The Best Of Christian YA

When my friends first handed me a copy of Jenny B Jones' In Between, Christian YA series, I smiled politely and groaned inside.

You see, I have a bad habit of judging a book by its cover, and its cover looked dull. Well, that, and I thought the girl was holding a glass like you would against a wall and... Never mind.

So I sighed, and opened the book, and started reading. And laughed my butt off. Katie Parker is not a Christian, and so she doesn't even try to hold back uncharitable thoughts- most of the time. She doesn't try to act like the model citizen (in fact, the opposite), and her sharp tongue only comes second to her sharp wit.

And when she comes face to face with Maxine... Well, lets just say that Katie isn't the one with the issues.

Lisa Samson is considered by many to be the queen of Christian YA. Hollywood Nobody isn't her first Christian YA series, though it's the only one that I've read.

Like the books above, my friends (again) handed me a copy of this book. And (again) I smiled, and inwardly groaned, and opened the book... And again, laughed my butt off.

This book is great. No, I mean really great. Scotty is an awesome kid. Well behaved, smart, relatively well adjusted- and on the run.

Only she doesn't know why, and her kooky, no-cheese-allowing mother won't tell her. But that's ok, because traveling from movie set to movie set, Scotty gets to see a lot more of life than other kids her age. Heck, she gets to see more of life than most of us ever do!

Kale's rare ability to sense, hatch, and raise dragons earns her a unique place in Paladin's service.

The Dragon Keeper series by Donita K Paul begins with Kale as a young teen, and ends with her in her early/mid twenties. Since it starts with Kale as a teen, and the series has that YA feel to it, I'm including it in this lens, even though it may not be strictly YA.

It's a great fantasy series, especially for those who are new to the genre.