^^ there's nothing stopping you from starting a co-ed young adult novel thread.

On a houseboat I once read a book called Mad Magazine's How to Be a Perfect Dog. It was all about being a perfect dog, cover to cover. It was the only one of those Mad Magazine pocket books I have ever seen that wasn't an anthology of some kind. I actually saw it in someone else's hands fifteen or so years later.

Most of the ones that weren't "adult" literature I got from the public library and I totally do not remember their titles - though horseshoe reminded me that one of them was The Cat Ate My Gymsuit.

paula danziger also wrote The Divorce Express.

I remember when I was in the UK one summer as a kid, reading an excerpt from a graphic novel, or maybe it was just something serialized in a magazine about two kids rescuing people from a human zoo.

I read a book about a kid who always wants the newest bullshit that gets advertised on TV, and then he enters commercial land and realizes how shallow everything is and suddenly doesn't want these sneakers anymore.

Twenty-One Balloons

and

Mr. Popper's Penguins

did you guys read the robert cormier books? they were sort of terrifying.

I remember really liking The Westing Game too.

I don't want to ask when any of you stopped reading YA books, because, like me, you probably never really stopped. But when did you start reading adult books? I started probably around . . . ninth or tenth grade. And started pretty slowly.

I loved Robert Cormier. Especially the Chocolate books and I Am the Cheese. And We All Fall Down?

I bought a book of his about invisibility and incest . . . I think. It wasn't bad.

And then another one that was very recent and very violent - he's lost his touch.

xp horseshoe: Yes! I loved those. I think after I read those, my mom gave me a copy of The Lord of the Flies - which is probably what I was reading when my female classmates were reading Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club.

Westing Game is badass. Also those later ones she did like The Tattooed Potato and The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel). They're great for all of the illustrations she did for them.

YA writers who were competent illustrators:

Konigsberg
Louise Fitzhugh
Raskin

Who else?

I think I started reading YA books in the 4th grade, and probably stopped around 7th or 8th grade, when I started reading "serious books" because I was serious pre-teen.

Daniel Pinkwater's Lizard Music is a really great book.

I will have to check that out.

Who is los blue jeans? I've only seen you post twice, I think.

MYSTERIOUS!!

MOD HELPS DESTROY BALL HANGING HOTLINK, RESTORES YOUNG ADULT THREAD TO SFW

You know what? That is more mysterious. Who takes a picture of balls in front of an ocean.

Problem is, the YA thread will have to have a nsfw tag.

did you guys read the robert cormier books? they were sort of terrifying.

― horseshoe, Sunday, June 28, 2009 5:31 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark

oh lord yes. i read the chocolate war in 8th grade, right before i was to start at an all-boys catholic school. scared the SHIT out of me.

I would just like to note here that I originally linked to a ? and the Mysterians 45 sleeve that apparently was changed to a photo of lolballs in order to discourage hotlinking. Lesson learned, pharaohweb.com.

So what do you think of Bunnicula?

fixed that hotlink

bunnicula and the ellen raskin stuff is gr8

also sequel to bunnicula "The Celery Stalks At Midnight" is super awesome

Um, I think I was too young when I got that. My reading mind developed weird. I did read most (all) of a late-era James Howe book in my twenties and it was okay - a little dumbed down maybe? The voice of the narrator/protagonist was interesting and kid-like. But that's what I can't stand in YA books - when they're dumbed down and patronizing - and that's why I can't stand the Series of Unfortunate Events books. Eff Daniel Handler. Maybe he's a nice, guy, I dunno.

Must apparently read Bunnicula books and catch up.

anybody else read the pigman? that was pretty intense, as i remember. plus there was that scene when the guy and girl were alone in the pigman's bedroom! that was hot.

I haven't read The Pigman, yet, but I've read a few other Zindels and they're quirky and basically uncompromising and good. They sort of remind me of Colin Higgins.

Or maybe vice versa since dude probably didn't write another book with a teenager in it after Harold and Maude.

funny, I'm pretty sure I read the first 3 Bunnicula books, but I remember virtually nothing about them. the part where Bunnicula sucks the "blood" out of celery stocks is dope, anyhow.

for me the most patronizing YA books are ones where the plot revolves around a Serious Social Problem. I'm thinking of stuff I read in middle school about a boy whose best friend was born with AIDS, and a family whose neighbors/tenants got radiation poisoning after a power plant meltdown, and god knows what else. I found the reverent, moralizing tone of these books incredibly off-putting, and if there was any fun or imagination-capturing content in 'em, it went right over my head. I much preferred books like the Great Brain series, which deals with heavy topics like assisted suicide without dwelling on them to the point where they suck the joy out of the story. Robert Cormier's Fade is great for the same reason.

http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/6996/abandoned.png

boy gets hit by a car, falls into a coma, dream he's a cat, and romps around London with his cat friends. I read this when I was 14 or so, long after I'd sworn of YA books (lol snob). I think the librarian put it in the adult section by accident, so it didn't hurt my ego to take it off the shelf & read it.

but what happens to the boy? does he stay in a coma and dream he's a cat forever? that'd really compromise the whimsy it seems to be going for.

there's a hokey deus ex machina twist at the end! for 99% of the book, you don't know for sure (if you're a dummy) whether the cat story is a dream or reality. but in the last chapter, the boy awakes from his torpor and promptly forgets everything he dreamt up except for the sense of acceptance and kindness he got from his cat friends.

you'd better be grateful for the top secret plot details, because this book was going for crazy money on amazon the last time I checked.

xxxpost

Yeah, Fade was good, but Tender or whatever was pretty bad.

I don't think I've read a Great Brain book since the 5th grade, but I loved those and probably read all but one.

Maniac Maggee revolved around a Serious Social Problem but I probably read it four times. Not that I would read it again, not like I read Harriett every four or five years.

ha, I looked up the Tenderness book on amazon out of curiosity & got this for a summary:

"Grade 6 Up. Cormier is in top form in this chilling portrait of a serial murderer. Eric Poole has progressed from killing kittens, cats, and a canary to parents and unsuspecting young women. Now 18, he has paid for his mother and stepfather's murders with three years of juvenile detention and is ready to continue his "plan."

not exactly an exercise in subtlety, is it? funny how canaries are placed above cats in the moral ladder of things it's not a good idea to kill.

bunnicula series are the first books i remember sneaking to read after bedtime

so bad

^so sad

Who is? You? Me?

Bored, not sad. What am I going to do with my Thursday afternoon?

work on improving your attitude toward bunnicula imo

I did read most (all) of a late-era James Howe book in my twenties and it was okay - a little dumbed down maybe? The voice of the narrator/protagonist was interesting and kid-like.
. . .
Must apparently read Bunnicula books and catch up.

― bamcquern, Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:50 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what?

OH oh oho

Sheesh I need better reading comprehension.

http://images.contentreserve.com/ImageType-100/0288-1/%7B8C3C48D7-9828-4940-A7F6-8E78960ECE25%7DImg100.jpg

But my _attitude_ is pretty good.

By the time I was in fifth grade the Coville books were too dumb for me.

well haw hee haw hee haw

friend of mine is blogging short reviews of all the newbury & caldecott winners ever, let me find a link

^^ http://pannarrens.wordpress.com

i had such a crush on sally from the encyclopedia brown books u__u

well haw hee haw hee haw

― carpathian florist (roxymuzak), Thursday, July 2, 2009 4:00 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark

It wasn't a joke and it wasn't an insult to anyone! Why are you pickin on me?

guess u should go eat worms imo

I enjoyed that book a lot more!

u passive aggressive

nope, just aggressive

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1377/5968463sm.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4196/4148856039b3adeb721m.jpg

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6046/sour20face.jpg

why the sour face bryce

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/963/busterkeatonoldstonefac.gif

why the old stone face bryce

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7615/spackface.jpg

christ on a crutch

BILL COSBY
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/1174/cantstopbeingarobot.gif

bryce go to thread of missing bamcquern plz

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S6ZKKKM8L.jpg

http://image.blingee.com/images16/content/output/000/000/000/5a9/463028848_597044.gif

Caldecott award banquet happening right now in Chicago

This prob won't get much response since this thread isn't on ILE, but this was an interesting article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303657404576357622592697038.html

Skipped that article and went straight to the reaction to it.

A lot of the books listed upthread are less young adult and more juvenile, I would say. All great books though. I started to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and it was really good and a quick, simple read, but I got distracted. Now it seems there is going to be a movie of it, starring Emma Watson.

I loved Robert Cormier. . . I bought a book of his about invisibility and incest

Ha, "Fade". I just read this last week (am in a not finishing books rut, thought YA fiction might be a good way out of it). For a half page at most, the incest is definitely the main takeaway from the book.

When I was 12 or whatever I thought "I Am The Cheese" was the most amazing and chilling book ever. I'd be interested to revisit it.

At the same age I also read everything I could find by Paul Zindel and didn't remember it as being bleak at all until I read the synopses on wikipedia recently and was all "did that really happen?"

Interesting article, jaymc. Have skimmed a few paragraphs but hope to read it properly when I get home. First reaction is agreement, since I loved this stuff as a kid and the grittiness made it feel real and grown-up, but I was pretty surprised reading Fade; I'd planned to take it to the charity shop, but thought "do I really want some kid who might only be 9 or 10 taking home a book with this stuff in?"

(My edition of Fade has a pretty generic kid-fic cover with a brightly coloured human outline on white, and nothing in the blurb on the back to indicate that it isn't just a cute tale about being invisible - and the brief incest scene isn't the only one I raised my eyebrows at)

which fairly well-known young adult novel had a bit about flensing?

i read one of the adam rapp ya books recently (little chicago) & it was good - anyone read any of his others?

flensing

this is the sort of question that feels like a set-up for a joke that everyone else has got except me, but, Blubber by Judy Blume, no?

oh duh ... yeah.