Posts contained in the “YA Literature” category:

Books written for and/or marketed to young adults: people 13-18 years of age.

Angry Management by Chris Crutcher


Share this…             In this engaging trilogy of novellas, Chris Crutcher has taken a handful of characters from his earlier works—Sarah Byrnes, Angus Bethune, John Simet, Matt Miller, and Montana West—and imagined them “living outside of their original times and in some cases outside of their original settings” as he describes in his introduction (n. pag.). If …read more…


The Bumblebee Flies Anyway by Robert Cormier


Share this…             Sixteen-year-old Barney Snow is the only patient in his hospital ward who isn’t dying. Unlike the other kids however, most of his memory is gone; he has only vague recollections of a car accident, and the knowledge that he is at the hospital as a service to others. At the heart of this story …read more…


By the River by Steven Herrick


Share this…             The year is 1962, and fourteen-year-old Harry Hodby lives in a small town in Australia. His mother died when he was seven, his friend (and potential girlfriend) Linda was swept away in a flood, and he, along with his father and younger brother Keith, are left to sort out their hardscrabble lives, coping with …read more…


Latino Literature: A Guide to Reading Interests edited by Sara E. Martínez


Share this…             I find books like this one a bit maddening, first because they are expensive (all books for librarians are expensive), and second, because they are out of date almost as soon as they are in print. As an introduction to Latino literature for someone who is unfamiliar with it, it can be a good …read more…


Every Man for Himself: Ten Short Stories About Being a Guy edited by Nancy Mercado


Share this…             I don’t know how I missed this one, but I did. And I’m a bit upset about that, because there are some fine stories in here. I warmed to this book from the very beginning, because Nancy Mercado tells us …what these stories are not. They are not stories about your voice changing, learning …read more…


I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak


Share this…             Nineteen-year-old Ed Kennedy, a cabdriver in Australia, almost accidentally stops a bank robbery and nabs the would-be thief, thus achieving his Warholian fifteen minutes of fame. This would seem to be the high point in a life of mediocrity, but then a series of playing cards begin arriving in Ed’s mail, each with a …read more…


The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier


Share this…             This is a problematic book in many ways. It has been (seemingly forever) on lists of banned or challenged books almost as long as it has been on many high school reading lists. It’s almost as if the teachers who long ago laminated their lesson plans and teach this book just because they have …read more…