When Carrie Gelson shared her post about the 25 girls and 25 boys who stood out to her in young adult and middle grade literature and asked us to join in by writing our own, Ricki and I knew we had to. We read hundreds of books each year, but there are certain characters that stay in your heart year after year. Last week I highlighted the 25 girls who stand out for me, and today I will highlight the boys. Just as with the girls, I had a much longer list than 25 (56 originally to be exact), so narrowing it down to 25 was so difficult; however, I am very proud of the 25 young men who I did choose. They are a special bunch who I hope have affected you as much as they’ve affected me, or you feel inclined to read their book because of this list.
**Click on any book title below to see my review or the Goodreads summary of the book**
- Matt Cruse from Airborn (Series: Matt Cruse) by Kenneth Oppel
- Aristotle and Dante from Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
- Nate Foster from Better Nate Than Ever (Series: Better Nate Than Ever) by Tim Federle
- Tater Henry from Call Me By My Name by John Ed Bradley
- Patson from Diamond Boy by Michael Williams
- Nick from Everlost (Series: Skinjacker) by Neal Shusterman
- Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Albert and Travis from Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
- Cole (Coltrane) from Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri
- Jonas from The Giver (Series: Giver Quartet) by Lois Lowry
- Ben from Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel
- Zenji from Hunt for the Bamboo Rat (Series: Prisoners of the Empire) by Graham Salisbury
- Luis and Sam from Jumped In by Patrick Flores-Scott
- Todd Hewitt from The Knife of Never Letting Go (Series: Chaos Walking) by Patrick Ness
- Josh from Living with Jackie Chan (Series: Jumping Off Swings) by Jo Knowles
- Logan Bruno from Logan Likes Mary Anne! (Series: The Baby-Sitters Club) by Ann M. Martin
- Jack from Love that Dog (Series: Jack) by Sharon Creech
- Mal from Mal and Chad: The Biggest, Bestest Time Ever! (Series: Mal and Chad) by Stephen McCranie
- Arn Chorn-Pond from Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
- Rafe from Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
- Matt and Curtis from Personal Effects by E.M. Kokie
- Navin from The Stonekeeper (Series: Amulet) by Kazu Kibuishi
- Alex Rider from Stormbreaker (Series: Alex Rider) by Anthony Horowitz
- Luc from Threatened by Eliot Schrefer
- Ali and Needles from When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
Who makes it on your list?
Again, I love seeing which characters stood out for many of us – love that you included Josh from Living with Jackie Chan! I notice that #4 and #20 are characters I know based on your recommendations! Thanks again for making a list and sharing it!
And I am so glad you loved them as much as me! 🙂
This is a terrific list. I’ve only read 2 of these books: Fish In a Tree and The Giver. I’ve put a lot of these on my GoodReads To Read list and I think I’ll never have to worry about running out of good books to read. Thanks for this awesome post!
Yay! I am so glad I introduced these boys to you–I hope you enjoy your time with them 🙂
Nice list! I’ve only read 6 of these, but those were good choices! I especially loved Nick from the Everlost series and Todd from the Chaos Walking series.
Sue
Book By Book
Alex Rider, definitely. Ten years in my library and still one of the ost popular titles!