Tag Archives: Young Adult literature

by

TGIF – 3

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads! Each Friday, she asks a question for anyone to answer.

This Friday’s Question is:

Book Blogger Influences: Has there been a particular book blogger who’s influenced what you read? Share with us a review/book blog that convinced you to pick up a certain book.

Without hesitation, Kristi from The Story Siren.

Kristi is amazing when it comes to making you want to buy/read YA books. I haven’t always agreed with her reviews, but her blog possibly mentions every YA book published in the last four years and as such it’s a great source of information on YA books trends and the YA book market. She has created the meme In My Mailbox and she posts almost everyday.

  What are you waiting for to check her blog out?

by

What is Young Adult Fiction?

I was at the London Book Fair last Monday and I had the chance to attend a few thought-provoking seminars and to meet a few interesting publishers/writers there. What was obvious to me from what I heard during those meetings/discussion groups is that nobody agrees on what YA literature is/should be.

The American Library Association describes YA fiction as anything someone between the ages of 12-18 chooses to read. It can include different genres: contemporary, historical, paranormal, fantasy, science-fiction, mystery, etc…

However, this definition cannot be definite, for two reasons:

–          people well over 18 read YA books every day

–          you don’t read the same books when you’re 12 and when you’re 18

I remember going to a seminar on YA literature three years ago and the writers invited there all agreed on the fact that you cannot include violence, sex and swearing in a YA book. However the writers who were at the London Book Fair this Monday disagreed with that point of view, stating that older teenagers deserve to have a literature that deals with those more difficult themes.

To my mind, one cannot give a definite characterization of YA literature. But we can attempt to say what YA books always include and what they don’t have to include to be YA books.

What YA fiction NEEDS to include:

–          The journey of a young person who is becoming an adult. Along the way, this character needs to find the answer to the most important question in life: “Who am I and who do I want to become?” In Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, the whole point of the series is to explore what kind of adult Bella will become, regardless of external factors.

–           Choices and their consequences. Growing up is all about finding out things for yourselves and to understand that the choices you make have consequences in the future and for others. The main protagonist in a YA book needs to be faced with interesting choices that will offer the reader an opportunity to reflect on those decisions. Which is why YA books can include violence/sex/difficult themes, as long as the consequences of such behaviors are explained and explored. For example, you can include children turned into killers (The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins), forced marriage (Wither by Lauren DeStefano), graphic violence (This Is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees) and so on.

–          Themes that are relevant to teenagers: friendship, first love, independence, school, religion, racism, parents’ divorce, bullying, teen sex, teen pregnancy, ecology, politics… But YA books can also tackle issues that are not directly based on the lives of teenagers that read them but are nonetheless important because they open their eyes to problems dealt by others in other times (see YA historical and dystopian novels on slavery, witch-hunts, bleak future, etc…) or in other places (see YA contemporary novels on child labor, child soldiers, child trafficking, etc…)

What YA fiction DOESN’T NEED to include:

–          A first-person narrative. Writers! Third-person narrative is fine! The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine is not a first-person narration and it still is a NY Times best-seller.

–          Parents that are dead/gone/out of the picture/bad at parenting in general. The Line by Teri Hall includes a main protagonist with a loving mother, yet she still manages to learn to make her own choices and to become independent.

–          A teenage girl as the main character. Hey, boys are cool too.

–      A school. A boarding school. Details on the main character’s school life. Usually, writers get them wrong, so unless it’s incredibly relevant to the story, don’t bother recreating in details a biology lesson that will sound nothing like an actual biology lesson.

–          A love triangle/An impossible love. A regular love story between just two people can be complicated enough, you know.

–         Vampires and/or werewolves. Characters with superpowers/magic powers in general. Gods. Sirens. Witches. Contemporary novels with regular people sell well too.

–         A bad boy with stalking habits whose heart melts for the main female protagonist. Seriously. Fictional characters deserve more than to be stereotypes.

So what do you think? What is YA fiction according to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

This post was inspired by two excellent blog posts that I suggest you check out:

Defining YA literature http://bookalicious.org/2012/04/ya-101-defining-ya-lit/

The YA Drinking Game http://www.ricklipman.com/drinking-game/

You might also want to read : Campbell’s Scoop: Reflections on Young Adult Literature by Patty Campbell (Scarecrow Press, 2010)

by

Waiting On Wednesday – 4

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Today I have chosen Underworld by Meg Cabot (expected publication: May 8th 2012 by Point). It will be the second book in the Abandon trilogy, which is a retelling of the Persephone myth.

From Goodreads:

“From #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, the dark reimagining of the Persephone myth begun in ABANDON continues … into the Underworld.

Seventeen-year-old Pierce Oliviera isn’t dead.

Not this time.

But she is being held against her will in the dim, twilit world between heaven and hell, where the spirits of the deceased wait before embarking upon their final journey.

Her captor, John Hayden, claims it’s for her own safety. Because not all the departed are dear. Some are so unhappy with where they ended up after leaving the Underworld, they’ve come back as Furies, intent on vengeance . . . on the one who sent them there and on the one whom he loves.

But while Pierce might be safe from the Furies in the Underworld, far worse dangers could be lurking for her there . . . and they might have more to do with its ruler than with his enemies.

And unless Pierce is careful, this time there’ll be no escape.”

What are you waiting for this week?

by

Book of the Week – 5

This week I’m reading Eve by Anna Carey. It is a YA Dystopian novel published in 2011 and the first installment in the Eve trilogy. I have had it on my bookshelf since last Fall and I thought it was time for me to dive into it, since Once, the second book in the series, is due out in July 2012.

Goodreads on Eve:

“Where do you go when nowhere is safe?

Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose–and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust . . . and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying. Readers will revel in “Eve”‘s timeless story of forbidden love and extraordinary adventure.”

Check out Anna’s website: http://annacareybooks.com/

What are you reading this week?

by

A writer in the spotlight – Teri Hall

This week again I was lucky enough to have a YA author give me an exclusive interview! The idea behind the “Writer in the Spotlight” feature is that published (and bestselling) authors are the best source of advice for us, would-be-published writers. Today’s interview is with Dystopian writer Teri Hall.

Author : Teri Hall

Genre : Dystopian, young adult literature

Location:  Washington State, USA

Website : http://www.terihall.com/

Books : The Line Trilogy – The Line (2010), Away (2011), The Island (no release date yet)

My interview (12/04/2012)

On “The Line” trilogy:

Why did you decide to write a YA Dystopian novel?

I think dystopias offer a unique opportunity to explore big questions.  Are the values our society holds the ones we should be reinforcing?  What is important?  What is true bravery?  What choices would you make if you were put in a situation where every one of them was crucial?

Is Rachel, her mother and Ms Moore based on real people?

Nope.

The Unified States are a very interesting (and frightening!) place to live in. How did you come up with the Unified States?

I really just took what’s happening now (border tension, nationalistic fervor, loss of personal freedom in hopes that it will somehow “protect” us from harm, humanity’s innate fear of the “other”) and extrapolated in order to try to envision what things could look like in the near future.  The scariest part of that process was that it was so easy to see how we could get to a place like the Unified States within a very short time.

The relationship between Vivian and Rachel is very well described, as well as the contradictory feelings that teenagers can experience toward their parents. How did you go about writing about those? 

I remember being a teenager, and I know plenty of teenagers and mothers, so that special sort of love/resentment thing was pretty easy to write about.  The way you think your Mom might be the stupidest person on earth sometimes, and then as time passes you realize what she’s been dealing with, and how you had no idea that her actions might have had a whole set of adult concerns attached to them that you had no idea about.

What type of music did you listen to when you were writing this book?

I don’t like to listen to music while I write.  I generally like only silence or bird sounds from my open window.

What are you working on now?

Book three of the trilogy.  It’s called The Island, and I am having a lot of fun writing it.

On writing:

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Nope. Nobody ever mentioned that as a possibility.

When and where do you write? 

I write in a tiny home office, whenever I can find time.

Do you ever experience writer’s block?

Hmm.  I do experience difficulty writing sometimes, but I think it’s less of a block than it is just being too tired, or too distracted, or too . . . something.

What do you say to people who want to be writers? How difficult is it to get published?

I try to say very little except “good luck” and “keep trying” to people who express to me that they want to be writers.  I think all writers’ paths are unique, and that advice about some general way of doing things is not very useful.  In terms of how difficult it is to be published, I don’t have a good answer.  I’ve watched some great writers get passed by or published only after exhaustive attempts, and I’ve see the opposite happen, too.

Away is already available in hardcover in the UK. It will come out in paperback in September 2012.

by

Quote of the Day – 6

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

by

Waiting On Wednesday – 3

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly event, hosted by book blogger Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Today I have chosen Girl of Nightmares (Anna #2) by Kendare Blake (Expected publication: August 7th 2012 by Tor Teen)

From Goodreads:

“In this follow-up to Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas begins seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep, and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong. These aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.”

I LOVED Anna Dressed in Blood that came out last year. I can’t wait for its sequel!

What are you waiting for this week?

by

Book of the Week – 4

This week I’m reading The Line by US author Teri Hall. Its is a Dystopian novel published in 2010. The second book in the series, called Away, came out last September and I have had them both on my TBR pile for ages. After watching The Hunger Games I have decided it was time for me to dive into this original story.

According to Teri’s website, here is what the series is about:

“Rachel lives with her mother on The Property. The good thing about living there is that it’s far from the city where the oppressive government is most active. The bad thing, at least to most people, is that it’s close to the Line—an uncrossable section of the National Border Defense System, an invisible barrier that encloses the entire country.

She can see the Line from the greenhouse windows, but she is forbidden to go near it. Across the Line is Away, and though Rachel has heard many whispers about the dangers there, she’s never really believed the stories. Until the day she hears a recording that could only have come from across the Line.

It’s a voice asking for help.

Who sent the message? What is her mother hiding? And to what lengths will Rachel go in order to do what she thinks is right?”

What are you reading this week?

by

TGIF – 1

TGIF is hosted by Ginger at GReads! Each Friday, she asks a question for anyone to answer. This Friday’s Question is:

Book Series Finales: Which book, from any series has been your favorite ending? What about your least favorite ending?

These past few years, I have read a lot of book series that have yet to have an ending. Among those that are done, though, my favorite has to be the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, which ended brilliantly with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I remember buying the book and reading it on the same day, breathlessly eager to find out who would die and who would survive and how the whole story would finish. I wasn’t disappointed a bit, even if I still find the book too short.

What about you? Any series finale you liked or didn’t like?

by

Book of the Week – 3

This week I’m reading Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber. It’s a YA historical novel set in 19th Century New York. The 17-year-old heroin is mute and the book is her diary, in which she recounts the strange events that took place at the Metropolitan Museum in the summer of 1880. It’s a quick read and a cute love story, as well as a good mystery.