Happy Teen Read & Giveaway Week!
How did this important holiday get past me?
Teen Read Week was created by ALA, who believe in celebrating YA reading at your library. It's the perfect blend of awesomeness. I love teen books. And I love libraries. AND I love a giveaway. Keep reading to find out how you can win a $20 dollar gift card from Barnes and Noble. (Which you could use to buy a book. Then after your read the book, you could donate it to your favorite library. That is so pro-Teen Read Week.)
There weren't a lot of YA books out there when I was growing up, so I read mostly stuff for grownups. I can't even imagine being a tween/teen and having all the book choices you guys have. I'd never have left my yellow and white bedroom with the posters of Tom Cruise and Kirk Cameron. The book I remember the most, which WAS YA, was Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. This book has been on quite a few banned lists, but in my small town we didn't do banning (but we did do mule jumps). This is a coming-of-age story about (you guessed it), Margaret. All my friends read it. We passed it around and reread all the juicy parts. I learned a lot from this book. I will never forget the phrase, “I must, I must, I must increase my bust!” for as long as I live. (I find it still comes in handy when there are lulls in conversations on dates, professional meetings, or when running into my pastor at Wal-Mart and I'm stuck for conversation.) This book educated a lot of girls on things nobody else was talking about. Judy Blume is the original queen of YA, and I'm still in awe of her.
When I got to grad school, I had a professor who was SOLD OUT on YA books. This was pretty much a new phenom to me, but I immediately got on board. She would do book talks–bringing a bunch of young adult novels, talk for a few minutes on each one (just enough to get you all invested), then pass the books around so you could hold them in your hands and stare adoringly at the covers (which were better than the one on poor Judy's Scholastic Book Club cover above). From Dr. Morrow I learned about books like Hatchett, True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Out of the Dust, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Authors like Richard Peck, Robert Cormier, Sharon Creech, Spinelli, Sachar, Myers, Cooney, Levine, Mazer, Soto, and a ton more. YA was exploding, and it was…total book nerd nirvana.
And now thanks to authors like J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer, YA isn't just for kids anymore. It's lit everyone is getting into. Everyone's reading them!
So what about you? What books will you look back on and say, “Those were my favorite reads as a tween/teen?” To enter the contest this week, just leave a comment with your answer. You have until Saturday at midnight, CST to enter. Winner will be randomly drawn and will be given a twenty dollar Barnes and Noble gift card for playing along.
Let's hear your answers!
**I'd love to hear from you all, but contest open to US residents only.
