For today's Follow Friday, I recommend Readergirlz. It's a cutting-edge literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Award for Innovations in Reading. The readergirlz mission is to promote teen literacy and corresponding social service. It's a nonprofit volunteer organization and was launched in March 2007, in celebration of Women's National History Month. Readergirlz was cofounded by critically acclaimed YA authors - Dia Calhoun (Avielle of Rhia), Lorie Ann Grover (Hold Me Tight), Justina Chen (North of Beautiful), and Janet Lee Carey (Stealing Death).

This month's theme is Loyalty and there's even a cool playlist to go along with the theme each month. Check it out!

Family.  Can mess you up or keep you together.  Sometimes both at once.  As is illustrated in Sarah Ockler's brilliant FIXING DELILAH, a beautifully-rendered story of family secrets, mother-daughter miscommunication and forgiveness.

Last year I read an article in the New York Times about the absence of parents in Young Adult literature.  There seems to be no place for them.  In child development, I was taught that socially, the peer group becomes all-encompassingly important in the teen years, and YA books do tend to reflect that.  But this article suggested that perhaps we are doing parents a disservice by cutting them out entirely.  Because some of the greatest struggles teens can have are with their parents.

Ockler brings the parent-teen relationship to the forefront of her latest novel.  It’s about the struggle between Delilah Hannaford and her single, workaholic mother, as they spend the summer dispensing with the worldly goods of Delilah’s newly deceased grandmother.  Whom she has not seen or heard from in eight years.  And has no idea why.  So it is the story of two mothers and two daughters, all told from Delilah’s incisive and thoughtful point of view.

Fortunately for Delilah (and for us), her “summer best friend” still lives next door to her grandmother’s lake house.  And he is gorgeous.  Not to give too much away, but Ockler writes romance the way it truly feels, light and shivery and intense and catastrophic and confusing.  I want to keep her book on my writing desk for those days I get stuck trying to write a kiss.  Because she does it well.  With freshness and delight.  And I love that she credits her husband at the end as “the reason it’s easy for me to write about falling in love.”

FIXING DELILAH is not going to be shelved with the hot trends in YA:  it is not paranormal or dystopian, it has no angels, no wars.  It has a beautiful summer-green cover, no black in sight.  It is about relationships and how we survive them, how they make us stronger.  Yes, it made me cry.  Several times.  But it also made me glad to be a reader and a writer in an industry that publishes books by Sarah Ockler.  The world is richer for her effort.

Sometimes I want to read a book because of who wrote it.
Last week Sara Zarr delivered a powerful message at the winter SCBWI conference. "They say write the book you want to read. I'm going to give the speech that I need to hear," Sara told us. "The time between when you're no longer a beginner but have yet to break into the business is probably the hardest in your career," she said.

"Your greatest creation is your creative life. It's all in your hands. Rejection can't take it away; reviews can't take it away. The life you create for yourself as an artist, may be the only thing that's really yours. Create a life you can center yourself in calmly as you wait for you work to grow."

Sara's comments reminded me of her wonderful book, Once Was Lost, that was just released in paperback. The thoughtful, honest words she shared with fellow writers in her keynote address is exactly the same sentiment that shines through in this story. It's a story of faith, unusual perhaps in today's market, but beautiful in language and layers of complexity.

About the book (as described on her website):

Samara Taylor used to believe in miracles. She used to believe in a lot of things. As a pastor’s kid, it’s hard not to buy in to the idea of the perfect family, a loving God, and amazing grace. But lately, Sam has a lot of reason to doubt. Her mother lands in rehab after a DUI and her father seems more interested in his congregation than his family. When a young girl in her small town is kidnapped, the local tragedy overlaps with Sam’s personal one, and the already-worn thread of faith holding her together begins to unravel.

*Utah Book Award Winner
*INSPY Award Winner
*A Kirkus Best Book of 2009
*An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
*Starred reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus

The Muses are always eager to share new discoveries and talent, but it's also wonderful to pick up a great paperback from a writer that inspired us all to remember "Your greatest creation is your creative life." Sometimes you want to read an award winning book from "a colleague, comrade and friend."

If you're a big fan of YA reads, chances are you've already heard about Beth Revis's ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. This is the one with that first chapter--yes, that one--that made rounds a few months ago for its sheer brilliance. (I officially no longer want to be cryogenically frozen, thank you very much. And reading that first chapter, almost.... almost send me into fits of how can I ever be that good?-ness. Okay... it did.) Needless to say, this book had me counting down the days to its release (1.11.11 - nice, huh?)

Well shucks, guys. How can I say it except plainly? I really loved this book.

UNIVERSE is a triple threat: Great writing, great plot, great characters. What more can you ask for? Seriously? WHAT MORE???

Revis drops us into a world and situation that felt so fresh - a spaceship called Godspeed that's zipping through space en route to colonizing a new planet. Yay for a beautifully realized setting! I could imagine this ship so well, with all its bizarre little intricacies. The best part of setting, in my opinion, is the feeling it brings. With Godspeed, I felt this place. I felt the walls pressing in. I felt the bitter taste of the water. And I really want to try a grav tube sometime.

You have a dual narrative in UNIVERSE (which I love.) Protagonist #1 is Amy, a teenager from Earth who is awakened early from cryogenic sleep. And protagonist #2, Elder, is a teenager on board Godspeed who is destined to lead the ship. These characters were both charming and fully realized, but I have to say, I adored Elder. (See my boy-crazy post) Secondary characters also popped. I think I've known a few of them in my life, particularly Harley, an eccentric painter who is crazy cool.

Finally, the plot in UNIVERSE is a wholly original mix of murder mystery, thriller and dystopian. It's a big story, but it never feels intricate. There are plenty of great twists, right up until the end.

Strongly recommended. I'll be counting down the days to the next installment in this trilogy, too.

Let me guess.... 2.12.12?

Marking it on the calendar, just in case.

This week we're featuring some books we've enjoyed recently, and keeping with our commitment to take the Story Siren's debut challenge, today I'd like to introduce you to debut author Maurissa Guibord's YA novel WARPED.

From Goodreads:

Tessa doesn't believe in magic. Or Fate. But there's something weird about the dusty unicorn tapestry she discovers in a box of old books. She finds the creature woven within it compelling and frightening. After the tapestry comes into her possession, Tessa experiences dreams of the past and scenes from a brutal hunt that she herself participated in. When she accidentally pulls a thread from the tapestry, Tessa releases a terrible centuries old secret. She also meets William de Chaucy, an irresistible 16th-century nobleman. His fate is as inextricably tied to the tapestry as Tessa's own. Together, they must correct the wrongs of the past. But then the Fates step in, making a tangled mess of Tessa's life. Now everyone she loves will be destroyed unless Tessa does their bidding and defeats a cruel and crafty ancient enemy.



I really enjoyed WARPED.  The concept was unique, and I felt like I was reading something I hadn't read before.  I loved the idea of a tapestry, with each thread representing an individual life.  When Tessa pulls a loose thread from the tapestry, she inadvertently takes a life out of the past and brings it into her present.  It doesn't hurt that the life she brings over is the adorable younger son of an earl.  Why yes, I do have a soft spot for sons of titled Englishman, so of course I was charmed byWill.
  
But the novel is about more than Tessa's blossoming romance with Will, it's a layered story about fate and free will, and the ties that bind people together.  I love this type of book, one that keeps me turning the pages, but also leaves me with bigger ideas and questions about life. The story has a unique mix of myth, the paranormal, time travel and history, featuring legends and creatures that have not been overdone.


I also loved that the story had a satisfying ending.  I've read too many books lately that end on a cliffhanger.  WARPED ends nicely, but still leaves room for a sequel.  I don't know if a sequel is in the works, but I would definitely be interested in learning more about Will and how his fate intertwines with Tessa going forward.