Teen Board

Realistic fiction is a unique genre in YA because it illustrates challenging situations you may not have personally experienced but connects you to emotions you have. Whether it's uncovering life-altering secrets, making a tough choice, coming to terms with your sexuality or finding your voice, realistic fiction addresses themes relevant to real life. To highlight some of their fantastic realistic fiction, Macmillan established their ReaLITy program. Our Teen Board decided to check out these reads and respond to them in this blog series.

When was the last time you saw your fellow classmates nose-to-pages riveted to the thick works of Dickens? Or sighing, melancholy, over Shakespeare at the beach? Um. Never.

My mother has always been avid about reading, sometimes more so than myself. During my youngest days, she would read me to bed each night, and as I grew older, I was reading to her. When I discovered the Goosebumps series in the second grade, I would relay the latest twists and turns of each chapter to her with childish fervor. As far as I was aware, she paid close attention to my ramblings. By the time I was in the fifth grade, I had gravitated toward the lumbering shelf of books that was in our living room. It was comprised mostly of Mary Higgins Clark, a mystery and suspense writer. Intrigued, I went to my mother and asked her about them. She went on to tell me about her lifelong love of Mary Higgins Clark, and how Clark had been responsible for her interest in reading.

If you can’t figure out what to do while waiting for that sequel you’re dying for, then here are some ideas!

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a huge fan of any novel that has action, adventure and/or fantasy. Those three genres are always what determines what books I buy and read. Now it has occurred to me that maybe I should venture out and try some different genres. Maybe I’d like the different genre just as much as I like the action/adventure/fantasy novels. However, I’ve always pushed that thought aside. I’ve read some novels out of my normal genre…and I never truly enjoyed them. I love the thrill of adventure and action, the whimsical feel of reading a fantasy novel.  To be quite honest, I’ve never read another novel that had such thrill, until last night, that is.

Have you ever felt like other people don’t understand your passion for reading? I know I have! Here are some of the most common problems I come across while reading.

We recently asked our Teen Board to tell us their favorite book quotations. You probably have one yourself --- you read an excellent book and a line just sticks with you. You may not know why (and maybe not even care), but there it is, in the back of your mind, on the tip of your tongue or on the back of your eyelids. It speaks to you in some way, and that's all that matters. Maybe you even recite it during the perfect moment, and you smile to yourself because it's your own inside joke. Let's see which quotations stood out to a few members of the Teen Board and maybe you'll get to know them a little better this way.

The last novel of a beloved series is always one of the saddest books to read. You begin quickly, zooming through the pages. But as you reach the last page, you slowly realize that this is it. That series is over. Although all final books in the series are “final,” the author always gives you something to think about and explore after you've finished the book.

On Saturday, May 18th, I was fortunate enough to be able to go the 8th annual Teen Book Festival in Rochester, NY at Nazareth College. This is an event where many different YA and Middle Grade authors are able to join their readers for Q&A sessions, and autographing session.