US National Public Radio Releases List of Top YA Novels

[littlemissattitude]

I don't know if anyone has seen this yet...National Public Radio here in the States has just released its list of "100 Best Ever Teen Novels". There were 1,200 nominated books and series that were whittled down to 235 finalists. This list of finalists were voted on by 75,220 respondents. You can see the top 100 here, and the list of 235 finalists is here.

The top 10 on the final list were:
1. The Harry Potter Series - J. K. Rowling
2. The Hunger Games Series - Suzanne Collins
3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
4. The Fault In Our Stars - John Green
5. The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
6. The Catcher In The Rye - J. D. Salinger
7. The Lord Of The Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
8. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
9. Looking For Alaska - John Green
10.The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

There are a lot of science fiction and fantasy novels and series on the final list. I'd be interested in hearing what those of you who read a lot of YA literature think about these lists.

 

[planetocean]

Sounds like this list is pretty good. Some of those books I have read before. See some classics up there as well. That is why they are classics.

 

[JoanDrake]

I've read 6 and 8 and, while extraordinarily good books, they don't really fit any definition of YA I know of. (though Catcher does have an adolescent protagonist). I've not read Mockingbird, but don't think it's considered YA either. (though it certainly won't hurt any YA to read it).

Then again, Peter Pan is a metaphor for a common type of mental illness and The Wizard of Oz is a complex allegory of early 1900's American politics. A good book is just good and all stories are a genre of one in the end.

 

[SunnyEvans]

I've only read 3 of them, but have 4 more sitting in my TBR pile, so I guess that's something.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've read 5. My first impulse was to agree with Joan that The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill A Mockingbird aren't really YA books, and then I remember that we studied them in my High School English classes. (On the other hand, we studied MacBeth and Beowulf, and a lot of others things I can't picture the average YA reader picking up except as assigned reading.)

Going by the books I've read and the books I am familiar with, I think that at least half on that list were written with adult readers in mind, but would still appeal to teenage readers.

 

[The Ace]

Am I the only one who thought that Holden Caulfield was a spoiled little waste of space ?

 

[nixie]

I've read five, Although I'd have chosen Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and Garth Nix's Abhorsen above Hunger Games.

 

[Neon Genesis]

I'm disappointed none of Roald Dahl's books made it in the top ten list.

 

[quantumtheif]

Surprised a confusion of princes wasn't om here.