"Bruce Coville, Fuck Yes" or "Teen Novels We All Know And Love"

[Seil]

Do we seriously not have a book subforum now? Well maybe we can replace it with a Bruce Coville section, then. Because Bruce Coville is totes rad. He wrote books:

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u59/Poetisch/6542652-M_zps6a72820b.jpg

Good children's books. He didn't write Wayside Stories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideways_Stories_From_Wayside_School) or Animorphs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doakRnUa4PQ) or Alexander And The Terrible Rotten No Good Very Bad Day (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_dideF5qvk), or The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Christmas_Pageant_Ever), but he wrote good books.

Bruce Coville wrote the first sci-fi books I ever read, what with those "My Teacher Is A..." books. He also wrote my first fantasy book; Goblins In The Castle. (http://www.brucecoville.com/books.asp?tid=161) Susan Fletcher wrote my next favorite, "Flight Of The Dragon Kyn. (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/susan-fletcher/flight-of-the-dragon-kyn/)" Sharon Greene wrote my all time favorite fantasy book series ever (including GoT) "The Blending Series. (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/517115.Convergence)"

Also, R.L. Stine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pez0in248jg&list=PLRQGRBgN_Enrz7rF2Ozm0_qQ_kbz0_kdc).

Your favorite books are all terrible. They're garbage. They don't hold a candle, or a torch, or a flashlight, or an LED light, or an iPhone to what my books are - but you can still list what they are. If you would like to.

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Also Tithe by Holly Black because god damn. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithe:_A_Modern_Faerie_Tale)

[Bum Bill Bee]

uhhhhh.....A Series Of Unfortunate Events? Vampirates?

You already listed Animorphs and RL Stine, so I dunt know what else to add :(


Also, some of the things you listed are more kids series than teen series, but I admit there is quite a blurred line between the two. And might we add comic series to this?

[Satan's Onion]

uhhhhh.....A Series Of Unfortunate Events? ...

A Series of Unfortunate Events is goddamn gold, and I say this as someone who didn't read it until her twenties. It rewards reading and re-reading like a delicate fuckin' literary parfait.

[Ryong]

Why the heck is Animorphs so famous? I say this as a Brazilian who never, ever saw an animorphs book.

[synkr0nized]

Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series was for, like, elementary-school me what LotR was for most people. It was pretty rad, and I bought a set of the books a few years ago to make sure I had it.


I remember those "My Teacher is A..." books. I should check them out again, see how they stand up over time.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Why the heck is Animorphs so famous? I say this as a Brazilian who never, ever saw an animorphs book.

Not quite sure why my self. I remember seeing them everywhere here in NJ. But I don't think I know a single person that's a fan of the series.

I really didn't like it though mainly because it creeped me out as a kid. While I haven't been all that big on books myself but I did enjoy "Hatchet" and "Holes".

[mauve]

I was pretty big into fantasy when I was younger. I read The Hobbit a bazillion times in elementary school. I also enjoyed the Merlin books by T. A. Barron, and I LOVED Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrede. When I got older, I got really into the Songs and Swords books (Elfsong, Elfshadow, and The Dream Spheres, specifically) by Elaine Cunningham for the Forgotten Realms series (Elaith the elven rogue was my first literary crush as a kid. Yeah, I don't know what 14-year-old-Mauve was thinking either.).

In terms of Bruce Coville, in elementary school I read Into the Land of the Unicorns because UNICORNS. Apparently it was the first of a series, but my library / school book fair never had any others.

I didn't much care for Goosebumps or Animorphs, but I liked Bunnicula by James Howe. I also read a lot of Beverly Cleary's stuff, with the Ramona books and Mouse and the Motorcycle, etc., and I probably read Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks a bunch of times when the movies came out.

Somehow, despite loving the Narnia books, Poppy by AVI, and Ms Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, I never got into the Redwall series. Seems like talking animals and fantasy combat would've been right up my alley, but I never finished reading the ones I rented from the library.

[Satan's Onion]

...
In terms of Bruce Coville, in elementary school I read Into the Land of the Unicorns because UNICORNS. Apparently it was the first of a series, but my library / school book fair never had any others.
...

You too? For years I was never able to find more than the first book. On the bright side, this doesn't appear to be a problem anymore! (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Into+the+Land+of+the+Unicorns)

[Seil]

Also, some of the things you listed are more kids series than teen series, but I admit there is quite a blurred line between the two. And might we add comic series to this?

There aren't really any good comics out there, especially for kids. (http://www.arvindswarup.com/devils_workshop/images/firstcalvin.GIF)

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Also, most choose your own adventure books are rad.

[Krylo]

I LOVED Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C Wrede.

That's the one where the Princess just kinda chills with dragons and I think I remember a particular line about having to dance with a chinless prince before she leaves home to hang out with sweet dragons?

Because it's been forever and my memory is foggy but that book was great.

As for myself, I mostly read Weiss and Hickman stuff at that age. Never touched animorphs, and only read a little bit of Coville and Stine. I remember liking a lot of the Coville stuff I read, but none of the names come to me at the moment. Only one I remember, I remember the cover better than the actual book, and Stine was kinda like. . . I read it but mostly only because video games weren't rad enough to use up all my free time yet, and it wasn't AWFUL.

Edit: Also, fuck choose your own adventure books. They were basically awful, with consequences that were entirely unrelated to your actions and unpredicatable. "To go left, turn to page 53, to go right, turn to page 34." /turns to page 53. "You open the door and are immediately devoured by alien bee monsters!"

[Arhra]

Speaking of Weiss and Hickman, the Death Gate Cycle was pretty neat.

Basically a long time ago a race of wizards broke apart the world into a set of element themed worlds to win their war against this bunch of other wizards by imprisoning them in one of said worlds.

The seven books are all about various shades of how it's gone horribly wrong, following a fellow who's broken out and is exploring the worlds.

[BitVyper]

The point of CYOA books was to teach children that not resorting to cheating when there is no possibility of consequences, is stupid and egotistical. Because people who approach the world like it has a sense of fair play get devoured by alien bee monsters. If you don't cheat, you get cheated.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Ah but if it's that's the point of the books then wouldn't that mean that looking ahead isn't cheating as it's a part of the book? Thus the lesson becomes more about looking before leaping then cheating when necessary.

[pochercoaster]

I vaguely remember enjoying A Wind In the Door (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Wind_in_the_Door) by Madeleine L'Engle. And, of course, The Hobbit.

I read some other YA fiction but was frustrated with it. I read the first 2 books of the His Dark Materials trilogy and didn't bother with the third because it seemed poorly written and Lyra basically became a secondary character. Despite the fact that I'm a staunch atheist, the series seemed really heavy-handed, like it was criticizing religion but it didn't know how to without coming off as really condescending. I haven't touched those books in over a decade, though, so maybe I'm wrong.

...Oddly enough, I REALLY enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia, despite it being racist and sexist and patronizing as hell. I should probably buy the whole series and re read it again.

I tried some Piers Anthony books but gave up on those because they were perverse/creepy. Same thing with Anne McCaffrey. (Are they considered YA authors? IDK.)

There are a couple other books that come to mind but all I can remember about them is the book covers, not the author or much of the plot. Those Holly Black novels LOOK familiar but the plot summary doesn't match up with the few details that I remember.

Edit: Oh yeah, and I liked The Eyes of the Dragon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyes_of_the_Dragon)

[mauve]

That's the one where the Princess just kinda chills with dragons and I think I remember a particular line about having to dance with a chinless prince before she leaves home to hang out with sweet dragons?

Because it's been forever and my memory is foggy but that book was great.
Yup! There was a whole series, but I liked Dealing with Dragons the best because the plot revolved mostly around a strong, resourceful princess and a bunch of awesome dragons. Several super shallow princes showed up to "rescue" her, and she sets them up with other princesses to make them leave her alone because "they'll be happy as long as they go home with A PRINCESS, not necessarily her."

[Bum Bill Bee]

Animorphs was a late 90s Teen-kids book series, and its where 5 teens (who didn't know each other well before) got the ability to change into animals from a crash landed good guy alien. They use this power to combat mind-controlling alien slugs that are doing a highly covert invasion of earth. Oh, and you could only stay in animal form for 2 hours, otherwise you got stuck in it, as Tobias did. Felt like it had a lot of dark themes, and they actually got to go through a huge variety of stuff, time travel, area 51, robot servants of an extinct alien race, being used as pawns by god-like beings...

If anything, it was just fun to look at the human to animal transformations of the book cover and at the corner of the pages where it was like a flip book.

There was also a live-action TV series of it, but it didn't do the books justice at all.



Oh, and I liked reading the chronicles of Pydrian series growing up.