Young Adult Fiction! discussion

do you have a favorite young adult series?

As cheesy as it sounds, I would have to admit that my favoriet series so far is Harry Potter. Its filled with a moralistic sense of value as well as instruction for children as well as adults.

i don't think that's cheesy at all! The harry potter series is really well written, as you said, for both children and adults. (i think it's probably my favorite too!)

there are three for me.

NightMare Hall ((i think by diane howe)) was quite fantastic. i never read all of them, but oh man was i hooked...


the other two are both by Christopher Pike. go ahead and laigh if you will. ((and no, i'm not talking about his books about vampires.. i didn't read those))

The Chainletter books ((there were only two, but i still count it as a series)) and the Remember Me Trilogy ((again, maybe a bit short of a series... but i still think they should count.))

i'm not gonna say they were particularly well written, because, let's face it, i wasn't that picky when i was in 6th and 7th grade, but i WILL say that i have yet to read a christopher pike book without breaking down and sobbing at some point.

I like the Twilight Series

Ahh...this takes me back. As a tween and teen, I LOVED to read YA series. My favorites were: The Boxcar Children, The Saddle Club, Encyclopedia Brown, Sweet Valley Middle School/High, Anne of Green Gables, Judy Blume's Fudge books, and, of course, The Babysitter's Club. I now must add the Twilight series to the list.

Anne of Green Gables, The Tripod series by John Christopher, Chronicles of Narnia, Chronicles of Prydain, Wrinkle in Time series, Edward Eagar Magic books, Wolves of Willougby Chase series. And of course, Nancy Drew :)

Some of those are probably younger than "Young Adult", but oh well :)

So hard to choose just one! Favorite Fantasy series, Harry Potter by Rowling and Alanna by Pierce. Favorite Scifi series, Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow by Card and Scorpion Shards by Shusterman. Favorite realistic fiction series, Hazelwood High Trilogy by Draper. Favorite action series, Alex Rider by Horowitz.

i love the boxcar children!!

The Boxcar Children was a real favorite of mine when I was a kid, but I went to read the first book to my son, and man, is the writing terrible. It's all "Oh dear!" cried Jessie, "Whatever shall we do?" Still, it's a charming story, but skews to the younger end of the age group.

I really wanted to adore Harry Potter as a series, but I think it got incredibly bloated.

Do I get to count my deep fondness for Nancy Drew here?

I loved the Bartimaeus series, and Pullman's trilogy (although even though it's classified as teen I'm not sure it is...)
And, of course, Harry Potter!

Kaza Kingsley
Author of the Erec Rex fantasy series
http://www.erecrex.com

Growing up I loved the Happy Hollister mysteries. And I go back and reread The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper every few years. I still haven't seen the movie yet but it's on my list.

Unfortunately I tend to not like series books. It goes like this: The first book I read, I like. The second book I like a little less, but it's okay. The third book, well, this is getting kind of old. The fourth book, argh, this sucks!

My problem with most series books is all the characters stay the same throughout the books. No matter what happens to them they don't grow (I mean, in spirit and maturity, sometimes they do grow in age). I get really tired of the characters not learning from any of their experiences and not changing at all.

The exception is the Harry Potter series. There is loads of character growth of all kinds in that, and I loved all the books.

Oh - another series I LOVED as a kid was the Oz series by L. Frank Baum. I "got to know" the characters so well, I really believed the place existed.
Just found out there is an Oz club in existence now!

Kaza Kingsley
Author of the Erec Rex series
http://www.erecrex.com

YA series I've read recently and enjoyed:
Scott Westerfeld Uglies series
Stephanie Meyer Twilight series

Series I remember loving as a young adult:
Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
Pern series by Anne McCaffrey
Chronicles of Prian (Priam?) by Lloyd Alexander
Dune by Frank Herbert


Series my students read and like (sorry, I don't know all the authors):
Gossip Girls
A-List
Au Pairs
Bluford Books from Townsend Press (very good for struggling readers, especially minorities or inner city youth)

Pern series by Anne McCaffrey
Tripod series by John Christopher
Time series by Madeline L'Engle
Herald series by Mercedes Lackey (warning, after the 3rd book it's clear homosexuality is accepted in this society)
The Dark is Rising series
Anne of Green Gables series

I've recently read:
The first two books in the Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld, and plan to read the third.

The first in the Airborn series, and plan to read the next.

Boyd, you're thinking of The Chronicles of Prydain, and I really liked those too :)

When I was younger..it was
The Babysitters Club
Sweet Valley High
the Judy Blume books
Fear Street
Goosebumps (they probably dont count as young adult)
all the books by Lurlene Mcdaniel (I dunno if they count as a series)

As an adult, I've enjoyed:
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Blue is for Nightmares series
the Harry Potter series

I know that I read just about anything with words in it, but I loved everything by Lucy Maude Montgomery - lived for Anne with an e! I also loved Nancy Drew, Narnia, The Linda Craig series by Ann Sheldon, Judy Blume and the Wrinkle in Time books.

As an adult I have discovered: Harry Potter, Maximum Ride, the Inkspell trilogy (though the 3rd one's not published yet), Artemis Fowl and now The Looking Glass Wars series - just bought the 2nd one :).

I loved Christopher Pike's books when I was younger.

Also:
The Babysitters Club
Cheerleaders series by Caroline Cooney
Sweet Valley High
Sister's series by Jennifer Cole
Lurlene Mcdaniel's cancer/sick kids books
Judy Blume's books


Recent:
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer
Harry Potter series

I want to start reading Westerfield's Uglies series.

I'm a real serial girl. My favourites when I was younger were

The Babysitters Club - Ann M Martin
Making Out - Katherine Applegate
Hard Cash (trilogy) - Kate Cann
Sweet Valley High/University - Francine Pascal
The Worst Witch (although not so much a series as a number of unconnected books)

As an adult I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books.

I've been through this thread adding lots of the series' mentioned to my to-read list!!! Thanks!!!

My favorite YA Series are: Harry Potter and the Rainbow Trilogy.

Now, I love Harry Potter. When I was young I was into:
Sweet Valley Twins/Sweet Valley High
Camp Sunnyside Friends (nobody remembers this!)
Babysitters Club
Christopher Pike and R.L. Stien

My mother tried to get me into The Fabulous Five, but I never really liked them. She kept buying them though because she was into them!

It's so fun to see all the other Sweet Valley High readers on here. When I was in sixth and seventh grade, my friend and I just devoured those books...she was always one book ahead and would just keep passing the next one to me in Math class (sorry Mr. Brown - didn't learn much math that year!) I know they were kind of fluffy, but I loved them and I'm certain these books impacted my own writing. But also, I loved Madeleine L'Engle's series and the Anne of Green Gables books. I, too, as an adult loved Harry Potter and I've LOVED His Dark Materials (though I guess that's a trilogy and not a series). I was super into Dragonlance in seventh grade too and anything by Piers Anthony. I really read series as a young adult and teen but haven't much since adulthood...which is kind of strange.

Another series that I got into but never got to finish was the "Left Behind" series for kids. There is also an adult version of "Left Behind".

NOW my favorite YA series----Sharon Draper's books about Hazelwood High
Stephanie Meyer's Twilight
and Holly Black's Tithe

FAVORITE SERIES:

Great and Terrible beauty
Twilight
Christopher Killer
Marked
The Mediator
1-800 Where Are You
Bayern (Goose Girl)

and most recently

Wake

((note that these are either the name of the series or the name of the first book))

Ooohhh, I also LOVED the Choose Your Own Adventure books.

i don't know how i failed to mention when i first posted on this topic, but a series of unfortunate events made up one of my favorite reading expreriences of all time.

I'd like to add my own series THE ELITE, the first book of which was just released from Berkley Jam :)

Some of my favorite YA series:

Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica by James Owen
Cat Royal by Julia Golding
Sally Lockhart by Philip Pullman

Oh, and Philip Reeve's Hungry City series.

Morganville Vampire Series by Rachel Caine

I love Louise Rennison's books about Georgia Nicholson, starting with Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging. I read them again and again and laugh out loud every time!

There are so many great series out there now (it seems to be the cool thing to do as an author).

I like Megan Mccafferty's books starting with Sloppy Firsts.

And I love Susan Judy's books starting with Alice, I Think. So hilarious!

I also like the Artemis Fowl books.

i love the twilight series and harry potter series, of course.

i also love the pretty little liars series.
those are AMAZING books.

so are the Private series.

I've recently gotten into the Seven Deadly Sins series, they're good too. :]

My most recent favorites are:
Far Flung Adventures (3 books) by Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell. They are in order: Fergus Crane, Corby Flood and Hugo Pepper. Extremely well written w/ illustrations. see my reviews for more info.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, also has cartoon illustrations but has some ideas you may not want your kids to try.
(I thought it was funny though)

Merlin Series by T.A. Barron
Artemis Fowl
Revenge of the Witch Series
The Gatekeepers

I quite enjoyed:
Rangers Apprentice
The Hunger Games
Percy Jackson
Heroes of Olypus
Harry Potter
Dragons in our midst
Lorien Legacies
The Gate Keepers (known as The Power of Five over here!)
and heaps more!

I have to say that the Hunger Games is so well written and intriguing, it would be at the top of my list.