Young Adult Book Recommendations

[Rosencrantz]

Gonna suggest Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones. Complex, but she's such a good writer that things snap into place instead of becoming more confusing as it goes on. It's about Ann, who is caught in a machine creating a fantasy world. And also it might be sci-fi or it might be a fantasy book.

Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones. Boy accidentally brings down wall and a young boy named Luke comes out and declares he's the boy's friend now, and to summon him all the boy has to do is light a match.

Where the  Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. A young girl wants to save her parents from poverty and teams up with  a dragon. Full of fairytales by the author that seems totally authentic that all tie into the end.

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. A bit older than my other suggestions, but about the right age. I read it when I was eight*, but it was on the reading list at my school for eighth grade. In a nuclear holocaust future, humanity has less than a fifty percent change of being born without a mutation.



*Dad said: wow, you like x-men? Read this.

[andibgoode]

Really trying to think of something but I guess I don't read a lot of YA novels! I did read a fair bit of fantasy around that age but all I can remember reading is Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Is Douglas Adams suitable for 12-13? Not exactly fantasy, though, I guess but definitely not boring for an adult!

I'm sure there are some great suggestions on here and more to come.

[moonflower]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books.

[Rosencrantz]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books.

He actually has five specifically for young adults, on that vein, that don't require reading/purchasing a huge series, since they're pretty standalone.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, which is about a talking cat and his talking rats who are pulling a pied piper scheme. Also there's some humans.

And the Tiffany Aching series, (The Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight) which are about a young witch from childhood to semi-adulthood as she learns witching and generally being self-assured.

He's also written Nation, for young adults, which is about a small island that's hit by a tsunami and the rebuilding that happens next. Not magical at all. Maybe. There might be a little.

He's a solid writer with a nice sense of humour, so his books are generally pretty interesting. I would not recommend getting the main discworld series due to its size and varying quality of the start to the end. I do love it, though.

EDIT: I just remembered this is for two people, not a classroom. I knew this when I originally posted, I swear. If you want a commitment, definitely try the Discworld series! Don't start with the first ones though. He was doing regular fantasy parody for those and they're not the best introduction.

Lesse. Discworld is actually a bunch of series within a single world. The Watch books are about cops in a very magic world solving crime, the Witches are about deconstructing stories, Death's books feature Death as the main character, where among his activities involve the time he gets turned into a mortal and the time he had to replace Santa Claus. There's other stuff, but those are my favourite series, along with the standalone books Pyramids and Small Gods. Pyramids is about an assassin returning home to being king and finding out something is very wrong with time, and Small Gods is about the Great God Om who discovers that while his religion is vast and powerful, no one truly believes in him anymore and he's trapped as a tortoise. Well, he has one believer left, actually...

[Rosette]

How about Michael Grant's GONE series?  Dystopian super hero situation where kids are trapped together in a small town when all adults disappear.  Kinda like teen X-Men meets Alas, Babylon survival story. 

[StoryDreamer]

I also like Jack Blank and the Imagine Nation

[spottedslug]

Warriors!! Hands down.

I adore them, my mom loves them, my HUSBAND likes them, my oldest daughter, every student who I've convinced to read them, and before he died my dad loved them too (and he didn't even like reading anything else!).

[Squirrelypaws]

Seconding/thirding Warriors/Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter, especially if you like cats. It's about a housecat who joins a clan of ferals. Here's a link to some more info: Warriors

Aside from Harry Potter,  Warriors is my favorite series. There's actually five seperate series, with six books each. The fifth series is currently in-progress; I think it's on the second book? But the first four are complete. The site I linked to above has a fantastic discussion forum as well.

I also second the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series; from what you mentioned for taste in books, it sounds like this might be right up your alley.

Hmm... Other than those two, I can't think of any off the top of my head.

[Archer]

I'd go with Hunger games It's an awesome series, or the Stravanganza series by Mary Hoffman. That one has some great chaarcetrs to it

Also, shameless plug here but if you do want a YA book, my sister actually has one coming out soon lol If you're interested at all her website is here: www.theblueeyedgeneral.co.uk She has some sample chapters up ^_^

[NoPonySpecial]

Here are the fantasy series' that have earned a place on my shelf:
(I won't mention Warriors and The Hunger Games since everyone else already did. )

Inkheart and its sequels; Cornelia Funke (she writes a lot of great YA fantasy and non-fantasy, like The Thief Lord, and Dragon Rider. I think she has some other series', too.)

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles; Patricia C Wrede

A Series of Unfortunate Events; Lemony Snicket (If you haven't read those yet. They aren't quite fantasy, but have that flavor to them.)

Children of the Red King (The Charlie Bone books); Jenny Nimmo. (I think I've only read the first five of these? There are a ton of them.)

His Dark Materials trilogy (Golden Compass etc); Phillip Pullman. (Actually, Pullman writes LOTS of YA literature, he's really good. Off the top of my head, I liked The Last Book in the Universe (sci-fi, somewhat distopian.)

Roald Dahl books in gerneral. The reading level itself tend to be for younger kids, but he's just such a bitter, funny, and sometimes mean-spirited author that they can be enjoyed by all ages.

How about The Lord of the Rings? I think they're technically at a high-school or higher reading level, but lots of kids love them too.


Magic Shop Books; Bruce Coville (He may tend to be associated with younger kids' books, but these ones are really for the preteen or older audience. I have to admit, though, I've only read The Skull of Truth from this series, and I love it to pieces.


***********If the kids like animal fantasy, I can't recommend the Silverwing series enough. Even if they don't favor animal fantasy it's stilla great series. It's about bats, and is based in reality, but it gets fantasy the more you read it, and they're exciting and intense and creative and amazing.

The Abarat series by Clive Barker is very cool as well, however only 3 out of 5 prospective books have been released, and since these books are his baby, Barker is very slow to put them out. He doesn't write them; he crafts them meticulously.

The Oz books are pretty classic. They don't have the same flavor as modern kids' books, but they are still pretty entertaining.

Lots of people love The Chronicles of Narnia. I personally could never get into them past the first book, but it's worth a try for sure.

I'll come back if I think of any more!

[Rosencrantz]

Inkheart and its sequels; Cornelia Funke (she writes a lot of great YA fantasy and non-fantasy, like The Thief Lord, and Dragon Rider. I think she has some other series', too.)

Cornelia Funke is an awesome author! Thief Lord's one of my favourite books.

[phoenixsoul85]

Rick Riordan's novels are great!!!  His next one comes out in a couple of weeks- House of Hades.

Bonus:  You could read the first 2 Percy Jackson books and then watch the movies together.

[Kaeldre]

The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville.  I read the first two books over and over again as a kid but I haven't had the chance to read the last two in the series that he released a couple of years ago.

The Dragon Chronicles by Susan Fletcher.  Really old series, but another that I read countless amounts of times in my younger days.  Also where the inspiration for my username/internet alias came from

The Maximum Ride series by James Patterson.  He's a brilliant author! I only read the first two books, but I loved what I read.

[cassstorm]

Redwall by Brian Jaques.
The Belgariad and Mallorean by David Eddings.  If you like those, there are also Belgarath The Sorcerer and Polgara The Sorceress in the same series. 
Star Wars/Star Trek.

The David Eddings series is fantastic!! There are more too:

The Belgariad is Eddings' first fantasy series; The Malloreon is the sequel. The books follow the adventures of Belgarion, Polgara, Belgarath, and their companions.

The Belgariad series[edit]
1.Pawn of Prophecy (1982)
2.Queen of Sorcery (1982)
3.Magician's Gambit (1983)
4.Castle of Wizardry (1984)
5.Enchanters' End Game (1984)

The Malloreon series[edit]
1.Guardians of the West (1987)
2.King of the Murgos (1988)
3.Demon Lord of Karanda (1988)
4.Sorceress of Darshiva (1989)
5.The Seeress of Kell (1991)

Books related to The Belgariad and The Malloreon[edit]
Belgarath the Sorcerer (1995) with Leigh Eddings
Polgara the Sorceress (1997) with Leigh Eddings
The Rivan Codex (1998) with Leigh Eddings

The Elenium and The Tamuli
The Elenium and its sequel The Tamuli feature the Pandion Knight Sparhawk and his comrades.

The Elenium series[edit]
1.The Diamond Throne (1989)
2.The Ruby Knight (1990)
3.The Sapphire Rose (1991)

The Tamuli series[edit]
1.Domes of Fire (1992)
2.The Shining Ones (1993)
3.The Hidden City (1994)

The Dreamers series
The Dreamers series tells the story of a war between the Elder Gods and their allies and an entity known as the Vlagh.
1.The Elder Gods (2003) with Leigh Eddings
2.The Treasured One (2004) with Leigh Eddings
3.Crystal Gorge (2005) with Leigh Eddings
4.The Younger Gods (2006) with Leigh Eddings
(copied from Wikopedia) I have all of these and they are great. I have a daughter who is 9 and reads at an 11th grade level, it is hard to find series that are appropriate and yet complicated enough to hold her lol. She has read the entire Harry Potter series 4 times this year, I had to ban it for the rest of the year when she started phrasing everything Hogwarts style 
The old S. E. Hinton books are still great reads- The Outsiders, Rumblefish, Tex, .. Hawks Harbor is also good but may not be suitable yet for that age.
I also agree with the Percy Jackson books, as well as the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer were great!

.. Sorry, avid book lover, married (formerly) to a book lover, family of book lovers, dream of a house with built in bookshelves in every room!!!
My middle son also loves sci-fi and I am trying to remember the name of the series he likes.

[Midnight_Dream]

I recommend Hunger Games, at least up to Catching Fire as I think Mockingjay was a bit of a poor finish.

Beyond that:
-The Secret Circle
-The Lord of the Rings

And this makes me realize that I do not read many YA books. Because I totally almost recommended A Song of Ice and Fire to you.