Hilary McKay

I'm not really a big YA person (reading about "teenage problems" was boring when I was one of them, hasn't necessarily improved for me in the interim), but several people recced them and I'm really enjoying Hilary McKay's books about the Casson family. I've read Saffy's Angel, Indigo's Star, and Permanent Rose so far and they've all been really good. Essentially, it's the story of the Casson family: four kids, parents are artists, the untidy but loving environment, etc. The books feel more like family drama than YA (possibly because they're actually written for kids who are a little younger, oddly enough) and I really enjoyed how well she writes adult issues through children's eyes.

She also writes fantastic children, who have that genuine slightly-sociopathic feel where they really haven't worked out other people properly and so might do any number of terrible things because they just can't understand who would be hurt. And yet, they're not bad kids! She manages to write all sorts of cliches without making me hate her including ( spoilers )

Overall, highly recommended.