Armchair BEA: Thoughts on YA

Do you see all the discussion all the time on Twitter and elsewhere between authors and the stuffy know-it-alls in publishing? It's happening all the time! It seems like we have to defend our love of YA over and over and over again. And I'm happy to do it here as well!

Here are the questions of the day from Armchair BEA:

 Our final genre of discussion is one that we know is a popular one these days: books for the younger crowd, from middle grade to young adult. If you do not normally talk about this genre on your site, maybe you want to feature books that you remember impacting you during this stage in your life. If this is where you tend to gravitate, maybe you want to list your favorites, make recommendations based on genres, or feature some titles that you are excited to read coming later this year.

So, it goes without saying that I love YA books. Middle grade books too, though I tend to not read as many of them. Last week, there was a Twitter campaign about YA (#IReadYA) that I found fun and I wanted to respond to it all day long, except I didn't. So I'll pretend I did and write my list here:

I Read YA... because I will always be 17 in my head.
I Read YA... because these books tend to be faster and easier to read.
I Read YA... because there are so many awesome characters!
I Read YA... because I love to experiences all the firsts all over again.
I Read YA... because the coolest authors write this stuff!
I Read YA... because the stories are intense and exciting.
I Read YA... because sometimes the stories are simply fluffy and fun!
I Read YA... because we can all (no matter our age) learn something from all sorts of books and stories no matter the intended audience.

Yeah, I always laugh when I see someone say.. "I'm GASP, like 25 (or 27 or 30 or even 35) and even I read YA!" Well, gasp, even nearly 50 year olds read YA! And can totally relate to it all. (Like I said, still 17 in my head, always and forever.)

Some of my favorite YA books:

• the Legend series by Marie Lu
• the Under the Never Sky series by Veronica Rossi
• the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
• the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvatter
• the Partials series by Dan Wells
• the Finnikin of the Rock series by Melina Marchetta
• The Distance Between Us by Kasie West
• anything and everything by Markus Zusak! (even his first books about the Wolfe brothers!)

Okay. I'm stopping now. I pretty much love them all. So, if you're "scared" of YA... it's time to suck it up and read 'em!