No seriously, I'm back

Every time I say, "yes, now I'm going to dedicate myself to updating this blog," something always seems to go not as planned.

I am currently at the end of my first year of public school teaching and was accepted into a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program for entry in the Fall of this year. So things have been rather crazy.

My YA readings, however, have exploded. I've read more than 50 books since last summer...and just haven't been posting about them. This is changing.

With the probability of going into this program, I feel like I have a legitimate place to really update this blog as it should be. So. Let's start fresh!

A Few that Stick Out

I recently finished Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare and I cannot recommend this book series enough. Cassie's series have been starting out rather normal, and the plot exciting, but nothing huge. By the time you have read the last series in the book, everything has exploded in such and amazing way that it makes you feel like these characters have truly come alive and that they are stable people in your life. When bad things happen to them, it's even worse. Without any sort of spoilers for the Infernal Devices series, you had better be prepared to have your heart wrenched out of your chest and your tear ducks to cry in both joy and pain.

It. Was. Amazing.

Cassie is best at developing her characters and truly getting the reader to become invested in their lives. Her plot and story telling is also a highlight. While the foreshadowing is often times very heavy (you can usually accurately predict what's going to happen in the story), there are enough twists that are surprising enough, and the characters are so powerful, that what happens still tugs at your heart.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas was a book that surprised me after picking it up from it's dust jacket. I've always been a fan of the medieval/renaisancey themed books that involve thieves, princes, guards, and just anything involving swords. What most surprised me about this was the main character. Celaena is kind of mean. She is haughty, speaks her mind, and is loyal in a way that sometimes works against her. As much as I enjoy novels where the main character is squishy, it's nice to see characters with backbone that doesn't always make them likeable. It's also nice to see that sometimes, the character doesn't have to be "rehabilitated" and that sometimes people have layers to them that aren't always black and white.

The key to this book is reading the novellas that come before. I thought I was invested in Celaena's story just from Throne of Glass, but after reading the novellas, which deal with her time before the book, I was so much more into her story. Without spoiling anything, Celaena's past is a new plot device that I have been seeing pop up a lot in YA novels and it's a mature change that I'm really enjoying. I love when YA straddles that line between being a teen book and being something that has an intelligence and depth that adults too can enjoy.

Reading List Update:

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan 
-I started out feeling iffy about this one and then the ending hooked me. Looking forward to the rest of the trilogy.

Team Human by Justin Larbalestier
-This book really surprised me with it's twist on the vampire story. I really liked the flip of, what if a human lived with vampires and had to fight to be human. Such a great twist.

The Crown of Embers by Rae Carson
-This is another book where I wasn't a huge fan of the first book, but this second one really caught me by the end. I did skim some, but by the middle I wasn't anymore.

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake
-This one suffers from a slow pace, but I'm so glad I got to see how the story continued. I really hope there's another. Still creepy and awesome at the same time.

Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi
-Oh my. I love when things aren't perfect even after the main characters get together. The tension in this book was amazing and I'm really, really looking forward to the finish of the trilogy.

Promised by Caragh M. O'Brien
-A fitting end to a really great series. I'll admit, the first book didn't necessarily hook me, but I'm so glad I kept up with this one.

Poison Princess by Kresley Cole
-What I liked most about this one was that it was rather fierce. The characters are no nonsense and I LOVE when characters have abilities they can't quite control. The plot is twisty and confusing, but by the end you see where it's going.

Days of Blood and Starligh by Laini Taylor
-Liani Taylor is definitely one of my current favorite YA authors. Her stories are so mature and intelligent and the passion in her characters just bleeds off the pages. I can NOT wait for the third book and I'm so excited to see how it ends!!

Waiting in the Wings
False Memory by Dan Krokos
The Girl in Clockwork Collar by Kady Cross
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

So, here's to more reviews, more updates, and lots more YA books. Thank goodness all the ones I'm really looking forward to are coming out in the Fall. More time to get through the couple hundred books I have on my to-read shelf!!

The Raven Boys Trailer by Maggie Stiefvater

Because this series is going to be amazing.

http://youtu.be/nWzaJrJUP-w

Longer entry soon. I have been reading wayyyyy too much.

The Book-to-Movie That Might End Me

I saw a couple of the Harry Potter movies at midnight (pulled along by friends) and yes, I was one of those people who waited in line for Twilight when it came out in theaters. I actually saw that one 3 or 4 times in one day. Each of these romances have since ended horribly. My love affair with Harry ended in book 5 with the whole Ginny thing (no build up, we never see her, there's no reason for it...so dumb) and then Twilight exploded, the fans went crazy, and the movies have just become unbearable to watch (except the parts with Taylor Lautner and Jackson Rathbone. Nom.)

So forgive me if I fall on my knees and cry like an infant if something goes wrong with The Hunger Games. From everything I have seen so far, such as the trailers, movie tie-in books, music, and merchandise, I am so, absolutely sold. In this case, I think it helps that Suzanne Collins has screenwriting experience, so the book itself was basically made to be a book-to-movie in. I have purchased not only the mockingjay pin (twice) but the Tribute Guide, World of the Hunger Games, Movie Companion, and yes, the crowning jewel of my collection, four of the Capital Colours collection by China Glaze (Foie Gras, Smoke and Ashes, Harvest Moon and Hook and Line, which I adore, btw!) There have been so very few movies that have been able to stay true to the source material and give the audience the same feelings that they felt when they read the story they love so much. I am really, really hoping that The Hunger Games does it. After all, I am shelling out almost $20 to see it in IMAX.

READING LIST UPDATE

Sadly, I just wanted to gush about The Hunger Games, so I don't have much else to blabber about. I have, however, been reading my face off, so I figured I would give an update on what I've been inhaling.

A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton
When I read Darkness Becomes Her, the first book in this series, I wasn't overly impressed. I can't remember exactly why I wasn't blown away by it, but I do remember that the end was powerful enough for me to pick up the second one. A Beautiful Evil was the book that I had been looking for. When the real action starts, Keaton really digs in deep. I fell in love with the characters, the story, and the pulse of this tale as soon as things began to move. This is the second book (Prized being the first) where a sequel has actually hooked me into a series. I don't know what this says about book series, but I feel it might be a version of the "Series Disease" that I talked about a few entries back. In order to get a series out of a writer, publishers often mess up the pacing of a story in order to lengthen it. I feel that might be what's going on here. Either way, I LOVED this book and can't wait for the third.

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington
I ended up liking Embrace more than I initially thought I would. The "fallen angel" genre has been rather stale lately, and the mythos of this novel falls very close to many of the ones I've seen in the past. It was the relationships between the characters that really sold me on this book in the end. There were a couple of twists in the love triangle that I hadn't seen before, and I was very excited to see those things happen. I'll be checking out the second in the series to see how it picks up from here.

Enclave by Ann Aguirre
I don't know if maybe I read this book too close to re-reading The Hunger Games, but I actually skimmed through the first 60 or so pages before I actually started really reading it. I didn't see enough of a new angle in the dystopia/zombie genre to give me enough of a reason to really get into the book. I was, however, very intrigued by the character development throughout, so I will probably check out the next book through the library.

Legend by Marie Lu
This is another book that might have suffered from my re-reading of The Hunger Games or maybe even Under the Never Sky. I would actually call this one a mixture of both. It was another dystopian/survival/technology hybrid that I began to lose interest in by the end. I would definitely rate this one higher than Enclave because I felt the writing was more mature and the characters more developed.

I always seem to have a book that I dropped, so here's The Duds List

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber - I got about half way through before I realized I was forcing myself to read this one and just stopped. The story was very intriguing, but the combination of the story being in diary entry form and the lack of constant movement made me finally give up on it. When I don't have 100+ books sitting on my "to read" pile, I might go back and give this one another go.

Tiger's Curse  by Collen Houck - I was very upset about this one because the story seemed so interesting! But sadly, I just couldn't get into the writing style. Might be for some people, but not me.

Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter  - Couldn't get into this one either. The plot and characters just didn't grab me. Again, might be up the alley for others.


Books I'm Currently Reading
 A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce <-----Yup. Still going.
Unbroken by Rachel Caine -<---- Still going on this one too
The Lost Saint by Bree Despain<-----pulled this one out of my "on hold" status


Waiting in the Wings
Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan
Forgive My Fins by Tera Lyn Childs
Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Splendor Falls by Rosemary Clement-Moore
The Fledgling  by Octavia Butler

Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
The Gathering by Kelly Armstrong

What Makes Me Want to Read a Book

Awhile back, a friend and I had a discussion on what makes us want to read certain books. Of course, the first item we came up with was the Aesthetically Pleasing Cover (APC- does the book look pretty?) and then we focused on our tropes. Tropes meaning, that little thing in a book that, if it has it, you HAVE to pick it up. This might be hard to explain, but as soon as you see my list, you're going to see what I mean. I call them my achilles heels.

 
-Re-tellings of fairy tales/mythology. + points if it's an obscure one.
-Girls pretending to be boys in order to do something she wouldn't have been able to otherwise. + points if she has feelings for a boy.
-The two main characters start the story hating one another. + points if the reason is related to morals/something BIG ++ points if they fall in love.
-Characters with powers that they can not control. + points if this makes them dangerous/deadly.
-Halflings, or characters that are trapped between two worlds of any kind.
- If the story has this type of character/aspect: prostitute, thief, really mean fey, steampunk, poison, shapeshifters, someone mentally unstable/insane (+ points if it's the protagonist)
-And yes, vampires and werewolves. But this has dwindled as I only have a few favorite takes on the mythology and unfortunately the community is realllyyy over saturated.



I'm sure that I have more of these, but at the moment, I can't think of them. Now, life is full of short-cuts, and sometimes these short-cuts don't work out. Sometimes I like books that have NONE of these aspects in them and sometimes I like books that have these aspects that I can agree are horribly written. As a reader, and a writer, I think it's really important to understand what pulls us towards certain books. As a reader, it helps us to pick out of the millions of books out there what we want to read. As a writer, it will often times help bring me back to Earth. Am I writing a story a certain way because it's what I like? Is that helping or hindering my story?

Someday I would love to do research on why it is people read books on the topics that they do, because I think that the books you choose to read can tell things about yourself that even you didn't even know.

READING LIST UPDATE

Since I had a rather intense list from last time, here's a quick update on the books I chowed down on.

The Space Between by Brenna Yovanof
-LOVED this book. The writing style was really great and I loved the characters.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
-I'm definitely looking forward to the movie version. Marion put an interesting twist on the zombie mythology that I enjoyed.

Swear by Nina Malkin (sequel to Swoon)
-I would have liked this book to have been a little more intense like the first, but as a sequel, it definitely satisfied.

Prized (Birthmarked #2) by Caragh M. O'Brien
-Where I sauntered through Birthmarked, I ripped and sped right through Prized. I almost put it down 50 pages in until we were reunited with Leon...and everything got really good. 

I couldn't really recommend Die for Me, as I put it down 30 pages in. It wasn't a story for me, but others might enjoy it. 

Books I'm Currently Reading
A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce <- yes, still. I'm going at a snail's pace
Unbroken by Rachel Caine
Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber

Waiting in the Wings
Graveminder by Melissa Marr
Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter
Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl      

I find that the more I try to find a niche for this blog the more it tries to escape my clutches. Apparently, it wants to be YA Writing/Reading blog. Well okay then, we'll go with your plan.

As much as I wanted this blog to be review site for Really Awesome Current YA, I've found that I have far more to say and so much more to show everyone about the world of YA. So, confining this place to only reviews just doesn't seem right. I must confess that I am very much inspired by the blogs and tumblrs of awesome writers and fans. That! I want that! Now I just have to finish my manuscript and actually send it out into the mad house...

I've start using my local library again because I have this problem of buying wayyyyy too many books, many of which I feel rather "meh" about. Plus, my library system has a ridiculously great YA catalog that I keep forgetting to take advantage of. I'm actually thinking about going out there now...

Speaking of books I've picked up from the library, I had the chance to read Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi and The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.

Under the Never Sky is a dystopian novel that really grabbed me. The story centers around two character who have been thrust out of the worlds they thought they knew and into the unknown of both themselves and their environment.

I was most drawn to the relationship between Perry and Aria and how it grew from a feeling of mutual disgust to a romance. This is one of my achilles heels of story telling: two characters who can't stand each other that find they have more in common than they think.

I'm a also a big fan of books whose minor characters could easily have novels of their own. I mean, who can resist a character named Roar?! You can't. The character of Cinder, a twelve-year-old boy with dangerous powers, tugged at my heart strings and I left wanting to hear more of his story. You can't give me a character like that and leave me hanging! 

Rossi also paints a really gorgeous portrait of the world they live in. Any novel that looks like THIS when an artist paints it is going to pull me straight in.

And although the end of the book kind of fizzles out, I have to give Rossi some wiggle room because the book is part of a trilogy. The end wraps up the major plot points and I felt okay with waiting for the next book.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson has been a book that's been catching my eye for a while. My friend and I have this thing where we're attracted to books that have "aesthetically pleasing cover" or APCs. I'm often pulled in by these APCs and sometimes I get lucky that they are awesome.

I enjoyed this book for its character growth. Elisa starts as a girl who doesn't quite know where she fits, into the leader of rebels. She knows that she is "The Chosen One," but doesn't quite know what that means.

This is one of those books that I wish had a little more "umph" though. With words like "chosen one" I think I had expected more daring action and adventure than I got. That isn't to say that there isn't action and fighting and intrigue and indeed, some death, but I didn't completely believe it. The book is part of a series, and I feel may fall victim to the "series curse" of having to be pulled too thinly in order to span longer books. I wanted more to happen.

I'll definitely be checking out the second book to see what else happens, but I wish I'd gotten more the first time around.

I'm cheating a little with Cinder by Marissa Meyer, because I actually received an ARC of this book back in December and didn't actually get it from the library. I wanted to give it a quick review, however, because I really liked it.





I love re-tellings of classic fairy tales, it's another of my Achilles heels (I'm going to do a post on these sometime in the near future.) And this one does not dissapoint. If you can't tell, this re-telling of Cinderella with a dystopian twist. Here, Cinderella has become a second-class citizen because she's part machine.

The best part of this novel comes from Cinder's constant wonder as to what she really is and who she is. As a reader, I sadly figured it out for her as soon as certain plot points were mentioned, but it was still interesting watching her try to understand it as well. I like that she was an independent mechanic and bold in how she lived her life. Strong female characters are always a super big plus.

Again, this is a story with great characters and an interesting plot. I'm really excited to read the next one, but also saddened that I have to wait so long. This is the problem with ARCs, if you really like them you usually have to wait an extra 6 months on top of the normal wait time to get a sequel because you've gotten it in advance. Balls.

Other Books I Currently Have My Hands On:

Prized (Birthmarked #2) by Caragh M. O'Brien
A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce 

Waiting in the Wings
The Space Between by  Brenna Yovanof
Graveminder by Melissa Marr
Blood Red Road by 
Die for Me by  Amy Plum
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Swear by Nina Malkin 

[Review] The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater *****

I've made some slight alterations to the blog, mostly my posting schedule, mainly that I'm not going to keep to it. I thought that by giving myself set days I could encourage myself to actually update, but the opposite has actually occurred. I get all flustered that I haven't updated, then I get frustrated, then I don't want to do it. Yet, when I don't have a schedule I tend to update more because the freedom doesn't put pressure on me!

I have also decided to loosen up a bit on the structure of the blog. Review entries will still have a "classroom" aspect to them, but I won't be writing them specifically for classroom purposes. On this blog you'll find reviews of YA books I think everyone should read, ramblings from a YA writer about the topic of writing YA, and anything else that may be relevant. 

This tiny look into my crazy writer brain brought to you by having free time and getting back on the writing horse. Now, without further procrastination, a review!!

~~~~
The Story

The Scorpio Races are a deadly game of man playing with fire, with the fire being ancient, and deadly water horses that riders must master to cross the finish line. Sean Kendrick and Puck Connolly come from two separate parts of the island; one an experienced trainer, the other a girl with a will of iron.

When Puck's brother decides to leave the island, the only home she's ever known, she enters the races to make him stay. But the races are violent and bloody, and a girl has never raced in them. It's here she notices Sean, a young man chained to his job by a mixture of duty and the love of the water horses. Together, their twos stories intertwine into a mutual tale of trust, self discovery, and what it really means to be free.

What's So Great About It?

If you haven't picked up a book by Stiefevater, you are really missing out. I plowed through her Gathering of Faerie novels at least a year ago, then demolished her Wolfs of Mercy Falls trilogy shortly thereafter. Stiefvater is a writer whose voice and writing have really grown into a beautiful mixture of poetry and prose, culminating in the execution of The Scorpio Races. I can't write enough about how much I enjoy her prose and how essential this is to the story. I saw a few pictures of the areas that she has used as inspiration for the book a few days ago and she truly captured the essence of the locations.

Each of the characters, no matter how minor, are brought to life by the prose and the attention to their motivations. By the end of the book, I really felt as if I could run into Sean or Puck in real life and have known them as friends. I was instantly pulled into their stories and by the end of the book, I wept with them at their joys and sorrows. I have found it extraordinarily hard for YA novels to do that to me lately, and not only is this a skill I attribute to true writers, but also an essential aspect of reading. If can't be made to care about your characters or their stories, how am I supposed to have felt anything or taken anything away from what I have read?

Why This Book?

For all the reasons stated above! Well, alright, if we're being more specific I recommend The Scorpio Races for its characters, story and the magic of the water horses. The feral and dangerous nature of the water horses was a completely fascinating story plot. I absolutely love the complete lack of control that the people really have of these animals. Stiefvater does an amazing job of describing, and detailing, how these animals can (and will) rip you to pieces faster than it takes you to look at them. For an animal that is usually considered pretty tame, these horses become things of nightmares. The horses also become the focal point to which the characters act around, and its such and interesting dichotomy of human and animal that I couldn't help but fall in love.

I would also recommend this book for its depth of character and willingness to provide nit and grit into the YA genre, which I have been finding severely lacking lately. I want a true story that will pull me in, make me feel for its characters and take me on a journey of the human spirit and The Scorpio Races does this.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater definitely gets a 5 out of 5 stars for me and I wouldn't hesitate for a second to recommend it for the classroom, either. I think students of both sexes could get into the tale and become thoroughly entranced by the story. I'm waiting for the movie for this, too. It would be an AMAZING movie!

Stand Alone Complex

First, I want to say I'm back! As of this month I've completed my Master of Art in Teaching degree and am certified in the state of Maryland to educate students from grades 7-12 in English. Everyone hide your children, I might make them learn something !!

To celebrate my return, I thought I'd post on a topic that has been on my mind lately: to series, or not to series. 

After finishing an ARC of Cinder by Marissa Meyer (a book all of you should get your hands on when it comes out January 3rd) I found myself highly upset that I would have to wait the better part of the year in order to find out what happens next. Like many books in the YA category, Cinder was picked up as a four-part series. Had this been five years ago, you would have seen me jumping out of my skin to get a sequel, yet now I just find myself upset, and not in a good way.

How Twilight and Harry Potter Jaded Book Series

Let me preface this discussion by stating that each of the books I'm going to be discussing I have both read and enjoyed very much. If you must know anything about myself as a reviewer, books fall into two categories for me: Books I Enjoyed and Books I Didn't Really Enjoy. Very few times have I read a book that warranted the reaction of "that was a horrible book" and its actually a pet peeve of mine when people say that a book was "horrible" mostly because it didn't suit their tastes. Books are like food, some people love certain flavors that others can't stand.

With that said, I feel like both the Twilight series and Harry Potter have given the publishing industry, and readers even, the wrong impression of what a series should be. I find myself, much too often, picking up a book and wondering why the plot is moving so slowly, or why things just aren't happening fast enough to give me reason to become emotionally attached to characters. The answer: the book is actually a series. I have heard it said, by many people in the business, that many publishers want new books that can become a series. Why? The money. A book series, int the long run, will make a publisher far more money then a stand alone novel. Both aforementioned series became cultural phenomenons, ones that publishers are still trying to replicate every time they sign a new deal. How many times have you heard a book quoted as possibly becoming the next "blah blah" or the next "blah blah."

Why Is This a Problem?

Because there are far too many books that are series that shouldn't be and it effects the quality of the reading experience. I'll give you some symptoms that the book you've read shouldn't have been a series. Have you ever read a book and when it ended, been upset that something integral to the plot wasn't explained? Do you feel as if character emotions that were expressed continually throughout the story weren't resolved? Was there no real conclusion, and many plot points were left open ended? If you can answer "yes" to any of these questions, your book suffers from Series Syndrome. The best way I can describe this problem is that when I look a series of books, I find myself seeing parts of a whole and not complete stories captured from a larger world.

What Makes a Successful Book Series?

The first book series I ever read was the Dragonriders of Pern world series by Anne McCaffrey, specifically the Harper Hall Trilogy. Each of the books in this series was its own, compact story within a larger tale of the musicians of the world of Pern. Never did I finish a book and feel unfulfilled and I was excited to hear about the next story in series. The Alanna series by Tamora Peirce always felt similar in that each book in that series was a story of Alanna's adventure being the first female knight. Each book was it's own and became a piece of the large whole without leaving me to wonder why a vital aspect of the story wasn't explained.

Another symptom of Series Syndrome is when a conflict that could have been resolved in a single book is made into the conflict for the series. I am going to cite the Volturri in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series as an example of a conflict that, honestly, could have been dealt with in one book. Stephenie Meyer herself stated that Twilight was only meant to be one novel, but because of the book's popularity, was expanded to four. Did she have enough material to expand these books to four? I really don't think so.

What truly bothers me is that far too often books that could have been far more powerful as single, stand alone novels are watered down in order to make them last over a longer period of time and, therefore, make more money. The machine of making money has overwritten the need for good story telling. I can think of nothing more disappointing than investing myself in a book and its story just to find out they may as well have printed To Be Continued...on the last page when I wish it had been continued now.

I've compiled a short list of book series that I feel truly exemplify what a real book series should be. If you have any you would like to suggest, please comment so I can add! 

Quality YA Series 
City of Bones, City of Glass, City of Ashes, City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments Series) by Cassandra Clare
Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices Series) by Cassandra Clare
All series by Tamora Pierce
White Cat, Red Glove, etc (Curseworkers Series) by Holly Black
All series by Rachel Caine
The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay (The Hunger Games Trilogy) by Suzanne Collins
Wicked Lovely, Ink Exchange, Fragile Eternity, Radiant Shadows, Darkest Mercy by Melissa Marr


Check LEIO out on Wednesday for a new review!

Fruits Basket ~ The Radio Drama!

So, once in awhile I will find something literary that I just have to gush about and quite frankly, I think that this is not only very cutting-edge, but also extremely well done.

The Fruits Basket radio drama is an independent project headed by some really awesome fans. It seems to be a media mixture of an old time radio drama and retelling of the story from the manga. Personally, I find this fascinating as I have always been a fan of radio dramas (think H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds") and completely awed by the story of the Fruits Basket manga.

Why Should I Try This Out?

Because it's awesome. Well, okay, if you want a more persuasive argument, I think that this project is a really interesting (and extremely well constructed) attempt at merging genres and experimenting with literature in ways that our access to media and technology has not given us in the past. Story telling originated with the oral and auditory tradition, and it is just so great to see stories that go back to that tradition. There's nothing like hearing a story, complete with the zipping of a sleeping bag or someone knocking into ceramic dolls to open every sense and give listeners a new way of interpreting a story. 
 

What is the story? 

Fruits Basket itself is the story of a young girl named Tohru Honda who becomes caught up in the family curse of two young men with whom she attends high school. The story brings a new background tale on the Chinese Zodiac and blends together a story of love, betrayal, what it means to be family, friendship, and the human condition. Takaya's story reads like a modern novel adapted in imagery. I could literally spend days telling you about all of the diverse and interesting characters and the conflicts that both hurt them and make them grow. And yes, it is also about people that turn into animals when they're hugged by the opposite sex. There. I said it.

How Does This Apply to YA?

In recent years, young adult literature has not only headed into new genres and onto new and more mature topics, but it has also bleed into the realms of other media. Manga and comic books have quickly gained respect as viable literary options, especially for reluctant readers and students that struggle with traditional print. Personally, I think that manga, graphic novels and comics should be taken a step further into the traditional English curriculum and given the true literary respect that they deserve. There are so many nuances and new points of view to be shared when a story comes alive in visual format.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that Fruits Basket is probably the number one selling manga of all time in America? I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of a great story with fantastic characters.

Why Are You Still Here?

Even if you aren't a fan of manga (or are shy about checking it out), this radio drama is a fantastic way for any fan of a good story to dip their toes into something new and imaginative. The mp3 downloads of the episodes are free and while the story is very long (there are 21 volumes of manga, with about 7 chapters in each), I believe that it is worth every minute.


Please take the chance to check this out and let me know what you think! I will definitely try to post more interesting and cutting edge movements that have to do with YA as I update this blog.

[Review] Divergent by Veronica Roth *****

I have actually had this book on my to-read list for awhile, and it wasn't until a couple friends of mine started reading it and couldn't stop gushing about it that I finally picked it up. Picking it up was a bad idea, as I finished it in two nights.

The Story

Beatrice is a girl raised in the world of the selfless Abnegation, one of five factions that divide the people of this futuristic reality. Society has divided themselves into five aspects of human principles; the honest Candor, the brave Dauntless, kind Amity, genius Erudite and selfless Abnegation. Each of these factions raises their children to embody their individual virtue to become members of society, but at sixteen you can choose. Will you stay or do you truly embody another faction?

When it comes time for Beatrice to choose her place she finds that she is a mix of three, Dauntless, Abnegation and Erudite: Divergent. This makes her a threat to the tipping balance of society.

What's So Great About It?

Personally, my favorite aspect of this book was the factions and what they mean for human society. Imagine if humanity decided that we were going to highlight only one aspect of your personality and that was how you lived? Would you be fearless and brave like the Dauntless, or dedicate your life to the pursuit of knowledge and power? Divergent really puts the idea of human character and what it really means to embody these characteristics to the max. It shows how with even the best of intentions, humanity can, and most likely will, still twist its principles.

Ever since The Hunger Games I have truly become a fan of protagonists that have obvious flaws. Tris (Beatrice) isn't necessarily the ideal heroine that many novels create. By joining the faction she does, she brings out the more brutal aspects of her personality and becomes a very different person by the end than what you met in the beginning. This shows character growth and change, something that I feel is at the heart of a really great YA novel. In the same sense, she also becomes aware of her true self and what morals and beliefs she can not live without.

Did I mention Four? Because Four is amazing (and definitely sexy). Thank you Veronica Roth for not creating a story around the relationship of these two characters. Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily find anything wrong with centering a YA novel around the relationship of two protagonists, but this does not define them. Tris would not be who she is without the lessons that Four has taught her, however, she is independent of his character as well. Throughout the novel you can see both of them grow and learn. I would definitely look forward to reading some of the novel from his perspective.

Oh yeah, and did I mention the novel has tattoos? I love tattoos.

Why This Book?

I may reference The Hunger Games a couple of times when reviewing this book, but Divergent is not The Hunger Games. The freshness and intellectual/sociological depth of this novel is really refreshing and exactly what I, as a teacher, would look for when choosing a book for the class. There are an endless number of discussion topics and important, thought provoking questions that arise when reading this book. The story is a fresh idea in a vein of fiction that could easily suffer from the copy-cat syndrome. Roth does an amazing job fleshing out both her world and her characters and make you truly feel like you could walk outside and live between its walls.

I would give Divergent 5 out of 5 stars for readability in the classroom. I would definitely recommend this novel for anyone teaching the topics of society and culture, human morality and character.

Apologies for this week

Major apologies for not posting this week. I should have forseen it, however, with getting the classroom ready and teacher inservices, I was unable to sit down and get a post set up. This week was also supposed to be a Writer Friday, but I'll have to post pone that to either tomorrow, or bump it to next week.

Being a teacher is crazy! I'm not even a "real" teacher and it's crazy!

However, I did make an AWESOME bulletin board for current young adult literature in my classroom. I'll post a picture of it on Monday when I take one.

Later, all!