Unsung YA

[usa_p]

A couple of bloggers are getting together over here to celebrate less popular or obscure young adult books, and so I also decided to contribute a list of YA books that I have enjoyed over the years that other people may not have heard of.
The rule for obscurity is to appear in the libraries of less than 500 people on Librarything. While these 10

Comments

Wow

[kellyholmes]

Not only have I not read any of these, I haven't even heard of them before! So cool when that happens. But um, it's been happening a lot today. Haha.

Glad you could be a part of today's little project, which actually isn't so little anymore! We'll probably break 50 total posts before all is said & done. :)

Re: Wow

[usa_p]

Congratulations on the big turnout, by the way.

Not having heard of any of them just goes to show that all books, even those by more well-known authors (such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Diana Wynne Jones) could do to have more attention brought to them. And I am happy to re-recommend the two that were recommended to me.

The reason you haven't heard of some of these is just that they are old. The Last April Dancers has a 1987 copyright, which isn't really that long ago, but in teen fiction that's an eternity.

We're both going to have much longer wishlists after perusing all these recs.

[vermithrax]

Innnnteresting. I haven't heard of most of these. Wonder if the library has any of them...

[usa_p]

#3, 5, & 8 shouldn't be too hard to find in a library. 4 & 7 might be in one of the larger libraries. The rest are old enough that they may have been culled to make room for the current wave of YA books.

I don't know if you use any of the bookswapping sites, but I just checked and all the older books are available on paperbackswap.

[caramel_lunacy]

Ooh, I loved the Changeover when I picked it up in the library as a teen - read it over and over again. It's good to find someone else who enjoyed it!

[usa_p]

I found a lot more people have heard of the book than I would have expected. I only wish I had read it as a teen rather than as an adult for that extra staying power.

[mewalker1999]

Great list--all new to me! Thanks!

[usa_p]

I'm just happy to make a to-be-read pile even larger.

[hemlocke]

Agree with you on the Wind Singer, the Changeover (what a beautiful romance) and Fire and Hemlock. Though the last was a bit of a bete noire for me, till I actually finished it.

[usa_p]

You're the only other person I know who has read the Wind on Fire books. I just found them in book bin one day in a pretty box set that I could not resist.

I'm surprised to hear you say that about Fire and Hemlock because I thought the recommendation for that book came from you many many moons ago. The internet has fried my brain over the years so perhaps I am mistaken? At the very least I thought it came from you and had given you a +1 in the 'recommends good books' column of my mental LJ friend checklist ^_^.