The Answer Sheet: adolescent literature

Here are the five books selected by the Young Adult Library Services Association as finalists for the 2011 William C. Morris Award, which honors a book written for young adults by a previously unpublished author.

Does your child read fantasy books, one after the other, whizzing through series after series to the exclusion of any other genre? Are you worried that your child is: A) living in a fantasy world; b) wasting time on silly themes; c) wasting time reading easy books?

By James Blasingame Today, I will explain why I don’t think we’ll ever see a stake driven through the heart of the young adult vampire novel (Sorry about that, but I couldn’t resist).... What young woman in her right mind (well, in her daydreams, anyway) would not prefer the impossibly handsome, but possibly dangerous, alleged badboy who drives through the McDonald’s drive-through on his motorcycle over the definitely nerdy-but-nice, good boy who finishes her shift at said McDonalds with her and asks her to the prom while saturated in vegetable oil?