Young Adult Books That Changed Our Lives

This week the CNN Living Staff published an article entitled Young Adult Books That Changed Our Lives.  Said staff "posed the question to members of the CNN Digital newsroom to find out which books have stuck with them since adolescence. To even things out, we sought input from the millennials in the newsroom, too." The published list includes some Judy Blume, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Louise Fitzhugh's nearing fifty Harriet the Spy - plus The Face in the Frost, The House With a Clock in Its Walls, and - of all things - The Chessmen of Doom:

Young adult books aren't all about girls and periods. Fantasy and science-fiction novels offer young readers a glimpse of alternate worlds before they become jaded adults.

"Like many children, I was a tasty gazelle in the wild savannah of grade school. Sometimes things could be scary, but as I got older, the works of John Bellairs were of some comfort: At least my concerns didn't foretell the end of the world. Johnny, Lewis and Anthony had far bigger problems to solve and I ate up their stories," CNN's Nicole Saidi said.

"Now that I am a writer, and an adult, I can feel the influences of the freaky, fantastic setting details from The Face in the Frost when I think about how to describe a place in a compelling way."