Can you believe the A to Z Challenge is almost here?

What is it, you ask? And how can you participate? Bloggers from all over the world write 26 posts in the month of April, one blog for each letter of the alphabet, six days a week with Sundays off. Anyone who blogs or likes to read blogs can join in. Click here to get started!

Here is this year’s scoop from the A to Z Challenge folks:

• Each day of the Challenge, we’ll add a post with the letter of the day to the A to Z Challenge blog. When you’ve posted your entry to your blog, post a comment to the Challenge blog with a link to that day’s post on your blog.
• We’ll also add a status update to our Facebook page each day with that day’s letter. You may also post a link to your daily post as a comment to the latter post, either in addition to or instead of posting the link to the Challenge blog.
• And, we encourage you to post a tweet to Twitter with a link to your blog post. Be sure you add the hashtag #atozchallenge to your tweet, so we can find you.

Bloggers are encouraged to post their April themes on March 20th. So, I hereby announce that my theme this year is

Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators.

Why?

I’m currently writing a YA novel (and have been for a long time now). I have discovered that it’s not easy to write a Young Adult novel, and day by day I have grown to admire authors who write in this genre. I also enjoy reading young adult novels as well as novels with young adult narrators. (Maybe it makes me feel young myself!)

Ruth Graham of Slate wrote an article called “Against YA” in which she admonished adults to read adult rather than young adult literature. Like many readers, I took exception to her essay because I like to read many different types of books, young adult among them. I do, however, agree with her point that a young adult narrator does not necessarily a young adult book make, and that sometimes the adult literary novel with a teen narrator is more powerful, more universal than a popular young adult novel. That’s partly why I’m including both types of books in my theme. You will find young adult lit as well as adult lit with young protagonists. I invite you along for the ride.

Don’t worry. The posts won’t be long–usually just a book or two whose title begins with the letter of the day along with my recommendation or thoughts. That’s it!

What about you? Do you like to read young adult fiction? Are you joining the A to Z Challenge?