I posted my first review to this site. I had been spamming all my friends and family with one to two YA reviews a week on our family blog. The poor things subscribed to see cute pictures of my baby girl, and I was inundating them with talk of books. Teen books, no less.

In the past year, I’ve learned a lot from you, from other book bloggers, from the books I’ve read, and just from the process of articulating my thoughts on all things YA. But mostly I’ve just learned how much I have yet to learn.

Ultimately, I started this blog to improve my writing, and to share what I learned with others. In a year, I can tell you I’ve definitely come a long way in my own writing.

But you’ll have to tell me whether I hit the mark on the other front. What have you learned from what I’ve written? (Please don’t say you’ve learned that I’m a no-nothing hack with crap taste in books.) What ideas have you gotten from this blog—books to read, ways to write, or anything else?

You are why I do this. Even if all I’ve ever given you is one good book recommendation, I’ll be happy.

No fancy first-birthday hoopla today. But just you wait til Thursday. Just you wait.

Photo by happy via.

I’m working on a special blog project for Thursday, January 21, and I’d like to include as many YA book bloggers as possible.

But first I need more information from you lovely bloggers! So here’s a little quiz for you.

Do you…

1. Have a blog where you post book reviews?
2. Read young adult fiction?
3. Have a LibraryThing account where you rate the books you read?

If you answered “yes” to all 3 questions, please leave a comment with your LibraryThing member name.

Then I’ll contact you soon to share all the super-special-secret details!

Photo by bookgrl.

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Mary E. Pearson
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 5/5
Why I Read It: My Goodreads buddy Lenore liked this book AND it’s a dystopia, so it was only a matter of time, really.

Summary: 17-year-old Jenna has been in a coma for over a year. Now she’s awake, but her parents have moved her to the other side of the country, her body doesn’t feel quite right, and her grandmother hates her.

Review: This book was one of my top 10 favorites of 2009. Why?

• Unnerving story revealed a little at a time? Check.
• Forbidden romantic interest? Check.
• Hints at the direction our society could be heading without coming out and making a “speech”? Yes!

This is an early scene from the book, with Jenna, her mom, and her grandmother Lily:

I push my empty glass away and announce, “I’m going to school today.”

Mother drops her pencil and stares at me. Lily stops beating her eggs.

“I assume I didn’t graduate during the year I was in a coma, so I still need to finish, right?”

Mother hasn’t spoken. Her mouth is open and her head shakes slightly, like my words are ricocheting around inside. Somehow, I find it amusing.

“There’s two village charters within walking distance—I checked the directory on the Net—and the Central Academy is just a short drive.”

“You can’t drive!” The words shoot out of Mother, and then she says more calmly, “School is out of the question. You’re still recovering—”

“I’m fine—”

Mother stands. “I said school is out of the question. Period.”

I hesitate, but then stand, too. “And I say it isn’t.”

Mother is shocked into a marble stance. Neither of us speaks. Finally she looks away. She sits back down. She picks up her pencil. She is calm, smooth, practiced, the mother who seems to know where we are going before I do. “Go to your room, Jenna. You need to rest. Go. Now.”

I am seething. Outraged. Incensed. The words. They’re finally bubbling up in torrents just when I need them.

But the will. It is waning. Mother says I should go to my room. Go to your room, Jenna. Go to your room.

I do.

This is the first book by Pearson I’ve read, and you can bet I’ll be reading more. Have you read any others by her?

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did You Like This Book? Try:

• Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks—My rating: 5/5
• Sweethearts—My rating: 3.5/5
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things
Author: Carolyn Mackler
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Why I Read It: One blogger I follow, Jessica, loved this book, while another, Emily, didn’t think it was all that great. I wanted to see where I’d fall.

Summary: 15-year-old Virginia is fat. Her mother judges her, her father judges her, and everyone at her Manhattan private school judges her. Except for a boy named Froggy.

Review: Virginia is a girl whose spunk inspires you to root for her. The story interested me enough to keep reading, but in the end I didn’t love the book.

This is another case where a character’s young voice wasn’t my thing. I’m considering going back to plot all my book ratings against the main character’s age to see if I find a trend. Any excuse for another spreadsheet!

I also want to try another book by this author—one with an older protagonist—and see if I connect with it better. Any suggestions?

Moving onto my writerly education, here are some lessons reinforced while reading this book:

• Show don’t tell—The show/tell see-saw felt a little lopsided. Poor Show got stuck at the top dangling her legs.
• Tone down the drama—The ending tended toward melodrama. Lots of crying. Sometimes, less is more.
• Watch for adult sayings—For as young as the voice felt, there were a few times when I felt like the author’s adult sensibilities leaked through to the main character, such as in the quote below.

I feel awful that I stormed out of her office last week. I know she only wanted to help me, but I guess it struck a raw nerve. As they say, the truth is always the hardest thing to hear.

That last sentence sounded odd to me coming from a 15-year-old.

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did You Like This Book? Try:

• Fat Kid Rules the World
• Speak—My rating: 5/5
• Looking for Alaska—My rating: 5/5
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing

Can you trust me? Compare our taste!

Title: Twenty Boy Summer
Author: Sarah Ockler
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 3/5
Why I Read It: The cover and the title made it look like a light read, which I was in the mood for after a string of not-light books.

Summary: Anna is getting what she’s always wanted—a summer vacation at the beach with her best friend Frankie. Frankie comes up with a game to find summer romance by meeting a new guy every day, and she convinces Anna to play too. But Frankie doesn’t know that Anna already met the guy she wants—Frankie’s older brother Matt, whom Anna can’t let go.

Review: This is what I get for not checking any reviews of this book or even the jacket blurb before I started reading it. Because it’s not exactly a light romance, like I had expected.

But it turns out that fact is what I like best about the book. As I read, my throat was thick with Anna’s grief for Matt and the guilt she felt for wanting to move on—and even worse, for actually moving on.

The ending tended toward melodrama in parts, but overall this one was a good read.

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

Did You Like This Book? Try:

• The Chosen One
• Prada and Prejudice
• Breathing
• More Recommendations from LibraryThing