Not to be contrary, but there IS a Weetzie Bat omnibus, Dangerous Angels. It's not even all that huge.

I'll ponder the questions. I've been reading a fair amount of YA recently, but I'm not sure I could point to any one book and say, "read THIS one."

1) The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. It's the first of a trilogy that has just won the Mythopoeic Award, and the whole thing is just brilliant fantasy. (It's set in an England much like our own, only ruled by magicians who are notably not all-wise, all-kind, or even not entirely corrupt.)

2) Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. It's a decent pirate story, but it's supposed to be a prequel to Peter Pan and manages to contradict nearly everything we know about Peter.

3) Nothing is out of bounds for YA these days; your protagonists do need to be youngish people (no older than mid-twenties, depending on the setting), and the length limitations are still a bit stricter than adult fiction, but there's really nothing you can't write about for that audience.

Thanks, Andrew. I've heard that about Peter, too.

I'm not sure I understand your point three, or maybe my question was poorly phrased -- I'm not asking what non-YA writers should know if they're trying to write YA, so much as I'm asking what non-YA writers can learn from YA in writing non-YA.

Galax-Arena.

I will answer 3 for now and come back to the other two after I decide on what I think would be most up your alley. So:

-What lessons should somebody writing about/for not-so-young adults take away from what’s going on in YA now?

I would say how well developed voice and character tend to be, first. Those are the two things I love best and what I see as the main strengths of the books being published as YAs. Also, stylistic invention and how to reinvent tired plots. And tightness of language and, in some cases, pacing and plotting. There is a masterful economy to many, many of the best YAs that never feels thin or terse. They truly use and intend every word. Teenagers are a much more demanding audience than they get credit for (at least in terms of books); you have to hold them. They won't cut you much slack.

Alan, is that an answer to all three questions?

Gwenda, that makes a lot of sense.

Okay, first it is cruel of you to ask for just one title!

I would suggest reading Catherine Fisher's new book, Corbenic as an excellent example of the "right of refusal". In this case a teen is in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly presented with the chance to do a very significant thing - and walks away. He thinks the whole thing is insane. What Fisher shows is what happens next and answers the question of whether you really can deny a great charge/quest/adventure. (There are also many well done YA subplots.)

For disappointment, I reviewed Endymion Spring for my Sept column and while it is grand adventure (and I know will be compared to Dan Brown all over the place) I think the author assumed too much with it - his boy hero made too many leaps of logic, took too many chances, accepted too much and thus renders the book less significant then it could have been. I think because he was writing for YAs he (and his editors) figured he could get away with more plot and less story. You might want to read it to see how not to write, but trust me, all the praise will be overrated.

Finally, in terms of what is going on in YA these days - well it seems like things move faster, like challenges are made and met and reacted to at a pace that adult books would find too accelerated. I just finished to two short story collections (of the most literary kind) where all kinds of adults spent 25-30 pages whining about all kinds of ways in which their lives were too hard and then did nothing about it. That would not happen in YA book these days - there would be some sort of proactive action at some point. And that's what I really love about the genre - you have to have characters who act.

1. Feed by M.T. Anderson (really anything by him is good.) Holes is great for the younger crowd.

2. Ugh The Golden Compass and the others.

3. That the fiction others (the adults!) think you ought to read is never half as good as the stuff you want to read.

1) I liked Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones. It's older than "what's currently going on in YA..."

2) The Chronicles of Krystonia or something like that. Thought it was crap. That said, I never actually finished it, since it was on the face of it such crap. Might have turned out to be a good book in the end.

3) I, being a mediocre writer, can't really say what to take away from someone else's writing, as I clearly haven't taken it away, or I wouldn't be so mediocre, would I?

Contrary to what chance says, I thought the Golden Compass and it's sequels were really good. I did have to struggle a bit while reading them, and the whole pseudo-Xian morality of the series irked me, but I thought the characters were interesting and likable, the plot was clever, and the devices were original. Also, the morality of the tale wasn't black & white. There was lots of room for interpretation of motive even when a character was doing something reprehensible.

That said, I don't really read a lot of YA stuff. Funny, when I actually WAS a YA, I was pretty much reading adult fiction. It's said that the Golden Age of Science Fiction is 13. I think kids actually read YA stuff much younger than their teens, and teens (even the low teens) have pretty much moved to Stephen King and Robert Heinlein.

Could be wrong. I mean, I'm 36, and I read the Harry Potter stuff. I have re-read Phantom Tollbooth within the last year.

Couple questions: Was The Hobbit YA? My wife never read it, 'cause it was her opinion that it was a "kid's book." How about Watership Down, which was my favorite book at ~ that age?

I read a ton of YA/SF, so here goes:

1. Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke. That is, assuming you have already read or refused to read Harry Potter, which will give you an idea of what this moment in our culture is all about, I think Inkheart has a lot of what I like. First, it’s a jolly good story. Second, it’s not stupid, and the characters in it aren’t stupid. Third, it shows (I think) the way postmodernism has made its way to YA/SF, and how it’s kicking around. Fourth, it shows character issues are treated within the story, addressing some serious matters (like the tween feeling of exclusion from the adult world, particularly from the parents’ marriage) without getting all afterschool special on me.
Now, as much as I like Inkheart, it’s not my favorite recent YASF novel, which would either be Dragon Rider (also by Ms. Funke) or Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. Or The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer, or her The Ear, The Eye and The Arm. The last two are particularly good, and do a nice job of providing a certain exoticism that appeals to librarians and teachers without becoming social studies lessons.

2. The City of Ember. Oh, the first of the DJ McHale Pandragon books was so bad I didn’t finish it, but Ember was truly a stupid book.

3. There are lots of people who like stories, for whom stories are the main thing they look for in a book. Also, there’s a tremendous commercial advantage in having your audience compelled to attend school and write book reports. Also, having lots of awards for lots of books helps sell books, which in turn helps gets books published.

Thanks,
-V.

I work as a Young Adult librarian, so I've read a few books. (while I love and work in genre, David did not specify genre only so I am avoiding it)

1) LOOKING FOR ALASKA by John Green.

2) ERAGON by Paolini

3) What Gwenda said

Thanks, John! Outside the genre is also great.

Recommendations:

In novels, Green Angel by Alice Hoffman.

In short stories collections, Black Wine by Candas Jane Dorsey.

An explanation: Most of the YA novels I've been reading in the past few years read more like novelettes. There are plots and subplots, but focus upon them and character is sharply controlled, even if the protagonist is confused, even if the reader doesn't completely understand the direction things are going until the book concludes.

Oops, I plead a horrible ear infection for my wrong thinking. Under short story collection, I meant Margo Lanagan's Black Juice.

1. pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which has been brought up here more than once. the simple fact that it (and not harry potter) is the one that ya-reader/writers in the know are arguing about makes it the must-read. it responds, consciously and intelligently, not only to the chronicles of narnia (xianity as well as the fantasy), but to the ya fantasy genre in general. and the simple fact that maintaining innocence is not the goal of the trilogy, but rather gaining sexual (and other) knowledge, makes it ... unusual to say the least, in ya fantasy.

2. paolini's "eragon", a seamless frankenstein's monster of three or so other fantasy novels that paolini ingested, roiled about in his stomach, and spewed back out. (yes, i know that's a mixed metaphor.) it's popular because the pastiche is smooth and the echo is perfect, but there are a lot of eragon fans out there who will grow up to feel completely betrayed when they read the originals.

3. delany wrote something in "about writing" about writers having to feel out the shape of their narrative almost by instinct. naturally, it's not *really* instinct, it's a long, long practice of absorbing traditional western narrative shapes through reading books and watching movies. ya, since it's been around, has been concerned to the utmost with creating the perfect contemporary narrative shapes, showing what a western novel is expected to look like and do.

rather than plough through a hundred glorified mfa theses designed to flout convention in conventional ways, writers should instead be imprinting the novel shape upon their brains over and over again by reading really good ya.