#1: Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love
I read this book for the first time when I was too young to even pay attention to the title, which meant that I had to go on a raging internet quest to find it again as a freshman in high school. Alas, my memory of the skunk named "Yogurt" was the key to rediscovering one of my favorite books of all time. The language is simple and so are the characters, but every single part of this book is so magical to me. The adventures that Lulu Atlantis goes on with her little animal friends (a charming spider with a top hat, a klutzy skunk and a sassy cat) follow no confines of realism and yet rarely stretch beyond her neighborhood. This is one that I plan to read to my future children; I hope it tickles their peach as much as it did mine.
#2: The Princess Academy
Don't let the title fool you; this book about smelly mountain goat-herding girls contradicts any preconceived notions you might have about a typical princess. I constantly flopped back and forth between desperately wanting to be one of the girls in the book and thanking the lord I wasn't in their shoes. I was dying to forget how the book ended so that I could both break the weirdly intense connection I felt with a few of the main characters and allow myself to enjoy the book just as much a second (and third and so on) time around.
Really, anything by Shannon Hale impresses my pants off. The Goose Girl and Enna Burning were literary deep dish pizza for my brain. The author's ability to create these strong female characters that a young reader can connect with and look up to despite the mental trauma they all go through is something worth a great deal of respect.
Really, anything by Shannon Hale impresses my pants off. The Goose Girl and Enna Burning were literary deep dish pizza for my brain. The author's ability to create these strong female characters that a young reader can connect with and look up to despite the mental trauma they all go through is something worth a great deal of respect.
#3: The Bell Jar
I'll admit that this one is quite different than the others on this list, but this book left such a profound impact on me that I have to include it. If you know anything about the author or the content of this book, I'll absolve you of any concern and tell you that I am not considering suicide at all. Plath is so genius because she takes something shocking (which is arguably necessary in every story and is, in this case, suicide) and uses it to shackle the story to a concrete foundation by speaking about it in such a nonchalant way without making it lackluster. Groundbreaking. Only a woman with severe mental instability could be such an absolute master of spine-chilling. Reading Plath's writing is like sticking a butcher knife into a low-rolling fog and hearing a shriek half a mile away. How could one forget a book like that?
#4: Peter Pan
This is less in reference to the original book and more to the general story. I'm not quite sure if that's allowed, but I love Peter Pan too much not to include it on this list. Really though, Peter Pan is life. Just slather me in Peter Pan, that's all want. 19th century England is my era of expertise and obsession (which means the story of Oliver Twist also falls under this umbrella of passion) and I am very familiar with most every Peter Pan spin-off that has been published in the last 100 years. You may have heard of Peter Pan in Scarlet, which is way overrated and does not deserve to be considered an official sequel to the original, despite the fact that I had a legitimate crush on the book cover. The spin-offs by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson are much better and keep the spirit of the story alive. If you've ever read the original, you'll know that Peter Pan is actually a forgetful prick, Tinkerbell is a downright b**** and Wendy isn't much fun at all (not that she ever is). However, there would be no whimsical tale of Neverland at all without a slightly sour original, so I can't complain too much. Anyway, everyone knows that the Lost Boys are the real kahunas (particularly Nibs, and a shout-out to Slightly). I could talk about Peter Pan for days, but I guess we can leave it at this: Peter Pan iS LIFE.
I know we probably won't be reading Young Adult Fiction in AP Lit this year, but I have a huge spot for YAF in my heart. I believe that YAF is the best literary genre (followed by general Sci-Fi) because the authors write from their hearts and their minds without wrapping themselves up in concern for how the audience will judge the story. YAF authors have a real connection with their characters and such a thorough understanding of the world they are creating that it's almost impossible not to sense that passion in their writing. In our literary endeavors this year, I'm hoping to find that passion and innocence that makes some writing so surreal in some of the most highly acclaimed works of literature in existence. I am looking forward to finding that sense of connection to something so unfamiliar in non-young-adult-fiction works that I have yet to explore.
I know we probably won't be reading Young Adult Fiction in AP Lit this year, but I have a huge spot for YAF in my heart. I believe that YAF is the best literary genre (followed by general Sci-Fi) because the authors write from their hearts and their minds without wrapping themselves up in concern for how the audience will judge the story. YAF authors have a real connection with their characters and such a thorough understanding of the world they are creating that it's almost impossible not to sense that passion in their writing. In our literary endeavors this year, I'm hoping to find that passion and innocence that makes some writing so surreal in some of the most highly acclaimed works of literature in existence. I am looking forward to finding that sense of connection to something so unfamiliar in non-young-adult-fiction works that I have yet to explore.
