Introduction We live in a golden age of young adult publishing. A decade ago, critics proclaimed the death of the young adult novel, but this amazingly resilient group of books has surprised everyone and taken on new life. The range of titles published, their excellence, and their variety have never been more exciting, not even in the last heyday of young adult publishing, in the 1970s. New population demographics have brought eighty million young readers into the teenage category, the echo boomers of the baby boomers. Bookstores have increased space and visibility for teen books, causing more enthusiasm and more exposure. Harry Potter swept on the scene and then became an adolescent with a huge teen following. At the same time, revived by the movies, J.R.R. Tolkien captured his next devoted adolescent audience. Several titles that first appeared on adult lists - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Life of Pi, and The Secret Life of Bees - were picked up and embraced by teens. Publishers started to hunt, frantically, for crossover books, books like Curious Incident that have wide appeal. Now, any consumer - in schools or libraries or bookstores - has many superb choices. In 2006 several thousand new titles will be published for readers twelve to eighteen. But how can anyone analyze all the young adult titles available? How can a concerned parent, teacher, grandparent, or teen find the best of this genre? How can adults select books that they feel comfortable giving? With these questions in mind, I set out to provide a guide for those perplexed about young adult books. The Nature and History of Young Adult Books I have over the last thirty-five years read thousands of young adult books, trying to understand the literature, what it can do at its best, and why it engenders such controversy. When I entered the publishing field in 1970, young adult books had just emerged as a distinct form. A year later, as the youngest person on the Horn Book review staff, I read these titles for authenticity; did they truly reflect teenagers of the 1960s and 1970s? As editor of The Horn Book Magazine, I watched young adult books mature in the 1980s and stagnate in the 1990s. Authors relied too much on formulas and assumptions about what teens wanted to read, and the literature lost its vitality. Then, around 2000, young adult literature gained a new passion, new focus, and new purpose. Great teenage literature has always addressed the fundamental questions of the teenage years: Who am I? Do I matter? How do I relate to others? In that literature, teens get blown off course by their hormones, just as they do in the real world. Teenage angst and ennui shape many of the characters. All young adult literature explores the problems of separation and empowerment. Sometimes that process can have terrible results - as Robert Cormier demonstrated in The Excerpted from 500 Great Books for Teens by Anita Silvey All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.