Patricia C. Wrede

10 of the Greatest YA Series of All Time

Yesterday, we were saddened to learn Donald J. Sobol, that the author the Encyclopedia Brown series, has passed away at the age of 87. We loved the Encyclopedia Brown books as kids, and the sad news sent us on a little trip down memory lane — but not just for Encyclopedia and Sally, for all the YA series that brought us joy as, well, young adults (and, we admit, since then). Just for fun, we’re going to look beyond the obvious choices, but rest assured that we consider The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter books, and The Hunger Games series to be among the best as well (even at the tippy top). It’s just that we think they’re so well established already that you really don’t need to see them on a list like this — you can probably just look over at your shelf. Click through to see a few of our most beloved YA (and older children’s book) series of all time, and if we’ve missed the books that made your younger self spin, please share the wealth and add to our list in the comments. … Read More

Open Thread: What Is The All-Time Best Book for Young Girls?

Last month, we read a great article by Deborah Weisgall entitled The Mother of All Girls’ Books, which extolled the virtues (and “secret subversiveness” of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel Little Women. “It was Alcott’s genius,” Weisgall writes, “to fill the didactic frame of a girls’ book with her ambition — with disturbing ideas, anger, and frustration as well as her father’s inspiring and impossible striving for moral perfection, to which her mother provided a humane antidote.” Though she makes no overt claim in the article, it’s clear that for Weisgall, Little Women is the epitome of what a book for girls should be: vivid and captivating, intense but relatable, full of wisdom, and just good literature. Of course, we agree. … Read More

10 Best Books for Girls and Young Women

One of our favorite gentlemanly blogs, The Art of Manliness, recently posted a list of their picks for the 50 best books for boys (specifically for ages 9 to 12, but really for boys of all ages). We liked it, but then we thought — what about the girls? Are we going to let our young girls be relegated to Mormon propaganda like Twilight and stories about simpering princesses? We think not! Here are our top ten choices of books for girls and young women — we have some overlap with TAOM’s list (because why should girls only read books about girls?) but we’ve also picked out some spectacular novels particularly for the young ladies. Our claim: boys will like them too. Let us know what we’ve missed — we limited ourselves to ten and we know there are lots more out there — and tell us about your personal childhood… Read More