Is there a canon for
Young Adult literature?
Helen Sykes
IFTE Conference Auckland 2011
What is a ‘canon’?
 Introductory activity:
 Rock and roll hall of fame
 From Parker & Morrison, Masters in Pieces:
The English Canon for the Twenty-first
Century. Cambridge University Press,
Melbourne, 2006
Some of the questions asked
 Who compiled the list?
 What kind of people seem to have been
excluded from the list?
 How might the list have been different if
some of those people had been able to
vote?
 Should every vote have equal weight?
 Why are there very few titles from recent
years?
Is there a canon of Young Adult
literature?
 Sub-title:
 In particular, of those Young Adult
books used in secondary English
classrooms
My ‘canon’ of books that work in
the classroom
 Some golden oldies
 Some of the most exciting recent titles
 Some little known gems
 Drawn from a range of types of text,
including visual texts, verse novels and
non-fiction
 To suit a diverse range of readers
Source of some of these
recommendations
 Choices for English: books, films and other
texts that work
 by Deb McPherson, Helen Sykes and
Ernie Tucker
 Nelson Cengage Learning, Melbourne,
2009
Some classics
The original golden oldies
 Bridge to Terabithia
 The Cay
 Island of the Blue
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
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Dolphins
I Am David
The Silver Sword
Tuck Everlasting
Mrs Frisby and the
Rats of NIMH
Goodnight Mister
Tom
In Australia
 Playing Beattie Bow
 Pastures of the Blue
Crane
 Storm Boy
 Lockie Leonard
Human Torpedo
Adult classics for middle
secondary
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To Kill a Mockingbird
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Animal Farm
Brave New World
Of Mice and Men
The Catcher in the
Rye
 Lord of the Flies
 The Old Man and the
Sea
More recent ‘classics’
 So Much to Tell You
 Tomorrow When the


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War Began
Unreal
Strange Objects
The Chocolate War
Breaktime
Holes
 The Changeover
 Memory
 The Watertower
 The Rabbits
Some of the most exciting
recent titles
Wordless picture book
The Arrival
by Shaun Tan
Picture books for older readers
 The Island
 by Armin Greder
Significant use of visual text
 The Invention of
Hugo Cabret
 by Brian Selznick
A perfect class set novel
Years 7 to 9
 Trash
by Andy
Mulligan
Funny, moving, thrilling
– with multiple voices
and a superbly
unexpected ending
Senior fiction – transformation
of Othello
 Exposure
 by Mal Peet



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Previous titles:
Keeper
The Penalty
(Tamar)
A beautiful picture book
 Mirror
 by Jeannie Baker
Junior secondary fiction
 The 10 PM
Question
 by Kate De Goldi
New Zealand author
Challenging title for
good readers
Rich characterisation
Junior secondary fiction
 The Graveyard
Book
 by Neil Gaiman
Beautifully written horror
story
Junior secondary fiction
 A Small Free Kiss
in the Dark
 by Glenda Millard
 A great text for
Melbourne schools
Junior secondary fiction
 The Loblolly Boy
 by James Norcliffe
 New Zealand author
 Timeless fantasy
Junior secondary
 Krakatoa
Lighthouse
 by Allan Baillie
International bestseller
 The Boy in the
Striped Pyjamas
 by John Boyne
Especially for less able readers
 Once
 by Morris
Gleitzman
 Sequels
 Then
 Now
Middle secondary fiction
 Little Brother
 by Cory Doctorow
 High interest
 American
 Very contemporary
Middle secondary fiction
 Liar
 by Justine
Larbalestier
 The most
unreliable narrator
in YA fiction
Middle secondary fiction
 Mice
 by Gordon Reece
 Terrific thriller
Senior fiction
 Butterfly
 by Sonya Hartnett
 Adult fiction
 Especially for older
girls
 Great author study for
talented readers
Junior to middle secondary
fiction
 Where the streets
had a name
by Randa AbdelFattah
Previous titles:
Does My Head Look
Big in This?
Ten Things I Hate
about Me
Junior to middle secondary
fiction
 No Safe Place
 by Deborah Ellis
Previous titles:
The Parvana trilogy
The Heaven Shop
Middle secondary fiction
 The Dead I Know
 by Scot Gardner
Especially for boys
Junior to middle secondary
fiction
 The Adoration of
Jenna Fox
 Mary E. Pearson
 Good sci-fi
 Genetic engineering
Junior to middle secondary
fiction
 Macbeth and Son
 by Jackie French
 Did Shakespeare
deliberately distort
history?
Some little known gems
Middle secondary fiction
 Deadline
 by Chris Crutcher
 American
 High interest
 Excellent class set
title for mixed ability
Senior fiction
 The Reluctant
Fundamentalist
 by Mohsin Hamid
Adult fiction
Extended monologue in
the voice of a
Pakistani man
Senior fiction
 The Astonishing
Life of Octavian
Nothing
 by M. T. Anderson
Verse novel
 Cold Skin
 Steven Herrick
Verse novel
 Motormouth
by Sherryl
Clark
For primary school
readers
Short story collection
 Interpreter of
Maladies
 by Jhumpa
Lahiri
Junior secondary fiction
 Mahtab’s Story
 by Libby
Gleeson
Picture book
 Ziba Came on a
Boat
 by Liz Lofthouse,
illustrated by
Robert Ingpen
Junior secondary fiction
 Tamburlaine’s
Elephants
 by Geraldine
McCaughrean
A short story collection
 Town
 by James Roy
 13 inter-related
stories
Junior secondary fiction
 Lobster Boy
by Rodman
Philbrick
American author
Magic realism
Original title: The
Young Man and the
Sea