The Chart of Fantasy Book Cover Art: Swords are down precipitously! Dark Cover of Nothingness holds its ground. Horses and unicorns retreat. Maps and non-humans are on the rise. (Orbit Books is doing a whole series on cover art trends, from heroine fashion trends to fonts.)
Persnickety Snark has compiled a list of the best 100 YA books. I’ve linked to the #96-100 post. All 100 have been revealed, just poke around in the side bar archives and you’ll find them. They’re worth finding, especially if you don’t know what to hand your 13 yo daughter to read, say, or are looking for reading for yourself. (I couldn’t believe that I’d never heard of, let alone read, The Hero and The Crown and so I finished that off two weeks ago. Wonderful heroine.)
New-to-me book award: the Cybils. Voted on by bloggers who take kid-lit seriously. Everything from easy readers, graphic novels, YA fiction, to poetry.
May your book lists prosper.
edited to add: I think I owe all of these to Abby the Librarian, who has offered to be my virtual librarian. (as the local public librarians don’t like to talk about books)
Handmade Homeschool 
Great–I’m always looking for decent YA books–I’ll check out the list. Not all public librarians are like yours–just most of them! [Says the stuck-up Special/academic librarian!]
Oh, but do you know The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley? I like that one even more!
I agree! The Blue Sword is one of my all time faves. I believe it’s the sequel to the Hero and the Crown but it is far superior!
Suggesting much beyond the popular books can be fraught with peril. I’ve run into this myself in choosing movies for a group of kids to watch as well as in suggesting books. What I find fine for my kids to read (or watch) is often wildly different than what other parents would choose and vice versa. There are things that I may not remember about a book I read twenty years ago, and probably wouldn’t comment on if rereading it today with my kids that will send other parents into fits. I get a lot of questions about books, especially SF&F books for people looking for something beyond the current crop.
At this point, I give the recs, but make sure to tell the asker to look at the books themselves if they have any issues, since theirs may not even make my radar.
Oh, The Hero and the Crown is so wonderful!! Now you have to read The Blue Sword – a great follow up to the first. I’ve had these two on my shelf since I was a kid. They’ve schleped around with me and settle wherever my book pile happens to land. I just can’t get rid of them.
Thanks for the book list – I’m just about to sit down and get this school year’s lists and courses planned out.