Finding YA titles that contained themes of moral ambiguity proved to be much easier that I had expected. As YA literature has continued to grow tremendously in popularity, it appears the idea of blurring lines and upheaving dichotomies has also become popular in this literature. In fact, the more I thought about my own reading experiences with morally ambiguous YA literature, and the more searching I did for these types of novels, the harder time I had choosing just ten. It seems more and more authors are taking to the idea of writing morally complex literature, allowing both their protagonists and the readers of their novels to struggle with these complex themes and how to maneuver them. As I mention in the Moral Ambiguity section of this website, I feel that this is because they are trusting young adults more to be able to deal with these kinds of themes in books. They know that young adults are smart and do not need to be told “this is right” and “this is wrong” in books; young adults can determine for themselves what they think is “right,” “wrong,” or simply just “grey.” As the body of literature containing this theme is even more prevalent than I expected, access to these stories is just as easy. Many of the titles talked about on this website, or titles similar in nature, can be found front and center in the Edmonton Public Library’s teen reading lists and Young Reader’s Choice Awards lists. Bookstores too are catching on to the popularity of these types of stories, having specific “Teen” tables that are flooded with these books.

     My journey of discovery for many of these titles came about through more non-traditional avenues of searching, such as pursuing recommendations by friends and professors, drawing on my own personal background knowledge and history, and even enrolling in this course. Below, I detail my “search strategy” to locate these titles.



​Coraline
     I found Henry Selick’s adaptation of Gaiman’s Coraline through a recommendation of a friend and fellow YA literature fanatic. As I described my project to her during a coffee meet-up, she immediately spouted out about Neil Gaiman’s book and began praising it tremendously. She lent me her copy of the novel, which I read. I then remembered that a film version of the novel had recently been released, and so I took to Google to search for information on the film to include it as one of the various formats in which YA literature can be found. Using Google proved to be helpful as I found many reviews (e.g. New York Times, etc.) of the movie that I was able to draw on to compare the film to the book.

​Goliath
     Westerfeld’s Goliath was one of the first books I chose that contains moral ambiguity, specifically because I am writing my Master’s Thesis on Westerfeld and so I know his body of work well. I have read his Leviathan series, owning eBook versions of all three novels in the series, and so finding and gaining access to this book was quite easy.



​Half Brother
     Oppel’s novel Half Brother is one that I actually did not know of before this project. I came across it by searching through the Canadian Library Association’s (CLA) website. I found a section on Young Adult Book Awards, which listed Oppel’s novel, and decided to read reviews on the novel because I immediately recognized Oppel from This Dark Endeavour, a novel that also carries themes of moral ambiguity. The CLA’s website proved to be quite a fruitful resource, as Half Brother clearly deals with the theme of moral ambiguity and having to make hard decisions.



​Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
     Rowling’s novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was one of the stories that inspired me to do my project on books that contain themes of moral ambiguity. This book, and the series in general, was one of the books that I studied for my Honours Thesis on moral ambiguity in YA literature. To include it in this project, I simply drew on my background knowledge from my thesis; however, when I was first searching for novels to include in my Honours Thesis, this was one of the first books/series that was suggested to me by my thesis advisor. So, my first introduction to this book/series as one that contains themes of moral ambiguity was through a reader’s advisory recommendation from a professor.



​Looking for Alaska
     Green’s novel Looking for Alaska became part of this project much the same way as Westerfeld’s Goliath did. For my Master’s Thesis, I am studying both Scott Westerfeld and John Green, popular YA authors, and therefore I am very familiar with each author’s body of work. I spent this summer reading and re-reading all of the novels by each author, and so I was again able to draw on my background knowledge and identify this YA novel as one in which themes of moral ambiguity are found, and therefore eligible to be included in this project.



​The Amber Spyglass
     Again, this novel by Pullman was one that I wrote about for my Honours Thesis, so I was able to identify it as a book to include for this project. My initial introduction to this novel, however, was through a Children’s Literature course I took in my undergraduate degree. For this class, we were required to read Pullman’s The Golden Compass; once I started the novel (and therefor the series) however, I was immediately hooked and could not wait to read both the second (The Subtle Knife) and third (The Amber Spyglass) installments in the series.

 

​The Fault in Our Stars
     Though I was originally familiar with Green’s story The Fault in Our Stars from reading it this summer, I was not introduced to his audiobook version until this semester. In an attempt to find YA novels with themes of moral ambiguity in a variety of formats, I went to the Edmonton Public Library main website and searched for “Young Adult audiobooks.” This returned a large number of results, and after scanning through the list (approximately four pages into the search results), I came across the audiobook version of Green’s novel (which, luckily, was available). The Edmonton Public Library website proved to be a valuable resource for locating not only a large number of YA books, but for locating a larger a large number YA books in a variety of formats (e.g. audiobooks, eBooks, etc.)



​The Giver
     Lowry’s novel was the third novel I studied for my Honours Thesis; though, my introduction to this novel was actually many years ago. The Giver is one of the first novels I can remember ever reading clearly, and it was for my seventh grade Language Arts class. I was awestruck by this novel, mainly because it was the first that I read that contained such subtle writing. The themes and subject matter are implicit and complex, and I loved how the more times I read the novel, the more I took away from Lowry’s subtle writing. I loved that Lowry was not telling me how to think or feel; she was allowing me to discover that for myself, along with Jonas. This novel has remained part of my personal canon since grade seven, and it is what inspired me to write my Honours thesis on moral ambiguity, so I was able to draw on my long and personal history with this novel to include it in this project.



​Uglies and Uglies: Shay’s Story
     Like Westerfeld’s Goliath, I drew on my knowledge and familiarity with Westerfeld’s work to find and include Uglies in my project; however, finding his graphic novel Uglies: Shay’s Story was a direct result of me enrolling in LIS 515. I knew that it existed from reading Westerfeld’s blog, but I had never thought to look at it. Before this course, I had never even considered reading graphic novels, nor did I even really know what an actual graphic novel was. I knew it was a type of novel that contained images, but that was the entire extent of my knowledge. Because of this course, however, I have come to love and respect graphic novels. Therefore, I drew on my background knowledge of the existence of Westerfeld’s graphic novel, and immediately went out and purchased it (from Chapters) to read and include for this project. Though I did draw on my background knowledge to locate this book for inclusion in my project, I entirely credit this course for really introducing me to Westerfeld’s graphic novel, and sending me down a new path of literature to explore.



     Based on the details I have provided regarding my “searching strategy” for these titles, it is clear that the search strategy that has proven most effective for me is one of a more organic nature: recommendations, personal history, and background knowledge. These search strategies, which all contain elements of reader’s advisory in them (e.g. suggestions from friends or professors, reading for courses, etc.), made gaining access to these titles quite easy. When I did have to rely on more traditional forms of searching for titles, however, I found using trusted sources such as the Edmonton Public Library website, or the Canadian Library Association website, to also be the most effective method. These sources are ones that I trust and know to be useful from learning about them in different courses, and from using them myself.



*Picture is my own property, taken of my own books.