,

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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4.36 avg rating — 4,194,101 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 3,753,669 ratings
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4.05 avg rating — 634,079 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 2,828,146 ratings
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4.62 avg rating — 4,135,729 ratings
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3.96 avg rating — 1,756,724 ratings
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3.84 avg rating — 1,027,494 ratings
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9

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3.96 avg rating — 126,362 ratings
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4.13 avg rating — 4,403,184 ratings
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4.24 avg rating — 2,015,494 ratings
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4.50 avg rating — 3,822,343 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 970,588 ratings
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4.15 avg rating — 1,621,494 ratings
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4.39 avg rating — 2,900,822 ratings
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16

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3.62 avg rating — 816,243 ratings
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17

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4.30 avg rating — 879,235 ratings
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18

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4.05 avg rating — 250,698 ratings
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19

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3.97 avg rating — 2,869,844 ratings
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20

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4.58 avg rating — 3,681,728 ratings
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21

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4.17 avg rating — 250,512 ratings
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22

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4.09 avg rating — 176,681 ratings
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23

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4.31 avg rating — 3,465,623 ratings
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24

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3.70 avg rating — 1,497,894 ratings
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25

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4.07 avg rating — 2,179,615 ratings
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26

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4.07 avg rating — 642,591 ratings
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27

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3.95 avg rating — 479,667 ratings
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28

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3.69 avg rating — 53,093 ratings
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29

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3.88 avg rating — 346,684 ratings
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30

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4.12 avg rating — 226,402 ratings
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31

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3.80 avg rating — 3,917,886 ratings
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32

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4.05 avg rating — 285,770 ratings
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33

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3.69 avg rating — 413,072 ratings
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34

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3.73 avg rating — 293,062 ratings
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35

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4.24 avg rating — 1,381,906 ratings
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36

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3.77 avg rating — 34,176 ratings
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37

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3.76 avg rating — 497,390 ratings
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38

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4.26 avg rating — 6,936,193 ratings
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39

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3.79 avg rating — 6,225 ratings
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40

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4.16 avg rating — 155,903 ratings
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41

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3.79 avg rating — 51,067 ratings
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42

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4.42 avg rating — 1,228,665 ratings
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43

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4.55 avg rating — 1,158,870 ratings
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44

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3.82 avg rating — 12,979 ratings
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45

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4.31 avg rating — 1,479,921 ratings
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46

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3.77 avg rating — 336,875 ratings
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47

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4.37 avg rating — 1,229,150 ratings
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48

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4.10 avg rating — 682,339 ratings
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49

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3.80 avg rating — 100,863 ratings
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50

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3.75 avg rating — 82,746 ratings
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51

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3.89 avg rating — 1,604,626 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 — 15,594 ratings
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54

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4.06 avg rating — 1,698,613 ratings
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55

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3.87 avg rating — 29,946 ratings
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56

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3.72 avg rating — 619,705 ratings
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57

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4.28 avg rating — 711,366 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 37,582 ratings
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59

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3.89 avg rating — 133,809 ratings
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60

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3.60 avg rating — 233,160 ratings
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61

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3.84 avg rating — 709,837 ratings
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62

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3.96 avg rating — 465,331 ratings
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63

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4.09 avg rating — 194,453 ratings
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64

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3.63 avg rating — 37,797 ratings
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65

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3.70 avg rating — 166,434 ratings
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66

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3.73 avg rating — 75,408 ratings
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67

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3.90 avg rating — 84,161 ratings
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68

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3.65 avg rating — 62,525 ratings
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69

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3.97 avg rating — 1,292,014 ratings
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70

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3.85 avg rating — 735,679 ratings
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71

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3.79 avg rating — 13,479 ratings
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72

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3.91 avg rating — 53,267 ratings
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73

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3.89 avg rating — 72,239 ratings
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74

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4.25 avg rating — 82,742 ratings
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75

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3.92 avg rating — 745,984 ratings
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76

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3.75 avg rating — 6,057 ratings
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77

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3.98 avg rating — 11,893 ratings
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78

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3.87 avg rating — 15,331 ratings
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79

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3.76 avg rating — 60,332 ratings
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80

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3.95 avg rating — 110,328 ratings
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81

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3.73 avg rating — 19,654 ratings
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82

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3.75 avg rating — 5,512 ratings
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83

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3.65 avg rating — 17,544 ratings
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84

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3.57 avg rating — 47,137 ratings
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85

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3.83 avg rating — 22,009 ratings
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86

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3.45 avg rating — 7,702 ratings
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87

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3.98 avg rating — 204,759 ratings
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88

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3.84 avg rating — 20,409 ratings
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89

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3.85 avg rating — 15,699 ratings
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89

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3.70 avg rating — 32,281 ratings
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91

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3.84 avg rating — 6,480 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 — 1,051,174 ratings
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94

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3.92 avg rating — 35,824 ratings
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95

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3.75 avg rating — 44,977 ratings
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96

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3.89 avg rating — 646,401 ratings
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97

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 67,047 ratings
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98

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3.99 avg rating — 28,136 ratings
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99

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3.75 avg rating — 6,531 ratings
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100

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3.80 avg rating — 7,782 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 3805 books
1093 friends
Nicole 257 books
11 friends
Chloe 925 books
21 friends
Anna 6915 books
423 friends
Heidi 277 books
2119 friends
Hira 4821 books
910 friends
Jessica 5641 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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