Young Adult Books in my Reading Stacks

Freewriting for BWP 07-01-09

Today's topic is "looking ahead." I'm having difficulty getting started because I want this to be a positive freewriting; therefore, weight, my job, and how dirty my house is are all off limits. So I want to talk about my favorite items in the whole wide world and in the universe: books! I've never met a book I didn't like. I'm sure someone famous, like Mark Twain, has already voiced this thought, but today, it is all mine.

I am looking forward to the stacks of books I have waiting on me at home. I have purchased a few too many in the month of June according to my budget, and I have been reading through some I found in the library. I also have two tote bags full of books borrowed from my school library before leaving for the summer. (Yes, I really did check them out--our librarian is wonderful.) Probably the Coastal Plain Regional Library librarian will come looking for me soon as I am sure a few are overdue. My personal "stacks" are not to be confused with stacks at the library. All of my stacks are on the floor in my office, by my bed, by the sofa, etc.

(Update on overdue books: Success! You really can renew your books if they are a day late.)

Books in Julie's Stacks:

1. The Mysterious Benedict Society. This one is currently sitting on my nightstand. I'm about 1/4 of the way through it and am loving it. It's a young adult novel that centers around a young gifted boy who finds himself recruited for a mission to infiltrate a school for gifted children and stop the world takeover planned by the school's founder. I would guess this book is for ages 9 and up.

2. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. At the beginning of the summer I purchased and read Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. I was familiar with Gaiman's reputation as the creator of the Sandman graphic novels but had never read any of his work. The Graveyard Book was superb; it followed the life of a young boy whose family was murdered. I don't want to give away too many details, but ghosts in a graveyard raised him. Gaiman was inspired by Kipling's The Jungle Book. Go check it out. CPRL on Chesnutt Ave. currently has a copy if you want to check it out. I also have a copy but have passed it on to my almost-12-year-old, Hannah. If you have issues with ghosts and spirits, though, you may not want to read this book. Gaiman does create a netherworld below the earth inhabited by some scary creatures. The book is appropriate for ages 10 and up.

(I'm beginning to see a theme here--all young adult novels so far.)

3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Okay, this is not in my "to read" stack. I devoured it last month. But I'm putting it on this list in case any of my blog or Facebook readers actually do read this post looking for a good read. Collins is more famous for her Gregor the Overlander series of books. Hannah has read all of the Gregor books, and when I read several recommendations about this book online, I bought it. Collins is a clever writer. If you haven't read much Shakespeare, I'll go ahead and tell you that many of the minor characters are named after minor characters in Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. This is appropriate as the female protagonist, Katniss, is in a fight for her life as well. Interestingly, this is a post-apocalyptic novel that is written for a young adult audience. I have been drawn to well-written post-apocalyptic novels since reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy last year (another book I highly recommend you reading before you see the movie). This book is appropriate for ages 10 and up.

4. The Bloody Jack series of books by L. A. Meyer. The media assistant at my school has been trying to get me to read these for two years now. She sent all of them home with me over the summer. (I think there are five.) They center around another female protagonist, Jacky Faber, who as an orphan disguises herself as a boy and sets sail on a pirate ship in search of adventure.

5. The Lightening Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. My daughter Hannah came home this past school year talking about this really cool book that had Greek gods for characters. Of course, Mom the English major was excited to hear her talking with knowledge about these gods. (The act of reading is so much richer when you pick up on the allusions to Greek mythology.) Her reading teacher introduced her to the first book in the series that centers around a boy protagonist named Percy who is a demigod. Riordan just published the fifth and final book in this series this summer, so I'm going to tackle this one as well.

Can I just say that as a mother (and English teacher) who loves books, I am so excited that my daughter and I are sharing young adult literature with each other. I don't know which book made reading click for Hannah, but she is picking up my good habits of carrying a book with her almost everywhere and creating her own book stacks in her room. When I see my children pick up a book and read just because they want to, my heart is overjoyed. Worrier that I am, I had a difficult time waiting on Hannah to show any kind of interest in reading for enjoyment. Rebecca is getting there, but she is more interested in drawing and watching the Discovery Health channel. (Actually, everyone at my home is a little confused as to her fascination with Discovery Health, but that's another blog. I'm not going to discourage that interest, though. There must be something going on in that head of hers that is interested in medicine.)