My Life in…

Leila at Bookshelves of Doom pointed out the similarities between the covers of Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers and Leap of Faith by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Looking at the December 08 releases, I found yet another copycat cover.

Two books released in the same month with the same cover art? If I had any photography ability I think I would make a lot of money shooting stock photos of teenagers and exclusively licensing them for YA book covers.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is excellent, but I think it’s not a YA book and will be voting it off the JHunt Island very soon. Sometimes I wonder if I give Gaiman too much credit because everything sort of sounds better in British English, but there are lots of lines in this book that just stand out as great writing. It was a bit episodic to me and the end was interesting but the narrative should have gotten to that part of the story sooner, but I think this would be a great book to booktalk to sixth graders. Just tell them about the first chapter, and that will hook them in.

Grade: A-
Book #96 of 2008

Getting the Girl started out a little too slowly for me, and I’m starting to see a real trophe in the use of the beta teenage male. Don’t get me wrong, I love beta males, but I think that the overuse of them in YA literature isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially when written by women writers. In spite of this, I did like the main character a lot, and loved how the defiling was resolved, but overall I didn’t think this was super special. Great cover though.

Grade: B
Book #95 of 2008

Harry, a History was really interesting. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan and from the release of book five on was an obsessed fan, reading fanfic and gobbling up all the news on the fan sites. I didn’t learn a lot I didn’t know from this book but it was interesting to see how everything unfolded in the Harry Potter universe, and I liked Melissa’s personal story and anecdotes just as much. My only quibble was that in discussing fandom, she used people’s real names often without mentioning their handles, which made it difficult for me to connect the authors I love to her comments. It took me half the book to realize her friend was Arabella even though she’s one of the biggest and best fanfic writers out there. You’d have to be a huge fan to enjoy this book but it is worth the read.

Grade: A
Book #94 of 2008

Deadville was a departure from Ron Koertge’s other books, and I think I was a bit disappointed at the dreary negative tone. His other books are much more humorous and rely on depth of character more than the angst typical in a lot of other YA books. It was well written and enjoyable, but I just think I like his other books better.

Grade: B
Book #93 of 2008

Let It Snow was a little uneven, and I think I’m just not a super huge fan of novellas. Maureen Johnson’s story in particular would have been much stronger if it had a full novel to develop over. I liked John Green’s story the best, and enjoyed how Lauren Myracle’s story tied the three stories together so successfully but overall, I think I’d just rather read their novels.

Grade: B
Book #92 of 2008

I was watching Dirty Sexy Money last night (thank you Tivo) and noticed that the episode’s writer was listed as Jake Coburn and wondered if it was the same guy who wrote Prep.  A quick Google search told me it was.

That’s been happening a lot lately.  Liz Tigelaar who wrote the great book PrettyTOUGH writes for Brothers and Sisters (and formerly Dawson’s Creek!).

Of course, there’s Rob Thomas (Rats Saw God) who created Veronica Mars, in addition to having a hand in the new 90210.  Stephen Chbosky (Perks of Being a Wallflower) wrote for Jericho but now that that’s been cancelled I really would like him to write another novel.  Cherie Bennett (Sunset Island) and her husband Jeff Gottesfeld (collectively better known as Zoey Dean) write for The Young and the Restless and have previously written for several other soaps.

Are there any other YA authors writing for TV shows?

Oddly, this month isn’t the best month for book covers. Some of them look nice but they aren’t anything spectacular. There are a lot of series books out this month so the covers just don’t stand out. So I crown just one book this month.