I just bought Go Dog Go for my toddler niece, along with Are You My Mother?. It was fun to pass on the love.

... isn't it about time for Mockingjay to be out?

Megan, you should also be reading Scott Westerfeld for YA: his Uglies series is just excellent. I hear Leviathan is also good but it's for a younger audience. Also Graceling by Kristin Cashore was a big hit with my teenage niece.

And I really enjoyed Kenneth Oppel's two steampunky boys-own adventure novels, Airborn and Skybreaker. ... oh, neat, according to Amazon, he wrote a third! Excellent!

Megan, you should also be reading Scott Westerfeld for YA: his Uglies series is just excellent.

Yes. Also because my niece likes them. I'm so glad she's on Goodreads so I know what she likes and what she's already read.

Mockingjay is out next week I think.

BTW, Consuela, thanks for the TWTWB recommendation way back when. Very fun.

I am allowing myself to be enthusiastic about the Tomorrow movie that's about to be released in Australia, although I doubt a movie could match Marsden for excitement. He really writes the best action scenes.

How many books are in that series? Is there a drop off? Are they all worth it?

I was just coming in here to rec stuff for megan/friend! And figuring Suela would be awesome at it too, yay! :)

Mockingjay is next week, I think? Or is it the week after that, even? I wanna say the 26th...but that's a Thursday, and books come out Tuesdays usually, so maybe the 24th.

I second "Graceling". Just read one from the library that was interesting "Borderline" about a Muslim kid whose dad gets arrested for terrorism (...though that was only the last third of the book really). I was a bit frustrated with parts of it that had to do with bullying, though that may be more about my own history and issues.

For gay teen stuff, there's a YA blog www.leewind.org that has some recs. I like Ellen Wittlinger (who is our own Kate P's mom!), especially "Hard Love", but also others of hers. Alex Sanchez is also great. So is Nico Medina--I love that there are gay kid books that AREN"T all about "OMG I'm GAY, and I have to figure out how to come OUT!", as well as those books (because those are fun and drama-y too). Julie Anne Peters has a couple for the girls.

Sharon Shinn had a few YA books--"The Truthteller's Tale" and a few others--which I wanted to hug and hug.

Oh, one I read the latest in last night--the Gallagher Girls series! "Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover", "Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy", etc

Let's see--from the couple years that I tracked my (300+) books read, YA books that skimming back, I took note of or remember:

A Map of Home - Randa Jarrar Initiation - Susan Fine Enclave - Kit Reed Shrinking Violet - Danielle Joseph Princess Ben - Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Shine Coconut Moon - Neesha Meminger (YA--not sure if it was the earlier list, or later on this one--this book is about a girl in NJ who tries to reconnect with her family's Sikh roots after 9/11, and then there's another one I read about a girl in Australia who starts wearing a hijab...)

Does My Head Look Big In This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah (YA- this would be the Australian hijab one)

Castration Celebration - Jake Wizner Tempting Fate - Esther Friestner Read My Lips - Teri Brown (YA - about a girl who is deaf but doesn't sign, and reads lips. I found it a little unbelievable that she could lipread so well, but it was an interesting plot device and character)

The Blue Sword - Robin McKinley

Say the Word - Jeannine Garsee (YA - about a girl whose mom left her to be a lesbian, then dies. Depressing and messed up, but interesting!)

A Mango Shaped Space - Wendy Maas (about a girl with synaesthesia)

Beige - Cecil Casetelluci (YA) (Cute, uptight girl has to stay with her aged punk dad for the summer)

First Daughter-White House Rules - Mitali Perkins (first daughter was adopted from Pakistan at age 3 and now that she's in the white house wants to not be whitewashed)

More I found (as I went further back I had more comments on stuff I'd read, as opposed to just "I haven't listed the last 100 books!)

My Life as a Rhombus - Varian Johnson (YA - this one, otoh, was awesome, though I don't want to say too much and set up expectations and stuff. One thing I didn't realize until I was reading it, since I don't remember seeing it in the summary, was that the main character (and really everyone in it) is black. Which is cool, that it wasn't a thing (that's not at all what the story is about, really, though there's obviously a few moments here and there where it's quite relevant))

Band Geek Love - Josie Bloss (YA - I found a link to some random publisher, and was delighted to be able to find a number of their books in the library system to put on hold, if they sounded interesting. This one was kind of adorable, and I need to remember to get the sequel if/when they order it) and now I HAVE, and they HAVE IT!

The Other Half of Me - Emily Franklin [about sperm donor kid meeting half sibilng]

Hacking Harvard, Robin Wasserman (YA). Also fun, in a theoretical sort of "how could you make this happen" way.

ETA: Those are all from the 2008 list, y'all (but not every YA from the 2008 list!). I read too much, damn. And clearly can't afford a Kindle, because almost all those are from the library, and while the library does have a number of things available in ebooks, it has MORE available audiobook, and it isn't easy to browse through. Sigh.

Anyone see anything weird about this?

To add to the weird, I had the EXACT same experience as your friend...with the Tripod series.

One more thumbs up for LHA here. I used to teach Speak, but her books are just amazing in general.

Go Dog Go was my brother Chris' favorite book for a long time. We are still known to greet each other with "Do you like my hat?" "No, I do not like your hat."

Adds many, many books to TBR list.