Thinking about the degree to which I am in fact, a ridiculous fangirl. Many. Neil Gaiman? Check. Terry Pratchett? Check. Isobelle Carmody? Check. Ridiculous amounts of excitement upon meeting Tamora Pierce? Check. Lining up for the Harry Potter release parties in costume? Guilty. So very guilty. And seeing Lord of the Rings way way too many times (not to mention knowing enough of a made up language to get a tattoo in it? Oh yep). But it got me thinking, which books do I tend to think of when I think Happy Shiny YA (happy ending not necessarily a requirement here but books, authors and series that make me happy. Even if they make me cry).
My job lets me recommend books to people and well, in trying to see what's new across the YA landscape (that isn't sparkly vampires or vampire boarding school or angels...wait, I'm kind of okay with angels. Or reworkings of Greek Mythology) but some of these are old. But still awesome. Always. So, the series that make me happy, make me cry and generally reveal that I am now suddenly happy to proudly say yes, I read YA fiction.
(1) Obernewtyn (Isobelle Carmody)
(2) The Immortals Quartet (Tamora Pierce)
(3) Circle of Magic Quartet (Tamora Pierce)
(4) Sorcery & Cecelia (Patricia C Wrede & Caroline Stevermer)
(5) Howls Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones)
(6) Pellinor Series (Allison Croggon)
(7) Hunger Games Trilogy (Suzanne Collins)
(8) Harry Potter Series (JK Rowling)
(9) Tomorrow Series (John Marsden)
(1) Bayern Series (Shannon Hale)
There are a couple I'm really looking forward to reading - books by Mary Hooper, the Bloody Jack series (pirates! history! pirates!) and especially more Magic Under Glass and more of the Pimpernelles series or The Scarlet Pimpernel Only He Is A Girl And Awesome Happens which is underlying an interesting trend in YA lately towards both the historical and the female main character being the hero, much like Tamora Pierce's Alanna. But what I've also liked to see is that there are have been many different kinds of female heroes. They are allowed to be girly, not girly, enjoy being girly, have babies and save the world. It's good to see there are a whole range of options for female characters that are becoming more apparent.
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