Parenthetical

YA novels: the perfect choice for everyone on your list! (Um, maybe not the babies. You’re on your own there.) Here’s my handy list of suggestions — you just have to promise to buy them from your local independent bookstore.

For the grown-up who wants something packaged as Actual Literature:

• Marcelo in the Real World, Francisco X. Stork — Marcelo relates to people as though he has Asperger’s (the book eschews an easy label) and has spent his whole life in a special school. For his last summer in high school, his dad sets Marcelo up with a job in the “real world”: the mailroom in his dad’s law firm. The real world turns out to be full of grey areas, moral complications, and a lot more growing up than Marcelo or his dad had counted on.
• Nation, Terry Pratchett — Mau’s island village is wrecked by a tsunami; he is the only survivor. Daphne’s ship runs aground on Mau’s island during the same storm; she, too, is alone. As survivors start to stream in from nearby islands, the two become leaders, adults, and entirely different from who their societies intended them to be.

For your favorite bad-ass girl (or boy):

• Graceling, Kristin Cashore — Katsa is Graced with superhuman fighting abilities, which her uncle the king forces her to use for his petty vengeance. Under his nose, though, she starts a Council of Robin Hoods bent on protecting the common people tormented by the whims of the kings. In the process of doing the Council’s work, she meets a prince who shares her Grace and uncovers the horrible secret behind a distant king’s rule. This book has it all: violence, romance, adventure, perfectly plotted mysteries… ok, I sound like the grandpa in A Princess Bride, but trust me, you’ll love it.
• Rapunzel’s Revenge, Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, & Nathan Hale — This graphic novel sets Rapunzel in the Wild West, with a greedy mine-owning wicked witch, an endearing outlaw sidekick named Jack (of Beanstalk fame), and a Rapunzel who climbs down her own damn hair.

For absolutely everyone 9-14 (and plenty who are older):

• A Crooked Kind of Perfect, Linda Urban — Zoe dreams of being a piano prodigy, of playing classical music at Carnegie Hall in a long, elegant dress. But her agoraphobic dad has trouble saying no to salesmen, so instead of a piano, what she gets is a Perfectone organ and a chance to compete at the Perfectone Perform-A-Rama. This book will make you laugh, cry, and gain a new appreciation for Neil Diamond’s “Forever in Blue Jeans.”
• When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead — Miranda walks home with her best friend every day, helps her mom study for her $20,000 Pyramid debut, and reads A Wrinkle in Time over and over again. But suddenly her life is full of odd characters: the crazy man under the mailbox on her street, and the kid who punches her best friend for no reason. And then she starts getting the notes… This is the sort of book you’ll need to read again the minute you finish it, just for the pleasure of seeing how all the pieces fit into place.
• The True Meaning of Smekday, Adam Rex — When the Boov invade, they herd everyone in America to Florida. How much space do all these humans need, anyway? Tip and her cat road-trip south, joined by an outlaw Boov named JLo… until even scarier aliens show up and they have to save the world. It sounds silly, and it is, but it’s also secretly brilliant. Not to be missed.

For thinkers who aren’t afraid of adventure, and adventurers who aren’t afraid of thinking:

• The Knife of Never Letting Go & The Ask and the Answer, Patrick Ness — Prentisstown is a human settlement on an alien planet. In a war with the natives, everyone was infected with the Noise. Noise killed all the women in Prentisstown and left the men able to hear each others’ thoughts, whether they want to or not. Todd is the last boy in Prentisstown, about to become a man when he turns thirteen in a month. But shit is going ill, and even though he doesn’t understand any of it, he and his dog need to run, now, into the rest of New World beyond the swamp. He’d always been taught there was nothing beyond Prentisstown, but it turns out that a lot of what he thought he knew is a lie… You won’t be able to put it down, or even take a breath, until it’s over.
• Hunger Games & Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins — In a post-apocalyptic U.S., now called Panem, the merciless Capitol rules the twelve Districts. The Capitol gets all the good food, all the advanced technology, all the comforts; all most District people get is work and hunger. To remind the Districts who’s in charge, every year the Capitol forces each District to choose at random a boy and a girl as tributes. The twenty-four lucky kids are contestants in the Hunger Games: a fight to the death, broadcast throughout Panem as the ultimate reality show entertainment. Deeply disturbing, but worth it.

For anyone at all (seriously):

• The Arrival, Shaun Tan — The story of a man who escapes his threatened home to start a new life on foreign shores, leaving his wife and daughter behind until he has enough money to send for them, is told wordlessly in rich sepia-toned pencil drawings. It’s the most beautiful book ever, and works on appropriate levels for all ages.

Let me know if any of these suggestions work out for you and yours!

Comment here