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Saturday, October 4, 2014

What Is the BEST Young Adult Series? (Poll Nominations)

What is the best young adult (Y.A.) series?

It's October!  Time to start the nomination process for our October poll.

Even though our September poll for best Y.A. novel (in the lower left corner of the side menus) is still going on*, and you should totally vote in that, it's time to fire up the nomination process for October's poll.

*We had so many nominations that we had to do two semifinal round.

The Rules

1- As always, I leave definitions up to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. If you nominate books that are clearly for adults (No "Fifty Shades of Gray"), I'll put the kibosh on it, but I'm not going to get persnickety about where exactly young adult becomes children's books or where exactly they become adult books. If you think it fits, go ahead and nominate it. Harry Potter is a great Y.A. series but it's first and last book are arguably a children's book and an adult book respectively.

2- You are nominating the WHOLE series, holistically. If you, for example, you loved the first book, thought the second book was okay, and thought the third book was a train wreck of clunky writing and shoehorned characterization in which you couldn't figure out why people were doing what they were doing and you had to read the death scene like three times just to figure out Primrose had died (um...hypothetically) then maybe that's not the best series to nominate.

3- A series must have at least two books with a continuity arc that spans the books. We're trying to avoid books that are stand alone in their own universe. So books that exist in the same world like Goosebumps but are each stand alone novels are not for this poll. The series doesn't have to have a single overarching plot arc, but the books should have a sense of chronological progression rather than being like episodes in a TV show. Xanth would be okay, for example. The Hardy Boys would not. (We will be doing a Best YA World in a couple of months.)

4- You may nominate two (2) series. (If you nominate more than two books, I take your first two nominations and ignore the rest cause I'm a fucka mean tyrant who insists you have reading comprehension and follow rules and shit.)

5- You may (and should) second as many nominations of others as you wish. No series will be going on to our poll that doesn't get at least one second, and it is not unheard of for a poll to have SO many nominations that I only take the results with two or more "seconds."

6- Please put your nominations here. If you nominate books on social media where I've shared this post, they may not get the seconds you need because no one will see them.

In a couple of weeks we'll get the poll fired up based on your nominations. It's all up to you.

52 comments:

  1. Young Wizards - Diane Duane
    Warriors - Erin Hunter

    Both series I read and loved as an adult!

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  2. The Old Kingdom/Abhorsen Chronicles (different UK/US titles) - Garth Nix
    His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

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  3. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

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    Replies
    1. I see His Dark Materials has already been seconded, but I'll give it a second second, just in case.

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  4. I'd second both of Plymouth's nominations (Young Wizards, Warriors). I would've nominated Young Wizards myself.

    I guess if Young Wizards is already up, I'll add:

    The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper
    Earthsea - Ursula LeGuin

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  5. The Dark is Rising sequence, Susan Cooper.

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  6. Protector of the Small Series by Tamora Pierce
    Trickster's Series by Tamora Pierce

    I would nominate the Alana series, except the first book is cringingly bad. When introducing people to Pierce's writing, I never let them read the first book first.

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  7. Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time series.

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  8. Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini Taylor
    Cassandra Clare series (Clockwork Angel, etc)
    Game of Thrones (altho not really YA, I guess)

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  9. Dragondrums by Anne McCaffery
    Narnia Series by C.S. Lewis

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  10. I'll second the "Earthsea" books.

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  11. I loved the Artemis Fowl series. Great puns - Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance team: LEPRecon. And the centaur as sysadmin is adorable.

    Also, The Uglies/Pretties/Specials series is good.

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  12. Replies
    1. Thirded, for both
      (stupid freaking login, posting as anon - gml)

      Delete
  13. Nominate:
    The GFL, Sigler
    Winnie The Pooh, Milne

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  14. I'll nominate the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe.

    I'm not sure if it really counts as young adult, but I read it first in my teens and loved it, so I'm counting it as such. Plus, while each book is good, it gets better as you read the books together and notice the running themes, so it's perfect for a "series" poll.

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    Replies
    1. Since Laurell Hoff hasn't posted here, I'll nominate her suggestion for 1984 myself, for the reasons she gave.

      Delete
  15. I'm going to nominate:

    Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison

    Just because I remember those being a lot of fun when I was early teens.

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  16. I nominate:
    The Dalemark Quartet by Diana Wynne Jones
    The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfield

    I second:
    Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin
    The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
    Uglies/Pretties/Specials by Scott Westerfield
    The Abhorsen Chronicles by Garth Nix

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  17. Nominate two oldies -
    Lloyd Alexander "The Chronicals of Prydain"
    e. nesbit "Psammead series"

    and anyone remember Edgar Eager "The Magic Series"? Starting with "Half Magic" and "The Time Garden" and "Seven Day Magic"?
    And I guess Tom Swift doesn't rate as YA- I read those when I was 8 and 9... cleaned out the "kids" library by the time I was 10 and got permission to go thethe "big kids" (translation high school) library. I still remember the smell of the books when I stepped into that library for the first time.

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    Replies
    1. I read and liked "Half Magic" as a kid but I never realized it was part of a series.

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  18. Seconding
    Tamora Pierce, Trickster series
    Wrinkle in time
    Cassandra Clair Series
    McCaffrey's Dragon Song/Singer/Drums

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  19. Nominating Mercedes Lackey Arrows of the Queen (Heralds of Valdemar trilogy)

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  20. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  21. Completely changed my mind. Sorry about that. Even with all the fantastic choices nominated so far, there're so many more. I'll go ahead and nominate the OZ series by L Frank Baum and The Books of Swords series by Fred Saberhagen.

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  22. I nominate Another Fine Myth and Death Gate Cycle. First is by Robert Aspirin second by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman.

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    Replies
    1. I'll certainly second the Myth Adventures series, excellent YA series.

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    2. i second both of these love these series

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  23. i nominate the dark powers series by kelley armstrong and the hunger games

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  24. I'm a teen, although I have little experience with YA. I read adult fiction.
    1) The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell
    2) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins? I put a question mark because I personally am not a fan, but it is unquestionably the most influential YA book in recent years; the WHOLE dystopia craze came as a result.

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