Best YA Book Series?

Alright so I believe that all the best books are found in trilogies or higher. You can never really have a good story just in one book because there are too many lose ends to tie up. I was just wondering which series everyone else enjoys. I'm a really big fan of The Maze Runner Trilogy and Percy Jackson and the Olympians. There is another series that is started as a continuation of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and that makes it all the better. So let me know which series you guys because I want to start reading more =)

Holly Black's Tithe Series

My absolute favorite YA series is Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series, which is comprised of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings. It's got a little something for everyone: adventure, intrigue, sword-fighting, kidnapping, and fabulous, complex characters.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins is dark but exceptional. Compulsive reading from beginning to end.

The Hunger Games is very popular at my high school. Another series that rivals it in popularity is the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness. The titles are: The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask & The Answer and Monsters of Men. Students also really like the Gone series by Michael Grant including: Gone, Hunger and Lies.

I'm on the second book in the Maze Runner trilogy. I didn't really care for the first one, but decided to see what happens next and hope the Scorch Trials is better. I loved the Dairy Queen series by Catherine Murdock. I also enjoy the Vampire Academy series. I have read The Hunger Games trilogy which was good but I didn't enjoy the last book as well. I have quite a few more newer series beginning books on my to read pile.
As far as Vintage/old series, my favorites are the Judy Bolton series by Margaret Sutton, Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Trixie Belden, Janet Lambert Parrish series' etc., Rosamond Du Jardin, Lenora Mattingly Weber, as well as other 50's girls' series.

I'm a big fan of the Vampire Academy series. Can't wait for the last one to come out on December 7!!!

I work in a boy's school and the top series are:
Ranger's Apprentice e.g. Halt's Peril
Spook's Apprentice
Conspiracy 365
Oliver Nocturne e.g. Vampire's photograph
Cherub
Tomorrow when the war began
Alex Rider
and 39 Clues to name but a few.

My personal favorite is Spook's Apprentice. Enjoy!

The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathon Stroud - The Amulet of Samarkand, Ptolemy's Gate and The Golem's Eye. I'm looking forward to reading the prequel, Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon. The footnotes took a little getting used to but once I understood the reason for them I didn't mind them at all.

Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series is wonderful. Each book expands on the world she had created. I believe the final in the series is due out in 2011. In April, perhaps.

The Strange Angels series by Lili St. Crow. The first book is Strange Angels

The Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan is at the top of my list. I really!! enjoy them.

Going to go old-school and vote for The Dark Is Rising sequence by Susan Cooper. Tamora Pierce's various quartets and duologies are fantastic as well.

Seconding (thirding?) The Hunger Games.

The Golden Compass trilogy!!!

I don't get all the love for The Hunger Games series. I'm on book three. they're easy to read, but really there's very little characterization, very little insight into anything, is overall a bit derivative (it was done before in the Battle Royale movie from Japan). They are entertaining, but really it's just action and little else. Maybe that's enough? the first one is worth a go, but the second was meh, i'll finish the third this week, i hope to be surprised

I love The Hunger Games series, whether it is derivative or not.
I enjoy the Alex Rider series a lot, just because I like spy stories. I say this even though I know that Alex has survived too many near-death experiences to be anything close to realistic, but still...
On the same note, The Gallagher Girls series.
I like The Books of Bayern, a wonderful fantasy series by Shannon Hale.

Looking at how fast I've been reading The Hunger Games, I've certainly enjoyed the ride especially in the first book, and I'm liking the third book so far as District 13 attempts to create Katniss into a media star (i'm only 150 pages in). It's entertaining, but as far as YA I would recommend The Book Thief or The Golden Compass trilogy, those books blew me away

Number One? Far and away Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" (The Golden Compass) trilogy, assuming you consider it YA. Actually, as far as B&N/Borders shelving, you find it in all kinds of categories, be it YA or Children's or SciFi/Fantasy. I'd say Pullman even tops Tolkien, and The Lord of the Rings surprisingly hasn't been mentioned yet.

15>> I have some reservations about The Hunger Games trilogy, especially the character of Katniss, who seems more to be acted upon than acting. For a female character, I much prefer Viola of Patrick Ness's "Chaos Walking" (The Knife of Never Letting Go) trilogy, even though she's slightly secondary as a character to Todd. Incidentally, there's a short prequel, The New World, that's available freebie for Kindle, and if you don't have a Kindle reader, you can still download a free Kindle-for-PC reader from Amazon. The New World is focused on Viola.

10>> I actually like The Ring of Solomon better than the original trilogy, because of the character of Asmira. And it looks like Stroud's set it up to develop into a second trilogy if he wants to, although its conclusion is such that it can also be a stand-alone.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series. I'm not a fan of Artemis, but I really like the series for Holly Short.

Holly Black's Tithe series is good, but for me the real stand-out in that trilogy is the second book, Valiant, and if it weren't for Valiant (which is in some ways more a stand-alone than books in most trilogies) I'm not sure I'd be that interested in the trilogy.

And don't let's forget Libba Bray's "Gemma Doyle" (A Great and Terrible Beauty) trilogy. This one tends to be love-it-or-hate-it, but I especially like Bray's Victorian girls' boarding-school schtick.

One other series that I really love, though I'm not sure it's YA (except maybe for older teens), is Kim Harrison's "The Hollows" (Dead Witch Walking) series, with its combination of mystery/thriller with Buffy-ish camp.

I love The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.

The Mediator series by Meg Cabot a.k.a. Jenny Caroll was a wonderful read. I'd love to see these made into a series like her 1-800-where r you books were.

The Mediator series is the first one that popped into my head when I saw this thread. I read it a few years back but it made a huge impression.

The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare. One of the series I'm looking forward to further installments.

The Bartimeaus Trilogy! I love the books. They have excellent plot, great characterization, and a wonderful sense of humor.

Another vote for the Bartimeus trilogy.

I really liked Beautiful creatures though was a little disappointed by the sequel. I love the Southern setting though so will read the next one and hope the plot is better.

>14 Menshevixen: I'm with you on the Dark is Rising sequence! I reread them about once a year.

Terry Pratchett's wonderful Tiffany Aching books (Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight)!

>26 susanb1: I agree! They are marvelous, although I am actually more fond of his Discworld books, which are not aimed at young adults.

the Bartimaeus trilogy is rather good. Its one of the seemingly few and far between YA works these days that would appeal to boys and stars one. Plus, Stroud just published a prequel recently that I've been enjoying greatly.

I second Megan Whalen Turner's Thief series. So well thought-out and executed (no wonder it takes her five years or so to write each novel!), and Gen is.... words fail me. Unbelievable characterization.

Gone series by Michael Grant
Alex Rider by Horowitz
Everlost series by Shusterman

A bit older and thus quickly becoming forgotten I fear is The Belgariad 5 book series by David Eddings which is followed by the sequel series The Mallorean which also has 5 books. I first read the series when I was about 13/14 and have re-read the series a few times since.

I have to very much second the Patrick Ness Chaos Walking trilogy (#18) and also the Terry Pratchett Tiffany Aching Books (#26). Also I think the obvious one would be Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, a classic. And perhaps the Garth Nix Abhorsen trilogy, which I thought was very good if a little dark.

I think the best ones are Gone series by Michael Grant and Alex Rider series
THEY RULE MAN!!!
I didnt realy like Artemis Fowl and Garth Nix.
When i read them i have a strange tendency to sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

WWWoooowwwww
You rule man
same thing here too!
I just luv Gone and Alex Rider
Geuss what- i reda gone and hunger in paper, heard lies(Allison audiobook) and read ebook plague on mobipocket
So
ive GONE mad with HUNGER- no telling LIES, its just the michael PLAGUE
and im hungry 4 FEAR, the 5th one

no offense friend but i kind of thought kind of that His Dark Materials was kind of boring kind of......
okay u can see im not very sure!
maybe its not ritten 4 me
but man-how bout a dose of Michael or Antony???
u c- i just love thw Gone series and Alex Rider series.........

Weeeel-l-l gotta go ive got exams coming up
(awww maaaaaaan)
...examzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
hobey ho lets go
(im a fan of d j machaels pendragon as well)
See ya

how bout Pendragon,?

ha ha, MikeyBoy are you drunk? ;)
I havn't got round to trying the Alex Rider series yet but it is on my tbr pile so I will be reading it soon. From what I've heard of it it's quite fast paced and high octane so I can understand that if that is your thing you might find books like Dark Materials and Abhorsen a lot slower paced. I still think they are great books though.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Shiver series by Maggies stiefvater
House of Night series by P.C. Cast ( I liked it)
Fallen series by Lauren Kate

I really enjoyed Percy Jackson and now there is the Heros of Olympus and the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan.

I would also recommend the Temerie series by Naomi Novik (LT Author) as well as the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

I also have a young man (son of friend) who lent me his copies of the Nicholas Flamel series by Michael Scott. I've read the first and seems like a lot of fun.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is the "Starcatchers" series by David Barry and Ridley Pearson. I wasn't going to mention it because, I guess, I'm a little prejudiced about something that's written as a "Disney franchise" including "product placement" advertising for Disney World, but the newest book, The Bridge to Never Land, is quite clever with a touch of metafiction.

My picks would either have to be Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events or C.S. Lewis's Narnia books.

My favorite right now would be Catherine Murdock's series featuring D.J., the first of which is Dairy Queen. And the Ranger's Apprentice series has been solid from the word go.

This isn't fantasy but a great series none the less Bloody Jack; Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary "Jacky" Faber, Ship's Boy by, LA Meyer

I'll second The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and her new series The Infernal Devices. Great books!

If you're looking for books like Percy Jackson, I recommend the Kingdom Keepers series. It takes place mostly in Disney World, Florida. It's about 5 kids, Finn, Philby, Maybeck, Charlene, and Willa, who are chosen to become "DHIs", Holographic tour guides in the park. But that's not all: At night, when they go to sleep, they actually BECOME the DHIs. They meet an old Imagineer named Wayne who tells them that Disney designed the parks as a place for the characters to live at night, when the parks aren't open. But the villains are trying to take over the parks, and the only ones who can see characters are characters themselves. That was why the DHIs were created: to bridge the gap between characters and real people. Its up to the DHIs, the "Kingdom Keepers", to work together as a team to save the magic.

I agree, pinkeepiper99. I find the behind-the-scenes information interesting, and the nonstop action a great deal of fun. I'm waiting on #4.

I have two favorite books series - "The Hunger Games" trilogy by Suzanne Collins and "The Mortal Instrument" series (City of Bones) by Cassandra Clare. I also love the "Infernal Devices" series (prequel to City of Bones).

Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom Series and Old Kingdom (Sabriel, etc..) trilogy are SO wonderful. I think they're a million times more creative and original than Philip Pullman's work.

Noel Streatfeild's Shoes books aren't exactly a series, but they sort of go together and are so perfect.

I'm definitely the old-school series:
The Johnny Dixon books by John Bellairs
Freddy the Pig by Walter R. Brooks
All of Lloyd Alexander's series
The Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace
Sharon Shinn's Safe-Keeper series

I love a good sci-fi/fantasy series, but there are a lot of older, simpler, wonderful books being overlooked in the shadow of vampires and werewolves.

Best new series seems to be going to Hunger Games a lot but the second book was just okay for me. Personally I've been super into a couple indies lately. First one is Anathema by Megg Jenson, Cloud Prophet and a new one that's for old YA. I think it's even NA (new adult). The Devils Roses. First book is cursed. Awesome read!! I'm on the third book and it's rediculously good. Next up is Hush Hush. Anyone like that series??

3 new series I've really liked are Ashfall by, Mike Mullin the second book comes out this fall called Ashen Winter which I got as an early review copy and it is fantastic!

Also Variant by, Robison Wells not sure when book 2 comes out.

And Divergent by. Veronica Roth

My current favorites are The Last Apprentice series by Joseph Delaney and The Bloody Jack Adventures by L. A. Meyer.

A few series I've started, but haven't had time to read past the first book (but I intend to, as the first installments were excellent):

The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

The Vampirates series by Justin Somper

The Gideon Trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Gone by Michael Grant

my goodness where do I begin. I LOOOVE the Divergent series, can't wait for the third and final one! Another good series is the Matched trilogy. Another new series which I think will get way more popular soon is the Trylle trilogy, super good in my opinion. Yeah this next one may be a more 'cheesier' series but I still love it is the Intertwined series. Last but certainly not the lest is the Soul Screamers series, I've only read the first three, but I love the way the author writes.

Have to agree. Recently started Chaos Walking and am really loving it!

How about the Study Trilogy by Maria V. Snyder? I thoroughly enjoyed her series ^_^

Love the 'Tomorrow when the war began" John Marsden series but haven't seen the movie...

Like everyone else, loved the 'Hunger games'

Loving the 'Lumatere Chronicles' Melina Marchetta - am reading book 2 at the moment - can't wait for book 3 to come out. A teaser for book 3 is at: http://www.melinamarchetta.com.au/main/page_news_and_stuff_news_and_stuff_1.html

Definitely The Hunger Games trilogy and The Lord of the Rings trilogy! I also really enjoy the Uglies, Artemis Fowl and Maximum Ride series.

Second(or third or fourth) those who've listed His Dark Materials, Lord of the Rings and Gone By Michael Grant. Going back a bit, I also enjoyed the White Mountain series by John Christopher.

Im a big fan of the I am Number Four series. The movie didnt follow the books well but they themselves are great and really picked up the action/convergent storylines in the second book.

when I finished the trilogy book of Suzanne Collins the Hunger Games, I became a die-hard fan of Katniss-Peeta love team. I also love the book series of A song of Ice and fire by George R. Martin, Harry Potter series are immortal. I would also recommend Cristopher Pike's book Alosha.

Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer is first on my list!

#61 - Saira
Artemis Fowl has been on my tbr list for so long now. It looks so good but I always get distracted by something else. I WILL read the first two books before Christmas!

I'm not that crazy about the Artemis Fowl series but I do love it for the character of Holly.

I hated Artemis Fowl. After the first book I had no desire to read any of the sequels. Holly was a good character but everything else about the book annoyed me intensely. To me it read like a book for boys who love gadgets.

64> I loved the book series when I was younger. It was what got me into reading science fiction and fantasy. I don't think you should say that it was for boys who love gadgets - I liked the gadgets in the book and I'm female.

>65 pwaites:: That's a good point - the female friend who recommended it to me is a gadget lover too. I just didn't like Artemis himself, and I thought he was a character who would appeal more to boys, but then I was in my early 30s when I read it so am a bit out of touch!

66> I was never a huge fan of Artemis, but I liked him more in some of the books after the first. Holly was the hero I rooted for. But I think one of the things that I liked about the series was that Artemis was the villain in the first book. I read the series in fourth grade, and before then I hadn't really read something that deviated from the normal character roles. A year later I read the Bartimeaus trilogy that does something similar in regards to villains and heros. It's remained one of my favorite series to this day.

Mostly because I've just finished the 6th book (7th if you're in the US where I am told they split the 5th book into 2) The Sending, I'm giving a vote to The Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody. I know the recent books are door-stops, but I fell in love with Obernewtyn when my librarian sent it home with my sister for me while I was off school sick for a couple of weeks in 5th grade. I think Isobelle Carmody's skill in writing is something to be envied - you don't simply read about Elspeth, you become Elspeth when you read her books.

>67 pwaites:: I adore the Bartimeaus books! Definitely one of the best YA series out there.

The Hunger Games, Matched, and Ghallegher Girls series are my favorites. I'm gonna start reading The Nine Lives of Chloe King soon, too, since I loved the show.

I can't actually say one good book series! This is so hard! DX

I looked back at your profile and was pleased to see that you are an avid reader of YA lit. I have not heard of this series, but I am going to check out the Queen Thief Series. This sounds like a good series for my middle schoolers. I liked the Wind on Fire Series by William Nicholson.

The Gifted Series, check it out on my favorites page!

I really like the Birthmarked trilogy by Caragh M. O'Brien. It reminds me of a mix of the Hunger Games trilogy and The Giver. I also really liked Ashfall and Ashen Winter.

Anyone read The Children of the Lamp series? Not sure if it is YA or not, but I have read two of them and enjoyed.

I have a soft spot for the Dairy Queen trilogy by Catherine Murdock, although it's hard to beat The Hunger Games.

Hate to be cliche, but I have to say the best is the famous boy wizard series.

One series I haven't seen mentioned yet that I enjoyed is the Mistborn series. It's fantasy that is not *exactly* YA (what is?), but it sitting on the YA border line for sure. Has a young protagonist, clean language and no overly violent/sexual situations.

A few I haven't seen mentioned yet:
1. Unearthly Trilogy by Cynthia Hand
2. Tiger's Curse series by Colleen Houck
3. Starcrossed Trilogy by Josephine Angelini

Harry Potter series (of course), Unwind & Unwholly by Neal Shusterman (3rd book is being written now and soon to be made into a movie) and Leviathan, Behemoth & Goliath by Scott Westerfield (amazing concept & beautiful illustrations, too!)

Neal Shusterman's should probably be for older YA audience - mature subject matter.

79> Aren't the illustrations beautiful? Since reading the series, I've been going through Keith Thompson's online gallery. He has some concept art for the machines, beasts, and uniforms from the Leviathan series, as well as some of the illustrations. I like his other artwork too, but I try to avoid looking at them at night - way too creepy! The piece itself may not look too strange, but then I'll read the story he wrote to go along with it.

#76) I love the Dairy Queen series, too. Also - they're older, but Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising Series and Cynthia Voigt's Homecoming series are winners, too.

#79 & 80 - I read the Scott Westerfield series as well, I thought they were really original with their modified animals, and yes the illustrations were just lovely.

#81 - I read the Susan Cooper series when I was in school and loved it. I felt it was so connected to the countryside where I lived (Staffordshire, in England), it made me want to go out walking in the hills.

81,82> I'm just finishing the Susan Cooper series right now and rating it about so-so. Not really bad, mind you, and if you know the countryside where it's set, I can see where you'd really like it, but I think the characters tend to be either all good or all bad (except for Merriman's servant, who goes bad and repents in the end, but he's a minor character). There's very little conflict among the children (Simon's dislike for Will is very mildly expressed, although there is some Will-Bran and Will-Owen conflict in the beginning), and very little conflict within each child's own character (with the sometime exception of Bran). Also, the plot seems a little too much like one of those video games, where a player grabs a prize, uses the prize to advance to the next level and grab another prize, uses the new prize to advance to the third level and grab another prize, and so on.

I give the series overall 3***, maybe 3½*** very generously, with 4**** to The Grey King, the best of these books so far (and I'm nearly finished the fifth, Silver on the Tree).

ETA: One problem I may have with the series is the absence of a really strong girl character. Jane isn't bad, but....

>83 CurrerBell:, YES! on the absence of a really strong girl character. I read these when I was in 6th grade and then re-read them recently and wow, still didn't like the first one (funny how even after 30 years I remembered that I didn't like the first one!) and this time around Jane was a disappointment (I don't remember having a problem with her before). I liked the last two the best.

Penn

I just finished the last book in the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica series by James A. Owen. They were amazing!!!!

Loved the Tiger's Curse series. Still need to finish it. Also the Delirium trilody by Lauren Oliver

I know it's been said many times before, but I loved Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (starting with The Northern Lights).

Our kids are reading a lot of Maximum Ride, the different series by Darren Shan. and Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix.