YALSA's Teens' Top Ten

[ewein2412]

I get challenged again and again: “Why is Code Name Verity considered young adult fiction? The characters are too old. The writing is too literary. The situation is too harsh.” And that is all true. Sometimes these challenges are polite, and made directly; sometimes I encounter them, more hurtfully, online. “Nothing happens in the first 200 pages, it’s so boring.” “There are too many technical details.” “I can’t imagine a teen reader engaging with this book.” “My whole freshman class has to read this and we all hate it.” Oh, man. Author nightmare, your book turned into a school assignment that everybody hates!

I have very little idea how many teens actually read and enjoy Code Name Verity. When I speak to school groups, they usually haven’t read it yet. When I speak at bookstores, the audience is almost always overwhelmingly composed of grown-ups. But every now and then I get a hint that there are target audience fans out there too. In Politics & Prose in Washington, DC, I met a 12-year-old girl who had read Code Name Verity five times (when she was eleven). She said it was her favorite book. She had forced it on her best friend, who had read it twice. I remind myself about these kids whenever I feel down. And also of the occasional amazing school visit like Heart of England, which read CNV for the Carnegie Shadowing scheme. And also of the occasional evangelistic readers my daughter (now 16) meets online. These are the opposite of the nightmare scenario.

I knew that Code Name Verity was one of the 28 titles in the running for the YALSA Teens Top Ten list for 2013, but I totally, totally did not expect it to make the final cut. Last night I was flabbergasted to learn that it came in as Number One.

Here's a congratulatory tweet I received from Jenn Calder which really encompasses what this means to me:

Code Name Verity's well-deserved #TTT win proves that teens are intelligent, discerning readers: http://t.co/qLPvSY9E47 @EWein2412 @yalsa

— Jenn Calder (@jenncalder) October 22, 2013

Okay? Okay! People! It doesn’t prove anything about CNV so much as it proves that teens are intelligent, discerning readers. The whole fabulous list does. I’d have been proud to be anywhere on it. Heck, I was proud to be one of the 28 nominees.

Here it is in full.

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney/Hyperion)
2. The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen (Scholastic/Scholastic Press)
3. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Harper Collins/Katherine Tegen Books)
4. Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry (Harlequin Teen)
5. Poison Princess by Kresley Cole (Simon & Schuster)
6. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic/Scholastic Press)
7. Crewel by Gennifer Albin (Macmillan/Farrar Straus Giroux)
8. Every Day by David Levithan (Random House/Alfred A. Knopf)
9. Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross (Egmont)
10. Butter by Erin Jade Lange (Bloomsbury)

Thank you, YALSA teens. I am going to stop doubting myself now.

http://www.ala.org/yalsa/teens-top-ten

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! That's quite an accolade.

[ewein2412]

thank you! I am never going to complain about being a writer again. Please remind me from time to time!

[estara.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!!

[ewein2412]

thank you!

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I agree with Jenn Calder....this proves that teens don't have to be talked down to.

[ewein2412]

damn straight!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

HUZZAH!!! So very well deserved, and I am so glad you have received Proper Teen Validation! (Haters to the left. Yes, right off that cliff there. Thank you.)

[ewein2412]

are we talking too loud? XD

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

*outraged glare* EXCUSE ME WE ARE TRYING TO HAVE A CONVERSATION HERE.

(Ugh, I still can't believe the woman was THAT rude. Way to stomp all over the Canadian reputation for politeness, lady.)

[ewein2412]

don't worry, I didn't attribute it to her being canadian. more to my being a loud american, which reputation I was steadfastly upholding.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I don't believe you were any louder than I was! Ah well.

[3rdragon]

I haven't heard this story. I'm assuming it happened after I saw you last?

(Also, congrats! I should read some of those other books.)

[ewein2412]

rj_anderson and I were having dinner in a restaurant in Canada - the first time we'd met in person! And we were exchanging many writerly joys and woes, and we'd been to the Canadian Air Heritage museum and it had been a long day, and I was laughing at something. Loudly. And next to us was an older woman with a quite elderly companion, who was certainly old enough to be hard of hearing, and the younger of the two leaned across from her table and said something like, "Could you please keep it down. I know you're having a good time but it's making it difficult for us to hear each other."

I gave her a long steely LOOK before answering something like "I'm sorry," but I really, really WISH I'd had the presence of mind to jump up and introduce myself to the old woman and smile and say how much I understand because my grandmother is 97 and also a little hard of hearing, and how nice it is that they are having a meal out, and do they do this often? Because if I had smothered them with charm and graciousness they would have felt GUILTY instead of CRABBY. And everybody would have won. Instead we just ALL went away feeling crabby.

This kind of universal crabbiness happens far too often, I think - people need to break the chain!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

something like, "Could you please keep it down. I know you're having a good time but it's making it difficult for us to hear each other."

Only without the "please" or the "I know you're having a good time", and in a very snappish tone. That was the part that took me aback: I've been out with plenty of loud, laughing people in my time and sometimes been asked if we could speak more quietly, but never in such a rude, abrupt way as that lady did!

However, if it hadn't happened, I suppose the afternoon wouldn't have been quite so memorable and we wouldn't have as much to chuckle about. :)

[ewein2412]

get out, we went to the Canadian Air Heritage museum and saw the Lancaster being wheeled into the hangar. It was memorable anyway.

[(Anonymous)]

well deserved!

will we ever learn more about Anna Engel? I would love to see her get her own book, but that seems next door to Mission Impossible...

[ewein2412]

she is one of my favorites too.

[coffeekitty.livejournal.com]

many well-deserved congratulations!
I am wondering - will we ever learn anything more about Anna Engel? I would love to see her get her own book, but I suspect that any book that featured her as a protagonist (never mind heroine) would be a journey through purgatory to write, never mind publish.

[ewein2412]

I have a complex scenario in my head involving the "next generation," which Anna features in as a central (though not viewpoint) character. I don't know if I'll ever get around to writing it. What stops me doing anything from her point of view, particularly in wartime, is my ignorance of German culture and language from the inside, if you see what I mean - the same thing that stops me doing a book about the Soviet women pilots (only the ignorance there is Russian culture of course).

Anna is definitely one of the best characters I have ever made up. I hope I get around to writing the next chapter some day.

[meener.livejournal.com]

YAYAYAYAYAY \(^-^)/

[ewein2412]

XD

[queenbookwench.livejournal.com]

I still haven't read Code Name Verity! (I know! I know! I was the person who had to run away from your Politics & Prose talk for fear of spoilers ;)but I loved The Winter Prince when I was an actual teen so I don't doubt that it has teen appeal. :)

[ewein2412]

haha! don't worry, it's not required reading! I love knowing there are fans of the earlier books out there.

tanita says...

[(Anonymous)]

Yep, you'll stop doubting yourself this hour.
I've beginning to think this is all part of the writing thing - you get gifted with the ability, and the left hand gift is that you never believe you've been given it. ::sigh::

Congratulations, Liz. I've read at least six on the list, and you're in really good company! (But it makes total sense to me that you won.)

Re: tanita says...

[ewein2412]

you are, as always, too kind!

[(Anonymous)]

I am a 9th grader, and this is one of my very favorite books. I had my best friend read it, who just texted me: WHAT IS THIS LIFE and WHAT THE HELL I LOVED JULIE which is proof we were both able to get very into it.

[ewein2412]

YOU GUYS ROCK MY WORLD.

[(Anonymous)]

I am the best friend in question, and I can affirm that I did text these things while screaming them and sobbing. We both read Rose Under Fire following Code Name Verity and loved that one too. SOB SOB SOB!! I love my best friend for introducing me to these books. We make a sensational team!!!

[ewein2412]

You guys are TOTALLY THE BEST. You make my job worth doing and my life worth living! THANK YOU. CNV Special Ops FTW!

[(Anonymous)]

I read code name verity in 7th grade and it's my favorite book! reading the other comments, i have to agree that i would love an Anna book...

[ewein2412]

Oh how I wish I had the cultural tools to write an Anna book.

You, too, make my job worth doing and my life worth living!

code name verity

[(Anonymous)]

Code Name Verity is no doubt the best book I have ever read. You are the kind of writer that I dream of being. Code Name Verity made me laugh, cry, and feel so moved. It made gave me shivers. I know you said that you aren't sure if Code Name Verity should be a young adult novel, but I'm only fourteen-years old. And I think this book completely deserves 1st place.

Re: code name verity

[ewein2412]

As my English teacher once wrote in my yearbook, "You are a master of hyperbole"! But it is amazing and wonderful to hear such praise. Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

I am thirteen, and Code Name Verity is my favourite book of all time. My friends are entirely sick of hearing me tell them how great it is (although I did convince one of them to read it! Win!)
I have read it through three times since discovering it in early September.
Whenever I go to a library and find a copy of it, my faith in that library is immediately elevated. And sometimes I take the copy off the shelf and hug it while I browse the other books.
Whenever I go out, I carry a book in my bag. At least, I used to carry one. Now I always have two--the book I am currently reading, and Code Name Verity.
It's on my To-Read list still, because I haven't had the heart to take it off.
I originally got it on the iPad, but it wasn't enough--I had to buy it in print copy as well. That print copy is now throughly dog-eared, and also has some water stains from being read in the bath.
For the record, I think the first two hundred pages were entirely fine (major understatement).
It is the first book that made me cry (and that's meant as a compliment, because I cared about the characters so much). I especially loved Julie. You know how the shower mirror fogs up because of heat when you get out, and you can write stuff there? Well, I write the initials of Julie's full name.
Thank you so much for writing it. Please don't doubt yourself, because that thought makes me really sad.

[ewein2412]

"Favourite book of all time" is an amazing thing for any writer to have written! Thank you!

If I start doubting myself, I will write the initials of Julie's name on the fog in the mirror and think of you. <3

[(Anonymous)]

I am 16 years old and I only recently read Code Name Verity. I've always liked books but Code Name Verity has deeply impacted me. I think it may be my favorite book of all time. I've gotten so obsessed with it that I think my friends are annoyed with me because I keep trying to get them to read it.

[ewein2412]

"favorite book of all time" - that's amazing! Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

I am 22 now, so not a teenager any more, but I found Code Name Verity absolutely riveting (the first 200 pages gripped me right away; I don't know what that person who said "nothing happens" was talking about). I discovered it in August 2012 when my friend who was halfway through reading it told me, "This book is amazing. You have to read it right now." We traded off reading it for the next couple of days, with 2 bookmarks stuck in the copy from the local library. Luckily she had other things to do at the time, because I was too engrossed in reading it to give it up for very long, and I finished it before she did. Afterwards, for a while I felt like my brain and heart had just been squeezed through a pasta-maker. We both cried.

If this book had been published a few years earlier and I or any of my friends had read it when we were still teens, I can assure you we would have loved it and been moved by its powerful story just as much as in our 20s. Thank you so much for writing your books, Ms Wein. The world always needs more amazing, thought-provoking books that young adults (and other discerning, intelligent readers) can sink their teeth into. I didn't know that Code Name Verity was on the YALSA TTT list, but it definitely deserves the honor. Congratulations and well done.

Sincerely,
A former teenager

[ewein2412]

sorry I didn't reply sooner, when you might have actually been checking back! I always feel sad when I get such a lovely, complimentary comment and have no way of responding.

Of course - I wrote the book that I, as a teen, would also have loved. And of course not everyone loves the same things. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

I so appreciate your kind words!