Hi, everybody! Top Ten Tuesday is an original book meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s TTT is Top Ten Books I’d Give To Readers Who Have Never Read X (examples: Young Adult novels, historical fiction, a certain author, books about a certain topic, etc), and I decided to go with historical fiction and middle grade/young adult – five for each. I’m going to start with historical fiction books I’d recommend to someone who’s never read any historical fiction.
Number the Stars is a fantastic book. I actually just read it several months ago, but I’m going to have to read it again this year for more required reading. I was hanging on to every word, and sat in my room all day to finish it. This would be the first book I’d give to someone.
Oh. My. Flying. Flapjacks. What an incredible book. I read this one two years ago and my copy is very loved. Set in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the integration of schools in 1958, the Main Character creates a bond with a new girl, Liz… then Liz is caught “passing” for white and her family is shunned and disrespected. I loved, loved, loved this book and wish I could go back in time so I could read it like it was the first time again!
Of course, if you’re a regular subscriber on my blog, you had to know this would be in this list. Awesome book; so many tears. I really have no more words. I’d just shove this down someone’s throat. In fact, I have. And she loved it. (Right, Kareena?!)
I read Hattie Big Sky for the first time about a year ago, in September, and loved it. I was hooked the whole time, and there’s even a second book (though I liked the first one a lot better).
What can I say about this? Honestly. It was… oh my word, it was… eye-opening. Heck, I’m tearing up just talking about it. This would, without a doubt, be on a list of books to give someone who’s never read any historical fiction. Though, I’m not sure it would actually qualify. Since, you know, it’s not fiction. But I’m putting it on the list anyway.
Now for my top middle grade/young adult recommendations.
Okay, so this is my favorite middle grade genre series. There’s a seventh book coming out soon, which I cannot wait for. I’ll be one of the first to buy it, I’m telling ya. I’ve read the series dozens of times (and that’s not an exaggeration!), plus own two autographed copies. (One of which a friend gave to me that she found in a used bookstore – whaaat?! Who would give away a signed copy?!), especially by Heather Vogel Frederick. Speaking of, on Thursday, Heather will be answering some questions in an interview I made – which is super awesome!
Ann M. Martin is another favorite of mine – I especially love The Main Street series. Whenever I read these books, I get sort of a… cozy feel. It’s just one of those make-you-feel-good-books, which I think I may have mentioned in a previous post. (Either that, or a draft of a post.) Oh well. This is to say – go get these books! They’re awesome.
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson is pretty darn amazing. I’ll admit, when I first bought it on my Kindle, I began it and then didn’t finish it, but DON’T JUDGE MY LAZINESS. I did not stop because it was bad. In fact, when I started it again, I loved it. (Check out my review here.) To re-use a GIF from my review for it…
I’ve read three of the historical fiction books. The two that I haven’t read are The Lions of Little Rock and Hattie Big Sky. I ‘ve wanted to read both of those books for a while now, but I have so many books on my TBR that it’s hard to read everything that I want to read when I want to read them.
I’m not much of a realistic fiction person, but I might try out the Mother Daughter Book Club series and Second Chance Summer since you seem to like those two so much. I read some blurbs for the Mother Daughter Book Club books on Goodreads, and they seem pretty interesting-especially the first book because the characters are reading Little Women.
I completely agree with it being hard to read books off of your TBR when you want to read them, but I do hope you eventually those!
The first book is one of my favorites, because they read Little Women, especially because I read it with my mom – next to the fourth one, when one of the characters gets to live in England for a year! (That would be a dream come true for me!)
I’ve yet to read anything by Lois Lowry but I definitely want to! The Book Thief and Anne Frank are both awesome recs that I love. I’ve been wanting to read Second Chance Summer for a while, too 🙂
I’ve read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, of course, but right now I’m reading The Giver with my mom (also by her), which is great so far!! I completely agree with you there 🙂 You should totally read Second Chance Summer!
A great list, thanks! I recommend a great YA novel called Blood Orange Soda. James Larranaga is the author, his site is foreverlands.com. He really wrote a great read.