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.

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The problem with dorm rooms is space. While packing for my first year at Ohio State, I came across the dilemma that I could not possibly bring all my books with me. I would just have to choose. Should I bring the books I love best or those that are most meaningful to me? Or should I bring those that actually might be useful in school?

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Whether you love it or hate it, prom is a big part of the yearly high school calendar. Who is taking whom, what are you going to wear, where you are going to dinner, the fun, the excitement and the prama (prom-drama) seem to be all consuming for weeks prior (sometimes to the ad nauseam). Then it happens! The one magical night that you have been told time and time again you will remember for the rest of your lives. In honor of prom season, some of our junior and senior Teen Board members have written about their thoughts and experiences with prom and have included some excellent prom-themed reading suggestions!

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As an honors and AP student in high school, I have been exposed to classics and have come to appreciate them. Classics often give you a different societal view and challenge you to think about life or the world around you. This promotes critical thinking, but also opens you up to some astonishing realizations, such as the fact that we still face problems such as discrimination or restrictive societal standards today. Not only that, but once you get used to the style, many classics are quite enjoyable!

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We recently asked our Teen Board which book quotations are their favorites. 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.

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During a discussion starting at lunch and ending much later, my friends and I noticed a strange thing. We had been discussing the Harry Potter series and many of our favorite characters were the minor or side characters (Minerva McGonagall for me.) The problem, we realized, was that the main character Harry was likeable but fell flat when compared to the whimsical Luna, acerbic Snape or the hilarious Fred and George Weasley. Herein lays the problem with main characters: while trying to create a protagonist to whom everyone can relate to, the author sometimes turns them into an “average Joe/Jane” that becomes more of a plot device than a character.

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