Radio Show - Sunday 7pm EST (USA)

The brains behind A Book and a Chat radio show, Barry, has invited me to be part of his show this week!

It's going to be a thirty minute show. You can call in on (347) 237-5398, please call in :)

Thanks!

Details on the link below:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/across-the-pond

The Bright Side of Blogging

The lovely Sarah from Sarah's Random Musings has gathered some blogging brethren to talk about what we love about YA blogging. I've decided to vlog because I wanted you to be able to hear it from the horse's (or Adele's in this case) mouth.

Listen to me rattle off a list of incredible Australian YA authors!

You can check out the other posts on these days:
Sunday April 25th: Sarah's Random Musings
Monday April 26th: The Book Cellar
Tuesday April 27th: Zoe's Book Reviews
Wednesday April 28th: Frenetic Reader
Thursday April 29th: Persnickety Snark
Friday April 30th: The Page Flipper
Saturday May 1st: The Compulsive Reader

For more detailed discussion of the aspects of blogging that I love check out my YA Community Thanksgiving post.

(Apologies for the lighting. It's not the camera but the conversion to WMV that seems to smudge it up. Sorry.)

My Top 10 YA Titles

On April 30 polling will cease for my Top 100 YA titles of all time list. I thought that with only a few days to go I would offer my list. I have to admit that it was a difficult endeavour and I blown away that (at this point) 667 people have taken the challenge to list theirs in the poll.

Lists are very dependant on what you've read, genres you prefer, execution vs memory and any matter of things. It is subjective. It is also extremely difficult. Here are my top ten YA titles at this moment in time.

10. FOREVER - Judy Blume (1976)

It may be no masterpiece in terms of literary stylings but it sure did educate me (in more ways that one.) Forever took an eleven year old Adele and 1) got her into some serious trouble at school (read more here), 2) didn't talk down to her and 3) paved the way for some great decision making.

I still can't think of the book without giggling Ralph or imagining a bear rug...

9. SOME GIRLS ARE - Courtney Summers (2010)
One of the newer picks on my list, it packed a stomach tearing punch. It was visceral, it was tense, it was insanely paced and it provided a very real depiction of high school girls in today's society.

More than anything it shows the stress that teens are under to conform and perform at any cost. Something we should all be aware of.

8. FIRE - Kristin Cashore (2009)
I've been a long time fantasy skeptic - the names, the weird amalgam creatures and self-indulgent ramblings...clearly I haven't been reading the right fantasy titles. Then Kristin Cashore came along...

She's got a knack of providing a mirror for our contemporary conflicts and prejudices with great empathy and understanding. At no point does the reader feel as though they are getting rapped over the knuckles with a morality lesson. She's a master knitter bringing together threads of all different colours to create something cohesive, complex and beautiful.

Adele's review.

7. GOING TOO FAR - Jennifer Echols (2009)
Reading contemporary YA can be a fairly frustrating experience. The protagonists are usually pretty wishy washy, boy obsessed, fashion obsessed, flighty, fidgety and shallow individuals. It has started turning around a lot but I never felt it more so with the introduction of the blue haired, fiery Meg.

Snark. Check. Sass. Check. Hot police car make out. Check. Emotionally grounded. Check. Growth. Check. Girl still independent at conclusion despite getting the guy? Check. :)

Adele's review.

6. SONG OF THE SPARROW - Lisa Ann Sandell (2007)
Poetry was never something that particular spoke to me. It was something I had to suffer through high school to graduate. Over time I found that there were poets that spoke to me.

So verse novels frighten me. I bought this book not knowing it was verse. I will admit that I didn't read it immediately once I discovered that fact. But if Fire proved to me that fantasy can be more that frou-frou and weird names, Song of the Sparrow showed that verse can rise above my bias. I found myself wrapped in the lyrical magic of Arthurian legend. Sparse yet complex. Detailed in emotional depth and yet provided room to breathe. I just fell in love with this examination of the girl in the world of knights. Not Guinevere either...which I loved!

Adele's review

5. LITTLE WOMEN - Louisa May Alcott (1868)
Alcott spoke to me in my role as a sister, daughter and friend. Despite the fact that it was written well over a hundred years before my birth and in the northern hemisphere, I could relate. It also made me cry. A lot.

It made me hate a fictional character (Professor Bhear) with an intensity that shocked me.

I wanted to be Jo. I still want to be Jo...just with Laurie. I want to be wrapped up in my own literary creations and those of others like Jo. I have a Jo complex. I even want that stupid hat that Winona Ryder wore in the film adaptation.

4. SAVING FRANCESCA - Melina Marchetta (2003)
I could go on and on about Will Trombal but I won't. Francesca Spinelli was introduced to me in my early twenties and spoke to me. I hadn't read about a teen dealing with a parent's mental health issues like this before. I hadn't had an author relate an element of my personal experience back to me.

Also the whole take on feminism in a boy's private school made me laugh and empathise. I was dealing with the same thing - the boy's club - at my residential hall at that same time.

3. MANDRAGORA - David McRobbie (1994)
I read this at thirteen and loved it enormously. On so many levels McRobbie hit the bullseye with the history, multiple timelines, paranormal elements (I knew about mandrake before Harry Potter because of this novel), an authentic teen relationship and brewing local tensions.

I doubt anyone outside of Australia (or even the Australian literary community) know of this book but it is exceedingly well written. I've taught it to multiple classes as a core text and they have all loved it.

2. ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE - Tamora Pierce (1983)

My first real taste of fantasy thus ruining all others in that genre (until Cashore came along). Alanna empowered me as a tween and I never forgot her. A protagonist with strength, focus and tenacity - a girl I could relate to and try to emulate. Alanna is still my hero and I refuse to believe she's not a real person.

My thoughts on Alanna's influence on me.

1. ON THE JELLICOE ROAD - Melina Marchetta (2006)
There was never a doubt in any regular Persnickety Snark reader's mind that this was going to be my number one...was there? I have been whoring this book across the blogosphere for as long as the blog has existed. The Printz helped but I think I made a dent in the YA blogosphere consciousness of this book.

I wrote a list of ten things I love about this book that you can read at your own leisure.

It is Australian. It is complex. It is challenging. It is is an emotional wrenching machine of pain, joy and sorrow.

If you haven't read one of these titles....shame on you.

If you haven't taken part in the poll which finishes in the next few days....more shame!

Take the poll by following this link!

A sincere thank you to the many people that have already taken the time to detail their thoughts on quality YA literature. It looks as though it will be an extremely varied and interesting list.

Breakdown:

Contemporary - 6

Australian - 3

Split timelines - 2

Verse - 1

Fantasy - 2

Male authored - 1

Female protagonist - 9

First Impression - Forget You (Jennifer Echols)

There’s a lot Zoey would like to forget. Like how her father has knocked up his twenty-four-year old girlfriend. Like Zoey’s fear that the whole town will find out about her mom’s nervous breakdown. Like darkly handsome bad boy Doug taunting her at school. With her life about to become a complete mess, Zoey fights back the only way she knows how, using her famous attention to detail to make sure she’s the perfect daughter, the perfect student, and the perfect girlfriend to ultra-popular football player Brandon.

But then Zoey is in a car crash, and the next day there’s one thing she can’t remember at all—the entire night before. Did she go parking with Brandon, like she planned? And if so, why does it seem like Brandon is avoiding her? And why is Doug—of all people—suddenly acting as if something significant happened between the two of them? Zoey dimly remembers Doug pulling her from the wreck, but he keeps referring to what happened that night as if it was more, and it terrifies Zoey to admit how much is a blank to her. Controlled, meticulous Zoey is quickly losing her grip on the all-important details of her life—a life that seems strangely empty of Brandon, and strangely full of Doug. Goodreads

Forget You is available in stores from July 20th 2010.

Jennifer Echols' Website

Review - Confessions of a Serial Kisser / Wendelin Van Draanen

EVANGELINE LOGAN WANTS a kiss. A spectacular, heart-stopping, life changing kiss. Somehow The Crimson Kiss (a romance novel she’s become obsessed with) and Four Steps to Living Your Fantasy (a self-help book she’s reading) have fused in Evangeline’s mind and sent her on a quest for a kiss. But the path to perfection is paved with many bad kisses—the smash mouth, the ear licker, the “misser.” The phrase “I don’t kiss and tell” means nothing to the boys in her school. And worse: someone starts writing her name and number on bathroom walls. And worst of all: the boy she's just kissed turns out to be her best friend’s new crush. Kissing turns out to be way more complicated than the romance novels would have you believe . . .Goodreads

Spoilers

Review -On face value this book sounds like a delightful afternoon read. For many people it will be. As for me, what sounded like a great premise melted into a pot of steaming anger, frustrating and confusion.

Evangeline could be described as well rounded if she weren't so perpetually dim. No one, well a girl at least, can't run around a school pashing guys left and right without developing a reputation...unfounded or not. It shocks me that the character never considered this when in search of a kiss that only exists in the romantic novel where she got the idea in the first place. Of course she was never going to get her crimson kiss from an anonymous snog...the whole point of romantic novels is that it means something more than precise tongue action and a good handle on one's saliva. Ugh.

I am rushing through this review because I can't be particularly diplomatic. I hate coming across as a shrew but this novel calls out for it. The minor story of her anger towards her father is excellent until they resolve it. A daughter has every right to be righteously angry at her father for cheating on her mother. Her own behaviour, whether it parallels it in any way (I don't agree that it did) has no bearing on the way he disregarded their family in his selfish choices. Maybe I am projecting too much onto this novel but it just flat out angered me.

As for the protagonist's amazing ability to cut and colour someone's hair to perfectly suit them? Don't ask or you will get a tirade.

Side note - I loathe when a character's old school music preference is used to make them look a) retro cool and 2) wise. I am guessing that was the intent here but it lost me when not one song title, but sometimes three or four in succession, were listed. It just came across as a middle aged author unconvincingly depicting a young person with retro leanings. It played false.

I wanted this book to be better, to be more. It disappointed me greatly. Somewhere in there was a great novel but it was swamped by the ridiculous and I couldn't get past it.

Published: 2009

Format: Paperback, 304 pages

Publisher: Random House's Children Books

Source: purchased

Origin: USA