Category Archives: 20th Century YA

Small Steps by Louis Sachar: An engaging, amusing and compassionate sequel to Holes

The sequel to Sachar’s Holes is as hilarious, enjoyable carefully-woven and heart-warming as the original. Continue reading

Posted in 11 years and up, 13 years and up, 20th Century, 20th Century YA, Adventure, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Drama, Fiction, Novel, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Deadly lizards, delinquent boys, a sinister warden and a whole lot of HOLES feature in Louis Sachar’s acclaimed YA novel

When Stanley Yelnats gets caught holding a celebrity’s stolen sneakers which have just fallen on him out of the sky, he knows that it’s because of the family curse acquired by his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake, … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century, 20th Century YA, Adventure, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Family Drama, Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Classic, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What would you do if your parent left you and your siblings in the car and never came back? That’s the start of Homecoming, a classic YA novel by Cynthia Voigt

The first in the Tillerman series, Homecoming follows the four Tillerman children after they are abandoned by their mentally ill mother in a car park. When she doesn’t come back they set out to find other relatives several states away. … Continue reading

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Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a YA fantasy book. I knew it was a winner as soon as I saw that it has chapter titles like “In which Howl expresses his feelings with Green Slime”. It follows … Continue reading

Posted in 13 years and up, 20th Century YA, British, Fantasy, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder is the last of the Little House books that Wilder completed and also my favourite. At the end of Little Town on the Prairie Laura received her teaching certificate. Now Laura has … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century YA, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder continues the Little House books. The Long Winter is over, the prairie is filling up and Laura is old enough to get summer work sewing in the growing town. When winter … Continue reading

Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, 20th Century YA, Children's Classics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Light a Single Candle by Beverley Butler

Light A Single Candle by Beverley Butler is a great book written in the early 60s that I discovered in high school. Cathy Wheeler becomes completely blind in her early teens when surgery to treat glaucoma goes seriously wrong. As … Continue reading

Posted in 11 years and up, 20th Century YA, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Realism, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith begins “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink” and is the delightful story of an impoverished family living in a crumbling castle in the early 20th century. It has a delightful cast … Continue reading

Posted in 13 years and up, 20th Century YA, Comedy, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Diarial, Fiction, Light Fiction, Novel, Romance, YA Classic, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment