Suggestions?

[d_aulnoy]

Every time I teach my YA lit class, I wind up with a couple of outliers.  The YA class is generally intended for people who want to teach high school, so it carriers a field experience component ... but every term, I wind up with a couple of people who are just taking the class because they, well, like YA lit.  And who am I to complain?

So every term, instead of their spending 4 hours at a local high school observing classes and then however many hours writing up the 5 page report on it that I require, I have them read a contemporary, ideally very-recently-published YA book and report on that instead.  Last term, I gave them Little Brother, but then I decided I liked it enough to sub it in for Ender's Game and just teach it outright.  So now I'm looking for a good book to assign for this term.  Y'all got any faves that you'd like to point me towards?
 

Comments

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Does it have to be SF? I highly recommend Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta.

Other non-SF noteworthy YA:
Paper Towns by John Green
Me, The Missing and the Dead by Jenny Valentine

In SF:
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.
The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson (sort of a YA Farthing)
Nation by Terry Pratchett

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

Nope, it does not have to be SF - I tend to skew that way because of being, well, me, but I'd been thinking of using _The Green Glass Sea_, and it looks like a lot of your suggestions are right up that alley. I am particularly intrigued by the idea of a YA _Farthing_! Thanks!

[penmage.livejournal.com]

I tend to skew that way too :). I would definitely check out Jellicoe Road--it was this year's Printz winner, and one of my all-time top ten reads. There's a lot going on--it's one of the only books I've ever read, closed the last page, and then opened it up and started reading it again moments later. I love it very much.

Another book I highly recommend is Dreamhunter and Dreamquake by Elizabeth Knox--not published as recently, but fascinating gorgeous books that are smarter and deeper than most other books I've ever read.

[msmsgirl.livejournal.com]

and by Jenny! Have you and she ever talked about YA Lit?

[d-aulnoy.livejournal.com]

Wait, it's by *our* Jenny? I loved her first novel, but I had no idea she wrote YA ....

[moonlightalice.livejournal.com]

I was *just* going to recommend The Green Glass Sea, which I bought at Wiscon a few years ago and loved.