I’m interested in fully rounding out my library with children/juvenile literature.
I have most of the classics like Anne of Green Gables, A Little Princess, etc.
I also have some of the books that are from my own childhood and YA years like A Series of Unfortunate Events, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Shadowhunters, and Twilight (not particular great literature, but gives you an idea of the time frame I was reading this genre regularly).
But I have no idea what has been released semi-recently (within the last 15 ish years, I would say) since I’ve stopped reading in those genres as much as before.
What other books aimed at a younger audience is still worth reading as an adult? It can be something that simply also appeals to an adult audience (like Series of Unfortunate Events) or where the story is just so interesting, it pulls you in (a general theme in YA, to be honest)
So what’s out there now?
by MorganAndMerlin
6 Comments
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairy Land in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Taproot by Keezy Young
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Where the Dark Stands Still by AB Poranek
Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee – the whole series really.
One of Us series by Karen M. McManus
Neal Shusterman’s Scythe series
It’s marketed as a kids book but it’s really for all ages: The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. Beautifully written story about a dog who lives in a big park and has a very important job.
Not necessarily “literary,” but all of the following are very well-written, have engaging plots and characters, and were highly enjoyable reads though I am certainly no longer in the target age range:
– The Small Spaces series by Katherine Arden
– The Lockwood & Co. Series by Jonathan Stroud
– The Depths by Nicole Lesperance
– The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier
– The City of Ghosts series by Victoria Schwab
A trilogy by K. E. Ormsbee: “The Water and the Wild”, “The Doorway and the Deep”, “The Current and the Cure”. Hot dang do I wish these had been around when I was a kid. But I thoroughly enjoyed them as an adult. Genre is fantasy, in a Narnia sort of way. Lovely and unique characters and world-building. Ormsbee doesn’t shy away from some of the darker stuff that kids/adults experience but I wouldn’t say these books are “dark”. I love this author – she is whimsical, inclusive, and her characters are so, so excellently written.
Minor Mage by T. Kingfisher (pen name of Ursula Vernon) is a strange, fantastic and captivating little book; I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Also, I’ll throw in some votes for older books that are very much worth the read, that may not have made it onto your radar. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH is one that I had to read in elementary school, and it was a fairly old book then. You might have this one, I know it maintains a cult following partially because of the movie, but I wanted to throw it in because I recently did a reread and got so much more out of it than I did as an 11-year-old in a boring reading group. On the other hand, The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke has never seemed to be as popular as it deserves to be. This book practically grew with me; I reread it dozens of times over the years and it hits different every time. For an adventure story, it has some deep thoughts about what it really means to grow up.