some pretty mature stuff in there, which I surely missed understanding when I first read it (probably around the age of 14 or so). It was on my mother's bookshelves then, and I suspect she strongly identified with Francie because she grew up very poor, during the Depression, in a family with no father after she was 11, and was the sort of determined young woman who made her own way in the world.

>20 laytonwoman3rd: Francie's story (and Katie's) reminds me of my grandmother's situation in San Francisco. Her father was one of 3 brothers who came to San Francisco from Ireland around 1900. A sister landed in New York and stayed. One brother succumbed to TB within a couple years. My grandmother's father was killed in a work accident when she was a year old. She had 3 older brothers. They had a very hard life (she was even working as a janitress at night at the school she attended with her mother to pay her tuition and for a little income for the family). Education for all the kids was very important and she eventually became an engineer (and if you look at old photos she is the only woman engineer among many men). She made her way in the world.

Francie's story is an immigrant family story hoping for and some finding a better life in America.

>21 RBeffa: Can't claim the immigrant element, nor the Irish element, as my mother comes from purely English stock, and they've been here since that boat landed in Plymouth. Her family had a well run farm, but her father was too progressive for his own good (bought all the new-fangled equipment, put plumbing in the house and electricity in the barn), and was in considerable debt when he died, leaving six children under the age of 15 and two adult children from previous marriages off on their own. So the farm was lost and my grandmother left to make do. There was some familial treachery too. It would all make a pretty good story, I think.

>19 RBeffa: I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as an adult, not sure if it would have appealed to me in my youth, I was BIG into animal stories and fantasy. I didn't read the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary or Anne of Green Gables stories until my children did.

I'm glad you are enjoying it.

>22 laytonwoman3rd: I think we're related. My mother's side traces one branch to William Brewster.

You should write that story, if only to pass on "heritage" to following generations.

>23 fuzzi: I don't think A Tree Grows in Brooklyn would have appealed to me in my teens. I also inadvertently left out a sentence I intended to include in my comments at >19 RBeffa: - That is that I don't think I would tag "A Tree Grows" as a young adult book since as Linda mentioned there are some mature things in it. Nowadays I think it could pass as a YA but when it was published or even when I was a kid I don't think so.

>24 fuzzi: So hey there, cousin! We have two separate connections...to Stephen Hopkins and to John Alden. One of my grandmother's cousins established the first one, and independently one of my first cousins found the second one. Both lead to my maternal grandfather.

>26 laytonwoman3rd: I think we have Hopkins in our tree, too. And Buell, that name just popped in my head.

I'd have to go look at the genealogical charts my mother and her maternal side predecessors created.

My mother's dad was from Denmark, my paternal side is only German and Swedish, no other Mayflower people there. :D

Any Abraham Clark's in your trees? https://www.dsdi1776.com/abraham-clark/ On my father's side I also have a 4th great grandfather, Mark Mitchell who wintered at Valley Forge with Washington. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/120627472/mark-mitchell

>27 fuzzi: My dad's side is German (or Dutch, we're not certain) and Slovak. I can trace the Slovak side back to the home farm in a little village called Luky---relatives still live on it. My great grandfather and his 3 brothers inherited it, but it couldn't support all of them, so he and one brother emigrated here, and the other two stayed there.

>28 RBeffa: that is exciting!

My husband's side has Clark, but from NC.

>29 laytonwoman3rd: someone in the past generations traced my dad's German side partially to Bavaria (Hoen Stauffen) and to 1700s Pennsylvania (Gutt).

I posted these comments on my own thread and am adding them here since A Tree Grows in Brooklyn seems to be a universal fave. There is enough mature stuff in the book to keep me from tagging it as a young adult book, although it could be appropriate for some.

I have a slight feeling that I may have read part of this novel many years ago. There were several scenes that had a ring of familiarity to them - however, it may be the universal nature of this story which reads almost like a memoir of the life of Francie Nolan and her family. I enjoyed reading this and it worked very well to read pieces at a time over a couple weeks. Although there are some upbeat moments overall this repeatedly struck the sad chord in my breast. It really captures a period of time in the early part of the 20th century. There are things in here I hadn't thought of in 50 years or more that echoed stories from my grandmother.

Two scenes in the book were especially familiar and memorable to me. The vaccination scene for Francie and her brother Neeley is quite memorable and had so many echoes of the vaccine mandates of today it was uncanny. The other scene is a rather horrifying episode when Francie's mother Katie uses a gun to protect Francie.

I cannot say that this is one of my favorite reads of all time - although if I had read this in my 20's I might have thought differently. I can say that I really admire this book and the way it is put together. It was a way to visit Francie and the Nolan family a little bit each day of this month. My interest never flagged even if it was not a "page turner". This will make it somewhere in my top ten novel reads of 2021.

This month I read Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh. :)
boy hiding and surviving in Brussels as an illegal Syrian immigrant

>32 nrmay: Two interesting selections. But Jill Paton Walsh isn't American, is she?

>30 fuzzi: I love that this thread has led to a genealogy discussion!

>31 RBeffa: It was a solidly enjoyable re-read for me, Ron. I'm glad I decided to pick it up again.

And now, for those who have been eagerly anticipating, I have started the American Authors Challenge for 2022.

General Discussion Thread

The January thread is here.

and
The Wild Card Thread

I completed five (5) books considered YAs, but I haven't (yet) reported on any of them. I'll do a wrap-up report in the next day or two. For now, the titles:

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (12/1/21)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (12/5/21)
47 by Walter Mosley (12/15/21)
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (12/18/21)
The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (12/21/21)

>35 weird_O: I always meant to read at least one of those Rick Riordan books. My daughter enjoyed them immensely when they came out.

>33 laytonwoman3rd: I love rabbit trails...

>35 weird_O: I didn't know Mosley wrote YA stuff....

>37 fuzzi: Yeah, me too.

>36 RBeffa: That's why I read The Lightning Thief, Ron. My three oldest granddaughters devoured both the Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus series. Claire says the books got her interested in the classics, to the point she's a classics major poised to spend the Spring Semester in Greece.

>38 laytonwoman3rd: He wrote one, Linda, about 20 years ago. The ending suggested the story could continue. Either the writer or the market didn't want a sequel, I guess. I though it was pretty good.

>39 weird_O: The classics connection was what drew my daughter in also Bill, but she didn't become a classics major! That is very cool. Books can so inspire us. Parts of the books are apparently set very near where we live also, notably Mt Diablo and Mt. Tamalpais. I went and raided her bookcase and have the Lightning Thief on my TBR very soon table.

ETA: Here's a photo of Mt Diablo that I took a few blocks away from our house.

The Riordan wiki on Mt Diablo: https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/Mount_Diablo

Finished up Hatchet by Gary Paulsen for this month’s read. Excellent YA read in the “old school” variety (not a vampire or witch to be found), just lots of tension and adventure and drama.

Karen O

P.s. I’ve really enjoyed this group this year! See you all next year!

Thanks, Karen. I look forward to seeing your choices in 2022.