David Levithan is the author of The Lover’s Dictionary and of many acclaimed young-adult novels, including the New York Times bestselling Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (with Rachel Cohn). He is also the editorial director at Scholastic and the founding editor of the PUSH imprint. The Lover’s Dictionary continues on Twitter @loversdiction.
So many of my friends are finally reading Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games and then immediately asking me what to read next. To which I reply: Start with M. T. Anderson’s Feed, which is a different kind of dystopia but just as scary in its own way. I read it for the eighth or ninth time this year, and the future it portrays keeps getting closer and closer. Then there’s Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races, which has such a singular, compelling vision that it’s hard to adequately describe. Just let yourself be taken away by it, as you’re taken away by The Hunger Games. (Full disclosure: I was an editor on both books.) Finally, be on the lookout next year for Jennifer Nielsen’s The False Prince, which I’ve already read twice now.
All Authors’ and Editors’ Favorite Reads of 2011