Today is an exciting day for author Stephanie Meyer and fans of her Twilight series. If the words Twilight and Stephanie Meyer don’t ring a bell with you, you’ve either been living under a rock or on another planet. Readers, young and older, are caught up in the relationship of Edward and Bella. As an [ Read the full article… ]
Category: YA Bookshelf
What’s New in YA Releases II?
It’s that time again, time to celebrate more young adult books published this year. Since May, several new titles have come out that are just waiting for you to pick up and read. Some of our favorite authors are back with their second or third book, inviting us to resume the next saga in their [ Read the full article… ]
Brown Bookshelf Chat #3: Hype, Hype, Hooray!
Teens read books. They know what they like about books as well as what they dislike. When I was teaching, I loved to share good books and talk about a good read with my students. It was fun to be able to pass along a good book recommendation as well as receive a tip about [ Read the full article… ]
YA Book Review: Sunrise Over Fallujah
Last weekend I participated in Mother Reader’s 48 Hour Reading Challenge. Participants get 48 hours to read and review books of at least a fifth grade reading level. This was right up my alley and I was able to read so many great books by familiar and unfamiliar authors. African American author Walter Dean Myers’ [ Read the full article… ]
Faith in Fiction
Christian fiction is not a new phenomenon. I grew up reading Catherine Marshall and Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly series in the 80s. In the 90s, the Left Behind series gained widespread notoriety on the literary scene. Within African American Christian fiction, there are several well known authors including Jacquelin Thomas, Kendra Norman Bellamy, Michelle [ Read the full article… ]
YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults
Every year, the American Library Association compiles a list of the Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA). Each month, the BBYA committee, made up of members of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) updates the consideration list. As of April 3, 2008, two novels by African-American authors have made the consideration list: Conception (St. [ Read the full article… ]
Books Across America
In the fifth grade, I vaguely remember coming home one Sunday afternoon from church and seeing people standing at the intersection of Northfield Rd. and Miles Ave. in Cleveland, Ohio holding hands. That human chain was known as Hands Across America which was an event created to fight hunger and homelessness. In elementary school, we [ Read the full article… ]
28 & Beyond: The Making of Dr. Truelove
I dislike controversy. I’m drawn to controversy. In between my two realities lies the author of young adult fiction. While the conscious side of me never wants to piss off the literary influencers by writing something they’d deem censor-worthy, when I’m writing (my unconscious side) I’m not thinking about anyone except the characters at hand. That [ Read the full article… ]