Welcome to the October edition of the YA Diversity Book Club, a monthly feature we run in partnership with Lucy at The Reading Date and Kristan at We Heart YA. For November we read CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell. This was super exciting for us, because we’re all big Rainbow fans and were excited to see what she had…
Answering Readers’ Questions
Sometimes we get interesting emails or comments here at Teen Lit Rocks — mostly asking us questions about page-to-screen YA adaptations, so we’ve decided to answer a few readers’ questions. 1. Are you really a movie critic? Yes. And I’m also a professional book reviewer and entertainment writer. That’s why I’m kind of lazy about…
Favorite Couple: Eleanor and Park
It’s absolutely no surprise that we are huge fans of Rainbow Rowell. Between the two of us, we’ve read all of her books. In fact, without discussing it, we both read and finished “Landline” within days of each other last week. We will definitely be discussing that book in future posts, but this post is…
Monday Quotes: Authors We Loved Before They Got “Airplay”
I can remember the excitement back in high school and college when I would discover a new band I really liked, and no one else seemed to know about them. I would play the part of fan evangelist and try to convince my friends to listen to my discovery’s album. Then when my beloved band’s…
ALA Youth Media Awards 2014: Let’s Hear It for the Winners
Monday was Book Awards Day! We’d like to congratulate all of the winners of the 2014 ALA Youth Media Awards but especially to the YALSA section of the honorees, particularly the Michael L. Printz Award Winner: “Midwinterblood” by Marcus Sedgwick (Macmillan). I was at the gym when the awards were announced, so I had to call…
Top Ten Highlights of YALLFest
Last weekend, we once again attended YALLFest in Charleston, SC. My 18-year-old daughter and I drove up from Florida and Sandie drove down from Maryland, and we met up in Charleston within minutes of one another. After the initial excitement of our sisterly reunion, we did what any person should do in Charleston — eat!…
Monday Quotes: Male Protagonists in YA
Since most young adult authors seem to be women, it’s only natural that the majority of main characters in YA is also female. Of course I’m not necessarily taking into consideration the many multiple-POV stories (even most of those start with the female character and in others), but in terms of my bookshelves, it’s definitely…
Quotes from Our Favorite Parents in YA
A couple of weeks ago we wrote a Top Ten Tuesday about our major book turn offs. One of the things we can’t stand is absentee or poorly developed parents. Luckily for us, some authors understand the importance of writing parents who are amazing, understanding and more than just flat characters who get in the…
Literary Crush: Levi from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Fan Art courtesy of the incomparable Simini Blocker Sandie and I love reading a book and realizing both of us have developed a literary crush on the same character. It seems like proof of our sisterly bond that despite being 12 years apart, we have similar tastes in our fictional boyfriends. We’ve had hour-long conversations…
Banned Books Week: Quotes From Our Banned Books
Since it’s Banned Books Week, we’re celebrating by sharing quotes from some of our most beloved “Banned” books. Diana and/or I own all of these books, and they’ve meant so much to us as lifelong readers. It’s astonishing to us that even now, in the 21st Century, we’re still dealing with communities that want to…