Crack Open A YA Novel and Celebrate Teen Read Week

This week (Oct. 18th – 33rd) is Teen Read Week! What, you didn’t know? Let me explain. YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, takes this week every year to try to draw teens away from their Nintendo DS and iPods and toward fun, awesome, page-turning YA novels.



To help bring attention to their efforts, ReaderGirlz has called on authors to blog about cool teen books. Clearly, I know a bit about this. And I’m proud to say that in the past couple years, I’ve gotten lots of adult friends and family members to crack open YA novels (and not only Twilight!).

So I thought I’d bring to light some of the young adult novels currently in my to-be-read pile. Obviously, since I haven’t read them, I can’t give too much of a review. But this will give you a glimpse into what YA novels got this author to hand over her cold hard cash. So here it is:

My Teen To-Be-Read Pile (in no particular order):

1. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins. This is the sequel to Hunger Games, which I psychotically loved. It will probably be the next book I dive into.

2. Cuba 15, Nancy Osa. This book is sometimes compared to Amor and Summer Secrets in a “fans of this will like that” sort of way. So I’m curious to read another multicultural teen story.

3. Prophecy of the Sisters, Michelle Zink. Before I was published, I hung out on a site called Writers Net. And I remember Michelle being on there when we were both querying for agents. So I’m excited to read her novel.

4. The Naughty List, Suzanne Young. This is actually an Advanced Reader Copy that Suz (a new GCC member) was nice enough to send me. It’s about girls who spy on classmates’ cheating boyfriends, how cute is that?

5. Jars of Glass, Brad Barkley & Heather Hepler. I met Brad at the Baltimore Book Festival last year and he was incredibly nice. I’ve never written with a partner so I’m curious how he and Heather put this together.

6. Keeping the Moon, Sarah Dessen. She’s one of the YA queens of realistic fiction with a great writing voice.

So that’s it. I hope it gives you some intriguing teen reading ideas. Now go out and buy books, lots and lots of books!

POP CULTURE RANT: Oprah
Did you guys see the one where Nate Berkus, design extraordinaire, shows up at a lady’s house and doesn’t makeover a room? Seriously. He just showed up to take her kids to school and give her a few hours off to get a pedicure. Um, Nate, you’re cute and all but people sort of expect paint swatches from you. You know this woman had to be thinking, “I’m going to come home to a whole new master suite!” And instead she got a few hours to herself and a rearranged closet. She should put that on a T shirt, “I was on Oprah and All Nate Gave Me Was An Organized Closet.”