Five Young Adult Novels That Deserve Movie Adaptations

                Since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone came out in 2001, big screen adaptations of Young Adult novels have been some of the box offices biggest hits. With the recent premiere of The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay and The Giver on the way, this summer seems to be the season of the adaptation. I've compiled a list of the books I would most like to see in the theaters.*

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

                America loves its World War II movies, but I favor a British studio for this film. To pull this off, one would need a director familiar with the twists and turns of spy thrillers and two badass young actresses to lead the cast. Some people have suggested Kira Knightly and Renée Zellweger, but I think they are too old for Maddie and Verity (who are in their early twenties). Whatever actresses are chosen, they will have to prove chemistry does not exists only for love interests.

2. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

                A few months ago, Rainbow Rowell proudly announced on twitter that the movie rights to her Pritz Award Honoree had been sold to DreamWorks. If done right, the Eleanor and Park movie could be a quirky, romantic drama of TFIOS proportions. Popular fancasts are hard to find since Hollywood has a sadly unsurprising lack of Asian-American actors and heavy-set actresses. Rowell says that her biggest fear is Eleanor played by a skinny girl and Park played by Keanu Reaves. Same here, Rowell.

3. Going Bovine by Libba Bray

                This one could go either completely amazing or very, very wrong. Whoever directs Bray's award winning novel needs to embrace the stories surrealism and not fear ridiculousness. Logan Lerman, who is no stranger to Young Adult adaption, could play Cameron and Adèle Exarchopoulos could play Dulcie. Throw a CGI gnome in there and you got a movie.

4. Every Day by David Levithan

                I have to admit, I just want to see if it could pull this off. Since A is constantly switching bodies, multiple actors and actresses would need to be hired to play the same main character. With a talented young cast, this movie would be a fresh take on teenage romantic dramas. That being said, it's unlikely that a studio would take on the challenge. But a reader can dream.

5. Great by Sara Benincasa

                The most recent adaptation of The Great Gatsby might have made booklovers everywhere cringe, but She's the Man and Clueless prove that people love teenage movies based on classic novels. I pick Wes Anderson to recreate Jacinta's modern candy-colored world and Elle Fanning to play Naomi Rye. Jacinta is tough, but the If I Stay trailer does prove that Chloë Grace Moretz could pull off the white bob.

*I excluded movies that are already in production, but not books that the movie rights have already been sold, since studios can sit on movie rights for years.

Summer Reading, Had Me a Blast: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

                I had a lovely Fourth of July Weekend at my grandparent's lake house in Nisswa, Minnesota. I spent most of my days sitting on the dock, enjoying the breeze off the water. During this relaxation, I read Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein in its entirety.

                American transport pilot and novice poet, Rose Justice, faces her worst nightmare when she is capture by the Nazis and sent to Ravensbrück, an all-women concentration camp. She still manages to find hope, however, after meeting a group of women who are soldiers in their own right. These survivors include a French novelist turned barrack mother, a Polish girl scout used for Nazi medical experiments, and a Soviet female fighter pilot. Together, they stand up to their oppressors and fight to survive long enough to tell the world what has been done to them.

                I had such high hopes for this book after reading Wein's Code Name Verity, but Rose Under Fire started out so slow that I was worried I would be disappointed. Rose isn't half the narrator Verity is, and the story doesn't launch right into the action. The real stars of the novel are Ravensbrück's supporting cast, and Wein takes over a hundred pages to get there. Still, the beginning of the novel is worthwhile for finding out the fate of some of Verity's characters (Hint: M + J = <3).

                Once the novel gets on its feet, it's off and running. Wein wraps the reader up in the characters and the love they share for each other. The extreme situations of the camp lead to extreme acts of bravery by extraordinary women. Once again, Wein proves that she can write interest, complex women in parts of World War II's lesser known history.

                The ending is slow once again, but Wein leaves the reader on a note of hope. Overall, the book holds true to Wein's principal, to explore the bravery of humanity at war as well as the evil and, like the women at Ravensbrück, TELL THE WORLD.

If you liked Code Name Verity, you will like Rose Under Fire. If you haven't read Verity, read that first because Rose contains spoilers.

Next Up: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Summer Reading, Had Me a Blast: Great by Sara Benincasa

                I love modern adaptations of classics. I am not ashamed to admit that watching She's the Man during the Twelfth Night unit in tenth grade English was the single most engaging activity of my high school career. This is why I loved Mental Floss's 11 Modern Retellings of Classic Novels. I just finished the first book on the list, Great by Sara Benincasa.

 

                Based off of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Nathan Caraway is now Naomi Rye, the down-to-earth Chicagoan who is launched into the extravagant world of the East Hamptons when she spends the summer at her mom's beach house. There she is  quickly befriended by her next door neighbor, Jacinta Trimalchio, the mysteriously wealth fashion blogger obsessed with Naomi's model friend, Delilah Fairweather. Before Naomi realizes it, she is caught up in a scheme that could shatter everyone's glittery life as they know it.

                Unlike She's the Man, Great follows the events of its inspiration almost exactly. Jacinta's convertible is white, not yellow, but whatchayagonnado. Benincasa  takes the frivolities of Fitzgerald's world online as Jacinta Facebook stalks Delilah and the Hampton it-crowd raves just as much about J's blog as they do her parties. And the green light on the dock? That's the glow from Jacinta's laptop charger.

                All in all, Great is a fresh and entertaining take on the 1920's classic. Benincasa uses the novel's 263 pages to dive further into the story than Fitzgerald, developing Naomi as a narrator and showing how little American society has changed in 90 years. I was also fascinated about the way she develops Jeff (i.e. Jordan) in a way that shows how Naomi could be attracted to him, while slowly revealing the flaws in his character.

                While the novel gets just as dark as The Great Gatsby, Benincasa's humor and satire keep Great an engaging summer read.

Up next: Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein