Young Adult Community Thanksgiving
Adele from over at Persnickety Snark is holding a YA Community Thanksgiving today where we can post on our lovely community and what we are thankful for. I for one am thankful that I have found Adele’s blog. It is chalk full of awesomeness. Reviews, community education, and brilliant snark. I am sure you have been to her blog, but if you haven’t you might wanna head on over and check it out. I am going to be reading everyone’s posts and commenting on them today by following the linky that Adele has posted on her blog that I linked to above.
I am thankful for all the amazing bloggers I have met this year. Adele mentioned Catherine Haines and I have to give her a mention as well. Amazing reviews, great friend and all around bookish person. I also have found that the YA community tends to be great at educating others who have the misconception that reading YA somehow makes you less intelligent or not such an eclectic reader. YA has such a mix of books, and so many topics are written that you can find just about any subject that interests you.
The YA authors are amazing at promoting their books, being active in bookish communities, and connecting with their fans. It is amazing to see these authors such as Michelle Zink, Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl, Heidi King, Julie Kagawa, and more reaching out to their fans and having real contact with people who have read or loved their books.
I am thankful that books are now being written that touch on the hard subjects. That seek to educate teens on subjects such as eating disorders, bullying, suicide, being gay, and other important issues that teens today have to deal with. I am in a constant state of disbelief and horror that people want these amazing books taken off the shelf. If one doesn’t seek education, especially on the hardship and cruelty of life how can one live and make the right decisions?
I am thankful for the readers of YA who read our blogs and leave comments and find new books to devour. I am always happiest when someone who doesn’t blog comes to my blog and says they read a book due to my recommendation and loved it as much as I did! That is what makes blogging about books worth while.
I love that in our community we can disagree on which books we like, which characters we are in love with and discuss our series predictions. I love that the YA community seems so real, and most bloggers aren’t afraid to give a negative review and if they did give a negative review, it is a thoughtful and understandable look into why exactly they didn’t like the book.
I am proud to be a YA blogger and happy to be in a community that is fun, and energetic and full of amazing people. Thank you Adele for giving me a soap box to stand up on and shout my thankfulness from!
What are you thankful for in YA?
Review: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
People have recommend that I read Carrie Ryan’s” The Forest of Hands and Teeth for some time now. I was always hesitant stating the fact that I dislike zombies, and flesh eating, and rotting corpses and really anything undead that isn’t a vampire. Finally in search of a great book to read and after watching the trailer 50 times over the past few months (this book should really be a movie) I ordered the book and it came in the mail yesterday. I was immediately swept up in Mary’s story and feeling claustrophobic with her as she lived her life fenced in her small village ran by religious zealots.
Carrie Ryan created a world many generations after the zombie apocalypse (hey we all know its coming with all the wonky stuff they are doing in labs now) and what life is like for the few who survived the initial outbreak.
Author Carrie Ryan
I gave this 4 out of 5 stars only because I wish we would have learned more of the secrets along the way. So many things were hinted about but left open. Maybe that is resolved in the next book which seems to pick up with Mary’s daughter possibly from the description.
THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES
Coming March 2010
Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She’s content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she’s ever known, and all she needs for happiness.
But life after the Return is never safe, and there are threats even the Barrier can’t hold back.
Gabry’s mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but like the dead in their world, secrets don’t stay buried. And now, Gabry’s world is crumbling.
One night beyond the Barrier…
One boy Gabry’s known forever and one veiled in mystery…
One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned.
Gabry knows only one thing: if she is to have any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother’s past.
