Someone asked an excellent question of Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Justine Larbalestier, Chris Moriarty, and Delia Sherman--all taking part in last night's Big Read: Before and After Harry Potter: YA and Fantasy talk: "What books do you recommend?"

I scribbled down their answers as quickly as I could. Here's the list of the panel's top choices:

Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor--described as a Nigerian Harry Potter with excellent world building

The Thief (The Queen's Thief series) by Megan Whalen Turner

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor--note that this was not only a YA Buzz Panel book, but also has 99 revies on Amazon and a 5-star rating

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake--on my TBR list too. Hurry up, NYPL!


The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking series: Book One by Patrick Ness

6 comments:

Michelle said...

The Knife of Never Letting Go = OMG. So brutal but so good. The others are all great recs too.

Gail Shepherd said...

Reading Smoke and Bone now. Adding others to list. Thanks.

Gail Shepherd said...

Reading Smoke and Bone now, adding others to list. Thanks.

Don said...

Thanks for the suggestions! Some of these won't work for 8th graders, but they all look like amazing reads. Have you read any of them? Would you suggest one or two over the others and why? I'm intrigued by The Knife of Never Letting Go series. Read a little bit over at Amazon, and I enjoyed the MC right away. Also, how can you pass up a talking dog? Quite a bit different than the Phantom Tollbooth, however. Still waiting on YOUR list, GK, but I know it's coming soon. :)

Lucy said...

The Thief is one of my favorites, and the two that follow it--The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia--are even more so. I'm not in love with the fourth book in the series, unfortunately--wish I was, as the first three were so wonderful.

Mindy McGinnis said...

Oh boy! I definitely back all those suggestions! Hooray for Kendare Blake, my agency-sibling!