A Brief List of Memorable Young Adult Series

I've been spending some time lately curled up with some of my favorite YA series, excellent rereads for comfort and inspiration.  Please see a list of some memorable series below, divided into loose categories.

Please email us to reserve a copy of any of these books!

Alternate History:

• Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld: World War I with hybrid Darwinist beasties and steam-powered war machines.
• Finishing School (Etiquette & Espionage) by Gail Carriger: Victorian era with (well-mannered) vampires and werewolves.
• Sorcery & Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede: Regency England with magic and chocolate.

Historical Fiction:

• Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein: Young women flying and imprisoned during World War II.
• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson: Slavery and loyalty during Revolutionary times.

Fantasy with Kingdom Intrigue:

• Graceling by Kristin Cashore: How to use one's power to help and not to hurt. The two following books (to read in either order, but Graceling first) have similar focus with different main characters.
• Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: How to survive in court as a secret half-dragon when one's existence is considered an abomination.
• Provost's Dog/Beka Cooper (Terrier) by Tamora Pierce: How to be fair in one's work for the Provost's Guard and engage in only the right amount of corruption. Takes place 200 years before the Alanna books. (If you prefer espionage, try the Trickster series, about Alanna's daughter.)
• The Queen's Thief (The Thief) by Megan Whalen Turner: Don't believe everything the narrator says. He's a thief, after all, and kind of sneaky.  5th book coming out in May!

Coming of Age:

• Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock: Learning to speak up about what one really wants.
• Tiffany Aching (The Wee Free Men) by Terry Pratchett: Learning to be a witch, and how much of that is learning to be oneself.
• Every Day and Another Day by David Levithan: Learning to navigate sustained human interaction when one wakes up in a different body every day.
• Annals of the Western Shore (Gifts) by Ursula K. Le Guin: Similar to Graceling -- can one's power be used to create and not destroy? Also similar to Graceling (and to Le Guin's Earthsea series) in that the books focus on separate, though interlocking, stories.

Previously published in the January 2017 Big Blue YA Newsletter.  

For links to recent YA newsletters, see August post "Young Adult Book Club Post-Book-Club Newsletters".

Weekly Events Counting Down to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Midnight Release!

Happy birthday to (or perhaps from) Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling! The newest work in the Harry Potter world, the script for the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will be released at midnight between Saturday, July 30, and Sunday, July 31. This play, opening in London July 30 (with previews beginning June 7), takes place 19 years after Harry, Ron, and Hermione defeat Voldemort, and is a study of how family stories echo through generations.

Any new Harry Potter release is a good enough reason for book lovers to party, but this summer we have EVEN MORE: local author Lorrie Kim, who is by her own description obsessed with Severus Snape, will also be releasing her character study of the Half-Blood Prince that same night. Called Snape: A Definitive Reading, the book is the perfect present for anyone who has ever melted at the single word "Always."

Beginning Saturday, June 18th, we're launching seven weekends of Harry Potter events! We’ll be showing all eight movies, with different crafts and associated games each week. All events are free and appropriate for Harry Potter fans of all ages. Popcorn, snacks, trivia, and fun!

You can pre-order either book (or both) from us starting NOW by emailing orders@bigbluemarblebooks.com. See the calendar below, and check back for updates.

Countdown Schedule:        

Saturday, June 18 - Countdown week 1

• 6 pm - Harry Potter Warm Up – Make a wand of your own, and decorate your own Harry-Potter-style glasses!
• 7 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Sorcerer’s Stone

Saturday, June 25 - Countdown week 2

• 6 pm - Dobby Sock Contest – Wear your most outrageous mismatched socks! Take your picture in our Harry Potter Photo Booth!
• 7 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

photo by Jennifer Sheffield

Saturday, July 2 - Countdown week 3

• 6 pm - Animagus/Patronus Costume Contest – What animal will you be? Make your own Azkaban Wanted Poster!
• 7 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Saturday, July 9 - Countdown week 4

• 6 pm - Contest – Can you get your name into the Goblet of Fire?
• 7 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Saturday, July 16 - Countdown week 5

• 6 pm - Activities – Create your own prophecy and orb! AND Create your own Educational Decrees!
• 7 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Saturday, July 23 - Countdown week 6

• 6 pm - Activities – POTION MAKING! Mix your own magic - but you'll have to taste test it! AND Invent your own magic spells
• 7 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

image by ShockingBlankets, via Lorrie Kim

Friday, July 29 - Countdown week 7

• 6 pm - Harry Potter Character Guessing Game – In Book 7, our heroes keep changing identities - are you fan enough to keep track?
• 6:45 pm - Reading of "The Tale of the Three Brothers".
• 7 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

Saturday, July 30 - Release party! Costumes encouraged for all!

• 6 pm - Screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
• 8:30 pm - Starring Severus Snape! Celebration of Snape: A Definitive Reading, Lorrie Kim’s hot-off-the-press definitive study of the potions master. Readings, trivia, and passionate discussion.
  Reserve your copy of Snape by emailing: orders@bigbluemarblebooks.com
  Check out the new interview with Lorrie Kim, just posted on the blog!
• 11 pm – Screening of Tom Felton Meets the Superfans, a special documentary on the world of Harry Potter
• 12:01 am – Get your copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child!
  Reserve your copy by emailing: orders@bigbluemarblebooks.com.
  The first 40 people to buy the book will receive a special certificate sealed with a Hogwarts Crest!

Star Wars Epic Yarns!

From the authors of Cozy Classics, we now bring you Epic Yarns! The first installment: A New Hope.

Authors Jack and Holman Wang have returned with their charming felt figures to recreate Star Wars Episode IV. It's all here, the Death Star, the garbage chute, light sabers and X-Wing fighters, the entire story in twelve words with beautiful, detailed illustrations rendered entirely in felt.

Stop by Big Blue Marble Bookstore and get your copy today!

It's a felt wookie. I mean, who can resist?

Sheila’s Five Series for When I Want My Books to Be Candy

All of these are beautifully imagined worlds with compelling characters that will leave you reaching for the next book...and the next...and the next. Smart escapism, perfect for beach and hammock reading.

Seanan McGuire’s Toby Daye urban fantasy: series starts with Rosemary and Rue (Penguin, $7.99)
October Day is a changeling PI recovering from spending 14 years transformed into a carp, while simultaneously navigating the political machinations of feudal fae society.

Laurie King’s Russell and Holmes series: series starts with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (St. Martin’s, $16.00)
Sherlock Holmes meets his match in a fifteen-year-old half-American Jewish theologian named Mary Russell; their adventures in the service of the crown take them across the UK and around the globe.

Colin Cotterill’s Dr. Siri books: Series starts with The Coroner’s Lunch (Soho, $15.95)
It’s 1978 and Dr. Siri Paiboum has seen Laos through its Communist revolution and
would like nothing more than to retire, but his country still needs his services in the
autopsy room.

Joan Aiken’s Wolves Chronicles: series starts with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Random House, $5.99 US edition or approx. $11 UK edition)
Interlocking stories following an group of children related by friendship and family ties as their journeys take them far afield from their homes and affect the grand arch of a richly imagined alternate 18th century.

Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series: series begins with The Thief (HarperCollins, $6.99)
Eugenides is one of the most compelling characters out there, a thief who converses with the gods of the Mediterranean world of city-states and high court drama.

Sheila Avelin, July 2014

Beyond Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown: Sheila’s Five Mystery Series for Kids

Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (Random House, $4.99 each)

Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth by Jane O'Connor (HarperCollins, $9.99 each)

Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer (Penguin, $6.99 each)

The Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley (Harry Abrams, $7.95 each)

The Clubhouse Mysteries by Sharon Draper (Simon and Schuster, $4.99 each)

Sheila Avelin, December 2013

Ten Authors of Series Jen Loves to Reread: Part II

[Editor's Note: Here's a link to Part I. Additionally, two of the following series are also among Nif's November 2010 Picks.]

J.R.R.TOLKIEN set the stage for my love of both fantasy and linguistics.
- The Lord of the Rings, starting with The Fellowship of the Ring (Del Rey, $7.99), or more properly with The Hobbit (Del Rey, $7.99)

MEGAN WHALEN TURNER offers characters who hide in plain sight.
- Attolia series, starting with The Thief (Greenwillow, $6.99)

LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD has a fabulous grasp of diplomacy: Over and over, she introduces you to the enemy, and then gives them the floor.
- Cordelia Naismith/Miles Vorkosigan series, starting with Cordelia’s Honor (Simon & Schuster, $7.99)
- Chalion series, starting with The Curse of Chalion (HarperTorch, $7.99)
- Sharing Knife, starting with Sharing Knife: Beguilement (Eos, $7.99)

JASPER FFORDE mixes absurdist alternate history with a host of literary puns.
- Thursday Next, starting with The Eyre Affair (Penguin, $15.00)
- Nursery Crime, starting with The Big Over Easy (Penguin, $15.00)

TAMORA PIERCE knows what it means to find a place to belong.
- Circle of Magic, starting with Sandry’s Book (Point, $6.99)
- The Protector of the Small, starting with First Test (Random House, $6.50)

August 2011, Jennifer Sheffield

Ten Authors of Series Jen Loves to Reread: Part I

[Editor's Note: Three of the following series are also among Nif's November 2010 Picks.]

Terry Pratchett mixes fantastic silliness with biting political satire.
- Tiffany Aching, starting with The Wee Free Men (HarperCollins, $6.99)
- Discworld series, Night Watch thread, starting with Guards! Guards! (HarperCollins, $7.99)
- Discworld series, Witches thread, starting with Equal Rites (HarperCollins, $7.99)

Laurie King brings Sherlock Holmes out of retirement (with some help from her protagonist).
- Mary Russell series, starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (Picador, $15.00)

[Further Note: The Beekeeper's Apprentice is also one of Claudia's February Picks.]

Ursula Le Guin explores the limits of power.
- The Annals of the Western Shore, starting with Gifts (Harcourt, $7.95)
- Earthsea series, starting with A Wizard of Earthsea (Random House, $7.99)
Note: there are now six books in this series, and if you’ve only read the trilogy, it’s time for your world to be turned upside down!
- Catwings, starting with Catwings (Scholastic, $4.99)
Okay, the Catwings series is not as much about power. And yet…

Catherine Gilbert Murdock maintains a perfect voice.
- D.J. Schwenk series, starting with Dairy Queen (Graphia, $8.99)

Scott Westerfeld goes steampunk!
- Leviathan series, starting with Leviathan (Simon & Schuster, $9.99)

[Penultimate Note: Leviathan is also one of Jen's June Picks.]

See here for Part II.

July 2011, Jennifer Sheffield

Kate's Five Young Adult Series You Should Read If You Liked The Hunger Games

If you like dark, action-packed young adult sci-fi/fantasy novels that are full of romance and adventure, you will love the following series!

Science Fiction:

The Uglies Series, by Scott Westerfeld: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, and Extras (Simon Pulse, $9.99 each)

The Maximum Ride Series, by James Patterson: The Angel Experiment, School's Out Forever, and Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (Little Brown and Co., $7.99-$8.99)

Incarceron and Sapphique, by Catherine Fisher (Penguin, $17.99)

Fantasy:

The Mortal Instruments Series, by Cassandra Clare: City of Bones, City of Ash, and City of Glass (Margaret K McElderly, $9.99-$17.99)

A Modern Faerie Tale Series: Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside, by Holly Black (Margaret K McElderly, $8.99 each)

January 2011, Kate Musliner

5 Sequels Nif is Excited About

A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner (HarperCollins, $16.99). If you’ve read The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia, then you must find out what happened to Sophos. Personally, I’m on the edge of my seat for the next one after this, and anguished that Megan Whalen Turner takes so long to write them. Great for fantasy fans aged 10 to 110.

The God of the Hive by Laurie R. King (Random House $25.00), picks up right where The Language of Bees leaves off. Who IS the enemy pursuing Russell, Holmes, his son, and his young granddaughter, and when will they be safe? A satisfying conclusion.

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins, $16.99). A fourth and final Tiffany Aching book! My heart welled up with love again and again as I read it. Start with Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky and you too will be cheering for the young witch from The Chalk.

Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Simon & Schuster, $25.00). Fans of the Vorkosigan Saga have been chanting, “More Miles, more Miles, more Miles!” for nearly a decade! After several excursions into other new and fascinating worlds with wonderfully engaging characters, Bujold finally obliges.

Soon after the August paperback release of Scott Westerfeld’s wonderful steampunk YA novel Leviathan (Simon & Schuster, $9.99) comes Behemoth (Simon & Schuster, $18.99). I look forward to more of this alternate WWI with more dirigibles and more genetically engineered warships!

November 2010, Jennifer Woodfin

Sheila's list of Five Mystery Series you might like if you like the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series (The Beekeeper's Apprentice, etc.)

Laurie R. King's other series, featuring detective Kate Martinelli and set in contemporary San Francisco.
sample books: A Grave Talent, With Child, To Play the Fool

Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, set in London after WWI, with Maisie practicing at the intersection of early psychotherapy and forensics.
sample books: Maisie Dobbs, An Incomplete Revenge, Among the Mad

Rennie Airth's John Madden series, set in the English countryside and wonderfully written, featuring a Scotland Yard detective-turned-farmer and his physician wife in the run-up to WWII.
books in the series so far: River of Darkness, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, and The Dead of Winter

Dorothy Sayers' classic Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane books. This series is a masterpiece of Britain's Golden Age of detective fiction.
sample books: Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night, Busman's Honeymoon. (And featuring Lord Peter but not Harriet: The Nine Tailors.)

Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins books combine a lively mix of the occult and supernatural, the folklore of the English/Welsh border, and the trials of single motherhood in the Anglican clergy.
sample books: Midwinter of the Spirit, Lamp of the Wicked, To Dream of the Dead

July 2010, Sheila Avelin