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May 22, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS

#IReadYA – and so do many others! Why YA? Here are some of our reasons.

May 22, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS   Leave a Comment

A few years ago, I wrote a post entitled Why YA? in response to Joel Stein’s proclamation that adults should only read adult books.Then earlier this week I wrote another post highlighting some of the misconceptions in the media about YA lit. For a while, we had an ongoing series of posts called WHY YA? where readers, librarians and even some authors wrote posts discussing their favorite YA book titles. Those posts are collected together for you here.


 

Why YA? posts

Pandemonium (Lauren Oliver) as discussed by Karen Jensen of TLT)

13 Reasons Why (Jay Asher) as discussed by Karen Jensen of TLT

The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collines) as discussed by Sara Ansted

Love is the Higher Law (David Levithan) as discussed by 2012 Printz Award Winner John Corey Whaley

Between Shades of Gray (Ruta Sepetys) as discussed by Victoria Scott

“I Love YA” (with apologies to Randy Newman) as discussed by Jennifer Rummel

Harry Potter and The Fault in Our Stars as discussed by Leah Miller

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (Chris Crutcher) as discussed by Karen Jensen of TLT

Please Ignore Vera Dietz (A. S. King) as discussed by Jenny Torres Sanchez

The List (Siobhan Vivian) as discussed by Stephanie Wilkes

The Giver (Lois Lowry) as discussed by Lauren Kate

Mr. Was (Pete Hautman) as discussed by Pete Hautman

Bitterblue (Kristin Cashore) as discussed by Annette Birdsall

Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) as discussed by Lindsay Cummings

Where the Red Fern Grown (Wilson Rawls) as discussed by Craig MacLachlan

The Story of a Girl (Sara Zarr) as discussed by Lisa Burstein

Ash (Malinda Lo) as discussed by Christie Gibrich

The Year of Ice by Brian Malloy as discussed by author David James 

If you would like to write a post, I’d be more than happy to put it up.

The Discussion
Why YA?
Why YA? The Remix
Dear Media, Let Me Help You Write That Article on YA Literature

Filed under: Uncategorized

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About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

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