Sick of Edgy YA???

Has she read The Frog Princess series by ED Baker? I love that series...it might be MG though. I also liked the Dark is Rising Series... ooooh and if she doesn't mind something that makes her think uncomfortable (though not immoral or anything) thoughts, I really liked The Adoration of Jenna Fox

Percy Jackson's probably MG and I'd call Harry Potter YA.

Some edgy YA books actually teach. RX, for example, tackles a very real-life subject--prescription drug abuse in teens. Have you tried Wings by Aprilynne Pike? Haven't read it yet, but it seems very Disney-esque (Miley Cyrus is slated to star).

Edgy YA exists today because teens are getting more and more exposed to stuff than the other generations via TV and internet. Consequently, books are being written on these subjects. Some are just plain risque, but maybe you could read some examples with your daughter and discuss "what not to do".

The Clique books by Lisi Harrison are a pretty bubblegum-y read, if you don't mind shallow characters. Well, there's about twenty pages of actual plot in there, but they're safe.

Have you tried the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter? It's about girl geniuses at spy school, minus cussing, drugs, profanity, etc.


ETA: Lois Lowry is a good pick. The Giver is a classic.

What about The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It's an interesting story, very touching and I'm not sure I'd classify it as edgy perse (which seems to fulfill your daughter's request to avoid edgy). It does address a serious topic (abduction/rape/murder) but I really enjoyed it. I read it around your daughter's age. Has she read The Giver by Lois Lowry? That's also a good book, though probably more MG than YA. But there were 2 other books put out in the same "universe" "Gathering Blue" and "The Messenger". Again, both really good books.

Also, if she likes Harry Potter you might try Diane Duane's Young Wizards series (So You Want to Be a Wizard is the first book). They're fun and a totally different take on magic...it's much more elemental/nature based. I'm quite looking forward to the next book coming out in that series and I'm...well not a young adult anymore haha.

Also, Gabrielle Zevin is pretty PG. Elsewhere and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac were very touching.

There's a lot of great not-edgy YA out there. I just read Meg Cabot's AIRHEAD last night. It's fun, light reading. S Dessen is another great choice for clean sweet books. This Lullaby was great, & the newest one . . . Along for the Ride (I think that's the proper title) was too. Very sweet, well written, interesting books w full rounded characters. . .

Zevin was cited in the thread. Her Teenaged Amnesiac was really sweet & a good read.

Riordan's Percy series is MG, but I'm 37 & I still enjoy his books

*re-reads* Jen Lynn Barnes is fabulous (admission though: we're friends. I don't think that makes me biased, but still . . .). My daughter & I read the Squad (cheerleaders who are spies) series, the Golden books, & loved them. Daughter also liked Ally Carter (but I haven't read them yet). The So You Want to Be a Wizard books were good fun.

I haven't read Silver Phoenix nor has Daughter, so I have no insight there. Daughter reads & loves the Westerfeld books--including his upcoming Leviathan which both my spouse & my 10 yr old (after parental approval)also enjoyed so I gather that it is not age restricted.

To add to the recommendations:

For adventure in the YA, Clare Dunkle's Hollow Kingdom is gorgeous, but clean. Annette Curtis Klause's Freaks: Alive on the Inside is beautiful, romantic, & not edgy.

RJ Anderson's Faery Rebels is technically MG, but it reads for sweet YA too.

Immortal by Gillian Shields (out soonish? now?) is Gothic romance a la Wuthering Heights & clean. On that topic, you could go for the classics Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre or Pride and Prejudice (the real one, not the new "with zombies" one!).

Alex Flinn's Beastly is clean & good, as is her A Kiss in Time.

I'm pretty sure that LIsa McMann's Wake was not-edgy, but again, very good.

Hope some of those help.

Is there a subgenre in particular she likes? That might help narrow in recommendations . . .

This thread might be helpful:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143028

The Hunger Games wasn't edgy...or at least not in the respect of sex/swearing/drugs. And it was pretty non-graphic considering the violence aspect.

And it's older, but what about the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

I'm glad your daughter isn't interested in sex, etc, by the way, at age 14. I know times have changed, but...I'm glad.

Today's young adult can definitely leave a lot to be desired. Especially if your daughter, like mine, wants more out of a story than a 'cheap thrill' so to speak. lol Back in the age of dinosaurs, when I was a teen I was reading Koontz, King, and Hitchcock. My daughter, 16, right now is going through a classics phase, currently making her way through Jane Austen's books.

A couple of young adult books she had me read two years ago were very fun, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. She also liked Garth Nix, but I never read those ones.

What specific books has she been into lately?

Skin Deep by EM Crane is a FANTASTIC, quiet, thought provoking book with no edgy stuff in it.

What about The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks?

Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Sequence was one of my favorites as a young teen.
I also loved Robert Louis Stevenson, Ray Bradbury and Tamora Pierce. I could never find anything to read in the teen section...once I got to high school, I devoured Patrick O'Brian's work (not your typical teenage girl book).

Oh! And Diana Wynne Jones. Fantasy, yes, but I still love reading her work, even to this day.

I haven't read YA in several years. When I was fourteen, I grew very bored with it and moved on to adult fiction. However, these are a few that I remember liking very much, although they are fairly dark:
The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick, and its sequel, The Dark Flight Down
Poison by Chris Wooding
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

As for more light-hearted work
The Enchanted Chocolate Pot and The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
The Dark is Rising Sequence, as others have said, was very good.
I also enjoyed a lot of Tamora Pierce's work.

I second Diana Wynne Jones.

If I were you, I'd consider introducing your daughter to adult fiction. I think a lot of YA (that's not fantasy) is geared towards teens who are really into being... well, TEENS. Sounds like your kid is a little more on the mature side. She might like reading stuff about adults in real life, etc. Try her out on a couple of genres and see what she's into. When I was her age there really wasn't a YA section, aside from some trashy teenage romance paperbacks. I went straight from kids' stuff into adult. I started on Ray Bradbury, Michael Crichton, etc. If she likes mystery at all, get her a bunch of Agatha Christie. There are plenty of adult books out there that aren't "adult," and most of them are a lot tamer than edgy YA.

ETA: I also second Tamora Pierce. Alana series was my faaaaaaaaaavorite. I even got all my hair chopped off because I wanted to be just like her.

You could try The Blue Girl by Charles De Lint. Though the MC is not a virgin, I don't recall any sex (actual or implied) in the book.

As kaitlin008 said, you could also try His Dark Materials.

I'm not sure about Uglies if she thought Wicked Lovely was too edgy. The pleasure city concept seemed pretty Logan's Run to me.

I would consider HP to be juvenile 9+ even though adults loved it too. If your daughter likes the fantasy genre like HP, try Flora Segunda and Flora's Dare by Ysabeau Wilce, the Inkheart series (Inkheart, Inkdeath, Inkspell) by Cornelia Funke, or The Lightning Thief (and sequels) by Rick Riordan. They are probably considered MG.

Sarah Dessen's books are good too, but they do deal with issues like underage drinking, bulimia and death, etc.

Adult books are edgy too...or not. Further recommendations would all depend on what she wants to read - classics, mystery, fantasy, adventure, romance, thriller, sci-fi, anime/manga, etc. The local librarian should be able to make recommendations too.

This could also be the stage of ennui some teens go through (one of mine did.) Hang in there...it does get better.

Off the top of my head, I'd recommend Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere, and Ray Bradsbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Alyson Noel, Meg Cabot, and Kelly Armstrong are all really great, non edgy YA books IMO.

Ditto on Kelly Armstrong's YA series and The Hunger Games.

The Year of Secret Assignments. My God I love that book.

I agree with what someone said about Sarah Dessen. They're light reads, especially This Lullaby (one of my favorite books)

One of Haddix's earlier works is something I've always (and confidently) recommended. Running out of time is perfect for any girl at any age. Even my conservative readers love it.