#WorthReading: Flights of Fantasy
According to an article “Why are Adults Reading YA books” on http://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/ a little more than half of the reading audience are adult readers. In fact, “A 2012 survey found that 55% of YA readers are adults. In fact, the largest (and growing!) segment in the market for YA literature are adults aged between 30 and 44 years (which accounts for 28% of all sales).”
In just the last 10 years of working in the public library, I’ve noticed a significant increase on amount of new YA books that have been added to the collection, perhaps making this percentage even higher.
I, too, have fallen under this “spell” and spent many a day on my swing reading the hours away in a YA fantasy. I love the YA fantasies that mix period drama with bit of magic and lore. Here are a few of my favorites that are listed in some of the “best YA fantasy books” lists:
Graceling by Kristen Cashore
Available at Chester
“Gracelings are people born with rare abilities, and are discernable by their mismatched eyes. Katsa is such a Graceling — and it just so happens that she is ‘graced’ with with talent for killing. Under the service of the King, she murders and tortures her way across the seven kingdoms. But then Prince Po walks into her land one day with mismatched eyes (one in silver and the other in gold), he upends everything with a truth that even Katsa cannot slay.” – Bookriot.com (50 MUST-READ YA FANTASY BOOKS)
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
Available at Midlothian
“Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.
Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?” – Bookriot.com (50 MUST-READ YA FANTASY BOOKS)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Available at Chester
Audiobook Available Online!
“Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.
When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?” – Bookriot.com (50 MUST-READ YA FANTASY BOOKS)