Tommy Collison

In my experience, writers of young-adult books can be entertaining and funny, but are rarely poetic. You read Maya Angelou or Markus Zusak if you want poetic prose; but the likes of Phillip Pullman, J.K. Rowling, Robert Muchamore or William Golberg —all undeniably good storytellers in their own right— don’t have that same clever grasp of the English language that is a joy in and of itself.

Or so I thought.

Enter, John Green:

“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane.”

– Looking For Alaska

A young-adult author with a poetic grasp of the English language. Must go off and read the whole book now.