Read YA books with me

So I love Young Adult literature...if you know me,  you know this! I used to be almost ashamed to admit this to my more intelligent friends. I felt like reading it was somehow less than reading adult literature. I  have since decided that is ridiculous! YA literature offers the world SO much! I am not even going to go into my whole rant on how important it is BUT I am going to say that I LOVE having friends who understand and agree with me!

My amazing friend Karissa Knox is also an amazing writer, like an actual writer who has a Poetry Chapbook published and has had numerous poems in numerous publications. She also has a blog that has tons of followers (yes to my faithful 5 I do love you just as much). She has been doing a series of blogs on YA literature and how it reaches into so many different genres and offers things to everyone.

Here is her ORIGINAL blog post!

I was VERY honored when she asked to join her for the 2nd part on Spiritual/Religious Books which you can find HERE

And then today we published the third part - Which is HERE

If we do any more I will copy them into my blog rather than have links but I wanted to share all three tonight. I have had SO much fun helping her with this. I do believe that YA lit has much to say to the world. It is a place to say things that can often be hard to say or hear in the "real world" sometimes. Take a look at our lists. Maybe  you will find something new to read!

YALL Fest is only a few days away!

So this week I am going to my annual library conference. I am super lucky to work at a library that encourages professional development so much that we have a budget available to us to help us attend events like the one I am going to be at. Of all I have attended I am probably MOST excited about this one:

YALL fest is a festival that includes 50 of the country’s top YA authors, including 25 New York Times bestsellers doing panels, presentations and signings. I cannot wait!!

I am the children's/YA librarian at Trevecca so I have the privilege of ordering those books each year, so this will be a huge help to that part of my job. I also love to write so hearing authors speak will be inspiring to me in that way AND my very favorite genre to read is YA literature so...well obviously this was an easy pick for me!!

The fest is in Charleston SC, which makes me even more excited because I have never been there but always wanted to go, so now I am!! AND two of my best friends are coming with me so...well what could be better!

Okay...now for the honest part, what actually COULD be better is that I COULD win tickets to the keynote speaker VERONICA ROTH (who I LOVE) b/c I was stupid and did not get a ticket before they sold out. There is a contest and writing a blog about YALL fest gets me another entry. But even if I don't win...the rest of it is going to be amazing. Stay tuned b/c next week I am sure I will be writing another post about how amazing it was!

Day 6: Favorite young adult fiction novel

So this is it...the hardest challenge for me in this month. So far ALL of my choices have been Young Adult Fiction novels. I love them!! I have always enjoyed reading YA novels, but since I have become a librarian at a children/youth library....well now I can't get away from them ever. I do, occasionally, read adult fiction and/or non-fiction, but by and large my reading is from the YA genre. The stories in YA literature just seem so much more real to me. I think sometimes that adult writers are a bit to idealistic. YA novels thrive on the awkwardness of life and the struggles of growing up. It makes it much more approachable and real to me in many ways (even when the characters are wizards or fairies or whatever!).

So I have searched my heart and soul and I have decided...not to pick one. Ha Ha. Just kidding. I will pick BUT I will say that I pick with the understanding that there are so many others I could have just as easily picked. So many that have moved me and changed me in ways I cannot even always see. One that, in particular, did this to me was

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman

Okay, okay I know, that is technically NOT one book but it is one story so I decided to go with the whole set. If I had to pick I would probably choose the first one as my favorite, but that is really only because I love falling in love with another world in literature. It is the most exciting part of reading.

I read these books on the recommendation of Judy Bivens (another librarian) and was just blown away by them! It was several years before they tried to make a movie and thus caused all of the controversy and sensation that are usually associated with them now. I just read them, and was amazed. I read these from the library, but then had to go out immediately and buy a set because I NEEDED to be able to write in the books. Now writing in books is usually something I only do when I am studying or reading theology/philosophy. These books are almost that! They are so complex and intense and yet beautiful and fun at the same time, it amazes me. I love these books and feel (at least fairly) comfortable naming them as my favorite YA books.