Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels

It's almost a cliche at this point to say that teen fiction isn't just for teens anymore. Just last year, the Association of American Publishers ranked Children's/Young Adult books as the single fastest-growing publishing category.

Which is why we were only a little surprised to see the tremendous response that came in for this summer's Best-Ever Teen Fiction poll. A whopping 75,220 of you voted for your favorite young adult novels, blasting past the total for last year's science fiction and fantasy poll at, dare we say it, warp speed.

And now, the final results are in. While it's no surprise to see Harry Potter and the Hunger Games trilogy on top, this year's list also highlights some writers we weren't as familiar with. For example, John Green, author of the 2012 hit The Fault in Our Stars, appears five times in the top 100.

Selecting a manageable voting roster from among the more than 1,200 nominations that came in from readers wasn't easy, and we were happy to be able to rely on such an experienced panel of judges. But deciding what does and doesn't count as a young-adult novel isn't an exact science. If you're surprised not to see some of your favorite books among the winners, you might want to look at this blog post, which describes the thinking behind the tough calls.

Summer, like youth, is fleeting. But the books we read when we're young can stay with us for a lifetime. Here's hoping that when the school bell rings in a few short weeks, it will find you engrossed in just such a memorable read, selected by the NPR audience. Enjoy. (For your convenience, here's a printable version of the top-100 list, and here's a list of the 235 finalists.)

50 Years On, 'Mockingbird' Still Sings America's Song

Fifty years ago, Harper Lee had the kind of success that most writers only dream about: Shortly after her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was published on July 11, 1960, it hit the best-seller lists. In 1961, it won a Pulitzer Prize, and in 1962, it was made into an Academy Award-winning film. It has never gone out of print.

Lee stepped out of the limelight and stopped doing interviews years ago — and she never wrote another book. Still, her influence has far outlasted most writers of her generation.

For the high-schoolers reading To Kill a Mockingbird today, America is a very different place than it was when Lee wrote her novel 50 years ago. Lee's story of Scout Finch and her father, Atticus — a small-town Southern lawyer who defends a black man unjustly accused of rape — came out just as the nation was fighting over school desegregation.

Today, in a 10th grade English class at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., students of many different races and ethnicities are studying the book together. Their teacher, Laurel Taylor, says that the story still resonates — and with students of all backgrounds.

"Trying to find your identity and realizing that your society doesn't always tell you the right thing" is a particularly profound message for teens, Taylor says. "Sometimes you have to go against what everyone else says to do the right thing. All that kind of resonates no matter where you come from."

Doing The Right Thing

When To Kill a Mockingbird was topping best-seller lists in 1960, protesters were organizing sit-ins at whites-only lunch counters across the South. The civil rights movement was well under way.

Joanne Gabbin, a professor of English at James Madison University in Virginia, grew up in the 1950s and '60s. She was just a child when she saw a photograph of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American teen who was viciously murdered after he reportedly whistled at a white woman.

"I was traumatized as a child by the whole thought of racism," Gabbin says. "And the fact that children weren't safe in this country ... [simply] because of the color of their skin."

Gabbin read To Kill a Mockingbird when she was 17, and says that for her, it was a pivotal book. In Tom Robinson, the African-American man unjustly accused of rape, she saw not a victim, but a hero. He reminded her of her father and grandfather — African-American men who put up with untold humiliation in order to take care of their families. Atticus Finch gave her hope that there really were white people who would do the right thing — and she believes the book may have helped to make that a reality.

"People who were determined to keep black people down ... were not going to be reading this book in the first place and were not going to be influenced," Gabbin says. "But I think those people who were moderate, who were more liberal, when they got to read To Kill a Mockingbird, they probably wanted to identify with the courageous character of Atticus Finch."

A New Way To Think About Race

When the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird came out in 1962, the character of Atticus became forever entwined with the actor who portrayed him, Gregory Peck. But whether you first encountered him on page or on screen, Atticus was unforgettable — a modest man of great integrity, he managed to impart his wisdom without being too preachy.

"There's been some high talk around town to the effect that I shouldn't do much about defending this man," he tells his daughter, Scout, in the 1962 film adaptation. "If I didn't, I couldn't hold my head up in town. I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do somethin' again."

The relationship between Atticus and his 6-year-old daughter is the emotional heart of the book. For many readers — and for many female readers in particular — feisty, fearless Scout is the most memorable character.

"The story of Scout's initiation and maturing is the story of finding out who you are in the world," says author Mary McDonagh Murphy. "And at the same time, the novel is about finding out who we are as a country."

Murphy's new book, Scout, Atticus & Boo, is based on interviews about To Kill a Mockingbird with well-known writers, journalists, historians and artists. Murphy says the novel, narrated from a child's point of view, gave white people, especially in the South, a nonthreatening way to think about race differently.

"The book is structured with all these indelible characters," Murphy says. "The ending is not this triumphant good over evil ... I mean there's real moral ambiguity to what happened. It all combined to allow them to question the moral order of things."

The questions raised by the book were part of a conversation that echoed around the country. It's a conversation that is still going on, and the book endures because people can relate to it in so many different ways.

"It's about race, it's about prejudice, it's about childhood, it's about parenting, it's about love, it's about loneliness — there's something for everyone," Murphy says.

To Kill a Mockingbird didn't change everyone's mind, but it did open some. And it made an impression on many young people who, like Scout, were trying to get a grip on right and wrong in a world that is not always fair.

Good Dad, Bad Dad And Something In Between

Dads are amazing creatures: They transform themselves into various animals to provide transportation for little travelers. They're always up for games like "Let's Look for Bugs Under These Rocks!" and "I'll Be Triceratops and You Be T. Rex." And nobody, but nobody, beats Daddy for daily stories.

So here are three enthralling stories about dads. The fathers in these books run the daddy gamut: the good, the bad and the in-between — because what fun is it to read only about perfect fathers, especially when we know they aren't the only kind?

'Maus: A Survivor?s Tale'

Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman, paperback, 160 pages

For our in-between dad, let's revisit Vladek Spiegelman, the true-life dad featured in Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Maus is a gripping nonfiction account of the Holocaust written in the form of a comic book. In this book, the Jews are drawn as mice and the Germans as cats. Art Spiegelman blends a comical picture of his frustrating relationship with his father with a terrifying account of life in Auschwitz — as seen through Vladek's eyes. Vladek seems like an annoying, critical and curmudgeonly old man, but then you see how his MacGyver-like resourcefulness helped him survive the horrors of the camps, and you give the man some respect. Vladek turns out to be an amazing man — even though he could be a bit of a noodge as a father.

'The Shining'

The Shining, by Stephen King, paperback, 528 pages

Nor do they get much worse than Jack Torrance, the bad daddy of Stephen King's haunted house novel The Shining. Jack accepts a job most people would run from, serving as winter caretaker to the isolated Overlook Hotel, a haunted old resort with a murderous history. Why does Jack do it? Because he loves his son, Danny. True, he tries to smash the kid's head in, but let's give the guy a break: He was possessed by the hotel. Reading King's novel, the famous image from the book's film adaptation — that of Jack Nicholson's blood-smeared face leering through the splinters of an axe-hacked door — disappears from our mind's eye. Instead, we see a down-on-his-luck average guy who would have been a good father, if not for the malevolence of his own internal demons.

Stacy Saunders is an English teacher and freelance writer. She blogs about her favorite books at 111books.blogspot.com.

'To Kill a Mockingbird'

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, paperback, 336 pages

Our good dad comes from Harper Lee's classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. It is 1935: The Depression is in full swing, Hitler is up to no good and in Maycomb, Ala., Scout and Jem Finch are learning the meaning of bigotry. Their father, a hardworking lawyer named Atticus Finch, is defending an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. When the children have to endure taunts about their father from classmates, he tells them to walk a mile in the other person's shoes. And every night, he is a comfortable chair for Scout to curl up in for a good read. Brave, wise and cozy — dads don't get any better than Atticus Finch.

Good, bad or in between, fathers help write the stories of our lives. The fathers in these three books will leave you wishing your dad was more like them, or thankful that he wasn't. So this Father's Day, you might want to give your dad a call ... depending on what category he falls into.

Three Books ... is produced and edited by Ellen Silva and Bridget Bentz.

Final Chapter: Listening to Your Suggestions

'Maus: A Survivor?s Tale'

Maus: A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman, paperback, 160 pages

For our in-between dad, let's revisit Vladek Spiegelman, the true-life dad featured in Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Maus is a gripping nonfiction account of the Holocaust written in the form of a comic book. In this book, the Jews are drawn as mice and the Germans as cats. Art Spiegelman blends a comical picture of his frustrating relationship with his father with a terrifying account of life in Auschwitz — as seen through Vladek's eyes. Vladek seems like an annoying, critical and curmudgeonly old man, but then you see how his MacGyver-like resourcefulness helped him survive the horrors of the camps, and you give the man some respect. Vladek turns out to be an amazing man — even though he could be a bit of a noodge as a father.

'The Shining'

The Shining, by Stephen King, paperback, 528 pages

Nor do they get much worse than Jack Torrance, the bad daddy of Stephen King's haunted house novel The Shining. Jack accepts a job most people would run from, serving as winter caretaker to the isolated Overlook Hotel, a haunted old resort with a murderous history. Why does Jack do it? Because he loves his son, Danny. True, he tries to smash the kid's head in, but let's give the guy a break: He was possessed by the hotel. Reading King's novel, the famous image from the book's film adaptation — that of Jack Nicholson's blood-smeared face leering through the splinters of an axe-hacked door — disappears from our mind's eye. Instead, we see a down-on-his-luck average guy who would have been a good father, if not for the malevolence of his own internal demons.

Stacy Saunders is an English teacher and freelance writer. She blogs about her favorite books at 111books.blogspot.com.

'To Kill a Mockingbird'

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, paperback, 336 pages

Our good dad comes from Harper Lee's classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. It is 1935: The Depression is in full swing, Hitler is up to no good and in Maycomb, Ala., Scout and Jem Finch are learning the meaning of bigotry. Their father, a hardworking lawyer named Atticus Finch, is defending an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. When the children have to endure taunts about their father from classmates, he tells them to walk a mile in the other person's shoes. And every night, he is a comfortable chair for Scout to curl up in for a good read. Brave, wise and cozy — dads don't get any better than Atticus Finch.

Good, bad or in between, fathers help write the stories of our lives. The fathers in these three books will leave you wishing your dad was more like them, or thankful that he wasn't. So this Father's Day, you might want to give your dad a call ... depending on what category he falls into.

Three Books ... is produced and edited by Ellen Silva and Bridget Bentz.