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[NeoUltima]

Harry Potter no doubt.

I don't care if its the 'mainstream' answer. I've read most of the books/series in this thread.

 

[SillyEskimo]

Where the Red Fern Grows

The Hobbit

Animal Farm

Ender's Game

Pawn of Prophecy series




I had read all of those in a a short amount of time, from grades 5th-6th. Those 4 books and the Pawn of Prophecy series established a lot of my preferences for years to come. I moved on to much more complicated reading very quickly. I read Moby Dick all on my own in 7th grade to prove to myself that I could. I hated every second of it. Looking back, I was obviously too young to understand it. It is forever soured for me though. I don't think I'll ever try to read it again. I knocked out Dracula and Frankenstein after that, then went on to lots of pulp sci fi, fantasy, horror, and historical war accounts. I knew so much about WW2 that I could have taught it!

I was early in my freshman year in high school when I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was given to me by my father, who had it passed to him from his brothers. It originated from my grandfather. Everyone signed it and stated who they were passing it on to. I still have it and will pass it along to my daughters when they are ready. I loved the book. It was the first truly complex books I ever read and understood fully. I had to read and re read entire sections of the book to understand it, but unlike Moby Dick, I loved every second of it.

This is not young adult reading at all btw. It is very complicated. I just wanted to tell the whole story of my reading during that time!

 

[Fusebox]

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.

 

[Alex Anderson]

Hell yeah, I had a few of these books

 

[DanteFox]

hoooooooooly crap I completely forgot about hank the cowdog. I used to be obsessed with this series in elementary school.

 

[Htown]

As an avid reader of the Hardy Boys, I was pretty weirded out when I discovered the relaunch where everything went insane. They went from "Let's solve the mystery of the abandoned lighthouse!" to "They just killed my girlfriend, and now they're making us dig our own grave!"

Fuuuuck yesss Casefiles! It was actually my first exposure to the Hardy Boys. To a little kid this was some Tom Clancy type shit. That explosion on the cover is like the first thing that happens in the series.

It's Joe's girlfriend Iola getting MURDERED BY A FUCKING CAR BOMB. Casefiles did not fuck around.

Also, REDWALL.

 

[Bornstellar]

Phil Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series gets a lot of love, here, and for good reason. The series' common description as the "antithesis to Narnia" holds true - series likely created a lot of young critical thinkers, which is always nice (at least after they grow out of their insufferably pretentious phase). What's not to love about armored bears, airships, and Daemons?

I'd personally restrict this to the first book. The second and third just didn't have it.

Also:

Artemis Fowl series

Ender's Game series

Dune

Wheel of Time series

It's kinda sad that I did so much more reading when I was younger.

 

[Bleepey]

Surely i was not the only one that read the Adrian Mole books? it's a shame the author is now blind.

 

[Zoe]

Interstellar Pig

I don't remember much about this book, and it's not like it was my favorite, but for some reason it really left an impression on me. Must be the title :lol

 

[JaseMath]

 

[Panthalassic]

No Chronicles of Narnia? I read the entirety of the series in my second semester of grade 7, in chronological order.

I also read Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events. To be fair though, YA Fantasy is still my favourite genre. A few years ago I read Kai Meyer's Dark Reflections and Wave Walkers trilogies as well as Un Lun Dun and the Percy Jackson books.

I've been meaning to start His Dark Materials but, alas, college has taken away much of my free time.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Two Minute Mysteries
My Side of the Mountain
The White Indian Boy

Anything by Avi.

 

[bengraven]

Among Goosebumps, Animorphs, Hardy Boys, Huckleberry Finn/Tom Sawyer, I got hooked on Beezus and Ramona books, spinning off into Henry Huggins and Ribsy, etc.

I barely remember them now.

After that the library became a Calvin & Hobbes repository

Fuck yes, but you have it wrong. Henry Huggins was Cleary's first series. Beezus was the girl next door that flirted with her and had an annoying sister. Kids liked Ramona so much she became the star of the next series and in fact, Cleary basically retired Henry because Ramona outsold Henry.

I was the only boy I knew (tons of girls though) that read them all. My grandmother even bought me this huge box set of each series. Glad I wasn't the only male to read them. ha

Let me see if I can find the collection I had:

I still remember quite a few events from them.

The fuck? Goosebumps? Animorphs? Those aren't YA novels. Those are fucking KIDS novels. Lawl.

I think we're assuming YA is basically any book from our childhood that wasn't all pictures. Which I approve of, because this isn't really the thread to argue the literary merits of Are You There God? It's Me Margaret vs. Ender's Game vs. V.C. Andrews. haha

 

[lush]

Holy hell, I used to own a bunch of these pieces of shit. Good times.

Even came in this little cardboard boxcar book holder/case thing.

edit: still have them

 

[lacinius]

Also,

Yes, yes... which reminds me I have to post these as well:

 

[bengraven]

Yes, yes... which reminds me I have to post these as well:

If I had to go back, there's so much I would do differently. I would definitely read these.

I was such a "judge a book by the cover" guy. If it didn't have a nice cover, even if I heard people talking about how great it was, I didn't touch it.

Yeah, I sucked.

 

[Deified Data]

Anybody here read Elfquest?

 

[CrazyDude]

Anybody here read Elfquest?

No.....


Have you...?

 

[SmithnCo]

I was a little obsessed with Redwall. I read a ton of these. Thinking back, a lot of them were kinda identical, lol.

 

[DrForester]

 

[Bleepey]

One of my happiest memories as a kid was being in my bed on the school holidays blazing through about 3 Narnia books in a week whilst nursing boxes of chocolate.

 

[teruterubozu]

I went through a major Madeleine L'Engle phase, but I basically went straight to Stephen King and skipped the YA book phase.

 

[GDGF]

For the millions who loved The Incredible Journey and Old Yeller comes a heartwarming tale of love and adventure that you'll never forget.

That's what was written on the back jacket. Crazy that I still have that memorized.

Love this book.

 

[teruterubozu]

I was early in my freshman year in high school when I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It was given to me by my father, who had it passed to him from his brothers. It originated from my grandfather. Everyone signed it and stated who they were passing it on to. I still have it and will pass it along to my daughters when they are ready. I loved the book. It was the first truly complex books I ever read and understood fully. I had to read and re read entire sections of the book to understand it, but unlike Moby Dick, I loved every second of it.

This is not young adult reading at all btw. It is very complicated. I just wanted to tell the whole story of my reading during that time!

My dad did the same thing. He was way into the book, taking me out on motorcycle rides (just like the book).
It's the prototypical introductory to philosophy for the young mind. His next book, "Lila", was a disaster though.

 

[MaritalWheat]

Just remembered another favorite series of mine, a bit younger then YA but still, great light Arthurian tales:

 

[leroy hacker]

The Chronicles of Prydain series. Pretty much the only fantasy I've read.

High-five.

Another YA fantasy book that I read many times is The Maze in the Heart of the Castle. It's not very well known, but it is well loved by those who have read it, as you can see from the Amazon reviews.

And I don't think anyone so far has mentioned John Christopher. As I've , I'm shocked that so many of his books are out of print given the current fad for dystopian YA novels. I'd like to especially bring attention to him because he died a few months ago to little notice. In particular, my favorite books of his, the sword of the spirits trilogy, are out of print, though easy to find used.

 

[Zoe]

Anybody here read Elfquest?

I'm pissed they never continued with the future storylines :\

 

[ryutaro's mama]

Narnia
Wrinkle in Time
Indian in the Cupboard
Choose Your On Adventure series

 

[TheDiabolical]

choose your own adventure books kicked ass.

 

[alternade]

The fuck? Goosebumps? Animorphs? Those aren't YA novels. Those are fucking KIDS novels. Lawl.

Animorphs had some pretty mature themes to be considered kids novels. Genocide, suicide, murder in the name of saving the planet.

I kinda wish that franchise would have taken off similar to harry potter. The material is really good and a modern take on kids that can change into animals fighting a global/galactic war would sell millions.

 

[ZZMitch]

This book blew my mind when I was 12. I loved the mysterious aspect of it.

And Harry Potter.

 

[RedSwirl]

Sorry to bump this, but fucking nobody in this thread read Strange Matter?

 

[way more]

A memory of this book hit me two weeks ago.

It was probably the deepest book I read to that point and to think it came from Beverly Cleary. I recall her Henry Huggins and Ramona books being fun little adventures but this was maybe the first book where I realized that other people have self-doubt and internal conflict.