Welcome to Lit Crush! I'm Jessemy, a 45 year old physician learning how to write novels. I'm writing the story about a family facing leukemia together. I thought I had a piece of literary fiction on my hands.
Nope.
It's YA. Natalia, my protagonist, is 15 years old, and she's by far the most compelling point of view.
I haven't read a lot of YA since it began dominating fiction sales. The gold standard for me was L. M. Montgomery thanks to Anne and my public TV habit.
So catch me up! What am I missing by walking past the rows of glossy YA? Why do you love it? I want to read about one a month, and I'll report back with my thoughts as a reader and as someone learning the craft.
Agreed, loved Lucy Maud Montgomery! And Judy Blume, how wonderful her writing is! When I was the Young Adult target audience age, I loved R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike. Later I loved reading J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman.
Gosh I'm not going to be any help here. I didn't read much YA at all when I was younger---but I'm here to support Jess! Other than the ubiquitous Anne of Green Gables (which I think I read a few of), and Laura Ingalls Wilder (is that YA?)....the one book I remember is Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume. I remember it because I read it when I was in third grade and did a book report on it----and got in trouble by the teacher because I had apparently read a scandalous teenage YA book not appropriate for a third grader. But I thought it was a good book....