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Monday, December 6, 2010

Top 100 YA books of all time

I thank Nomes for giving me today's topic. Below is the list of 100 top YA books of all time as polled by Persnickety Snark. I indicated in pink those that I've read and my rating (1-5 stars) for each.

1.The Hunger Games*****
Suzanne Collins
2.Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone*****
J.K. Rowling
3.To Kill a Mockingbird*****
Harper Lee
4.Speak*****
Laurie Halse Anderson
5.Northern Lights
Philip Pullman
6.The Truth About Forever****
Sarah Dessen
7.The Book Thief*****
Markus Zusak
8.The Outsiders*****
S.E. Hinton
9.Twilight*****
Stephenie Meyer
10.This Lullaby***
Sarah Dessen
11.Looking for Alaska*****
John Green
12.Just Listen*****
Sarah Dessen
13.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*****
J.K. Rowling
14.Little Women****
Louisa May Alcott
15.City of Bones****
Cassandra Clare
16.On the Jellicoe Road*****
Melina Marchetta
17.The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
18.Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban*****
J.K. Rowling
19.The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
20.Along for the Ride
Sarah Dessen
21.Shiver*****
Maggie Stiefvater
22.Vampire Academy
Richelle Mead
23.Graceling****
Kristin Cashore
24.Thirteen Reasons Why*****
Jay Asher
25.Sloppy Firsts
Megan McCafferty
26.The Lord of the Rings****
J.R.R. Tolkien
27.Alanna: The First Adventure
Tamora Pierce
28.Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card
29.Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince*****
J.K. Rowling
30.Uglies***
Scott Westerfeld
31.A Great and Terrible Beauty
Libba Bray
32.Tomorrow, When the War Began
John Marsden
33.The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
E. Lockhart
34.Pride and Prejudice****
Jane Austen
35.The Westing Game
Ellen Raskin
36.Paper Towns****
John Green
37.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire****
J.K. Rowling
38.Catching Fire*****
Suzanne Collins
39.A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Betty Smith
40.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian*****
Sherman Alexie
41.Lock and Key
Sarah Dessen
42.The Amber Spyglass
Philip Pullman
43.Evernight***
Claudia Gray
44.Sabriel
Garth Nix
45.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*****
J.K. Rowling
46.Beautiful Creatures
Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl
47.Forever
Judy Blume
48.I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith
49.Ella Enchanted
Gail Carson Levine
50.The Princess Diaries
Meg Cabot
51.Stargirl
Jerry Spinelli
52.Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
53.The Dark is Rising
Susan Cooper
54.Hush, Hush***
Becca Fitzpatrick
55.Saving Francesca*****
Melina Marchetta
56.Second Helpings
Megan McCafferty
57.Dreamland*****
Sarah Dessen
58.Eclipse****
Stephenie Meyer
59.Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Rachel Cohn, David Levithan
60.Fire
Kristin Cashore
61.The Chocolate War
Robert Cormier
62.Weetzie Bat
Francesca Lia Block
63.The Diary of a Young Girl****
Anne Frank
64.Looking for Alibrandi
Melina Marchetta
65.How I Live Now*****
Meg Rosoff
66.City of Glass*****
Cassandra Clare
67.Keeping the Moon
Sarah Dessen
68.Breaking Dawn****
Stephenie Meyer
69.Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging
Louise Rennison
70.If I Stay*****
Gayle Forman
71.The King of Attolia
Megan Whalen Turner
72.Wintergirls*****
Laurie Halse Anderson
73.Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
Robin McKinley
74.The Blue Sword
Robin McKinley
75.Feed
M.T. Anderson
76.The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
Ann Brashares
77.Go Ask Alice
Anonymous
78.Wicked Lovely*****
Melissa Marr
79.Lord of the Flies*****
William Golding
80.Someone Like You
Sarah Dessen
81.The Forest of Hands and Teeth*****
Carrie Ryan
82.Jacob Have I Loved****
Katherine Paterson
83.The Knife of Never Letting Go
Patrick Ness
84.Poison Study
Maria V. Snyder
85.Shadow Kiss
Richelle Mead
86.The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Avi
87.An Abundance of Katherines****
John Green
88.The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Mark Haddon
89.A Ring of Endless Light
Madeleine L'Engle
90.Glass Houses
Rachel Caine
91.The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Partycurrent read
M.T. Anderson
92.Walk Two Moons
Sharon Creech
93.Whale Talk
Chris Crutcher
94.Perfect Chemistry
Simone Elkeles
95.Going Too Far
Jennifer Echols
96.The Last Song
Nicholas Sparks
97.Before I Fall
Lauren Oliver
98.Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
99.The Pigman
Paul Zindel
100.The Hero and the Crown
Robin McKinley

My tallies:
read 16 of the top 20
read 45 of the total list

Interestingly, one of the books, Hatchet, my son just read for his 4th grade class! Guess I'll have to read it now too. :) What surprises me most, as others have said is the number of Sarah Dessen books. I like Sarah Dessen, she's a reliable author that I'll always pick up when I see her on sale, but I don't eagerly await each one. So again, kind of surprising. I like this list as it shows me what I'm really missing. Will definitely pick up Northern Lights and Perks of being a Wallflower. There are a lot of others that I've been meaning to read as well. What a great list to go from!

On a different note, I didn't quite make it to 5K this weekend - was 200 words shy of my goal. I was just too tired last night, my eyes were falling asleep and when you're reading and realize that you've gone three pages without cutting a single thing it means either you haven't been paying attention or you're just that good. I know it's not the latter, so I put the manuscript away and will get back to it tonight. I'm fairly confident that I can get through the entire manuscript without deleting any actual scenes because I've cut 5000 words so far and I'm halfway through the manuscript, so it should work out exactly perfect. It amazes me how much tighter it is (and I know it can probably be even tighter). It also amazes me just how long it takes. I cut 3000 words this weekend in about 20 hours - that's 150 words an hour!! My goal now is to get that second 5K done by next Sunday. Hey, it could happen. :)

What did you do this weekend? And what do you think of the list? Share!

4 comments:

Nomes said...

this is awesome.

i love how you put your star ratings next to them - i should've done that too :( because a fair few of the books i don't think are all that great...

i think you'd really enjoy The Chocolate War - i love that book :) Obviously, I LOVE Tomorrow when the war began - but i know a lot of that is from the impact when i read it as a teen and also it being home grown YA, which I always respond well too.

I haven't read Hatchet yet - did your son like it?

also - 200 words shy is nothing! proud of you

x

Martina said...

I have read some of these Books and really enjoyed them.

Bidisha said...

Like I said on Nomes' blog, I'm kinda miffed that Jenny Downham's Before I Die didn't make it to this list, otherwise the list's pretty cool.

I haven't written in such a long time, I'm ashamed. But I just had too much going on, so all I have now is angsty verse.

Angie said...

Thanks Nomes!

Bee - I haven't read that one. I'll have to get it. I'm making a list. I did not realize that Northern lights is actually the Golden Compass series. Dont' know if I want to read it now.

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