In Other Words: Teen Crossover Titles

With the popularity of the Twilight and Hunger Games series, people have discovered that books written for the teen or young adult market can also be very appealing to adult readers.

Some other titles that easily cross over to the adult reader are:

• Bruiser by Neal Shusterman: Inexplicable events start to occur when 16-year-old twins Tennyson and Brontë befriend a troubled and misunderstood outcast, aptly nicknamed Bruiser, and his little brother, Cody, resulting in a suspenseful and chilling psychological thriller about friendship, family, and the sacrifices we make for the people we love.
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Zusak relates the story of Liesel, a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors. Zusak also wrote I Am the Messenger, another great read for adults.
• King Dork by Frank Portman: Frustrated song-writer and high school student Tom Henderson finds his dead father's copy of The Catcher in the Rye, and his life changes forever. King Dork is part social satire, part mystery, and has a healthy dose of rock music (and angst).
• Love Is the Higher Law by David Levithan: Three New York City teens express their reactions to the bombing of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and its impact on their lives and the world.
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.
• Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey:  Seventeen-year-old Jessica, adopted and raised in Pennsylvania, learns that she is descended from a royal line of Romanian vampires and that she is betrothed to a vampire prince, who poses as a foreign exchange student while courting her.

Try some of these young adult reads — you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  And after all, why should teens have all the fun?