Today’s list is by Diana Tixier Herald, and features her picks for the best of 2009 in YA publishing. Enjoy! And do let us know if there’s any YA titles you considered the best of 2009.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Speculative Fiction/Teen Fantasy/Teen World of Faerie
Laini Taylor and Jim Di Bartolo–Lips Touch: Three Times
This amazing triptych of dark fantasy novellas has the feel of truth inherent in a classic fairy tale. The illustrations are a perfect compliment, foreshadowing the story when looked at before reading and compelling the reader to revisit them after reading the story. Readers who enjoy the magnificent writing and intelligent approach to fantasy may also enjoy Sharon Shinn’s General Winston’s Daughter and Nancy Werlin’s Impossible.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Speculative Fiction/Teen Fantasy/Teen Sword and Sorcery
Kathleen Duey–Sacred Stars (#2 in the series “A Resurrection of Magic”)
Skin Hunger, the first book in the trilogy, was one of the best books of 2007. Sacred Scars continues in its excellent tradition as a sophisticated, elegant, and complex story taking up where Skin Hunger left off but incredibly enough is constructed so that it can stand alone.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Speculative Fiction/Teen Fantasy
Rob Reger and Jessica Gruner–Emily the Strange: The Lost Days
When a girl wakes up with no memories she picks the name Earwig and discovers she is in the town of Blackrock even though not a single black rock is in evidence. Great fun to read and the book itself as an object is a joy to experience; there’s lots of illustrations, semi-glossy pages and a cover that just begs to be stroked with its high gloss embossed art on a matte black background.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Speculative Fiction/Teen Science Fiction/Alternate Worlds
Scott Westerfeld–Leviathan
In Westerfeld’s spectacular steam-punk novel, set in an alternate 1914, the major division in the world is between the Clankers and the Darwinists; those who build complex, powerful machines and those who tweak DNA to engineer fantastical beasts. Readers who love this will also enjoy Kenneth Oppel’s Prinz honor book Airborn for its high-flying alternate early-20th century setting and L.A. Meyer’s Bloody Jack series.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Speculative Fiction/Teen Science Fiction/Action-Adventure
Alexander Gordon Smith–Lockdown: Escape from Furnace
In a world that has given up on its youth, a high security prison is built a mile underground where youthful offenders can be sentenced for life. In Furnace (the prison), monsters rule and the inmates are forced to chip away at the rock walls to make new rooms.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Speculative Fiction/Teen Paranormal and Horror/Teen Monster Stories
Chris Wooding–Malice
This amazing adventurous action novel combines text with passages from a graphic novel, and includes a secret graphic novel that features characters who look like teens and children who have gone missing.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Romance/Teen Paranormal Romance
Maggie Stiefvater–Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1)
This amazing werewolf romance is in a class with Blood and Chocolate which many will recognize as the best werewolf book ever. It features the fascinating premise that temperature brings on the shift.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Romance/Teen Issues Romance
Simone Elkeles–Perfect Chemistry
A gang member and a cheerleader are forced to be lab partners in their high school chemistry class. Starting out as antagonists, against their wills they are drawn to each other and discover they each have hidden depths and painful secrets.
Genre: Teen Contemporary Mysteries
Stella Lennon–Invisible I (The Amanda Project #1)
With a real Veronica Mars sensibility the beginning title in “The Amanda Project” introduces Callie, whose astronomer mother has disappeared and whose depressed father has taken up drink and lost his job; Hal, former art nerd turned hottie; and Nia, labeled a loser back in middle school.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Contemporary Life/Multicultural
Laura Resau–The Indigo Notebook
Zeeta’s fifteen years have been spent traveling the globe with her mother, Layla, an itinerant English teacher and free spirit. On a flight to Ecuador, they become involved with several other travelers who are seeking answers of their own in that country. This amazing book blends coming of age, romance, mystery, and a little mysticism to build an enticing story.
Genre/Subgenre: Teen Contemporary Life/Multicultural
Mitali Perkins–Secret Keeper
In Calcutta, dreaming of going to the U.S. and earning a doctorate in psychology, Asha sits on the roof of the house writing in her journal. That is where she meets Jay, the boy next door, an eccentric painter. This tale of forbidden but chaste love, loss, and family solidarity really pulls at the emotions. Readers may also enjoy Perkins’s Monsoon Summer, Whelan’s Homeless Bird, Sheth’s Keeping Corner, and Vijayaraghavan’s Motherland.
Genre: Teen Issues
Carol Lynch Williams–The Chosen One
Thirteen-year-old Kyra lives with her rather large family in a rural Utah compound. She loves to read but years earlier the prophet of the polygamous cult her family belongs to decreed that all non-scriptural books be burned. Defying the Prophet, she has secretly been meeting the bookmobile every week to feed her reading habit.
Diana Tixier Herald is the author of Genreflecting, Teen Genreflecting, and Strictly Science Fiction (co-authored with Bonnie Kunzel). She is the series editor for the Genreflecting advisory series. She can be found online at genrefluent.com and
twitter.com/genrelibrarian.
