T-shirt Tuesday + Top 10 Tuesday Mash-Up: YA Books by Canadian Authors

This T-shirt Tuesday blog inspired a Top 10 list. Therefore, I’m doubling the Tuesday fun with a T-shirt Tuesday and Top 10 Tuesday mash-up.

Until 2015, I’d never set foot in Canada. (And Canada is the best, right? Oh that Justin Trudeau. If only…) I know it’s crazy. I’ve lived generally in the North East part of the US my whole life (just outside DC and in NYC). It’s just a little hop on an airplane or relatively long car ride and you’re there. Yet, for 30+ years, I’d never gone.

During Thanksgiving of 2015 I finally made it. We visited Montreal. And, my husband got this t-shirt, which is the inspiration for today’s blog – 10 great YA books from Canada!

First, let’s talk about Montreal

The city felt very European and old. That’s one of things about living in the US vs Europe or other parts of the world, everything is very new by comparison. You lose touch with a more global history. But, Montreal doesn’t feel this way. It may be new by human civilization standards, founded in 1642, compared to a places like Athens, Greece that have been inhabited for more than 7,000 years. However, it had an old-world charm with it’s large, castle-like buildings, winding roads, gorgeous churches glowing with stained glass and even horse-drawn carriages.

And, thanks to global warming, on several days we were there in late November the temperature reached close to 50, which made it easy to explore the city. We also ate incredible food, including Poutine, a Canadian staple, at Poutineville, which was one of the best things I’ve ever consumed. (Note: this is prior to becoming Pescatarians – vegetarians who eat fish sometimes.)

We visited a the Montreal Biodome, which is in a set of buildings that once made up the Montreal Olympic Village.

We also visited a museum where guitars were set up all around and tiny birds would fly on them and create all these sounds. It was completely unique and completely amazing.

Now let’s talk lit

This trip down memory lane made me think more about Canada and how the country is so close to the US and in many ways very similar. And, in other ways, especially now, it’s very different. It made me wonder, how much do we influence each other? (Personally, I wish Canada would influence the US more.) But what about things beyond government? What about film? Literature? Have I read Canadian authors, listened to Canadian bands, watched Canadian shows or movies, and not ever realized it? Are there great books by Canadian authors that never even make it to the US?

So, I wanted to see, what were considered the most popular 10 YA books in Canada for 2016. Obviously, this is subjective. So I complied it based on a review of several different websites about popular YA books by Canadian authors. Here’s are the YA books by Canadian authors that seemed to get a lot of hype, in Canada, based on my search. Canadians – how did I do on this list? Is it accurate?

dust-lands-copy