Librarian determines most popular YA of today

A new article from School Library Journal lays out the most popular series and individual novels on the market today, as determined by Karen McCoy’s survey of 100 public and school libraries (conducted from July to December of 2011). Since I’m such a sucker for all things lists, I thought I’d share her findings here. Those up with YA book scene will recognize some familiar faces, but others may come as a bit of a surprise.

McCoy also attempts to identify the new and upcoming trends in YA fiction, talking specifically of the emergence of “hybrids, or the blurring of the lines between genres,” and “character-driven novels, such as Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall (HarperCollins, 2010).” Like many others, she notes the decreased interest in the vampire-centric novel made popular by the Twilight series.

You can read her entire article here.

Most popular series

    

1. The Hunger Games (Scholastic) by Suzanne Collins

2. Twilight (Little, Brown) by Stephenie Meyer

3. Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Hyperion) by Rick Riordan

4. Wolves of Mercy Falls (Scholastic) by Maggie Stiefvater

5. The Maze Runner (Delacorte) by James Dashner

6. The Kane Chronicles (Hyperion) by Rick Riordan

7. Mortal Instruments (S & S) by Cassandra Clare

8. House of Night (St. Martin’s) by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

9. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Abrams) by Jeff Kinney

10. Heroes of Olympus (Hyperion) by Rick Riordan

11. Matched (Dutton) by Ally Condie

12. Infernal Devices (S & S) by Cassandra Clare

13. Harry Potter (Scholastic) by J. K. Rowling

14. Dark Visions (S & S) by L. J. Smith

15. The Vampire Diaries (HarperTeen) by L. J. Smith

16. The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel (Delacorte) by Michael Scott

17. The Leviathan Trilogy (S & S) by Scott Westerfeld

18. Conspiracy 365 (Kane/Miller) by Gabrielle Lord

19. Maximum Ride (Little, Brown) by James Patterson

20. Septimus Heap (HarperCollins) by Angie Sage

Most popular titles

1. Along for the Ride (Viking) by Sarah Dessen

2. Thirteen Reasons Why (Penguin) by Jay Asher

3. Burned (St. Martin’s) by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast

4. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Quirk Bks.) by Ransom Riggs

5. Lock and Key (Viking) by Sarah Dessen

6. Crank (S & S) by Ellen Hopkins

7. The Book Thief (Knopf) by Markus Zusak

8. Looking for Alaska (Dutton) by John Green

9. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (Little, Brown) by Stephenie Meyer

10. Monster (HarperCollins) by Walter Dean Myers

11. Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Little, Brown) by Laini Taylor

12. Story of a Girl (Little, Brown) by Sara Zarr

13. Beautiful Creatures (Little, Brown) by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

14. Identical (S & S) by Ellen Hopkins

15. Fallout (S & S) by Ellen Hopkins

16. Snitch (S & S) by Allison van Diepen

17. Num8ers (Scholastic) by Rachel Ward

18. After (Viking) by Amy Efaw

19. Legend (Putnam) by Marie Lu

20. L.A. Candy (HarperCollins) by Lauren Conrad

YA Covers Get All Dressed Up

Have you noticed lately that a visit to your local bookstore’s young adult section is like a trip to a high-end New York fashion show? Everywhere you look, hauntingly lovely girls grace the bookshelf catwalk, modeling intricate and, often, extremely voluminous gowns.

Just take a look at these extravagant covers:

This fancy-dress trend has exploded in the past year (all these books were published in 2011, except for The Luxe and Matched, which came out in the tail end of 2010), a symptom of the revival the gothic–aka paranormal–romance novel is currently undergoing. There’s no doubt that the covers are evocative. The atmosphere is dark. The subjects’ expressions, if seen at all, are forlorn and longing. Combined with single-word titles like Passion, Wither, and Entwined, the images are clearly meant to elicit tingling emotional responses from their teenage consumers, rather than hint at any sort of plot point.

And it works, usually. I know I’ve picked up these books in part to admire the pretty dresses and bask in their deliciously dark aura. With the best ones, I can practically feel the intrigue and romance seeping through the covers.

However, even the most gorgeous dress, if staged improperly, can go horribly awry. The new YA novel by Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me, is one such example. An otherwise fantastic debut novel that plays with classic gothic and dystopian motifs, the cover art is sadly disappointing.The straightforward view had the potential to be fresh and different from the slew of other dress covers. The fact that the female subject’s entire face is showing is a huge improvement, in my opinion, on the trend of using partially hidden features. Her expression is obviously meant to be strong and determined, but  just comes off as a generic runway face. The backdrop doesn’t help matters either, since it, in fact, looks like a catwalk, complete with a door through which the model can disappear once she’s stomped the length of the runway. Even the strike-out in the title and tagline comes off cheesy, although I’m more willing to forgive this, since the style is employed throughout the text as well.

All in all, I quite like the fancy-dress cover trend. Done right, the covers are beautiful and exciting, conjuring up visions of magic and mystery. Done wrong, the gorgeous dress becomes nothing more than a flat stage piece, easy to pass over in favor of the multitude of others vying for attention.

(P.S. Want a full review of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi? Check out this one by fellow blogger endlessqueue.)

 It’s a superhero story with a female protagonist. I feel like it may be harder to find your own voice in the YA genre lately, as so many novels seem to be playing off of all the other ones in the genre. What Tahereh Mafi does is all natural, it’s her voice developing a unique idea and standing out from all the rest.