Big news, everybody. It is officially TEEN READS WEEK! Yay!
What this means, exactly, I’m not sure since every week in Allyville is pretty much Teen Reads Week (have I mentioned lately that Allyville is a very happening place?)
But in any case, I think it would be great if everyone would celebrate young adult literature this week by referring their favorite YA novels to someone they know.
I’ll start.
Right now I’m really loving the Kiki Strike books by Kirsten Miller. They’re probably technically for pre-teens, but if you love the Gallagher Girls then you should really give the Irregulars a shot.
And there’s a new book hitting shelves this week that I’m absolutely over-the-moon excited about. Something Rotten by Alan Gratz is a new twist on Hamlet, and I can’t wait to dive in.
Personally, I’m getting ready to finally read Eclipse, the latest volume in Stephenie Meyer’s uber-successful TWILIGHT series. (Broody vampires in love…what’s not to like about that?)
I also recently finished TWISTED from the supremely talented Laurie Halse Anderson. (Oh, and while you’re in the Halse Anderson section of your library and/or bookstore you can pretty much pick up anything by her because she pretty much rocks.)
So see… there are SO MANY great books and I’ve only just gotten started! So if you’re an adult and you haven’t been around a teen book since…I don’t know…Sweet Valley High, then please pick up one of these (or another amazing YA book) and see why I now swear that YA fiction (in general) kicks adult fiction’s butt.
(That’s right. I said butt. Because I’m totally PG-13 that way!)
It’s not that I don’t really love amazing adult fiction (just look at my overwhelming love for all things Dennis Lehane if you don’t believe me), but I have to stand behind what I said: that YA fiction on the whole is better. Sorry folks. But if you doubt me, you know how to prove me wrong…READ A YA BOOK THIS WEEK!
In fact, if you ask me the only bad thing about Teen Reads Week is that the best YA book I’ve read this year won’t be available in stores until next year. It’s E. Lockhart’s THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS and it’s utterly amazing. It’s also utterly unavailable, so I guess you’re going to have to read one of E.’s other awesome books instead.
So that’s my take on Teen Reads week, and it’s radical: read a teen book this week–or a lot of teen books, if you’re feeling kinda crazy.
Oh, and you know what else you can do? You can COME SEE ME AT THE MANHATTAN, KANSAS PUBLIC LIBRARY AT 7:00 ON TUESDAY NIGHT.
You can do that, too.
Take care everyone. And happy (teen) reading!
Ally
ps…if your local bookstore is out of copies of CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY all you have to do is ask a sales associate (politely) to order more. Seriously. That’s the best thing you can do for yourself and for me because that lets the store know what books real readers would like them to stock.
pps…speaking of Dennis Lehane, GONE BABY GONE is finally in theaters this weekend!
ppps…I keep getting emails that tell me that the bad copies of the paperback of Love You Kill You (the version that’s missing page 254) are still making their way into readers’ hands. If you have one of these bad copies you should be able to return it to the store and receive a “good” copy in exchange. In the meantime, I’m going to try to scan and post page 254, but it might take me a few days.