Great Books for Kids and Teens is Moving!

You can now find the content from Great Books for Kids and Teens on my other book blog, Book By Book.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this and decided to merge my two book blogs into one. You will still find the same reviews of great books for middle-grade readers, teens, and young adults, as well as YA book news and other fun stuff - that content will just be located at Book By Book, along with reviews of great adult books, too!

In fact, eliminating the duplicate work I have been doing to maintain two book blogs will allow me more time to provide even more content on books for all ages.

And don't worry - Great Books for Kids and Teens won't be disappearing. All the hundreds of archived reviews of books for middle-grade, teen, and YA readers will still be found right here. You can use the keyword search box or click on a category in the right-hand column to search for particular reviews. All new reviews will be posted at Book By Book, where you can find both kid/teen/YA and adult book reviews and news all in one place!

So, hop on over to Book By Book and click the link to follow it so you wont miss a single review! You can also follow Book By Book on Facebook. See you there!

Young Book Bloggers

I enjoyed reading this article in Publisher's Weekly about young book bloggers at the recent Book Expo America Convention. The article profiles several book bloggers who attended BEA and are under 21 years old.

I also enjoyed checking out the blogs featured in the article:

Reading Teen - started by two moms, it has now been taken over by their teen children! The moms are still involved but now a small group of teens writes most reviews.

Blogger [Heart] Books - a book blog run jointly by Lanna and Julie (18).

Page to Premier - cofounded by Kimmy (20) focuses on YA books being made into movies. Kimmy also hosts Mockingjay.net, which is all about the Hunger Games movies.

What are your favorite book blogs hosted by teens and young people?

Found Bookmarks

Have you ever found an unusual bookmark in a library book or used book you purchased or borrowed?  It's often a quirky little bit of serendipity that makes you wonder about the book's previous readers!

This happened within our own home a couple of weeks ago.  My 16-year old son, Jamie, was home sick and reading straight through the entire series of Orson Scott Card's that begins with Ender's Game.  He was reading book 3, Xenocide, when he called me over to show me what he'd found stuck in its pages - this adorable little laminated photo of himself, at about 18 months old, sitting on Santa's lap!  That must have been the last time I read the book.

This unexpected find made us both smile and reminded me that I'd heard before about blogs that post odd bookmarks found within books.  Here are two of them:  Forgotten Bookmarks and Pre-Owned Bookmarks.

I typically use real bookmarks to mark my place - paper ones from our local indie bookstore or nice ones I received as gifts - but my husband uses whatever slip of paper he finds nearby - receipts, golf score cards, greeting cards, etc.  Jamie doesn't use bookmarks at all - he just remembers what page he was on!  I could never do that.


How about you?  What do you use as bookmarks?  And what is the oddest thing you have ever found stuck in a borrowed or second-hand book?

Tag! You're It

I was tagged by Jan @ Eating Y.A. Books. Thanks, Jan!

Rules of the game:

Accept the tag and link to the tagger at the beginning of your post.

Answer the questions honestly in your post by listing four things.

Pass on the love by picking four other people to tag and listing them at the bottom of your post. Notify them that you tagged them.


4 Things That Are In My Handbag

- A 4-section, mini notebook where I write down books I want to read, things I need to do, gift ideas, music I like, and all sorts of other things.
- My wallet which is stuffed full of receipts but usually very little cash!
- Cell phone (I never carried a purse until I had a cell phone - then it became too much to carry in my pockets).
- Reading glasses, a new addition!  How come print keeps getting smaller?

4 Favorite Things In My Bedroom:

- BOOKS!

- 3 pillows each for me and my husband

- My journals - a daily one, a Joy Journal, vacation journals, and more!

- My dark sock, on my nightstand, for covering my eyes when the morning light wakes me up too early.

4 Things On My Desk: 

- My very old eMac, severely outdated but still loved!

- My new MacBook, only when it needs to be charged.

- A picture of my niece when she was a baby.

- 10 years' worth of Family Fun magazines (I write for FF)

4 Things I've Always Wanted To Do (but haven't yet):

- Travel all over the world
- Take my kids all over the world
- Publish a memoir
- Did I mention travel??


4 Things I Enjoy Very Much At the Moment

- Reading 

- Camping
- Family road trips
- My book groups

4 Songs I Can't Get Out Of My Head:

Wow, it's different every day!  Here are some I hear a lot (mostly because my son plays the same songs over and over) that sometimes get stuck:
- Hey, Soul Sister
- Edge of Seventeen
- Living on a Prayer (he played this one a dozen times while doing his homework last night!)
- Dynamite

4 Things You Don't Know About Me: 

- I have a degree in Chemical Engineering, though I haven't worked in that field in a while now.

- I was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Rochester, NY.

- Both of my sons and I all have an immune system disorder known in the US by the very misleading name Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that has dramatically changed our lives.

- I met my husband in New Orleans, where we both used to live (we both worked for a DuPont plant there and he was assigned to be my mentor!)

 4 Bloggers I am Tagging:

So many good blogs to choose from!  Here are some of my favorite blogs that cover kids/teens books:

 

1.  Julie at My Book Retreat
2. Andrea at The Little Bookworm 
3.  Anne at My Head is Full of Books
4.  Polishing Mud Balls

 Tag, you're it!  Have fun with it.

The Dead Dad Syndrome

I read an article this week in Publisher's Weekly about the abundance of orphans in children's and teen/YA novels.  I had to laugh at this one because our family has noticed this before.  My husband complains that all Dads in stories are either dead or really inept!  And it seems like every time we start a new audio book with the kids, the parents are either dead or die in the first chapter!  It's a great article - hope you enjoy it!