If your kids are wild about Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games (2008)--including Mockingjay (2010, both Scholastic), the newly-released final book in the trilogy--there are plenty of other titles with similar themes that are sure to help librarians, parents, and educators keep teens reading.
While Mockingjay brings an end to the story of a dystopian society in which teens are forced to participate in televised fights to the death, the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has a list of books that are sure to capture the attention of Katniss and Peeta fans.
"The Hunger Games series appeals to many readers because it is full of excitement and adventure, the characters are likeable and well developed with a strong sense of right and wrong," says YALSA President Kim Patton. "The fierce teen competitors of District 12 don't bow down to authority without question. These young characters take matters into their own hands and plot their future based on how they think the world should be, not the way they are told that the world should be. A lot of teens can relate to that."
Similarly-themed titles are included in the 2011 nominations for YALSA's Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults (PPYA) booklist, particularly the What If-themed list, which highlights titles featuring alternative history and worlds, steampunk, apocalyptic fiction, and cyberpunk, as well as other settings.
Each year, YALSA's Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults committee compiles themed reading lists with the goal of encouraging teens to read for pleasure by suggesting appealing popular or topical paperbacks. The fully annotated list of 2011 nominations, as well as other PPYA themed lists, are available online. The final 2011 lists will be announced at the American Library Association's 2011 Midwinter Meeting in San Diego, from January 7-11.
The What If nominations list includes the following titles:
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 1 (VIZ Media, 2005) by Hiromu Arakawa
Jennifer Government (Vintage, 2004) by Max Barry
Black & White by (S & S, 2007) Malorie Blackman
The Compound by (Square Fish, 2009) S.A. Bodeen
Fortunes of Indigo Skye (Simon Pulse, 2009) by Deb Caletti
The White Mountains (The Tripods #1) (Simon Pulse, 2003) by John Christopher
The Hunger Games (Scholastic, 2010) by Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner (Delacorte, 2010) by James Dashner
The Diamond of Darkhold (Yearling, 2010) by Jeanne DuPrau
Truancy (Tor Teen, 2010) by Isamu Fukui
Necromancer (Ace, 2000) by William Gibson
Gone (Ketherine Tegan Bks., 2009) by Michael Grant
Epic (Firebird, 2008) by Conor Kostick
The Declaration (Bloomsbury, 2008) by Gemma Malley
Tomorrow, When the War Began (Scholastic, 2006) by John Marsden
Un Lun Dun (Del Rey, 2008) by China Mieville
The Knife of Never Letting Go: Chaos Walking (Candlewick, 2009) by Patrick Ness
Airborn (HarperCollins, 2005) by Kenneth Oppel
The Dead and the Gone (Graphia, 2010) by Susan Beath Pfeffer
Life As We Knew It (Graphia, 2008) by Susan Beath Pfeffer
How I Live Now (Wendy Lamb Books, 2006) by Meg Rosoff
Bones of Faerie (Random, 2010) by Janni Lee Simner
Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys, Vol. 1: Friends (VIZ Media, 2009) by Naoki Urasawa
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