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I really think Sarah Dessen and I could be best friends. If you're reading this Sarah...send me an email...it's just meant to be! :) Such a brilliant author that can truly channel the teen mind and the need for "real" fiction, the latest piece of work from Dessen has probably become my favorite. I've said that as I've read each one, but really, Along for the Ride is just wonderful!

Auden is an incredibly smart girl, a girl with a great head on her shoulders, but also a girl forced to grow up quickly to impress her academic parents, even after they divorced. Always studying, always doing the right thing, Auden never had much of a childhood, not even having learned how to ride a bicycle, and so far, her teen years haven't been much better. Well this summer, Auden is just sick to death of putting up with her overbearing, uncaring mother and all the graduate students that flit in and out of the woman's life, so she decides to go spend the summer at her father's beach house, with his new wife, and her new baby sister, Thisbe.

Taking a job in her stepmother's fancy beach boutique is about the last thing Auden planned to do, as were falling in love with both a guy and her baby sister, or forgetting to study all summer long. But work, fall in love, and become a "real girl" she does, and the experience is both satisfying and terrifying. Her simple, lonely life has become one filled to the brim with people and emotions and Auden isn't quite sure how to live anymore.

In true Sarah Dessen fashion, the reader gets the overall, perfect YA book experience. The characters feel like they could be kids you go to school with (and they all have fabulous names), the situations are ones that teens today really find themselves in, and the connections Dessen makes between plot, character, and reader is truly remarkable. One of the best I've read this year, by far.

Recommended for all libraries, as gifts, home shelves, wherever. Just go buy it.

I read this for the Spring Reading Thing Challenge and the Young Adult Challenge.

To learn more or to purchase, click on the book cover above to link to Amazon.


Along for the Ride
Sarah Dessen
400 pages
Young Adult
Viking Press
9780670011940
June 2009

Auden hasn’t slept at night since her parents divorce. The daughter of a university professor and a national book award finalist, Auden is your classic overachiever, studious and serious. Suddenly yearning for something different then a summer of preparing for her fall college classes, Auden decides to pack up and go spend the summer with her father and his new family. Things at her father’s

Michael Bourret: The Long Haul...


Michael Bourret, an agent with Dystel & Goderich Literary Management, offered this session in the Published Author Track on how to maintain and build a career over the long term. He feels the career writers need three things: focus, diversity and openness.

In terms of focus, he suggests one's goal as an author is to establish a brand--think Sarah Dessen or Bruce Coville--so buyers and librarians will know how to position your books, and, ultimately, readers will know what to expect from an author. His rule for the authors he represents when they are starting out is that they must publish three books of the same type before they can branch out into other areas.

In terms of diversity, Michael is a believer in writers keeping their day jobs and being involved in other things. It's unhealthy to only talk to other writers, he says. He also cautions against telling anyone the terms of your book deal and details about contracts. He advised keeping up with networking. He told writers to be open to doing revision. And he warned against over-publishing, suggesting no more than one book a year in most cases (talking about trade books).

It takes time to build a career in children's publishing, he said, and publishers are willing to stick with you, even if you don't have stellar sales the first time out if they believe in you as an author.

What's he want in terms of submissions? He'd love a fantastic YA memoir. He loves great middle grade novels and says there's a real market for MG fiction--it's the one place in the children's market that is growing and continues to grow. He's desperate for literary writing for teens. And he wants more books for boys.

One of the many awesome things about getting my book published has been discovering the on-line kidlit community. I think a lot of people know about this community before selling their first book but I lack internet savvy and so it was a wonderful surprise for me. My first discovery was the wonderful Fuse#8 , which is the perfect starting point since she is the center of everything kidlit. Her blog lead me to favorites like Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and Bookshelves of Doom, as well as clueing me in to some great new books.

MySpace lead me to some great YA review blogs, like BookChic, And Another Book Read and the Compulsive Reader. It also lead me to a bunch of author sites. I follow a lot of author blogs now but my favorites are Meg Cabot’s and The Disco Mermaids. I also love blogs of people breaking into the business, like the wonderful Debbi Michiko Florence and Hip Writer Mama.

For years I was embarrassed to be an adult who read kid books. I thought I was the only one and I’d hide the covers of my books when I read on the subway, stuffing my latest YA favorite into my backpack so fast that no one could see that the thirty-something woman across the aisle was reading a book for teens. But now I’m part of this incredible community that loves kid books as much as I do. I know there are thousands of us around the country, reading and loving our teen and MG books. I now display my books with pride, and smile when I see that people are reading over my shoulder. Who wouldn’t want to read over my shoulder when I’m in the middle of BRALESS IN WONDERLAND or the latest Sarah Dessen?!

What I love the most about all these sites is how warm and open people are. This business could be so competitive and mean but instead it’s a group of people bound together by a love of kidlit, who are thrilled to discover another new book by another new author. Which is pretty much a dream come true for this new author!

This month is the one year anniversary of readergirlz! Check out the site's makeover in honor of the occasion.

This month readergirlz are discussing the novel Just Listen by Sarah Desen. Stop by the MySpace forum to talk to Sarah and discuss the book! Want to get your hands on her next book, Lock and Key? Join our Sneak Peek Lock and Key Party Thursday, March 27th at 12:00 PM PST / 3:00 PM EST at the forum.

April's featured book and author: Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
May's featured book and author: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (!!!)

Work has been monumental this week. Through the roof. Stuff upon stuff upon work upon stuff. Your poor little Fuse #8 blog is tired and I'm just not finding the links I need. I guess I can keep pulling out some reviews if worst comes to worst.

That said, this is neat. A little background first, though. All you really need to know are two facts about me:

#1: I think Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer is the finest fantasy title I've seen in a long long time.

#2: I used to work at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library System. I'm a touch fanatical about it, truth be told. Look at it:


What word comes to mind? Castle. Friggin' Greenwich Village castle. It was actually a courthouse once, but to my mind it'll always be a fortress.

Right. So you've established both Fact #1 and Fact #2 squarely in your cranium, yes? Well not long ago I received some links to these bizarre Urban Fairy Doors. Cute, huh? Yeah, so I'm not all airy-fairy normally, but I appreciate fine craftwork and some of these are pretty sweet. Then I see one that says Jefferson Market on it and my heart does this little pitter-pat.

Well, suffice it to say, they weren't talking about MY Jefferson Market. Lackaday. However, the Jefferson Market they are discussing seems to have enough innate drama in and of itself.

Thanks to author Sara Holmes for the links.