,

This Wall Street Journal article sparked a frenzy of booklovers speaking in defense of "dark" YA fiction. Whether you're using this list to try censor your child's reading, or to guide your next trip to the bookstore or library, it's here to help.

Me, I plan on reading them all.
1

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2

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4.36 avg rating — 4,178,035 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 3,739,705 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 633,041 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 2,819,931 ratings
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4.62 avg rating — 4,124,625 ratings
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3.96 avg rating — 1,753,500 ratings
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8

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3.84 avg rating — 1,026,514 ratings
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9

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3.96 avg rating — 126,204 ratings
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4.13 avg rating — 4,394,016 ratings
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4.24 avg rating — 2,009,655 ratings
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4.50 avg rating — 3,810,897 ratings
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13

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3.91 avg rating — 969,520 ratings
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14

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4.15 avg rating — 1,614,024 ratings
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15

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4.39 avg rating — 2,891,818 ratings
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16

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3.62 avg rating — 815,617 ratings
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17

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4.31 avg rating — 878,105 ratings
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18

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4.05 avg rating — 250,591 ratings
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19

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3.97 avg rating — 2,856,554 ratings
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20

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4.58 avg rating — 3,671,267 ratings
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21

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4.17 avg rating — 249,990 ratings
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22

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4.09 avg rating — 176,340 ratings
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23

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4.31 avg rating — 3,454,302 ratings
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24

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3.70 avg rating — 1,495,434 ratings
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25

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4.07 avg rating — 2,175,586 ratings
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26

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4.07 avg rating — 641,610 ratings
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27

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3.95 avg rating — 479,345 ratings
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28

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3.69 avg rating — 53,070 ratings
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29

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3.88 avg rating — 346,451 ratings
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30

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4.12 avg rating — 226,321 ratings
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31

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3.80 avg rating — 3,907,951 ratings
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32

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4.05 avg rating — 285,407 ratings
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33

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3.69 avg rating — 412,838 ratings
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34

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3.73 avg rating — 292,651 ratings
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35

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4.24 avg rating — 1,376,058 ratings
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36

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3.77 avg rating — 34,141 ratings
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37

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3.76 avg rating — 497,043 ratings
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38

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4.26 avg rating — 6,915,722 ratings
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39

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3.79 avg rating — 6,219 ratings
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40

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4.16 avg rating — 155,696 ratings
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41

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3.79 avg rating — 50,978 ratings
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42

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4.42 avg rating — 1,224,497 ratings
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43

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4.55 avg rating — 1,154,419 ratings
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44

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3.82 avg rating — 12,978 ratings
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45

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4.31 avg rating — 1,477,259 ratings
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46

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3.77 avg rating — 336,634 ratings
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47

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4.37 avg rating — 1,224,119 ratings
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48

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4.10 avg rating — 681,605 ratings
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49

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3.80 avg rating — 100,819 ratings
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50

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3.75 avg rating — 82,717 ratings
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51

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3.89 avg rating — 1,601,737 ratings
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52

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3.56 avg rating — 4,348 ratings
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53

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4.15 avg rating — 15,588 ratings
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54

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4.06 avg rating — 1,693,007 ratings
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55

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3.87 avg rating — 29,937 ratings
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56

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3.72 avg rating — 619,077 ratings
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57

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4.28 avg rating — 709,875 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 37,572 ratings
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59

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3.89 avg rating — 133,646 ratings
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60

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3.60 avg rating — 232,812 ratings
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61

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3.84 avg rating — 709,110 ratings
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62

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3.96 avg rating — 465,092 ratings
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63

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4.09 avg rating — 194,277 ratings
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64

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3.63 avg rating — 37,764 ratings
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65

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3.70 avg rating — 166,371 ratings
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66

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3.73 avg rating — 75,272 ratings
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67

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3.90 avg rating — 84,109 ratings
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68

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3.65 avg rating — 62,479 ratings
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69

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3.97 avg rating — 1,289,347 ratings
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70

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3.85 avg rating — 735,118 ratings
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71

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3.79 avg rating — 13,474 ratings
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72

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3.91 avg rating — 53,252 ratings
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73

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3.89 avg rating — 71,975 ratings
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74

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4.25 avg rating — 82,666 ratings
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75

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3.92 avg rating — 745,147 ratings
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76

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3.74 avg rating — 6,058 ratings
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77

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3.98 avg rating — 11,891 ratings
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78

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3.87 avg rating — 15,329 ratings
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79

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3.76 avg rating — 60,289 ratings
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80

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3.95 avg rating — 110,281 ratings
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81

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3.73 avg rating — 19,651 ratings
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82

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3.75 avg rating — 5,508 ratings
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83

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3.65 avg rating — 17,542 ratings
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84

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3.57 avg rating — 47,082 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 22,007 ratings
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86

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3.45 avg rating — 7,703 ratings
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87

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3.98 avg rating — 204,531 ratings
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88

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3.84 avg rating — 20,399 ratings
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89

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3.85 avg rating — 15,693 ratings
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89

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3.70 avg rating — 32,264 ratings
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91

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3.84 avg rating — 6,478 ratings
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92

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3.88 avg rating — 1,971 ratings
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93

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3.86 avg rating — 1,050,255 ratings
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94

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3.92 avg rating — 35,823 ratings
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95

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3.75 avg rating — 44,957 ratings
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96

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3.89 avg rating — 644,627 ratings
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97

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 66,969 ratings
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98

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3.99 avg rating — 28,108 ratings
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99

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3.75 avg rating — 6,528 ratings
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100

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3.80 avg rating — 7,787 ratings
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552 books · 289 voters · list created June 5th, 2011 by A (votes) .
45 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


A 3970 books
1093 friends
Nicole 257 books
11 friends
Chloe 925 books
21 friends
Anna 6890 books
423 friends
Heidi 277 books
2120 friends
Hira 4802 books
910 friends
Jessica 5594 books
348 friends
Sarah (YA Love) 3286 books
825 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by A (new)

A Guys, I'm out of votes (you're limited to 100) but there are so many more books. Please vote for your favorites and add others that are missing. Ellen Hopkins, Elizabeth Scott, Walter Dean Myers--so many others--add them, please! Thanks and please continue to spread the word.


message 2: by Beth (last edited Jun 05, 2011 11:50AM) (new)

Beth G. Pssst, you know you've got The Chocolate War on here twice? You could take one off and add a different book. :) And it looks like The Lost Hero is on twice, too. Another slot!


message 3: by A (new)

A There's a handy duplicates-remover link that I just used in the edit menu but on my personal 100 I had no duplicates. :/

I can think of so many more! Love Drugged by James Klise In the Path of Falling Objects by Andrew Smith ...

Folks, if you have a "YA saves" story or blog post, please go to http://bit.ly/read2live and leave a link at the bottom of the post--I'd sure love to read them.


message 4: by Kristena (new)

Kristena Beth wrote: "Pssst, you know you've got The Chocolate War on here twice? You could take one off and add a different book. :) And it looks like The Lost Hero is on twice, too. Another slot!"

And Stargirl, too, I think.


message 5: by A (new)

A I got it! I'll probably hit the duplicates button once a day. Thanks for the eagle-eyes, though.


message 6: by Mike (new)

Mike Mullin Okay, how exactly does The Giving Tree belong on this list? It's not YA, and I'm not sure what it saves, unless someone was thinking about loggers?


message 7: by A (new)

A Mystery to me, Mike. When I get home, I'll be removing any non-YA titles... I can hit the remove duplicates link fairly easily daily but I think the other I'll have to do once a week. Apparently it's not enough to just ask people to stick to YA! ;)


message 8: by A (new)

A Ok, guys--I deleted a bunch of picture books, middle-grade books, and adult books too far on the adult side to be YA, as well as some novels too old to be considered contemporary... I kept novels that are contemporary YA, adult titles with YA relevance (see http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yal... for some examples), and middle-grade books with teen main characters. I'm sure they'll crop up again, but I'll try to go through the list once a month. In the meantime, please keep in mind, the list is for "dark" books for young readers :)


message 9: by ~☆~Autumn (new)

~☆~Autumn What was dark about Anna and the French Kiss?


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