Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with youngadult

Lobotomized 1980s/1990s children's/young adult book

whitneyarner — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:23:21 -0800

This one has been driving me nuts for years, and I'm going to turn to the hive mind. When I was a kid, around 10 or 11 (making it around 1992-1993), I got a book that was something akin to the Babysitters' Club books: targeted at young girls, about a group of young girls all doing something together. The first of a potential series, although I don't know if I read any more. I remember very few details of this book other than the fact that it was mentioned that the main character/narrator's mother had had A LOBOTOMY. She had been depressed or had some other mental problem before, so she had a voluntary lobotomy and was now fun and freewheeling and wore cowboy hats in the kitchen. This wasn't an important plot point, just a throwaway character detail. If anyone has any memory or clue to what this book or book series could have been, I'd be thrilled. I'd just like to know that I'm not just making it up, for one thing.

I need to read some grown-up books. With unicorns, preferably.

PhoBWanKenobi — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:39:22 -0800

After spending several years reading largely YA, I'd like to read some grown-up secondary world fantasy novels. Persnickety tastes below the fold. My tastes run a bit girly. As a teenager, I loved Mercedes Lackey, Anne McCaffrey, and Jennifer Roberson's Sword-Dancer series. I also loved stealth science fiction or fantasy that felt like it; most compelling to me about Lackey's Valdemar books was the mystery behind the companions. Modern fantasy that I've enjoyed includes Lev Grossman's The Magicians and The Magician King (especially the parts set in Fillory), and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (encyclopedic! But with a wry sense of humor underlying it), but both of those titles are right on the line for my tolerance of clever vs. story. I like stuff best when it has strong characters, breezing pacing, nice romance, but more rigorous worldbuilding than a lot of YA fantasy (Graceling, for example, was too simplistic for me). Feminist themes and queer characters are great too. I hate rapey, grim-dark stuff.

I want to read the grown-up, recently published equivalent of Seraphina, I guess. Suggestions?

Zillions Magazine equivalents for Kids These Days?

asperity — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:50:07 -0800

Are there any current equivalents of Zillions Magazine in any format? Zillions was a fantastic resource for financial and consumer education aimed at kids, was published by Consumer Reports, and folded in 2000. Any format's fine, online or off. I'm more interested in finding modern publications or blogs with the same attitude (see link above) than in straightforward financial education, which is a lot easier to come by.

Young adult books about or starring characters from Laos?

ruhroh — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:48:29 -0800

[Book Filter] Does anyone have recommendations of books that are either about Laos, or starring characters that are Laotian? I have a student in my 5th grade class whose parents and grandparents emigrated from Laos and is interested in reading about experiences of people who live in Laos. Books can be either fiction or non-fiction, but fiction is preferred. He is probably a little behind grade level in his reading ability, so a book that is good for 3rd or 4th graders would be preferable. Optional: Adult or Young Adult books on the same subject that I could read on my own and discuss with him.

Books that I have read that are somewhat related to Laos: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down and First They Killed My Father.

Books of my youth filter

latkes — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:41:54 -0800

Name that young adult fantasy novel: Two boys who are enemies at school are transported to some magical scenario where they have to work together. One boy is a slight, artsy (or maybe nerdy?) sensitive type, the other is physically bigger and a bully. By they end they learn some kind of valuable lesson about cooperation. But I loved it and don't remember it as as so cheesy as I'm describing.

I remember they had a magic bowl where they could ask for any food and have a bowl full of it. I believe one of the boys requested chili con carne. They also had some kind of magical fire-starting materials.

Would like to get this book from the library for my kid - what the heck was it?!

Thank you fellow nerds!

Help me remember this YA book.

fozzie_bear — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:27:49 -0800

I've been trying on and off for years to remember this YA book. Actually, I think it might be a series, but maybe not. Details within. -Book is set in the US in the 1930s-1940s.

-Features a family with four (I think) kids, two boys, two girls. Their mother is deceased and they live with their father and housekeeper/nanny.

-All four kids have some kind of talent, but I can only remember the talents of the two girls.

-The oldest girl is about 13 and an actress. She is cast in a radio soap opera.

-The other girl is a ballet dancer.

-The kids pool their money so that each one can do something special once a week or so. The oldest girl uses the money to get a manicure. She realizes her father will be very angry with her and tries to hide it but he notices at the dinner table. The housekeeper sacrifices some of her beloved perfume (Nights on the Nile?) to remove the nail polish.

BONUS QUESTION:
-I have the nagging feeling this is a series and in one of the books the family inherits a female relative's house and the attic is filled with Chippendale furniture. Horrible but memorable detail: Cranky old relative was known to acquire a pair of kittens once a year and euthanize them once they grew out of the kitten stage. Also, if these are the same kids, their cousin(s) live in the area this house is. This may be muddying the waters, but it seems like the kids lived in New York City and the house was out in the Hamptons.

Recommend me some teen sci-fi TV series!

PhoBWanKenobi — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 15:47:50 -0800

I love serious, obscure TV sci-fi aimed at twelve year olds. Please help me find more of it! Ever since my tween years, I've loved YA sci-fi works for the small screen. I grew up enjoying series like the rebooted Tomorrow People, the rebooted Land of the Lost, Mission Genesis and Space Cases. I also really love adult sci-fi when it has significant plotlines featuring well-developed teen characters--think Buck and Emily in Alien Nation (the flashback eps of Fringe also made me squee). Over the years, I've discovered and burned through the New Zealand show the Tribe and the Canadian series The Odyssey (which isn't technically sci-fi, but has pretty rigorous worldbuilding for magical realism for kids). I'm okay with heavy soap opera and cheesy, Degrassi-esque plotting, but I really hate puns and corny humor; the "Uranus" jokes from Space Cases were just a bit much for me. I'm also not super into Whedonesque cleverness. What I really want is more good YA sci-fi drama that takes itself (perhaps too) seriously. Obscure and/or old are fine so long as there's some way for me to hunt it down and watch it. Current is dandy, too.

Bonus points for aliens.

Novel about childhood in the American South

lunasol — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:19:55 -0800

What was this young adult (or children's) novel I read about a girl growing up in Appalachia or the Ozarks? It might have actually been two different novels. I would have read this book (or books) in the mid-80s to early-90s. I'm pretty sure it was all one book but it's possible it was two I'm conflating in my mind. What I remember:

- The main character was a young girl (maybe around 10-12), dirt poor, living in a small house in the Appalachians or the Ozarks.
- She's the only girl in her family (I think) and resents how much of the housework she has to help her mother with.
- There's one memorable scene where she's spent all day working hard and gets angry that her brothers get the first choice of meat at dinner, since she's the one who cooked it. She has an outburst and gets in trouble.
- Possibly as a result of this outburst, her parents decide she needs a break and send her to stay with city cousins, maybe in New Orleans or Atlanta. They are very glamorous to her. Her female cousin (aunt?) has never been awake early enough to see a sunrise, but has been told it looks like a fried egg.
- On her way to the big city, she shares a train with a group of soldiers headed off to war (WW2?)
- She and her classmates have to help with a cotton harvest (maybe because of the war) and get in trouble for jumping all over it (this is what makes me think I'm thinking of two different books, since AFAIK, there's never been a lot of cotton growing in the Ozarks or Appalachians).

I've tried just about every google search with these concepts and so far, nothing. Does anyone else remember reading this book or books?

Remember this book? It's about a girl who goes to Greece and something happens to her.

jacalata — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:29:00 -0800

Identify-a-book-filter: I'm trying to remember a children's/young adult book that I likely read 15-20 years ago in Australia. It was about a ~13 year old girl who went to a Greek island with her archaelogist parents (for a year/the summer?) and something magicky happened. I think she is angry and upset when her parents say they are going, at the start of the book. Once there, she interacts mostly with Greek children, and learns Greek basically by osmosis - at one point "she suddenly realised that half the conversation had been in greek!" or that her dreams were in greek, or similar. Her parents are I believe excavating a temple, and there is some parallel plot with a similarly aged young girl from the time of the temple - a servant of the temple, or even a virgin sacrifice? I remember it getting a little weird and kiddie-level scary near the end, like she is getting sucked back into the past, or the past is repeating in her life, but I'm pretty sure everything worked out fine in the end.

Crazy vague, I have been googling it on and off for a couple of months, would love to find it and get it out of my head!

identifyfilter: YA story about kid trapped in Arctic cabin with murderer

Alaska Jack — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:02:30 -0800

Name that YA book or story! Young boy/teen is in a cabin or hut in the Arctic. There is also a murderer. It may be the kind of thing where there are a few people in the cabin, and one of them is a murderer, and people are being killed one by one. Very sketchy details follow. This is going to make me sound like a complete space case, as the details are so sketchy in my mind. Really, they're more like impressions or images I have. Jeez, I hope I didn't dream this.

Anyway, here's what I think:

* I would have read this sometime probably around 1979. So it's definitely NOT "Revolver."
* I don't think what I read was actually a book. I have a strong feeling it was a story (or possibly an EXCERPT of a book) in some kind of scholastic book reader publication we got at our school.
* The people are trapped in a one-room cabin. I think this was in the Arctic, or at least it was wintertime.
* I think the people might have been stranded survivors of a ship sinking. Maybe a whaling ship?
* I have an image of thick sweaters and blonde curly hair, so there may be something Scandinavian about the story and/or characters.

I know, little to go on. Don't hate me.

Seeking the best stories, across all genres, about coming to terms with the world in the early adult years.

croutonsupafreak — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:09:45 -0800

What are the best stories that feature young adults coming of age/coming to terms with life's imperfect realities? By "young adults" I mean "adults who are young," probably roughly 19-30, not "young people who are becoming adults." This maturing process can be central to the work or peripheral. One example: "The Great Gatsby." Short stories, novels, nonfiction, film, television and any other genre are all welcome.

Good options for young adult novels I can read with my community college developmental writing classes?

TrarNoir — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:04:45 -0800

What are some good options for young adult novels I can read with my community college developmental writing classes? The novels don't have to be "young adult" per se, but they should be engaging and high interest. The developmental writing curriculum where I teach has been recently changed to include a literary analysis unit. Because this change is new, no one has figured out what works best, so I am experimenting. I am going to have the class read summaries and reviews of 5 novels and vote on which one to read. The novel will be the basis for the analysis essay. What would be good options for this assignment?

Some helpful information:

The book should be on the short side. ~200 pages is a good target.

I would like recent publications, very new if possible.

There should not be a movie version of the novel. However, I am going to try to link the chosen novel to a film or documentary for the comparison/contrast unit, so if the novel's theme connect well with a film, that's a plus.

Young Adult fiction search

avidreader — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 21:57:42 -0800

Is there a good database for YA fiction of the 90's? I've been searching for a series of YA novels that I read in the late 80's/ early 90's.

I seem to remember the action in these books involving a group of teens on another planet, where one of the girls had shocking pink hair. I think there was some sort of strange dog/pet. I think the phrase "in loco parentis" was used quite a bit-- maybe they had robot minders? I'm not totally clear on that. Of course these are very slight plot points and googling hasn't turned up anything.

This definitely wasn't Great Literature, but I'd love to revisit this, and some of the other books that I loved back then. Has anyone seen a database where I can search for some of the disposable YA paperbacks of the 90's?

Help me find two YA novels featuring crazy animals!

Fuego — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 09:14:25 -0800

Help me remember the titles of two books I read as a kid. I've Googled extensively and came up empty on both. #1: Featured a boy who had a pet coatimundi. I read it around 1992, as I became fascinated with coatis as a result and did a 7th grade research paper on them. Sorry, I have no other details on this other than it was a kids/young adult chapter book.

#2: A young adult mystery novel featuring a girl named Adele who went to live with her father (in Florida, I think?). She sneaked her Siamese cat into the apartment without him knowing, and hid it in her private bathroom. The apartment building was filled with crazy characters, including a military type who paraded around and wanted to be called General, and an elderly couple who wound up being cat burglars. Adele and her friend solved the mystery of the burglaries and the Siamese cat had kittens at the end.

I loved these books as a kid and now that my niece is around the age that I was when I read them, I'd like to find copies for her. Thanks for your help!

Give me something to read, please!

banjo_and_the_pork — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 05:54:17 -0800

I need more Young Adult dystopian or suspense fiction, with a dash of romance. Ok, my taste isn't exactly fancy. I love me some fluffy, fast young adult books that involve some (or a lot of) romantic tension. But the shelves full of paranormal teen romance books that all look the same make it hard to find standouts.

Books/authors I love: Twilight series (I know, I know), Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, All These Things I've Done (by Gabrielle Zevin), Hunger Games trilogy, E. Lockhart.

I am kind of ashamed to admit that I really like Amanda Hocking's Trylle series, but it's pretty much at the borderline of what I can handle in terms of unpolished writing (that and Stephanie Meyer). I like things fluffy, but bad writing can really take me out of the story. I can overlook bad writing for a story that really moves along, as long as it's more telling than showing, if that makes sense.

Note- I saw this recent thread, and what I'm looking for is a bit different. Don't really need anything focused on teen girls finding themselves (though I expect that will happen in most teen books anyway). I am just a 32 year old lady who enjoys a good story. Also, I am pretty done with vampires but am willing to make an exception for truly excellent vampire stories (that meet my criteria, I am sure Let The Right One In is awesome but it's not really what I'm looking for).

Help me remember a book?

dotgirl — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:51:13 -0800

Help me locate a book I read when I was 10 or so? I picked up a random YA novel at a thrift store when I was 10, and have been trying, off and on, to find it again for many years.

Here's what I remember:
The cover had a large picture of a girl on the phone, looking scared. At the bottom, smaller, was a different girl, prone, presumably dead. She may have been partially in a phone booth.

The plot was about a girl, 16 or so, high-school age, who moves back to her hometown after some time away. She reconnects with her best friend, who is almost immediately killed for some reason to do with drugs.

I seem to remember the murder method being that she had air injected into her veins.

That's all I remember. No character names or anything.

Help me, AskMeFi, you're my only hope!

YAYA (yet another young adult) Fiction ID

audi alteram partem — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 05:46:23 -0800

Please help me identify this young adult novel (comatose teen explores afterlife with long-dead caveman). I’ve been googling plot elements from this book for years, and the closest I’ve come is a Yahoo Answers question that confirms my vague description but offered no book suggestions.

It isn’t among the afterlife stories discussed in this askmefi.

The book (as I can recall): Read during the late 1980s or early 1990s. Possibly purchased through the Scholastic book sale. Protagonist was a young teenage boy who had been in a car (?) accident. While in a coma, he awakens in a sort of afterlife/limbo. He teams up with a dead teen girl and a man who had been in the afterlife since neolithic times. They travel the land of the dead trying to get the boy back to his life. That’s all I recall.

Young Adult Linked Short Story Collections

joyeuxamelie — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:36:34 -0800

I'm looking for linked short story collections. For an assignment, I have to read and present on a linked short story collection. By linked short stories, I mean short stories written by one author and which feature recurring settings and/or characters.

We were given a list of potential books we could use, but they are all "grown up" books. I don't want to read about people in their late 20s, 30s or 40s and their relationships or falling apart marriages or about moving to the countryside or getting lost in city or moms/dads getting in touch with their distant adult children. :(

I much, much, much prefer reading Young Adult. I like beautiful stories full of magic and/or adventure and/or mystery.

I'll take grown up books if they have those characteristics.

Examples of some books I enjoyed: Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, The Night Circus, Brian Jacques' Redwall series, The Mysterious Benedict Society series.

Please share any suggestions on linked short story collections that you think I'd like.

Thank you kindly in advance!

Its breaking my heart that I can't introduce her to Tiffany Aching

PercyByssheShelley — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:53:29 -0800

I am looking for YA books with a female main character, that will pass muster with very conservative Christian parents. At work today I was discussing the Bechdel Test with a colleague, and he told me that his 13 year old daughter has read the same Brian Jacques book five times because its the only one with a female main character.

He asked if I could recommend anything she might like, with a caveat: she likes fantasy/adventure, but they're practicing Christians so she's not allowed to read anything with magic.

I came up with Coraline by Neil Gaiman, and the Hunger Games, then drew a complete blank. There have to be others, right?

Help me remember an upsetting YA novel

embrangled — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:36:38 -0800

Help me remember a young adult novel I read as a kid. The main character was a teenage girl and there was an upsetting incident involving a kitten and a doormat. From what I remember, the plot was mostly typical YA fare - high school drama, girl-on-girl bullying, family problems. Towards the second half of the book, when some social problem has been resolved and things seem to be looking up, something horrible happens. The girl skips and jumps down the steps from her front door, unaware that her kitten is sleeping under the doormat. She jumps on it and breaks its neck. This completely horrified me at the time and it still strikes me me as a particularly brutal scene to include in a YA novel. I'm curious to know what the book was so I can find out if it's really as upsetting as I remember.

The 'thank you note': child's edition

Napoleonic Terrier — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:03:01 -0800

At what age (if any) should a child/young adult be expected to address the envelope of a thank you note sent through the mail? I don't have kids, and am old enough to tell you to get off my lawn. Should an intelligent junior high school student that is being forced to handwrite a thank you note be similarly forced to address the note's envelope? Does it even matter if the envelope is addressed by the child's parent?

This time, it's not All Summer in a Day

Coatlicue — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:02:33 -0800

A familiar story: I read a young adult novel when I was a kid. I can't remember the title or most of the plot, but I remember enough details that it drives me CRAZY. I probably read this book in the early 90s. It was a fantasy/ghost story about three siblings who possibly travel through time. I'm pretty sure that the book is written either in first person, or third person limited.

The main character is a male middle child, in late childhood or maybe early adolescence. He has no paranormal abilities that I recall. Both his younger brother and his teenage sister can see ghosts, although you don't find that out about the sister until late in the book. While the book is told from the middle child's point of view, I think that his younger brother primarily drives the plot.

The older sister is somewhat of a stock Annoying Teenage Girl character. She tells a story about seeing Native American ghosts in her laundry room when she was a small child. The younger brother is also kind of a stock character. All young and wise and gifted and a tad mysterious because of it. A little Charles Wallace-y, but not as fleshed out.

The plot may center around the brothers traveling through time. I don't think their sister gets involved until far into the story. And the main character is put out that he is the only sibling who isn't paranormally gifted. He spends much of the book gobsmacked at everything that's going on.

I've rendered a sketchy likeness of the book's cover! Or what little I think I remember of it. The Native Americans could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the placement of the kid is correct.

Does this ring a bell with anyone? I have searched every resource I can think of, and have run it by everyone I know. Don't know why I'm so fixated on it, because it was just an okay book. It's probably that I'm haunted by the cover, with the kid's flying butt.

Thanks!

Help me resurrect this novel?

WidgetAlley — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:27:48 -0800

Forgotten-YA-Novel-Filter: Help me remember a book I read when I was in middle school. It involved a teenage girl, a church, and grave rubbings! I remember reading a novel in middle- or early high-school about a young woman (teenage years I believe) who moved, possibly with her mother, to a new place. I can't remember if the book was actually set in Ireland, but I remember it that way-- somewhere very green, possibly an island. I also remember the girl discovered a church and began taking grave rubbings from the stones, and that this was a major part of the novel. It's quite possible that magic was involved somehow, as I do remember the protagonist sitting in a field contemplating something magical or spiritual at one point. I remember being fascinated with this book-- particularly the grave rubbings-- and I would love to find it again!

Thanks Metafilter!

Youth Care - what to learn

divabat — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 04:20:09 -0800

You're a young person, in your 20s or so, and you've noticed that quite a few of your similarly-aged peers & friends are in desperate need of care due to major mental and emotional health challenges - which are taking a toll on everything else. However, support services for this group are lacking. What could you learn or train in to be able to be a better source of support and care for your peer community? As my last few AskMefi questions have demonstrated, I've lost a couple of close people to suicide this year. They've both been in their 20s, dealing with severe mental health issues for a long time (PTSD and bipolar disorder). They're not the only ones I know who are facing this, and I'd rather not lose more people to their own hands.

I've noticed that support for our age group is shockingly lacking, at least here in Australia (though I don't think my US-based cousin would have necessarily been better off). Some issues I've seen:

* There's training and services for childcare (up to about 15-16) and elderly care, but nothing in between
* Resources for those with disabilities tend to focus on the physical; there is some attention to psychiatric issues, but they need to be "Severe" - as it is my friends are having trouble finding adequate people to diagnose them (there has been some controversy about the local mental health system)
* They have just enough economic privilege to not be homeless and to be able to afford basic needs as well as the occasional indulgence - most youth programs tend to be geared towards homeless & severely disadvantaged people. However, many support systems available cost more money & time then any of us can afford. (A retreat I queried cost $30,000 for 3 weeks - that could pay expenses & then some for a year.)
* One service that does tend to be regularly accessed is checking into a mental hospital for a while, where you're under observation and there's a counselor and so on. It seems to be helpful, but they also often report being quite bored, mostly because their phones and Internet - their main means of access to the outside world - are taken away and they're not really left with much to do. For some of us, being actively involved in something is a HUGE help, and personally it's been the lack of Internet thing that's stopped me from checking in myself when I could have used it - the boredom would destroy me further (I'd be stuck in my head).
* My peer group tends to not be very trusting of Government and bureaucracy anyway, and for good reason - Centrelink (welfare) can often be painful and penalise you for trying to make things better for yourself, paperwork can be more extensive than possible, and some have been on the wrong end of the law just for protesting or not looking right

One of my good friends has a number of chronic physical conditions and at one point desperately needed food to be able to survive the next day. My friend and I were able to organise a supply for a few days, and we tried looking for places that will do this regularly for her. No one could help - they either needed her to provide more paperwork than she was able (she could barely even get out of bed), or had a months-long waiting list, or needed money, or just don't do emergency food supply. This really shocked both of us; we can't afford to care for her 24/7, even the menial Carer's Pay the Gov gives you won't be enough to cover either of our needs (not that I'd qualify anyway, being on a bridging visa), and yet it's obvious that if there isn't enough regular help she's likely the next to go.

I'm frustrated. I'm pissed. I'm worried. I want to learn how to provide better support, better care, organise better care. Even just knowing what to do in times of crisis would make a huge difference. I'd like to be the sort of person you'd find at Youngcare (residential care for young people who'd otherwise find themselves in aged care homes),

I do have basic First Aid training, though it could stand to have a refresher, and some experience with women's rights/sexual assault issues, but what else is there? I've looked at TAFE (think Australian community college) and they've got some courses in community care and youth work, though more in a larger societal sense. A friend suggests a combo of youth work and nursing, which could be useful, though I wonder if there's enough to cover mental health and emotional health. I'm also greatly open to more unorthodox community-based issues; I know there's been quite a bit of work in activist communities around healing justice, which I think would intersect with my peers very well. Even something like "learn how to manage a crisis line" would help.

Please help me be a better help to my community. I don't want to see another life fall down the cracks.