Best Books for Young Adults: Novels That Everyone Should Read

I love young adult books over pretty much every other genre. As I reached high school, I started branching out a little more. More than ten years later, I have a handful of other authors that I follow and truly enjoy. But I still have a real weakness for young adult books and pick up new ones pretty regularly. Here are a few of my favorites.

I didn't put the Harry Potter series in my list because I think that it deserves its own category. It's really not a kids' series, particularly the later part of it. That doesn't mean that the books are not appealing to kids, but more than they are appealing and appropriate for people of a wide variety of ages. They are also way up there on my all-time favorite book list so I highly recommend it if you haven't read them yet.

Louis Sachar has been one of my favorite young adult authors since I was in middle school. I really can't pick one favorite, but Holes is definitely one of the best. If you're looking for another book of his to check out, I would skip the Holes sequel and read any of the Wayside School books or There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom.

One of my co-workers recommended this to me 5 years ago after she'd used it for a 4th grade reading group. Although I am not currently working on any creative writing pieces, this is the book that I always wanted to write. Chicago, kids, art, mystery, architecture (any other Frank Lloyd Wright fans out there?)...it has pretty much everything that I could want in my ideal young adult book. And Balliett has an amazing writing style that will suck you in right from the beginning. The other two books in this series are just as good.

I don't know how many times I've read this book. I'm sure it's at least 7 or 8. I've read and enjoyed almost all of Judy Blume's books, but this one has always stuck with me. Even if you are well past junior high or high school age, reading any of Blume's books will make you remember everything that was good and bad about that time of your life. This book is no exception.

I enjoy watching basketball, but I don't read a lot of sports writing of any sort. When John Feinstein published his first young adult novel, my dad recommended it to me. It's also a mystery, which is my second favorite genre, so no one needed to twist my arm to pick this up. It's no secret that Feinstein has a gift for writing compelling sports tales, but he also has a natural knack for writing about children.  Also, anyone who has ever attended an NCAA championship game will appreciate a lot of the little details in this book.  Feinstein has a handful of other young adult mysteries about these same characters, all of which are excellent.

I was really torn about which Fudge book I wanted to include in my Top 10 so I decided that I wasn't going to pick. I really don't have a favorite. I re-read Superfudge and Fudge-a-Mania at least half a dozen times each growing up. I enjoyed Double Fudge as well, which was just released in 2007. After Just as Long as We're Together, these are some of my favorite Judy Blume books.

Like Chasing Vermeer, this is a young adult book set that I did not start reading until I started teaching.  I have only read a couple books from this series, but they have both been really good.  It seems like every time I turn around, a kid is telling me about or is reading one of the newest books in the series.

I was reluctant to check this out because so many of Hiaasaen's books are either trashy or written purely for the purpose of executing a political message.  This book has a slight political bent but is mostly about the story, which is very well done.

This is not a book that I have re-read many times, but it's has a plot and a main character that have always stuck with me.  I can't relate to a lot of things that happen in the protagonist's daily life, but she has a similar personality and some of the same interests that I did in middle school.  I'm also a big fan of Mary Downing Hahn's The Wind Blows Backward, which is one of my picks for my 10 Books Every Woman Should Read hub.

This has become a classic and with good reason.  I hope that many of you reading this have already read this book.  If you haven't read it since childhood, I highly recommend pulling it out again.  I'm not a huge fan of Konigsburg's other work, but this is one worth reading and then re-visiting.

I'm not sure why I saved this one for last, except for the fact that it was the last one in the series when I was growing up so it seemed kind of fitting.  (Ramona's World wasn't released until 1999.)  I love the entire Ramona series, but I've always been a big fan of this book in particular.  It's really neat to see how much the girls have grown up and how the whole family pulls together more than ever for all of the family events that take place.