The Books That Almost Made The “Best of the Century: YA” Cut

Last week, we revealed the “Best of the Century So Far” picks for young adult literature. It was a lengthy process to decide which 45 books from the last 25 years to include and which ones–despite how good they were, how influential they were, how important the author is, and an array of other criteria–wouldn’t make the final list. The process took a lot of time and thought, and because there are so many great YA books that deserve the honor of being on such a list, it would be silly not to at least highlight a few that we also talked about.

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes of how deciding the best and most influential young adult books of the century worked. Every Book Riot editor nominated their picks, and every contributor to Book Riot nominated theirs, too. Titles which had several nominations went to the top of the list for first consideration. Titles which were nominates once were considered after those with multiple nominations. We considered the range of titles, the stories and perspectives being presented, and ensured that the list included not only fiction, but also nonfiction and comics. Once we had a solid list, ...