NPR (also known as National Public Radio) released an article today that highlights the best 100 teen novels of all time.
The Best Teen Novels of all Time
The list is based on the votes of over 70, 000 people,most likely not all teens. Over the years, teen literature has become a title only. You find nowadays that more and more adults are enjoying teen literature.
Now, I love to read. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that quite a few times. So imagine my shock when I realized I’ve only 45 out of the 100 books or series listed! I was actually pretty disappointed! How could I, whatanerdgirlsays, not have read so many of these novels!
Overall, I’m pretty happy with this list. It was voted on my readers so I feel like that is a good thing and a bad thing. The good is that they’re getting the results from the people who are actually reading these books. The bad news is that they’re getting it from the people who are reading these books and so a lot of the books on this list are very very recent and therefore may not actually deserve to be up there. I mean, I love Hunger Games, I do. They are fantastic books, but #2 on the best teen books EVER? That, I wouldn’t agree with.
However, there are a ton of my favorite books on there. The Harry Potter series takes the cake at #1, as it should. Tamora Pierce has three of her series on there: Song of the Lioness at 50, Trickster series at 83, The Immortals at 83 and Circle of Magic at 86. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings took 5 and 7, respectively. Some of my favorite old school fantasies (and movie adaptations!), The Princess Bride (17) and Howl’s Moving Castle (36) made the list. Cassandra Clare’s series made it to 21 and 29, Divergent (19) and Delirium (52) were on the list. My girl Meg Cabot’s most famous series, The Princess Diaries, was in at 49 and my other queen of teen lit, Sarah Dessen, had four of her books in the top 100. And of course, many many more.
But the books that really caught my eye were the 55 books that I haven’t read. Now some of them, I’ve started and never finished (Leviathan, etc.) and some of them I just have no desire to read (cough, Anne of Green Gables, cough) but there are a TON of books on there that look really good that I haven’t even HEARD of before! So I love when lists like this come out because I can see how my favorites did and I can learn about new books that later become part of my favorites. One author that I’m seriously gravitating to John Green, who had a total of FIVE books on the list.
What do you all think of this list? Any books that you super love and that I should check out right away!? As always, let me know in the comments!
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P.S. Meg Cabot, yes, THE Meg Cabot, shared my previous blog post: How Meg Cabot Changed my Life on her official Heather Wells facebook page! Agh, so happy!
I’m not sure I would classify Twilight as anything “best.” Most popular, yes. Best not even close.
Now, of this list I suggest the following:
1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 39, 46, 57, 68, 73.
Now, I know you’ve read some of these, (#1, duh) and introduced me to the Immortals sereis. I LOVED the Gemma Doyle Trilogy. It’s EXCELLENT. If you haven’t read it, do it. I also loved the House of Night series, which is kind of an easy read and the Marked series, which is also an easy read, but so addicting!!!
Also, for a good, read, I mean a great read that’s not sci-fi or fantasy, read anything and EVERYTHING by John Greene. Seriously. He’s AMAZING.
Now, I don’t recommend 40. A friend I love gave it to me for my birthday a couple years ago and I couldn’t get through the first book.
42 I’m reading as well as 47. I’ll let you know.
I question the validity of TEEN literature of the following: 5, 7, 12, 17, 41. I think some of these are considered just literature. Not TEEN. I mean LotR is bloody hard to read for a lot of the ADULTS I know.
And that’s my 2 cents. :)
From one book nerd to another.
The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit definitely belong on any “great books” list, but I’m not sure whether I’d ever classify them as them as teen literature. It made me so happy that so many of Tamora Pierce’s books were on there. They’re awesome. I was also pleasantly surprised to see I Capture the Castle, The Princess Bride and Anne of Green Gables there. I’m sad that none of Jacklyn Moriarty’s books made the list, which I think really deserved to be there more than some that made it.