I Blame Twilight

Like most romance readers, I read across all genres with the exception of Science Fiction. I just can’t read books with a lot of apostrophes in the names of the characters or words I can’t pronounce. It reduces my enjoyment so I tend to stay away from Sci-Fi. The YA category was something I read sporadically as well. I read and enjoyed the Harry Potter series, and then I read Twilight. *sigh* I decided to stop for a while after that. Then I started noticing blog posts by everyone everywhere about how wonderful YA was, and I was thinking, Hmmmm. What am I missing? Turns out, I was missing some great books.

So I started off with Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. It was a great start. This series is set during the Napoleonic Wars but with dragons. Not dragon shifters. Dragons. Temeraire is a young dragon and he is sweet, opinionated and arrogant and I love him. I read the first 4 books in the series and then I stopped. Not because I hated it or anything, it’s just that I, personally, was done. I do that sometimes. I don’t know why. It drives my son crazy. He doesn’t understand how I can just stop a series like that. I did the same thing with the last Harry Potter book. He doesn’t know about that, so don’t tell him. Okay? Thx.

Then I moved on to Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series. Loved this series. It has elements of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and just a little steampunk. I’m Team Ash. Who wouldn’t want their own dark Winter Prince? It started out as a trilogy but now it looks like there will be a 4th book. I think the covers for these books are gorgeous, in fact, I will go ahead and say, most of the YA books I have seen have beautiful covers. How do they get such great covers?

Next I started Jenna Black’s Faeriewalker Series. These books are set in the Fae realm. Are you sensing a pattern here? Hmmmm. Anyway, I’m enjoying these as well. At first, I worried that the main character Dana, was going to be a little whiny but that didn’t continue and during the last book I was getting irritated that no one in the book was being straight with Dana and other “keeping shit from her” stuff was going on, but I’m absolutely going to buy the next book, Sirensong, when it comes out in July. The world is interesting and addicting.

If you’re like me and haven’t read YA in a while, you might give one of these a try and if you any recommendations for me that would be awesome!

Thank you to my teachers....and YA Books

I was thinking the other day about all of the wonderful teachers that I had that truly encouraged me to read.

First there was my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Buck – who was also a good family friend so I had to mind my p’s and q’s. I still remember her telling us to just keep reading and we would get better and better. Little did I know that A Duck is a Duck would have such an impact on my life.

Then there was my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Galbraith. I think I had just a leeetle bit of a crush on the man so was anxious to please. Since he was a man who pushed reading I was all over it like it was the best thing since sliced bread. And I’ve learned that it IS! lol

Sixth grade took me to Mr. Sweeney and though the man had grey hair I think back now and think he was probably only in his mid 50’s, if that. He was kind and patient and had a love of reading as well which showed me, at that time, that there was something other than boys around.

Mr. Campbell was my 8th grade social studies teacher and he really nailed home that wonderful insight…knowledge can be found in books. *gasp* It’s brilliant isn’t it? I know. But even to a girl who had been reading on a regular basis it truly was a light bulb moment.

Though I had many great teachers after that none of them pushed reading like those four had and I have to thank them for all of their pushing.

So did you have any teachers that impacted your love of reading? Who were they?

Speaking of reading…

My oldest daughter is now in Junior High School or middle school (depending on where you live) and much to my delight they are really pushing reading. In elementary school they were required to read 20 minutes a night and turn in Read Sheets every month but until her 6th grade year I don’t think any of her teachers really pushed reading.

Not only is her school pushing reading they actually have a 30 minute period set aside every day after lunch so that the kids can read (called S.U.R.F. aka silent uninterrupted reading for fun). Yes, it’s required, and I’m sure some kids, including my own, scoff at having to participate and don’t really think it’s fun, but what a great idea.

Her English class also requires her to read and then take AR (accelerated reading) quizzes after she finishes. (My daughter doesn’t quite grasp that she should be reading her AR book for S.U.R.F. but that’s a whole other subject) Anyway, there’s a whole boatload of books that they have quizzes for but unfortunately none of the books that she wants to read are on the list! Very frustrating.

So I want to pick your brains. I need names of good YA books (I don’t normally read YA) that aren’t sexually in-depth if you know what I mean (she’s only 12.5), that you would recommend. I’m trying to compile a list and then I can see if any of them are on “the list”.

Thanks and Happy Reading!