500 Great Books for Teens

“Sil­vey has put togeth­er con­tem­po­rary and clas­sic adult and YA titles that meet her cri­te­ria for exem­plary writ­ing and wide appeal. Famil­iar group­ings such as “Fan­ta­sy,” “His­tor­i­cal Fic­tion,” and “Mys­tery” accom­pa­ny new­er sub­ject areas such as “Many Cul­tures, Many Real­i­ties,” “Edgy, Trend­set­ting Nov­els,” and “Pol­i­tics and Social Con­science.” Non­fic­tion titles, such as Into Thin Air and Young Men and Fire, are includ­ed in the “Adven­ture and Sur­vival” cat­e­go­ry, and a unique chap­ter called “Infor­ma­tion” con­tains books such as Undaunt­ed Courage, Nick­el and Dimed, and Phineas Gage: A Grue­some but True Sto­ry about Brain Sci­ence. All Printz Award-win­ners and hon­or books are includ­ed, as well as some New­berys, Pulitzers, Nation­al Book Awards, and oth­er note­wor­thy win­ners. In a con­ver­sa­tion­al tone, Sil­vey intro­duces each chap­ter, not­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics of the genre fol­lowed by a two- or three-para­graph descrip­tion of each book briefly out­lin­ing the plot and oth­er ele­ments such as writ­ing style, themes, and sig­nif­i­cance to young adult lit­er­a­ture. Sil­vey’s clas­sics include Hound of the Baskervilles, Our Town, and To Kill a Mock­ing­bird, but librar­i­ans will agree she has a pulse on con­tem­po­rary titles that will endure, such as The Da Vin­ci Code, Look­ing for Alas­ka, I Am the Mes­sen­ger, and A Cer­tain Slant of Light. Extras include a time line, geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion for set­tings, addi­tion­al titles for each sub­ject area, and a list of rec­om­mend­ed audio­books.” (School Library Jour­nal)