There are few things that elicit more dread in a high school student's mind than the words "college applications." The agonizing decisions of where to apply, the endless streams of essays asking you to describe every last particle of your accomplishments and your character and confusing financial aid forms. 

Teen Board member (and high school junior) Alison S. can relate --- and for this reason, decided to read the adult satire EARLY DECISION for a little bit of light-hearted fare on a semi-daunting topic. However, the book turned out to be a bit different than she expected. Read her thoughts below --- and if you're just starting the college application process, you might decide to pick it up for yourself!

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There are few things that elicit more dread in a high school student's mind than the words "college applications." The agonizing decisions of where to apply, the endless streams of essays asking you to describe every last particle of your accomplishments and your character and confusing financial aid forms. 

Teen Board member (and high school junior) Alison S. can relate --- and for this reason, decided to read the adult satire EARLY DECISION for a little bit of light-hearted fare on a semi-daunting topic. However, the book turned out to be a bit different than she expected. Read her thoughts below --- and if you're just starting the college application process, you might decide to pick it up for yourself!

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We know that you visit Teenreads.com because you love to read YA novels, but we bet that there's a significant number that aims to write them, too. Teen Board member Alison S. certainly falls into both categories, and below, she talks about one of the most important aspects of creative writing: characterization. Read about some of her own struggles with this make-or-break-a-book topic, and maybe it will give you some ideas for how to approach your own novel-to-be!

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At Teenreads, we love to review the latest and greatest YA books to hit the shelves. However, we recognize that older books --- sometimes much older books --- have plenty of value, too. In this blog series, Teen Board member Alison S. is writing about some of her favorites and how they remain relevant today. Read below for her third post, about the modern classic Douglas Adams' THE HITCHKIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY.

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At Teenreads, we love to review the latest and greatest YA books to hit the shelves. However, we recognize that older books --- sometimes much older books --- have plenty of value, too. In this blog series, Teen Board member Alison S. is writing about some of her favorites and how they remain relevant today. Read below for the second one, Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, and click here to read her first post on Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN.

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At Teenreads, we love to review the latest and greatest YA books to hit the shelves. However, we recognize that older books --- sometimes much older books --- have plenty of value, too. In this blog series, Teen Board member Alison S. will write about some of her favorites, and how it remains relevant today. Read below for the first one, on Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN.

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Kurt Vonnegut's debut novel PLAYER PIANO takes place in a dystopian society, and according to Teen Board member Alison S., our standardized test-obsessed culture isn't too far off. In her below blog post, she tells teens how they can avoid being like Anita Proteus --- one of the main characters in the book --- and live according to their own desires, and not those of college admissions officers.

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National Library Week ended on Saturday, but our library love continues year-round here at Teenreads! We asked our Teen Board members to share a fond memory of their library or librarian --- read below to see their responses! If you’re interested in more library memories, click here to see last week’s blog post, where we shared our reviewers’ answers.

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