Hello everyone!
I thought it would be prudent to break the list into sections of 20, to blurb each book a bit, and give the books the attention they deserve. I will post the list in entirety, don’t fear! If you can’t get enough of these lists, I suggest visiting Persnickety Snark and giving her your nominations, as she is creating a list as well 😀
To pick up where we left off!
80. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin
Blurb: Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It’s quiet and peaceful. You can’t get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere’s museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe’s psychiatric practice.
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver’s license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she’s dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn’t want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?
Connor’s parents want to be rid of him because he’s a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev’s unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family’s strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can’t be harmed — but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.
In Unwind, Boston Globe/Horn Book Award winner Neal Shusterman challenges readers’ ideas about life — not just where life begins, and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive.
When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect†life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she’s worked so hard for—her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more. In a passionate story about looking beneath the surface, Simone Elkeles breaks through the stereotypes and barriers that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart.
Then they turn on her. Stargirl is suddenly shunned for everything that makes her different, and Leo, panicked and desperate with love, urges her to become the very thing that can destroy her: normal. In this celebration of nonconformity, Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli weaves a tense, emotional tale about the perils of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.
Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher’s mind.
The Blue Bloods vowed that their immortal status would remain a closely guarded secret. And they kept that secret for centuries. But now, in New York City, the secret is seeping out. Schuyler Van Alen is a sophomore at a prestigious private school. Suddenly, when she turns fifteen, there is a visible mosaic of blue veins on her arm. She starts to crave raw food and she is having flashbacks to ancient times. Then a girl from her school is found dead… drained of all her blood. Schuyler doesn’t know what to think.
Although there is still some question as to whether this diary is real or fictional, there is no question that it has made a profound impact on millions of readers during the more than 25 years it has been in print. Despite a few dated references to hippies and some expired slang, Go Ask Alice still offers a jolting chronicle of a teenager’s life spinning out of control.
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Great list, April! You put so much effort into making this!!
I'm kind of surprised to see THE GREAT GATSBY–I never would have thought of it as YA, but maybe since we all had to read it in school, it's a book that's identified with the Young Adult age group.
Great list, again! I can't wait to see the rest 😀
I love this list!! and I love most of these books too.. specially The Great Gatsby that's always been a favorite of mine.. I'll have to get some of the others that I haven't read.
Love this post and love drooling over the books I have yet to read!
I'm really surprised to see The Great Gatsby here because I don't really qualify it as YA. However, I am SO glad to see Alanna, Stardust and The Iron King and glad to see at least one Sharon Creech book made the list.
Paper Towns should be higher up imho 😛 (Though I think John Green would shake his head that it's even one spot above Gatsby :P)
So many amazing books on this list already! Some of them (well, Stardust and Elsewhere), I would have put in the top 20, I think, so I'm super looking forward to seeing what ends up there for you!
I might have to go through and read all the books that I haven't yet read.
So far it's a pretty great list!
Awesome list! I've read a lot of these books but some I havne't – you know you're just adding to my TBR pile right?
Hey – you should think about hosting some type of challenge after your announce all the books. See how many of the top 100 we can all get read!
This is an awesome list, and when the whole thing's up it's going to be a great resource for me to pick new reads from. 😀
I already have love for 80, 75, 67 and 63, and there's a few on there I'll probably look into a little more when I get some time. I'm loving the countdown!