We found 20 results.
Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: The Absent Parent in YA
January 10th, 2010 by writerjenn · 
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From time to time, I hear complaints that parents are too scarce in young-adult literature--especially loving, involved parents. What's with all the dead and distant adults? people ask.
There are several reasons an author might choose to keep the parents in the background. A big one is that, in any novel, the main character should be the agent of change. In a YA novel, the main character is usually a young adult. That main character must make the important choices--whether they turn out to be wise or disastrous. An adult can't come in and solve the problem for the character. Kids… Continue reading
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Faves on a Friday: The Struggle Continues
January 8th, 2010 by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich · Email post
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Lyn Miller-Lachman--activist, educator, editor of Multicultural Review, and the author of the highly acclaimed Gringolandia, "...a rare reading experience that both touches the heart and opens the mind” (School Library Journal)--is ringing in the new year by speaking truth to power. Gringolandia has been hailed as a "...poignant, often surprising and essential novel {that} illuminates too-often ignored political aspects of many South Americans’ migration to the United States.” The Horn Book raved that "the nuanced relationship between Daniel and his father is beautifully delineated, and the overarching exploration of injustice and its costs gives the novel memorable… Continue reading
Categories: 0Content · Book Recommendations · Faves on a Friday
Connect With Donna St. Cyr: Favorite Christmas Stories
December 16th, 2009 by Donna St. Cyr · Email post
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Being from down the bayou in south Louisiana, I have a great many regional tales to remember and retell during the holidays. My favorite is the story of Papa Noel, or Pere Noel, as he is sometimes called. The Cajun families who live along the Mississippi River anxiously await the arrival of their version of Santa Claus every Christmas Eve. Somewhere back in time, no one knows exactly when, the legend of Papa Noel and the bonfires crept into the holiday traditions here. Basically, from the day after Thanksgiving right until Christmas Eve groups of men and boys… Continue reading
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Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: Choices for Reluctant Readers
December 10th, 2009 by writerjenn · Email post
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After devouring Tanya Lee Stone's A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl and Sonya Sones's What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know, it occurs to me once again that verse novels may be a good pick for reluctant readers.
I've always read widely and voraciously myself, although there are some genres that just don't appeal to me. I will confess that my first encounters with verse novels went this way: I'd see an appealing cover or title, open the book, see the verse layout, shudder, and close the book.
The first verse novel I gave a fair chance was by Sonya Sones… Continue reading
Categories: Book Recommendations · Connect
Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: Summer Reading Wrap-up
October 10th, 2009 by writerjenn · Email post
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Congratulations and thanks to those of you who joined in the summer reading challenge--those who commented online to let me know you were participating, and those of you who took it "silently." How was it?
If you participated, you're entitled to a bookmark, courtesy of me! You do not have to have met your challenge goal. You just need to be at least 13 years old. To claim your bookmark, email your info to jennifer[at]jenniferhubbard[dot]com. (Until Nov. 10, or while supplies last.)
The challenge was thus: read ten books between June 10 and September 21. Ideally, the ten should include a book… Continue reading
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Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: Summer Reading Surprises
September 10th, 2009 by writerjenn · Email post
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How are you doing with your summer reading? So far, I've read 8 of the original 10 that I planned. But I've also read or reread more than a dozen others that I didn't plan on, but picked up as the mood struck me. Here's a sampling:
I've never wanted to be a model. But it's fun to imagine lives completely different from my own, to experience some glamour vicariously, and so I picked up BRALESS IN WONDERLAND (Debbie Reed Fischer) and VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY (Melissa Walker), both of which follow teenage girls who are unexpectedly whisked into the high-paced… Continue reading
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Faves on a Friday: Back-To-School
September 4th, 2009 by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich · Email post
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People often ask why I wrote a book with a male MC, and I usually have a garbled answer, something along the lines of “Um, that’s the story that came out”, and that's true. But I do think that at its heart, 8th GRADE SUPERZERO is a sort of ‘school story’, and I’ve always adored those. The camaraderie, competition, self-discovery...that ‘midnight feast’/secret club element that always seemed to appear, the children’s world-unto-itself all just delighted and intrigued me to no end. In my reading life, the traditional British boarding school books, and classic stories from Charles Dickens… Continue reading
Categories: 0Content · Articles · Book Recommendations · Faves on a Friday · Perkovich, Olugbemisola Rhuday
Connect with Jennifer R. Hubbard: Keeping It Real
July 10th, 2009 by writerjenn · Email post
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Paranormal tales are hot in YA literature right now. The bookshelves are filled with zombies, vampires, faeries, werewolves, ghosts, and other creatures you're not likely to meet on the streets of your own hometown.
I read and enjoyed paranormal stories while I was growing up, and I still enjoy them. But my favorite books were those about kids dealing not with supervillains, flying, or shape-shifting, but with the troubles my friends and I were more likely to face in our own lives. I wanted characters who, like me, had no special powers or magic to rely on.
Fortunately, the tradition of contemporary… Continue reading
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Unsung Canadian Authors
May 11th, 2009 by Megan Crewe · Email post
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Megan Crewe discusses two of her favorite "unsung" authors, Monica Hughes and Welwyn Wilton Katz, who are little known outside of Canada, but deserve a much wider audience with their compelling tales of fantasy, science fiction, and the paranormal. Read more at http://megancrewe.livejournal.com/193299.html
Categories: Book Recommendations
Unsung Books: TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN
April 11th, 2009 by Megan Crewe · Email post
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Megan Crewe discusses one of her favorite "unsung" books, TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN by John Marsden, an exciting and sometimes brutal YA novel that more people should be reading. Find out more at http://megancrewe.livejournal.com/193220.html
Categories: Book Recommendations
Connect with Samantha R. Vamos: Picture Books for a Lamb-of-a-Month of April
March 23rd, 2009 by Samantha R. Vamos · Email post
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It is said that March enters like a lion and departs like a lamb. In my Pacific Northwest neck of the woods, March is definitely leonine, intermittently ROARING with snow, hale, the occasional downpour, and bone-chilling damp. Still, I like March – primarily because I consider it “writing and reading weather.” During the day, fueled by caffeine, I try to write and edit. Before dinner, when my son’s day has wound down, we read. Here are some books I
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Unsung Books: EVA
March 11th, 2009 by Megan Crewe · Email post
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Megan Crewe discusses one of her favorite "unsung" books, EVA by Peter Dickinson, an intense and haunting YA novel that more people should be reading. Find out more at http://megancrewe.livejournal.com/192869.html
Categories: Book Recommendations
Connect with Sarah Ockler: How Diverse Is Your Bookshelf?
February 20th, 2009 by Sarah Ockler · Email post
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I read young adult fiction. A lot of it. Middle Grade stuff, too. Pages and books and entire libraries of it! But until recently, I hadn't given much thought to the diversity of my favorite bookshelves.
Diversity, yanno? Nope, I'm not talking about showing equal love for vampires, faeries, and humans (which I never could, because in that arena I'm 100% unapologetically biased... Edward... *swoon*... I mean... *cough*... um, where were we?) Right. Diversity. That is, consciously seeking out a great read by an author whose race, culture, or ethnic background is different from my own.
If your book-buying (or borrowing) habits… Continue reading
Categories: Book Recommendations · Connect · Contests
Connect with Lauren Bjorkman: Mother Son Book Clubs
February 12th, 2009 by Cynthea Liu · Email post
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I have belonged to one book club or another for more than ten years. I like them! My book club homies motivate me to read challenging books, ones I would've never picked up on my own. Our discussions take us to wild and true places. But I've never belonged to a Mother Daughter Book Club. I don't have a daughter. I have two sons, though, and they both love to read.
So what if I started a Mother Son Book Club? Maybe that would be a good activity for when the teen-age years hit (in 1 year, 1 month, and 5… Continue reading
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Unsung Books: THE CHANGELING
February 11th, 2009 by Cynthea Liu · Email post
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Megan Crewe discusses one of her favorite "unsung" books, THE CHANGELING by Zilpha Snyder, a powerful and magical story that more people should be reading. Find out more at http://megancrewe.livejournal.com/191914.html
Categories: Book Recommendations
Oregon Author’s Historical YA Novel Named in Top Ten List
February 3rd, 2009 by L.K. Madigan · Email post
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Christine Fletcher's TEN CENTS A DANCE was honored by the American Library Association as one of the 2009 Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults.
Yay, Christine!…
Categories: Book Recommendations
Unsung Books: BIRTH OF THE FIREBRINGER
January 11th, 2009 by Megan Crewe · Email post
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Megan Crewe discusses one of her favorite "unsung" books, BIRTH OF THE FIREBRINGER by Meredith Ann Pierce, an intensely real fantasy that more people should be reading. Find out more at http://megancrewe.livejournal.com/192165.html
Categories: Book Recommendations
Gift-giving doesn’t stop after the holidays
January 2nd, 2009 by Cynthea Liu · Email post
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The holidays are over, but that doesn't mean you should stop giving gifts! I polled AuthorsNow! members about the books they were dying to get for the holidays and all of them were kind enough to NOT recommend their own! :) Need to do some last-minute shopping for the sad folks whose birthdays fall in the beginning of January (um.. like me?). Or maybe it's time you treat yourself after taking care of everybody else. Here are some the books our authors were dying to get their hands on this holiday season. (I hope they got them!)
- "Masterpiece by Elise
Categories: Book Recommendations
Unsung Books: HOUSE OF STAIRS
December 16th, 2008 by Megan Crewe · Email post
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Megan Crewe discusses one of her favorite "unsung" books, HOUSE OF STAIRS by William Sleator, a suspenseful and unsettling work of YA science fiction that more people should be reading. Read more at http://megancrewe.livejournal.com/192329.html
Categories: Book Recommendations
Celebrate the Holiday Season with Childhood Favorites
December 13th, 2008 by Deva Fagan · Email post
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This holiday season, for each day of the month through New Year's Eve, Deva Fagan discusses some of her favorite books from childhood, including Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-a-Zoo and The Young Wizards series. Stop by to share in the nostalgia and recommend some of your own childhood favorites! Read more at http://devafagan.com/tag/childhood-favorites/
Categories: Articles · Book Recommendations
