W is for Woe. It’s day 23 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter W Day for my theme Novels for Young Adults. Often teens face more than the usual woe. And for teens, that woe often comes in the form of family troubles. This is the case for both of our novels today. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart This award winning novel generates both love and hate reviews. We Were Liars is narrated by Cadence…
O is for Orphan It’s day 15 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter O Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Have you ever noticed how many young adult novels feature an orphan as the main character? That’s something I’ve thought about for some time. A docent at the Mountain View cemetery in Oakland once told me that the orphan is a symbol of rebirth. (She also told me the…
N is for Never It’s day 14 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter N Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. N is for Never. There’s something about the word never that conjures magical feelings. Maybe it’s growing up devouring the magic of Never Never Land from 19th century writer J.M. Barrie in his memorable work Peter Pan. Other writers no doubt felt the same inspiration and even included the…
K is for Keen it’s day 13 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter K Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. The word keen describes today’s two novels perfectly. I like this word keen because it has so many meanings. Some are finely sharpened, distinctive in perception, eager. These definitions apply to the characters, stories, and writing of the following multi-award winning books. Kira-kira by Cynthia Kadohata This is…
C is for Compass. It’s day 3 of the A to Z Challenge! Otherwise known as the letter C Day for my theme Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators. Today I present two novels suited for young adults though, curiously, neither of these was written for the young adult market. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon Both of these lost narrators embark on a…
Welcome to Day 18 of Blogging A to Z! Be sure to visit the other participating blogs. You can find them here. Book-ish Ghosts Throughout the April challenge, you get to guess the ghost novel, ghost movie, or ghost beginning with the letter of the day. You can find Book-ish Ghosts contest rules here in the theme reveal. R is for Rascal Yes, indeedy, the ghost of today’s novel is a rascal. Read on for your clues. Clue 1: The Canadian author…
Welcome to Day 17 of Blogging A to Z! Be sure to visit the other participating blogs. You can find them here. Book-ish Ghosts Throughout the April challenge, you get to guess the ghost novel, ghost movie, or ghost beginning with the letter of the day. You can find Book-ish Ghosts contest rules here in the theme reveal. Q is for Quondam Wait, what? Quondam? In my defense, let me just say the letter Q is hard. Besides, there are worse things…
(image courtesy flikr creative commons via photopin) A is for Adoption Welcome to my first day of Blogging A to Z! I hope you enjoy my theme–The Three R’s: Reading, (W)riting, and Research! We’ll begin with the letter…I don’t know…A? I recently figured out (okay, I’m a slow learner) that many of the books I read, all of the books I am in the process of writing, and the one book I published, Moonlight Dancer, relate to adoption–human or canine–in…
(A Dame’s School courtesy of flickr via photopin) So, I’m going to do something new and radical this April. I’m going to participate in Blogging A to Z. That means I will join with a bunch of other bloggers and create a blog post every day in April with Sundays off for good (or bad) behavior. Twenty-six days, twenty-six letters. Check out the cool Blogging A to Z website here. Maybe you’d like to join in. Please do. Cruise…