readers advisory for all discussion

so i am still annotating some ya titles for our bookshelves, and i am having trouble classifying two of them. can someone who has actually read either If I Stay or The Adoration of Jenna Fox help me out?? i know what they are about, i have read plenty of reviews, but i can't think of what kind of YA shelf it would be useful to have these books on. thanks!

i think i ended up putting that on "fantasy" which is weak, but i was too stupid to think of anything else. i borrowed it from work last night so i can read it and maybe think of something better. and i made greg borrow Ship Breaker so i can read that one, too. (we can only take out one at a time) making these lists has really made me want to read a ton of these. i may have made the final transition into "teen fiction reader." nooooooooooooooooo

that's probably good - does that cover all three?? one of us is going to have to read the jenna fox book someday...

but i must know its seeeecrets, please

I hated that book and quit it early. I don't think I'd put If I Stay and Jenna Fox on the same shelf at all. If I Stay is about a girl in a coma deciding whether she wants to live or die and Jenna Fox is about (view spoiler)[A girl who is living in California with her parents supposedly recovering from an accident when, in fact, she is a clone of herself (who actually died in the accident) or more of a robot. At least that's where it was going before I threw it against a wall. (hide spoiler)] If I Stay is YA - realistic fiction/ contemporary fiction and The Adoration of Jenna Fox is probably sci-fi or speculative fiction.

I'll work on the YA shelves as well. It's the biggest word on my book genre cloud. Yikes.

Oh, and karen, being a "teen fiction reader" is pretty awesome. No shame.

but isn't if i stay about her floating above her body and being like a ghostie?? (i haven't read it)

i am okay with being a teen reader, but if you read some of my early reviews and watch the transition, it is pretty funny. i used to be all "teen fiction?? but i am grown!!" and then i was "teen fiction - some of it is good!!" and then "teen fiction!! most of it is good!" and now... well, i am as you see me.

I guess you could consider her a ghost. It's more like her hovering soul. I kind of hate ghost books and it didn't turn me off.

karen, you should read Unwind. And The Book Thief. I bet people are trying to push these two on you all the time--especially because TBT is so damn popular. Oh well, those are definitely two great YA books you haven't gotten to yet. (as well as the rest of Melina Marchetta, which I'm sure Tommy has been trying to get you to read as well:))

i was just telling tommy last week, "god, i really want to read Ztender morsels and the book thief." i have had them both forever, and i want to know if t.b.t. is going to make me cry like everyone else!! and i just learned about unwind last week, and i wrote it down here on my paper "to-read"!! i have a list of teen fiction that i want to read from doing the research for these lists!! i borrowed two from work on saturday (i made greg borrow one because we can only borrow one at a time) my plan is to read 'em all, but i still have these fantasy commitments and these crab books... and of course the marchetta. my life is rich with books!!

Flannery wrote: "I guess you could consider her a ghost. It's more like her hovering soul. I kind of hate ghost books and it didn't turn me off.

but yeah - that is the part that is making me not want to put it on "realistic fiction"...

I didn't cry in Book Thief. Then again, I'm not a big crier.

me either, but everyone is like "no, you will cry." they are so confident. and i want to.

The lists make me go look at what people have shelved it as. Funnily enough, more people have labeled this romance(83) than either realistic (53), paranormal(16), or ghosts (12). Maybe I'll make a YA death and dying shelf. I think I have enough books to make it worthwhile.

you WANT to cry? weirdo. I cried when I listened to If I Stay on audio.

it is so rare for me to cry at books/movies. i crave new sensations!!

I have a question like karen's - I just finished Mockingbird and I can 't decide which YA shelf I ought to add it to...problem or realistic? It is realistic but the situation of the protagonist having Asperger's and the school tragedy it seems like a "problem" novel, too...thoughts?

we have been doing a lot of overlapping when making our shelves here, tommy and i... i would personally shelve it as both "realistic" and "YA problem"

That's true - I can add it to two shelves at the same time ;)

And besides, booklists always have lots of overlap

oh for joy!!! i loved marcelo...

thanks, tomato!!

Ah! That book sounds great! Thanks for the inadvertent rec.