Dangerously Daring People: Read a book week!

[holdouttrout]

I know what you're thinking. "Read a book? But I read books all the time!"

But it makes sense, I swear! For one thing, books are awesome. For another thing, people throughout history have believed that books are some of the most dangerously daring objects ever created by man. More dangerous than operating heavy machinery while on cold medicine!

Okay, so banned book week isn't until like, September, but the Young Reader's Choice Award nominees are quietly stalking library bookshelves near you. And if there's one thing about YRCA books, it's that some of them are regarded as very daring indeed.

Looking for Alaska, in the senior division, is a book about Miles "Pudge" Halter and his friends and experiences at a boarding school in Florida. It tackles some pretty hefty issues, and even has an (hilarious) almost-sex scene (on which grounds it was challenged by parents at Depew High School near Buffalo, New York for being "pornographic").

Or Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, in the intermediate division, which has controversy following it simply because it's Harry Potter. (It also has some pretty mature themes.)

Of course, there are also some plain good reads among the nominees--and I don't think you can go too wrong with any of them. Personally, I love reading good YA literature, possibly even more than reading good "adult" literature. (I mean the normal fiction sections, you gutter-minded people.)

What books have you read recently that challenged you? Doesn't have to be YA or challenged...just challenging.

Comments

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

I absolutely adore kids' sci-fi and fantasy, like the classic A Wrinkle in Time. I loved (and hated) the Animorphs series by KA Applegate, and her other series Everworld is good too. Both of those absolutely must be read in order, though. Then there are all the alleged "juvenile" novels by Heinlein. Good stuff there, particularly Tunnel in the Sky, which got a mention on SG-1. And anyone who hasn't read the Rats of NIHM is really missing out.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Animorphs! Oh, man. Those books are terrible/awesome. Terrible because there are, in my opinion, just a few too many of them, and awesome, because everyone ends up almost as screwed up as they ought to be. For a kid's series about heroes, it's unbelievable what she got away with. Man.

A Wrinkle in Time is a classic for a reason. I just read it fairly recently, and it's a lot shorter than I remembered! Still creepy, though.

[spiletta42.livejournal.com]

For a kid's series about heroes, it's unbelievable what she got away with. Man.

Isn't it just? They did cancel her series about apocalypse survivors resorting to cannibalism on the space shuttle, though.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Heh. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me.