As the blogger behind Hey Teenager! and the appropriately named stephbowe.com,  Steph knows YA and knows it well. Not only is she a YA (young adult or as I prefer, young author) but she reads. All. The. Time.

So, when Steph and I started trading emails, I wanted to get her advice on what to read next. And it only seemed fair to share it with the rest of you. So here are the top three books of the “Season” according to Steph. Read and enjoy!

1. If you want a book that’ll make you think: Chenxi and the Foreigner by Sally Rippin. Chenxi and the Foreigner tells the story of Anna, a wealthy Australian girl who goes to study painting in Shanghai, where she meets and becomes obsessed with Chenxi, a local boy who hides a terrible secret. Its set in 1989, in the weeks before the Tiananmen Square protests, and it’s a truly honest, raw novel, set in a place and a time where YA doesn’t usually go. There is so much thought-provoking content in it that it almost seems non-fiction, but it is also wonderful novel.

2. If you want a book that isn’t a conventional novel, but is still wonderful: Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. Skim is a graphic novel that is basically the diary of Kim (aka Skim). It might not be for everyone, but I thought it captured what it’s like to be a teenage girl really honestly, without glorification. It’s definitely worth checking out, if you haven’t already – there were so many lines in it that I had to write down, and I found it wonderfully inspiring and sad at the same time. (Okay, I have to share one. Please? From page 128 of Skim – ‘This is the thing about school dances. They make like it’s supposed to be this other-worldly thing, but really it’s just the people you see every day dressed up, standing in the gym in the dark with Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing.’ I have to say, that is really true, to me at least.)   

3. If you want a book that’ll make you laugh and cry: Sprout by Dale Peck. This is possibly one of the funniest books I’ve read all year, but it’s also a really heart-breaking story about love. Sprout is a novel filled with fantastic characters, written so well and so real and so honest, and I loved the way in which it broke free of stereotypes, to be a novel that doesn’t even really need to be an LGBT novel (Sprout is gay), but instead a story about love and acceptance, things that all people – teenagers included – search for, not just one demographic.

If I could pick another book (which I’ll mention anyway, though I’m not meant to), I’d choose Boyology by Sarah O’Leary Burningham – not a novel, but with all the elements that make books for teens great – most notably honesty and humour – but with life & love lessons and pretty illustrations!

(Note from Sarah: I swear on my little pinkie toe that I DID NOT pay Steph to write that about Boyology. But, ahem, I am going to mail her chocolate. Lots of chocolate.)