The Greatest 100 YA Novels of All Time
Last month, Time magazine assembled a group of seven judges – each a successful YA novelist in their own right – and tasked them with compiling the greatest 100 YA novels ever written. The panel included Elizabeth Acevedo, Kacen Callender, Jenny Han, Jason Reynolds, Adam Silvera, Angie Thomas and Nicola Yoon. This week, we include a concise overview of the results.
The oldest entry was Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868), followed by L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) and Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943). Many of the entries have been enriching the lives of adults as well as youngsters for generations, including Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl (1947), J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951), and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954). Some locations appear more frequently on the list. Such examples include the numerous powerful works exploring race relations in the American South – including Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Mildred D. Taylor’s Roll of Thunder and Hear my Cry (1976) – or the Holocaust, as exemplified my Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief (2005).
Many of the titles have since been made into beloved blockbuster movies, including Meg Cabot’s The Princess Dairies (2000), John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (2012), Jesse Andrews’ Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2012), and Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is Also a Star (2016). Others are lesser known gems. Ruta Sepetys Salt to the Sea (2016) is set in the former East Prussia as World War II comes to an end, and charts the story of three friends hoping to board a refugee ship in Western Germany. Julia Alvarez’s Before We Were Free (2002) features a protagonist trying to survive a bloody regime in the Dominican Republic, who then discovers her family are part of a dangerous underground resistance. Traci Chee’s We Are Not Free (2020) moves between the voices of fourteen Japanese-American teens during World War II, and their subsequent imprisonment.
The majority of the works are products of their time, continuing to handle sensitive issues. Harper Lee’s work caused a scandal upon publication. Now, YA novels confront the equally complex issues of the day: queerness, drug use, physical relationships, unstable home environments, race relations, violence and its legacy, as well as non-traditional family structures and connections. To shield youngsters from these issues leaves them ill-equipped to understand or make sensible choices. It infantilises them and might shrivel their bourgeoning compassion. Why not let them explore the topics through eloquent prose and welcoming characters? Even if you don’t find this particular argument convincing, the Time magazine selection has plenty of works that are pure escapism and fantasy, enough to keep the most dedicated of growing bookworms happy. The full list is available here: https://time.com/collection/100-best-ya-books/
© 晉博教育中心 Brighten Youth Education Centre
