Reddit mentions: The best runaways books for children

I saw that you're always looking for YA with strong female characters? Let me crack my knuckles, I love exercising the Masters degree I never get to use.

• Legend by Marie Lu is hugely wonderful. It's a 3-book dystopian trilogy, but the girl is kick-ass. This is probably my favorite YA dystopian.
  
• Matched by Allie Condy - in case you haven't picked this one up yet, it's a dystopian "arranged marriage break out of your shell" bit. It's pretty good.
  
• Rebel Belle by Rachel Hawkins. This was SO GOOD. Everyone needs to read this book. It's got a kick-ass heroine, a hilarious and dry wit, it's soulful, it's sweet, it's got twists I actually DID NOT EXPECT!! A+ would wipe my memory and reread. (she's a female paladin, need I say more?!)
  
• You gotta have the Vampire Academy series as well. I thought it was just going to be a silly "vampire boarding school" book but it's actually a whole lot more.
  
• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is an amazing YA book dealing with living overseas, finding love and home ... it's pretty great. Its sequel (Lola & the Boy Next Door) is also great, for different reasons.
  
• Love Letters to the Dead is about a girl who writes letters to deceased celebrities, and it helps her cope with her older sister's death. A really relateable read.
  
• My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick is a lovely, sweet book about finding family everywhere.
  
  I could keep going if you want, just let me know! :D

Midnighters are tonally different than the Unwind series, but I still recommend it to anyone who's fine with reading YA. It's a pretty classic good versus evil story. If you like Unwind then I recommend Partials, which is fun commentary on the dangers and advantages of genetically engineered human beings. I also recommend Legend by Marie Lu. But basically everyone recommends Legend.

I'll stop reccing books now. But in theory you'll eventually run out of books and you're welcome to come back for more recs. I will have them. [It wasn't until this thread that I realized how many books I actually so read.]

I finished Landline by Rainbow Rowell, narrated by Rebecca Lowman. I've previously listened to Lowman narrate Fangirl by the same author and think she does a great job, especially doing both female and male characters. I liked Fangirl better as a book but Landline was still a good listen.

I'm now finishing up Legend by Marie Lu, narrated by Mariel Stern and Steven Kaplan. I'm not a big fan of the narrators (particularly Mariel's voice bugs me) but the book itself is pretty good. I had listened to The Maze Runner book awhile back and thought it was pretty terrible, but Legend seems to be a step up in the YA dystopian genre.

I was hoping to have a big list of examples, but I found that most of the titles I've read that have a character very well-established in their world also have a tag-along character or second main character who finds the whole experience to be foreign. I think a big part of this is because the story is meant to start close to the moment when everything changes, whether that's traveling to a new place, discovering the dark secrets that shift the MC's perspective on everything that's normal, or getting new responsibilities that launch them into a new peer group or building or whatever, so a lot of the setting is going to be new no matter what. A character doesn't have to be sucked through a portal to have a completely different environment.

YA Characters Familiar with their SFF Settings:

• In Feed, MC Titus is totally at ease with his futuristic US world, but a secondary character makes him go sightseeing (fields of filet mignon with eyes blinking where the genetic code was messed up?) and think of things a little differently or, alternately, mention how his familiar stuff is better.
  
• In Incarceron and Sapphique, the two main characters are totally familiar with their own worlds (one steampunk labyrinthine prison, the other a faux medieval court), but don't know anything about each other's worlds, despite having to survive in them.
  
• In the Legend trilogy, there are alternating POVs for the two main characters, who both come from the same dystopian republic. One is upper class, the other is lower class. There's a little bit of overlap, but characters are able to describe their everyday lives in terms of contrast to what the other does that's unusual.
  
• In the Leviathan trilogy, Deryn's used to life on board a steampunk whale blimp, but Alex, the other MC, comes from an entirely different background.
  
• In The Archived, Mac's got 5 years of experience with a parallel world, but because she's moved house in the real world, she has to sort out a few new details (like new door locations), that help explain things for the reader.
  
• The Winner's Curse takes place in the same city and noble houses Kestrel's lived her entire life, but the reader is introduced to noble's events and slave pits, etc in the course of her travels and comments about fashions that changed from last year, secrets she's gathered about objects and people and history, etc.
  
  But mainly, like other posters said, just drop in the details as you go and trust your readers to figure out the context. They're not stupid, and hopefully your characters aren't dumb enough to be reminding themselves that the space toaster, which runs on space power, is used to make space breakfast, which is eaten at Space-13, which is like 8am on Old Earth on a "typical" morning.
  
  Also, you may want to cross-post this over to /r/YAwriters.

This is the first book that made me start questioning life. I mean if the leaders in his world could do so many awful things under the guise of harmony, what could my own leaders being doing? I'd like to read this book because I still love dystopian society books.

11-14

• Hatchet, about a boy stranded in the Canadian wilderness.
  
• Holes, about a boy cursed with bad luck who ends up in a prison camp
  
• Leviathan trilogy, a retelling of WWI where the Austro-Hungarians have mechas and the British have genetically-engineered whale blimps. This is evenly split between a male and female perspective (and a huge hit in a relative's special ed class for the same age group).
  
• The Ranger's Apprentice, introductory medieval fantasy about a boy training to be a ranger.
  
• Incarceron, about a steampunk labyrinth prison and the fake medieval world outside.
  
• The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, about mutant detectives in future Zimbabwe.
  
  15-18
  
  
• World War Z, about a zombie apocalypse and how different countries and people deal with it. Has a lot to say about geopolitics. (Not necessarily YA, but popular in that age group)
  
• Feed, where everyone has the internet in their heads from birth. While partying on the moon, boy meets girl who didn't get the feed until age 6.
  
• John Green's other books, like Looking for Alaska, etc all have male protagonists.
  
• Little Brother, about a teenage hacker swept up by the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack on California.
  
• Legend trilogy, about a dystopian United States and a police prodigy trying to track down another 15-year old rebel. This is another one split between a male and female perspective.
  
• Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O'Brien are technically adult authors, but very accessible and popular in that age group.
  
  Would also second Artemis Fowl, Percy Jackson, Ender's Game, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that other commentators mentioned.
  
  Also, you may be interested in /r/YAlit and /r/YAwriters.

The Paradise Garden?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Paradise-Garden-Colin-Thompson/dp/0679890769

Oh my gosh! That's it! Thank you!!!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0064XT3VY

Run, Shelley, Run! by Gertrude Samuels? Shelley's mother named her after Percy Shelley.

http://www.amazon.com/Run-Shelley-Gertrude-Samuels/dp/0595121454/ref=sr_1_15?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320034320&sr=1-15

big chefin.

Working as a barista I burn myself a lot. One time the espresso machine was on the fritz and the steam wand sprayed hot milk all over my face. I have also accidentally spilled an entire cup of hot coffee down my shirt.

At home, I remember the first time I ever cooked bacon. I had it on too high and the oil was starting to pop. I went to turn it down lower and it let out a huge pop and sprayed hot oil all over my arm.

When I was a kid I put my hand down on the stove without realizing my mom has just used that burner. My entire finger was one big blister. It was disgusting and so painful I had to keep ice on it even when i was in the shower.

I am very accident prone.

Item. If the price raises then anything else on my list is fine too. Thanks for the contest!

Legend (The Legend Trilogy) by Marie Lu##

Click here for the book.

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.