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2012 has been an embarrassment of riches for Young Adult literature. Some of our favorite series (Maze Runner, Matched) have come to a bittersweet end, but we've discovered a few new series to love (Cinder, Grave Mercy, The Diviners), and read some incredible titles that stand on their own.
Thanks to The Hunger Games, 2012 has also seen more and more adults reading and sharing teen books. Really good YA novels get right to it--they draw the reader in within the first 10 pages and hold you captive to the very last one with action, atmosphere, and raw emotion. What's not to love?
This week we revealed our Top 20 favorite Teen books of this year and, I will tell you, it wasn't easy narrowing it down and even harder to decide on the #1. But John Green's The Fault in Our Stars stole our hearts this year. I think Hazel and Gus will always feel like people I knew and their story of love, friendship, and impossible humor in the face of some seriously scary stuff, is, for me, unforgettable. I've written about Fault before, it was our spotlight pick when it first came out in January. That's saying something, too--not only did Fault in Our Stars stand the test of time across one year and still evoke such strong feelings that we considered it the best teen book we've read in 2012 (and we are a group that reads a LOT of books), but I feel certain The Fault in Our Stars belongs with other classics of teen literature like Speak and The Book Thief, destined to be read and re-read for years to come.
We asked John Green about his favorite reads this year--you can see what he had to say after the list of our Top 20 Best Teen Books of the Year.
What is your favorite YA book of 2012?
Best Teen Books of the Year:
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Every Day by
David Levithan - Son by Lois Lowry
- Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
- Cinder by Marissa Meyer
- The Diviners by Libba Bray
- Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman
- Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
- Shadown and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
- Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book I by R. L. LaFevers
- Insurgent by Veronica Roth
- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
- Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
- The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth
- Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
- The Kill Order by James Dashner
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
- Reached by Ally Condie
- Dodger by Terry Pratchett
- For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
John Green's Best Reads of 2012:
Amazon: What
is the best book, published in 2012, that you read this year and why?
JG: The best book I read this year published this
year was Katherine Boo's BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS, the story of several
families in a Mumbai slum. It's a thrilling page-turner that also captures the
complex results of globalization and the spread of industrial capitalism.
Amazon: Name
two other books that you read and enjoyed this year.
JG: I also really loved John Barnes' LOSERS IN SPACE
and D. T. Max's EVERY LOVE STORY IS A GHOST STORY, two books that could hardly
be more different but together capture the encouraging breadth of contemporary
American literature.
