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Best YA Novels (According to New Jersey Librarians)

New Jersey Librarians on the NJYAC listserv were polled for their top ten young adults novels. Titles receiving more than one vote are starred. With seven votes, the top title is Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, M. T. Anderson's Feed, S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders and Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher received five votes apiece.  

Randle, Kristen D. Breaking Rank. Morrow Junior Books, 1999. (Gr. 9+)

Seventeen-year-old Casey has some of her preconceived notions challenged when she begins to tutor Baby, a member of a ganglike non-conformist society called the Clan.

Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging. (and sequels) HarperCollins Publishers, 2000. (Gr. 7-10)

Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.

Rinaldi, Ann. In My Father's House. Scholastic Inc., 1993. (Gr. 7-10)

For two sisters growing up surrounded by the Civil War, there is conflict both outside and inside their house.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. (and sequels) Arthur A. Levine, 1998. (Gr. 5+)

11 year old Harry Potter is surprised to learn that he is a wizard and has his first year of adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Rylant, Cynthia. God Went to Beauty School . HarperTempest, 2003. (Gr. 6+)

A novel in poems that reveal God's discovery of the wonders and pains in the world he has created.

Sachar, Louis. Holes. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998. (Gr. 6-9)

As further evidence of his family's bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.

Salinger, J. D. Catcher in the Rye . Little, Brown and Company, 1951. (Gr. 7+)

Cynical seventeen year old Holden Caulfield has an eventful 24 journey around New York City .

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis . Pantheon, 2003. (A/YA)

This autobiographical graphic novel recounts Satrapi's experience from the ages of ten through fourteen in war torn Iran . The work examines ideas of class, religion, and government, as well as growing up.

Schraff, Anne & Paul Langan. The Bluford Series. Townsend Press. (Gr. 9+/hi lo)

A series about African American high school students dealing with real problems.

Sleator, William. House of Stairs. Dutton, 1974. (Gr. 7+)

Five fifteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.

Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn . Perennial, 1968. (Adult)

Francie Nolan grows up in a Brooklyn, New York slum.

Snyder, Zilpha. The Headless Cupid. Atheneum, 1971. (Gr. 4-7)

Life is never quite the same again for eleven-year-old David after the arrival of his new stepsister, a student of the occult.

Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand . Bartimaeus Trilogy #1 Hyperion Books For Children, 2003. (Gr. 6+)

Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Speare, Elizabeth George. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Houghton Mifflin, 1958. (Gr. 6+)

In 1687 in Connecticut , Kit Tyler becomes friends with old woman considered a witch by the community and suddenly is on trial for witchcraft.

Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2000. (Gr. 6-10)

In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity, and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.

Staples, Suzanne. Haveli. Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. (Gr. 8+)

In this sequel to Shabanu , Shabanu becomes the victim of her husband's family's blood feud and the malice of his other wives.

Tashjian, Janet. Fault Line. Henry Holt, 2003. (Gr. 8+)

When seventeen-year-old Becky Martin, an aspiring comic, meets Kip Costello, she is caught in a mentally and physically abusive relationship.

Terris, Susan. Nell's Quilt. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1987. (Gr. 7+)

Urged at the age of eighteen to marry a man she doesn't want, Nell delays the event by working on a quilt, slowly starving herself, and observing the unhappy lot of many women in turn-of-the century Massachusetts before arriving at a decision to rescue herself from the brink of death and take charge of her life.

Thomas, Rob. Rats Saw God. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1996. (Gr. 9+)

In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment which helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed him from promising student to troubled teen.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin, 1955. (A/YA)

This trilogy tells the story of Frodo Baggins and the fellowship who journeys to Mordor to destroy the ring and save Middle Earth.

Trueman, Terry. Stuck in Neutral. HarperCollins Publishers, 2000. (Gr. 6-9)

Fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and cannot function, relates his perceptions of his life, his family, and his condition, especially as he believes his father is planning to kill him.

Voigt, Cynthia. Homecoming. (and sequels.) Atheneum, 1991. (Gr. 6+)

After having been abandoned by their parents, four children begin their search for a new home.

Wallace, Rich. Playing Without the Ball A Novel in Four Quarters. Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. (Gr. 8+)

Feeling abandoned by his parents, who have gone their separate ways and left him behind in a small Pennsylvania town, seventeen-year-old Jay finds hope for the future in a church-sponsored basketball team and a female friend.

Wells, Ken. Meely LaBauve. Delacorte, 2000. (A/YA)

Meely Labauve grows up on Catahoula Bayou. His father, an alligator hunter, disappears for days at a time, and Junior, the sheriff's nephew, considers annoying Meely to be his favorite sport.

Watkins, Yoko Kawashima. So Far From the Bamboo Grove. Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, c1986. (Gr. 5+)

A fictionalized autobiography in which eleven-year-old Yoko escapes from Korea to Japan with her mother and sister at the end of World War II.

Werlin, Nancy. Double Helix. Dial Books, 2004. (Gr. 9+)

Eighteen-year-old Eli discovers a shocking secret about his life and his family while working for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist whose specialty is genetic engineering.

White, Ellen Emerson. Life Without Friends. Scholastic, 1987. (Gr. 7-10)

Beverly, the girlfriend of the school drug dealer, finds herself alone after he is accused of murdering two of her friends. She meets Derek who helps her get through her troubles and look with some hope to the future.

Williams-Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the Homefront. Lodestar Books, 1995.(Gr. 8+)

Troubled fourteen-year-old Gayle is sent down South to live with her uncle and aunt, where her life begins to change as she experiences the healing power of the family.

Wilson, Jacqueline. Girls in Love. Delacorte Press, 2002. (Gr. 7-10)

Ellie's starting ninth grade and she knows what she wants. She wants her friends, Magda and Nadine, she wants to lose weight and get a great hairstyle, and she wants a boyfriend, no matter what.

Wolff , Virginia Euwer. Make Lemonade. (and sequel) Henry Holt, 1993. (Gr. 7-10)

A young single mother and her fourteen year old babysitting help each other in this powerful story

Woodson, Jacqueline. If You Come Softly. (and sequel) G. P. Putnam and Sons, 1998. (Gr. 7+)

A young interracial couple with family problems copes with people's reactions to their relationship.

Yolen, Jane. Briar Rose. T. Doherty Associates, 1992. (Adult)

This sleeping beauty story is intertwined with a tale from the Holocaust.

Yolen, Jane. The Devil's Arithmetic. Viking Juvenile, 1998. (Gr. 4-8)

Hannah resents the traditions of her Jewish heritage until time travel places her in the middle of a small Jewish village in Nazi-occupied Poland .

Zahn, Timothy. Dragon and Thief. (and sequel) Tor, 2003. (A/YA)

After his uncle death, Jack is forced to run away, accused of crimes he did not commit.

Zindel, Paul. The Pigman. Harper & Row, 1968. (Gr. 7+)

A teenage boy and girl, high school sophomores from unhappy homes, tell of their bizarre relationship with an old man.

NON-FICTION 

Armstrong, Jennifer. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World. Crown, 1998. (Gr. 6+)

Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.

Craig, Eleanor. The Moon Is Broken: A Mother's True Story. Dutton, 1992. (YA)

Story of Eleanor Craig, a practicing psychotherapist, and her daughter Ann as they struggle through Ann's mental breakdowns which ultimately lead to Ann's death.

Frank, Anne. Diary of Anne Frank. Doubleday, 1952. (Gr. 6+)

The story of Anne Frank and her family while hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust told in her own words.

Giblin, James Cross. The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. Clarion Books, 2002. (Gr. 7+)

Traces Hitler's life from his childhood in Austria and his ambition to be an artist, to the forces that shaped the man including the social conditions that hastened his rise to power, and to his final days in a bunker under Berlin .

Levine, Karen. Hana's Suitcase: A True Story. Albert Whitman, 2003. (Gr. 5-8)

A biography of a Czech girl who died in the Holocaust, told in alternating chapters with an account of how the curator of a Japanese Holocaust center learned about her life after Hana's suitcase was sent to her.

Murphy, Jim. An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793. Clarion Books, 2003. (Gr. 6+)

Provides and account of the yellow fever epidemic that swept through Philadelphia in 1703, discussing the chaos that erupted when people began evacuating in droves, leaving the city without government, good, or services, and examining efforts by physicians, the Free African Society, and others to cure and care for the sick.

Partridge, Elizabeth . This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie. Viking, 2002. (Gr. 6+)

A biography of Woody Guthrie, a singer who wrote over 3,000 folk songs and ballads as he traveled around the United States, including "This Land is Your Land" and "So Long It's Been Good to Know Yuh."