The young adult reader ... a gift giving guide
Today we welcome back local teacher and writer Cami Nihipali, with a guide to finding the right gift for young adult readers. And no, it's not all vampires and werewolves. Thank you, Cami, for sharing these great tips! Now here's Cami ...
Let's face it, adolescents are tough to buys gifts for. Sure, it's easy to give them gift cards and cash, but sometimes that just doesn't feel personal enough, right? So, here are five types of adolescent readers and the adolescent novels on the market right now to match.
1. For your adolescent who loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This poignant novel of prose mixed with humorous cartoons is gut wrenchingly hilarious and weaves together an amazingly thoughtful message. The story follows a First Nation boy who lives on a reservation as he begins high school. When he realizes that he has the same math book that his mom used as a high school freshman, he loses his temper and accidentally hits a teacher with the book. Once off the reservation, though, everything changes. Well written, entertaining, and page turning. Kids love it!
2. For your adolescent who loves realistic fiction like the adult version of Jodi Picoult, look for Laurie Halse Anderson. Her most recent novel, Wintergirls, is about anorexia. Anderson is adept at capturing adolescent voices in her novels set around serious subjects like rape, academic pressures, and family. Four other novels that draw in her readers and are woven with amazing prose and symbolism: Speak, Twisted, Catalyst, and Prom. Anderson also writes historical; a new release called Chains is an award winner.
3. Your Twilight fan going through withdrawals? The Mortal Instruments Trilogy, an urban fantasy series by Cassandra Clare, is superb. The three titles City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass explore the love story between Clary and Jace. Along the way Clare takes her readers on a twisted journey through the underworld where we meet warlocks and witches, fairies, fallen angels, demons, werewolves, and vampires. It's up to Clary and Jace to save the mortal world from an enemy that wants to take over the mortal world. It's action packed, romantic, and takes the reader on an exhilarating roller coaster ride.
4. Has your Harry Potter fan been struggling to find a book to enjoy? Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series is fantastic. It partners history and fantasy with female empowerment in an entertaining way. The three books in the trilogy titled: A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and A Sweet Far Thing, are set in Victorian England when women were thought no more of than vessels to produce heirs. Gemma Doyle learns she has special powers and as the story unfolds realizes she must save her world while empowering herself to become her own woman.
5. One of the greatest adolescent dystopian novels ever written, The Giver by Lois Lowry, paved the way for the best seller The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The first in a light Science Fiction series, it is about a young woman named Katniss who lives in a futuristic North America that has been riddled with political strife and nuclear warfare. When her sister is called to participate in the country's hunger games, a competition created to remind the people they are subjects to the Capitol and rebellion is futile, Katniss takes her sister's place. She must survive the games played to the death in order to get home to the people she loves, but along the way she plants the seeds of rebellion. The second title in this series is Catching Fire, with a third title on the way.
This is by no means a comprehensive guide. There are so many wonderful titles out there, excellent series, new releases, and classics from which to choose. Still stuck? Here's an informative website that might help:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/
bestbooksya/bbyahome.cfm
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Next up, Friday, Dec. 4: Goldilocks 101 ... how do you know when it's just right?
(This is not about the legal and moral issues attached to blondes who break and enter. Nor is it even about blondes in general. ... What this is about, in fact, is one particular blonde’s unfailing instinct for rejecting inferior choices and pouncing on just the right option. It’s what made her famous, that and the fact that she walked uninvited into the home of three bears who didn’t know her from Madonna. Like Madonna, of course, she is known by one name.)
Tags: Cami Nihipali, gift ideas, young adult
