Brian's Best and Worst YA Books Read in 2006

The Best YA Books I Read in 2006

From Lowest to Highest


6. Storytime by Edward Bloor

This book wasn't written in 2006 but I read it (or listened to it) over the summer on tape. I thought the plot was very interesting, with a mix of weird and scary. The characters were well developed, and the ending was fulfilling. READ IT!

5. A Mango Shaped Space

Meet Mia, your average 7th grader. She has a brother, a sister, and two loving parents. Except that she sees colors associated with words. Her name is red with a touch of green. The slamming of a door produces a brown coil. And her cat Mango, produces puffs of Mango colored air when he wheezes. Is she a freak? Is this normal? This book is a great read!

4. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Bella is your typical teen with a modern divorced family. She moves to a town called Forks where she meets a very handsome but mysterious boy. There is one catch though, he's a vampire. This book was very good. Despite it being 500 pages, it is a fast read!

3. The Burn Journals by Brett Runyon

This book was an amazing page turner. Meet Brent Runyon, a 14 year old who decides to kill himself one day by setting his entire body on fire. But he survives. Brent takes you through his journey to recovery, both mentally and physically. He teaches the importance of communication and the value of family. This book was extremely moving and made me pleased to have obtained a copy of it.

2. The Girls by Lori Jansens

Meet Ruby and Rose, who are conjoined twins. They were given up at birth and raised with their Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash. The book takes place between the past and the present and it is a heart wrenching story, that has a ticking time bomb that you KNOW will go off eventually. I dont' want to go into detail as to what that means, but you'll find out. This book was written between the perspectives of the two girls. I found it to be very fresh and enjoyable.

1. Saint Iggy by K. A. Going
This book was gripping and powerful, with a very sad, likable main character who will definitely catch any readers interest. READ IT!









On a pessimist's note….The Worst YA Books I Read in 2006

From Worst to Best

3. Live Bait by Francine Pascal

I started reading the Fearless series when I was in my early days of college. Gaia Moore, the girl who cannot feel fear really caught my attention. And even though the books got worse, I kept reading them. Pascal decided to end her series and start a new one, Fearless FBI which took away all of the lovable side characters and left us with Gaia and a bunch of boring new characters. No thanks!


2. King Dork

With all the hype on this book, I really expected it to be a fun, interesting read. Instead, I got bored, confused and disinterested. I stuck through it mostly because I kept hoping it would get better. But sadly, it never did!



1. Anything by Chris Krutcher

I don't mean to put down Chris Krutcher. I can wholeheartedly appreciate everything he does for the YA community, but so far, when push has come to shove, I CAN'T GET INTO ANYTHING HE'S WRITTEN! This year I tried both Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes AND Whale Talk and the stories simply didn’t grip me!



**Honorable Mention**: Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty.
I've enjoyed her Jessica Darling works since the very beginning, but there was something off putting about this particular volume. It wasn’t necessarily a BAD book, but it was a letdown.