We have a bit of a YA Crush here at H&H, so we were delighted to learn that NPR is putting together a list of the Top 100 YA Novels OF ALL TIME.
The epic nomination list includes novels and series from lots of authors we’ve covered, including Sarah Dessen, John Green, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Richelle Mead, Gabrielle Zevin, J.K. Rowling, P.C. and Kristin Cast, Suzanne Collins, Cassandra Clare, Julie Kagawa, Scott Westerfeld, and more.
While we don’t dispute the inclusion of any of these on the list, it’s amazing to think of Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908, alongside today’s vampire novels. But then again, maybe Anne herself wouldn’t find it so anachronistic:
“Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive—it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?”
We’ll be heading over to cast our votes, but tell us—what YA makes the top of your list?
You’ve gotta love Hollywood. Not only did we learn that a new Anne of Green Gables television series may be in the works today, but we also just read that Showtime has picked up a show called Masters of Sex starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan.
Like many other readers, my first experience with romance in fiction was with the “girl books” popular with generations of female readers. I loved these books because the heroines are strong and independent, rebelling against societal expectations that would limit them. I loved the confidence—and the vulnerabilities—of the heroines, and I also loved that each of them found a hero who loves her for who she is. These heroines are not in search of a mate to define them, but they fall hard when they find a hero who is strong in his own right and who delights in the heroine’s strength.
As Megan Frampton reported in a Heroes and Heartbreakers post in May, neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam concluded, after analyzing 15,000 Harlequin novels, that 
No bodily fluids are exchanged when 29-year-old spinster Valancy Stirling asks town reprobate Barney Snaith for his hand in marriage in L. M. Montgomery’s 1926 novel The Blue Castle. The groom-to-be doesn’t profess his undying love, and the bride warns him up front that their marriage is likely to be short-lived.
I discovered Baroness Emmuska Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel in movie form, in 10th grade World History CP. We watched it for who knows what reason, and the entire class was just all, “that’s Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman! And she looks 12! This is nuts!” Also there was that silly poem that Percy would quote.
