Given the popularity and the increase in the number of Young Adult titles, the section at Bookmans Speedway needed to expand. We moved the YA books to their own spot at the end of the Geek Zone. Relocating YA from the Kids Room is important because teens need their own place to shop. Now YA readers of all ages can still find the latest and most in demand titles on our YA hot title display AND they won’t have to compete with energetic younger readers for space. Moving the section reminds us why so many of these books are made into movies, how prolific the authors are and how much the subgenres vary.

New Young Adult Section Inspires Recommendations

With so many new and exciting YA titles, books that appeal to everyone, Hollywood has taken notice. You can pretty much be sure that if you like a YA book it has either already been made into a movie or a movie is in the works. Readers who haven’t tried YA yet should give them a chance if only to discover why movie-makers are so keen on these stories. The movies are usually good and the books are usually better. Check out titles like If I Stay by Galyle Forman, The Fault in our Stars by John Green, Maze Runner by James Dashner, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and the fabulous works that became the famed television series Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard. Many of these authors have written other works as well and you can often read the sequels or prequels.

Many YA authors write engrossing series like Rick Riordan’s The Heroes of Olympus and The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch. The Secret Series is especially awesome and is a New York Times best seller. In This Isn’t What It Looks Like, which contains “top-secret, super-classified, highly confidential information”, our heroine, Cass, is in mortal danger from eating Time Traveling Chocolate. The work also contains “warnings, disclaimers, fine print and etc.” as well as the “pseudo-manifesto”. This is a great read for any age, especially for those who are fans of chocolate and time travel.

Petra K. and the Blackhearts by M. Henderson Ellis is a must read for dragon lovers. We travel to Pava to meet Petra K., the master of dragonka who must defeat an evil child dictator and battle a pack of mechanical dragonka to free her people and the creatures she loves.

Stephanie Tromly wrote Trouble is a Friend of Mine and gives her main character Zoe the “wit of Sherlock, the smarts of Veronica Mars and the humor of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. Mystery and crime fighting are this teen’s specialty.

Fantasy and fairy tale fans love The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. The action in Cinder begins in a future New Beijing where humans and androids abound. Earth’s future depends on a sixteen-year-old mechanic named Cinder, who happens to be an android.

Dystopia is the theme in Suzanne Young’s The Program. This dark work follows an international epidemic of suicide where any abnormal behavior could land one in The Program. Unfortunately a successful return from treatment means the erasure of all of one’s memories and personality.

Steampunk fans get a double bonus with Cassandra Clare’s The Infernal Devices, book one of the Clockwork Angel series and the prequel to the Mortal Instruments series. Readers meet Tessa Grey who travels to Queen Victoria’s England to find her brother. What she discovers instead is a London underground of vampires, warlocks and a host of supernatural beings.

If Steampunk is your Geek Out, don’t miss Bookmans Speedway’s upcoming Steampunk Fair on Saturday, April 23. We host this event in partnership with the Tucson Steampunk Society. Also look for the Bookmans Speedway Young Adult Book Club, which kicks off this summer. There is so much for teens to read and do at every Bookmans location. Just check the Events page for more exciting activities and stop by Bookmans Speedway’s newly renovated and relocated Young Adult section.

* Bookmans is your store to explore. We hope you will come and browse our young adult section, but if you are looking for one of the books mentioned in this article or any other specific title, give us a call today. We’ll check our orange shelves for you.