October 2025 M T W T F S S « Aug 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Pages
Archives
Categories
Meta
YA Fest Affiliate Blogger
Guess who’s coming to YA Fest 2018
Tag Archives: YA Lit
A Five Star Rating
5 stars of 5 stars
100% approval rating
2 thumbs up
Reviews. In the plugged in, wired world we live in, a person could review anything or anyone. And people do. As a member of Goodreads, as an online consumer, as a teacher, I find myself living via reviews. As a teacher, especially, I’ve discovered the power of the positive review.
Posted in Random Musings, Teacher Tips, Uncategorized
Tagged as: book reviews, Enchanted Ivy, Extraordinary, information literacy, Michael Scott, Nancy Werlin, Sarah Beth Durst, The Alchemyst, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flammel, YA Lit, YA Literature, young adult lit, young adult literature
Escape and Hope
If you were to look up fantasy in the American Heritgage Dictionary, you would find nine definitions of the word fantasy. Definition number 4 reads, “Fantasy – n- Fiction characterized by highly fanciful or supernatural elements,” which doesn’t really do much to capture the genre.
Looking up fantasy as a genre, you can find that fantasy is separated into high fantasy and low fantasy. High fantasy contains the elements one “normally” associates with fantasy novels – heroes and villains, quests, action, magical beings (ogres, fairies, witches, dragons), and magic. Low fantasy deals with things that can’t really happen in the world as we know it but leaves out the dragons and such of high fantasy (think Freaky Friday or Tuck Everlasting).
Posted in Fantasy
Tagged as: Cassandra Clare, Fantasy, His Dark Materials, Maggie Stiefvater, Philip Pullman, Sarah Beth Durst, The Chronicles of Prydain, The Immortal Secrets of Nicholas Flammel, The Mortal Instruments, The Wolves of Mercy Falls, YA Lit, YA Literature, young adult lit, young adult literature
To Read or Not to Read
As someone who’s mother used to tell her, “It’s a beautiful day. Get your nose out of your book, and go outside,” I don’t quite understand the reluctant reader. Okay, I’ll admit it. I don’t. I understand not wanting to read something you’re forced to read (Moby Dick), I understand not having time to read (writing grad school papers), I understand needing a break from reading (yeah, sometimes I do). But I just don’t understand not ever wanting to read. Because I don’t understand it, as a language arts literacy teacher, I’ve become a bit fascinated by it.
Complexifier or Simplifier?
I recently reviewed Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly, and in the beginning of my review I praised the novel as well as the author for being smart and trusting the reader – not talking down to her. I found Revolution refreshing for this reason. It was the first YA book I’ve read in a long time that not only trusted the reader to be a reader and follow the plotline and characters, but it was also the first book I’ve read in a long time that complexified the reading experience.
Posted in Random Musings
Tagged as: A Northern Light, Jennifer Donnelly, Prinz Award, Revolution, YA Lit, young adult lit, young adult literature
Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
I think about the number of times a day I pass judgment based on appearance. While it’s not something I’m proud of, it is something that advertisers and marketers hone in on to get their product out there to the consumer. Let’s just face it, if we live by the proverb Don’t judge a book by its cover, it would be free sailing in the supermarket. How many companies whose products sit on supermarket shelves spend countless hours and dollars changing packaging, paying for space on the shelves, and setting up the obstacle course known as the endcap? (One precariously placed endcap of paper towels was unceremoniously removed by my brother and me about 30 years ago in a horrible shopping cart mishap. I think, in fact, we’re still grounded for that one.)
Posted in Random Musings
Tagged as: Book Cover, Flipped, Movie Cover, Stargirl, YA Lit, YA Literature, young adult literature