Déjà Vu All Over Again (Mary Strand)

This month at YA Outside the Lines, we’re talking about five favorite YA (young adult) books.

I just googled "top YA books" and got a couple of lists of 100. Wow. Nostalgia! Speaking of which, the final book I read in 2023 was Louisa May Alcott's Little Men, which was probably my favorite YA book as a kid, but I hadn't read it since my 20s. (Not that I'm admitting to having left my 20s, of course.) And I LOVED rereading it again.

I already have too many goals for 2024, but otherwise I'd add another: (re)read as many books as possible from these lists of top YA books.

In the meantime, I'll share five YA novels that I loved so much, I'd love to be able to read them again for the first time.

It's a random list, in no particular order, and one is even too new to have made the "top 100 YA books of all time," but I would put it on that list.

Here goes:

Harry Potter. Because Harry Potter.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It was brilliant even before they made it into movies, but the four girls are SO different from each other, and there's a real magic in their love for each other, and it's not just in a crazy pair of pants. Yes, yes, of course my fave is Bridget, the soccer superstar (big surprise), but I do love them all. Even prickly Tibby and cranky Carmen.

The Book Thief. Whatever year I read this, it was my favorite book that I read that year. I was on a long flight home from Europe when I finished it, and I was sobbing, and I still loved it. In fact, I should read it again. I've read most of the others multiple times.

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You. (Seriously, is there a better title EVER? No. Don't argue.) Cammie is at a high school for female spies in training. Ally Carter's voice is somewhat similar to mine as a writer, and I love books that are (helloooo, Meg Cabot and The Princess Diaries), but this has crazy-fun action and wicked plots, and I love it to death.

The Inheritance Games. (This is the one too new to make it onto the best-ever YA books lists.) Jennifer Lynn Barnes, you tell AMAZING stories with such complicated plots that I can't guess ahead of time how it'll end ... and let me tell you, that doesn't happen often.

What are your top 5?

Mary Strand is the author of Pride, Prejudice, and Push-Up Bras and three other novels in the Bennet Sisters YA series. You can find out more about her books and music at marystrand.com.