John Green’s Paper Towns Takes Top Spot in Teens’ Top 10

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Young adult author John Green received the title of “Favorite Teen Book of 2009” from the Young Adult Library Services Association and the American Library Association for his New York Times Bestseller Paper Towns. 

Green bested the likes of authors Stephanie Meyer and Suzanne Collins to appear on over 50 percent of teen submissions. Meyer’s Breaking Dawn and Collins’ The Hunger Games appeared second and third on this year’s Teens’ Top Ten list.  

Paper Towns is the story of Quentin Jacobsen and his infatuation with a girl named Margo. After loving her from afar, she comes back into his life and they spend a night exacting revenge on people in Margo’s life. Only problem is that she leaves the very next morning. Margo leaves clues throughout the story on how to find her, but it turns out Margo isn’t exactly the girl Jacobsen thought she was. 

“It means a great deal coming from [the teens],” he says. “I’ve won awards before, but never something that was really audience driven.” 

Green says he was speechless after being told for a second time that he had topped the teen-voted list, including surpassing nationwide sensation Stephanie Meyer. 

“I think it’s a particular honor when they choose your book because I respect teenagers so much as readers,” Green says. “Their opinion really matters to me, so it’s particularly flattering when they like you.” 

Teens’ Top Ten is a “teen choice” list, where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year. Nominators are members of teen book groups in fifteen school and public libraries around the country.  

One of the teens who voted in this year’s poll was 18-year-old homeschooler Joe Kaufeld.  

“I really enjoy the entire process – reading, reviewing, and voting,” he says. “It’s a way for me to participate and to share my love of reading.” 

When asked to predict the top finishers in this year’s poll, he named six books, four of which finished in the top 10. His favorite was Isamu Fukui’s Truancy: Origins, which garnered some votes but did not crack the top 10. 

On the other hand, 18-year-old high school senior Tara Olivero didn’t care for Fukui’s novel. 

“I think that most of the books on the list deserved to be there,” she says. “I didn’t particularly like either of the Truancy books, but I enjoyed the rest.” 

Joe’s sister, 17-year-old Becca Kaufeld thought that E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks was the best of the year. It finished ninth in voting. 

“I like to think that when a book gets the prize of being one of the top young adult books, I might have had a hand in it,” Becca says. 

Olivero has voted for the past seven years and says it would be weird if she didn’t participate this year. 

“I have read all the books on the list and I wanted to make sure that the books that made the Top 10 were books that really deserved to,” Olivero says. 

Meyer’s popularity among teenagers is not a secret. Olivero says Breaking Dawn was a “pretty good book” and thought it would be on top of the list. Joe on the other hand didn’t care for the final chapter of the Twilight series and is glad to see the list of nominees feature a wide range of authors. 

“There seems to be more than a few first time authors on the list,” he says. “It would be fantastic to introduce some new authors into the industry.” 

Both Becca and Joe are active users of their local library. 

“I value my local library quite a lot,” Joe says. “It’s one of my preferred ‘hang-out’ destinations, and the same for most of my friends.” 

2009 winning author John Green echoes those thoughts. 

“I think libraries are at the very foundation of our nation,” Green says. “Teenagers who aren’t going to a library are missing an awesome opportunity—an opportunity to meet other people.”