Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literature's Young Adults'  Choices

    YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults


     And, Jon Scieszka, author of many popular books, has developed a website to help GUY readers find things that they like to read. Check out: GuysRead.com

Some of my favorite picks:

  FICTION

     Classics and near-Classics:

• The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• The Pigman by Paul Zindel
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Small Steps by Louis Sachar
• Tangerine by Edward Bloor

      Graphic Novels:

• Houdini: the Handcuff King
• The Plain Janes
• The Making of a Graphic Novel: The Resonator
• Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age
• To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel by Siena Cherson Siegel and Mark Siegel
• The Making of a Graphic Novel: The Resonator by Prentis Rollins

     Romance:

• Who Am I Without Him? Short Stories about Girls and the Boys in Their Lives by Sharon Flake
• How I Live Now by Meg Rossoff (action with romance)
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Emma by Jane Austen
• The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

     Action/Adventure/Survival:

• The Red Sea  by Diane Tullson
• Call of the Wild by Jack London
• White Fang by Jack London
• The Sea Wolf by Jack London
• Collected Klondike Short Stories by Jack London
• Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
• The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence
• City of Beasts by Isabel Allende
• Monster by Walter Dean Myers
• Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
• Far North by Will Hobbs
• Jason's Gold by Will Hobbs
• Downriver by Will Hobbs
• Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes
• The Chocolate War by Robert Cromier
• The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin
• Hidden Talents by David Lubar
• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

     Mystery:

• The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Richard Yancey
• Jimmy Coates, Assassin? by Joe Craig
• Wolf Rider: A Tale of Terror by Avi
• The House on Hound Hill by Maggie Prince
• The Christopher Killer: a Forensic Mystery by Alane Ferguson
• Silent to the Bone by E. L. Konigsburg
• Piratica by Tanith Lee
• Twisted Summer by Willo Davis Roberts
• Death and the Arrow by Chris Priestly
• Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan
• Down the Rabbit Hole by Peter Abrahams
• Three of Diamonds by Anthony Horowitz
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Miss Marple's Final Cases by Agatha Christie
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• Night Fall by Joan Aiken

     Science-Fiction and Fantasy:

• The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Both Sides of Time by Caroline B. Cooney
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• The Squire's Tale by Gerald Morris
• The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
• Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
• Messenger by Lois Lowry
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry
• The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
• The City of Ember series by Jeanne Duprau
• The Prophecy of the Stones by Flavia Bujor (she was 14 when she wrote this!)
• Sword of the Rightful King: A Novel of King Arthur by Jane Yolen

     Historical Fiction:

• War of the Eagles by Eric Walters
• The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
• Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori
• Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
• Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
• A House of Tailors by Patricia Reily Griffin
• Grape Thief by Kristine Franklin
• Mississippi Trial, 1955 by Chris Crowe

     Sports:

• The Natural by Bernard Malamud
• Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
• Ironman by Chris Crutcher
• Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
• King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher
• It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong

 NON-FICTION

• Endurance by Alfred Lansing
• Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two by Joseph Bruchac
• Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self by Lori Gottlieb
• Kids on Strike by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
• Spellbinder: The Life of Harry Houdini by Tom Lalicki
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
• Across America on an Emigrant Train by Jim Murphy
• The Great Fire by Jim Murphy
• Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
• Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol
• Countdown to Independence: A Revolution of Ideas in England and Her American Colonies by Natalie S. Bober
• Leon's Story by Leon Walter Tillage
• Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust by Susan D. Bachrach
• A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson
• John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth, a Photographic Biography by Elizabeth Partridge
• Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth by James Giblin