@ Beth “I think that certain books will fall significantly by next year, while the classics will hold their ground or climb. Here’s to hoping, at least!”

Quite possibly. There will be bias towards recent books, but over time, I think some type of consensus over the best YA books will build. In particular, I will be interested to see how the release of Mockingjay will affect The Hunger Games i.e. will they split their votes? Adele’s stated her intention on her blog to run the poll 2011, so keep an eye out if you want to have your say!

Liz B – Your wishes about Jellicoe and Twilight were shared by me too!

Beth, meanwhile I was thinking “but To Kill A Mockingbird wasn’t published as YA!” And yes, in terms of voting, there’s the whole, but who is online? And what ages? And why shouldn’t it count to have older people (um, like me) vote both for what they loved as teens and love now? And there is always the “last five years” factor, where I think books from the last few years (so those read more recently) may get more attention than something published earlier.

rockinlibrarian, half the fun of these lists is responses like that. I had a few titles where I was like “really”? I have now read the first two books in the Morganville Vampires and am enjoying it very much.

Adele, I had books I loved as a teen that I still think are great (books by Norma Johnston, Norma Klein, Julian Thompson) but have just fallen out of favor right now. But would I have voted for those on this list? I’m not sure; not because I don’t like them but because they are not really available anymore so them being on a list is a bit of a lost cause/ only is known by those in my age group. Anyway, thanks so much for doing this! So much fun and so much work. I’m impressed.

Michelle, Adele did a fab job. Very impressive.

Betty, thanks for sharing.

I’m currently reading a wonderful YA Christian book called Ben’s Big Bang Botheration by author David Millette. It’s the first book in a new series called, Today in Science Class. It discusses the the theories of creation…the big bang theory and the God created theory. I’ll be ready for all the questions my kids bring home this year from school.
http://www.todayinscienceclass.com/2.html

In terms of respondents there was a great mix of adult and teen readers that had their say. As for the Australian representation, the industry is pretty small over here and I can say that the representation was small in relation to the 735 people that voted. I don’t think it had much of a baring on the results. But many books that are considered American classics aren’t that well known in international waters (outside of the obvious).

Beth brings up an interesting point about what teens like to read versus what adults think teens should read. I was referred to a post by an American librarian that commented that she believed that individuals under the age of 20 shouldn’t have been allowed to vote. That defeats the purpose of the poll in the first place and isn’t a great attitude to have. What I liked when I was a teen is both the same and vastly different to what I like now. Looking for Alibrandi came out when I was 12 and I still LOVE it but you couldn’t catch me reading some of the crap that I devoured now.

It’s all food for thought!

I think, since teens are online a lot more, there were more teens voting in the YA poll, or at least more teens than children in Betsy’s poll. So Adele’s list is a funny mix of the good and the popular.

I’m more disappointed that Twilight and The Hunger Games beat out Jellicoe Road and Thirteen Reasons Why and The Outsiders… and that The Hunger Games beat To Kill a Mockingbird – huh? The only thing I can think of to explain that is that people voted for both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, and the votes for both were combined.

I think that certain books will fall significantly by next year, while the classics will hold their ground or climb. Here’s to hoping, at least!

And I hope that Practically Paradise’s list will eventually be revealed in its entirety (since I did nominations for that one).