We’re sisters who love to read. We’re also mothers, wives, pop-culture junkies and coffee aficionados. And yes, we fall in love with fictional guys on a regular basis, but our husbands don’t seem to mind. That’s why we started Teen Lit Rocks!
Sandie on Diana:
I wouldn’t be here if weren’t for my sister Diana. People say that all the time, but she literally taught me to read, to write, to love books, movies, and art. So I can say with a certainty that I would not have become a pop-culture-loving writer if it weren’t for my amazing older sister. By profession, Diana is a bilingual educator and elementary-school English as a Second Language specialist. She has helped children learn to read and write in English for more than 25 years. Meanwhile, I can barely manage educating my own three children, much less anyone else’s!
At home, Diana’s passion is raising her two wonderful high-schoolers, who are 18 and 16. I thought all teenagers went through sullen, arrogant, jerky, melodramatic stages, but Diana’s kids are level-headed, generous, and intelligent — just like her. When she’s not juggling her responsibilities as a teacher, mother, or wife of 25 years, Diana spends a LOT of time reading. She’ll read just about anything you recommend to her, whether it’s a seven-book saga about a magical orphan or sweeping dystopian romance. I love that about her. Diana’s also a walking encyclopedia about classic movies and actors, and she is not someone you want to bet against in an Oscar pool. What can I say, she’s awesome.
Diana on Sandie:
Sandie is my baby sister. For years the disparity in our ages meant she was someone I played with, read to, and took to the movies. Somewhere along the way the gap in our ages stopped being important. In fact, I am convinced that she should’ve been the older sister. She grew to become an incredibly talented, gifted, intelligent person. She is a prolific writer, blogger, and movie reviewer. Yes, she gets paid to go to the movies and give us her humble opinion. There is no one else whose opinion about a movie counts more to me than hers.
She does all of these things and still manages to be a wonderful wife to her equally talented husband and an amazing mom to her three children who are 11, 8, and 5 years old. On top of all of that she’s a PTA mom, a homeroom mom, heads up her kids’ elementary school book fair, is on the board at her son’s preschool and shuttles them around to their different extracurricular activities. If that’s not enough, she actually finds the time to be a voracious reader and now wants to head up this Teen Lit Rocks site with me. I get dizzy just thinking about everything she does. It never seemed possible that we would work on something together. That’s why I jumped at the chance to collaborate with her on this and share our love of YA books.