Like, Try, Why: Contemporary YA

I used to make these “like, try, why” reader’s advisory posts regularly for the Teen Zone before I moved to Collection Development (you can find them all indexed here). Then I started helping to coordinate the posts for the library’s blog, and have spent more time making “like, try, why” recommendations that feature adult titles. I’m finally back in the habit of making RA materials for the Teen Zone, so I’ll be featuring one each week (sometimes with adult titles and sometimes with young adult titles).

These serve a dual purpose in the library. They can be printed off and kept in a binder by the card catalog for library patrons to flip through when browsing for a book, as well as help staff who are offering readers’ advisory. But they are also great for sharing on social media. I post all of them on the library’s tumblr and blog.

Here’s the first new one for YA fiction, which features thoughtful, contemplative and more literary contemporary YA, as opposed to my next one, which has more light-hearted, fun contemporary YA.

contemporary YA like try why

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Amazon | Goodreads | My Review

Like I’ll Give You the Sun, Graffiti Moon is a story of artists and first love told from multiple perspectives and bursting with lyrical prose.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley
Amazon | Goodreads | My Review

 How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
Amazon | Goodreads | My Review

Both novels deal with teenage pregnancy and mother-daughter relationships in a compelling and realistic way.

Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia
Amazon | Goodreads | My Review

Great by Sara Benincasa
Amazon | Goodreads | My Review

Great is a modern retelling of The Great Gatsby, and Solitaire has a modern Holden Caulfield as its protagonist. Both present a smart and edgy story about how social media effects modern teens.

Solitaire by Alice Oseman
Amazon | Goodreads

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