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Posted on 2/25/2011
February's theme at readergirlz is loyalty. When discussing this theme, these teens thought of their friends, their families, and their pets, among other things.
Posted on 1/31/2011
Don't you just love a feel-good song playing in the background when you're reading a good book? When I asked folks to suggest songs about loyalty for our February playlist at readergirlz, the music recommendations came pouring in! This month's playlist includes:
Stand By Me by Ben E. King
Don't Leave My Mind by Azure Ray
I'll Be There by The Spinners
Just When You're Leaving by Joanna Pacitti
Lean On Me by Al Green
I'll Stand By You by The Pretenders
Mordred's Lullaby by Heather Dale
At Your Side by The Corrs
I Will by The Beatles
Touch Me by The Doors
Sway by Bic Runga
I'll Be by Edwin McCain
I'll Be There by The Jackson 5
For Good from the musical Wicked
Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne
Stay by Lisa Loeb
Click here to listen!
(Note: Not all of the songs were available on Project Playlist.)
Posted on 12/10/2010
On Monday, readergirlz will be featuring Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan. What are your favorite examples of compassion? Send @micolz a direct message or an @-reply on Twitter, or leave a comment at the rgz blog, and you may see your response in her post on Monday morning!
Add a Comment
By: Kimberly Pauley,
on 11/30/2010
BREAKING NEWS! readergirlz and First Book are partnering to give away more than 125,000 brand-new books to low-income teen readers. They’re great books, too, donated by generous publishers. Among the three dozen choices are P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s HOUSE OF NIGHT series and Alyson Noël’s SHADOWLAND.
We need your help getting the word out about the A Novel Gift campaign. Right now! Right now! As in, now!
Let's get organizations serving these teens registered with First Book so they can be matched with inventory during the holidays.
Here’s what we need you to do:
Post to Facebook and tweet your beak off about these books using the hashtag #novelgift.
Here’s a tinyurl link to their registration page: http://tinyurl.com/2a5mwpj.
Or you can link to this blog post: http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/2010/11/novel-gift-over-125000-free-books-to.html
Then, get in touch with every group you can think of that works with young adults–schools, after-school programs, church youth groups, community centers, etc.—and let them know that these books are available now.
The five-minute online registration these groups can use is here:
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/register/
First Book is also eager to answer questions, either by email to [email protected]
By: Kimberly Pauley,
on 11/30/2010
BREAKING NEWS! readergirlz and First Book are partnering to give away more than 125,000 brand-new books to low-income teen readers. They’re great books, too, donated by generous publishers. Among the three dozen choices are P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s HOUSE OF NIGHT series and Alyson Noël’s SHADOWLAND.
We need your help getting the word out about the A Novel Gift campaign. Right now! Right now! As in, now!
Let's get organizations serving these teens registered with First Book so they can be matched with inventory during the holidays.Here’s what we need you to do:
Post to Facebook and tweet your beak off about these books using the hashtag #novelgift.
Here’s a tinyurl link to their registration page: http://tinyurl.com/2a5mwpj.
Or you can link to this blog post: http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/2010/11/novel-gift-over-125000-free-books-to.html
Then, get in touch with every group you can think of that works with young adults–schools, after-school programs, church youth groups, community centers, etc.—and let them know that these books are available now.
The five-minute online registration these groups can use is here:
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/register/
First Book is also eager to answer questions, either by email to [email protected]
Posted on 11/30/2010
BREAKING NEWS! readergirlz and First Book are partnering to give away more than 125,000 brand-new books to low-income teen readers. They’re great books, too, donated by generous publishers. Among the three dozen choices are P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s HOUSE OF NIGHT series and Alyson Noël’s SHADOWLAND.
We need your help getting the word out about the A Novel Gift campaign. Right now! Right now! As in, now!
Let's get organizations serving these teens registered with First Book so they can be matched with inventory during the holidays.Here’s what we need you to do:
Post to Facebook and tweet your beak off about these books using the hashtag #novelgift.
Here’s a tinyurl link to their registration page: http://tinyurl.com/2a5mwpj.
Or you can link to this blog post: http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/2010/11/novel-gift-over-125000-free-books-to.html
Then, get in touch with every group you can think of that works with young adults–schools, after-school programs, church youth groups, community centers, etc.—and let them know that these books are available now.
The five-minute online registration these groups can use is here:
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/register/
First Book is also eager to answer questions, either by email to [email protected], or by phone at 866-READ-NOW or 866-732-3669.
If you particip
Posted on 11/27/2010
Over at readergirlz, we asked folks to suggest songs about compassion for our December playlist. Here's what we came up with:
Sally by Jonatha Brooke
Serena by Duncan Sheik
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel
One by U2
Fix You by Coldplay
Explode by The Cardigans
Love a Diamond by Tonic
When You Come Back Down by Nickel Creek
If you want to take a listen, visit the readergirlz blog after December 1st. (I'm posting this a few days early at my blog.)
Posted on 11/27/2010
Are you ready to wade across The River? This intriguing novel by Mary Jane Beaufrand is one of this month's recommended titles at readergirlz. Mary Jane Beaufrand, the author of The River, shared this deeply personal story with us:
My sister Ann is a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed in 2007, has been in remission since 2008. But recently, a full two years being pronounced healthy, she had herself a good freakout.
Here’s the sitch: she wanted to swim laps at the Open Swim Hour at her local high school, and didn’t want to be seen changing in the girls’ locker room. The problem? The scars from her bilateral mastectomy. Don’t get me wrong—she had reconstructive surgery, so from five paces away she looks perfectly normal. But that scrawny hairline scar still stretches from one side of her ribcage to the other. Uber-dramatic up close. Like in a locker room.
“Girls that age just don’t understand,” she told me. “They still think you can be perfect.”
I nodded and made noises like I agreed, but five minutes after I left her, realized that she was dreading the judgment of teenage girls as much as she dreaded chemo. Huh. Something was definitely off.
I kept going back our conversation when Readergirlz asked me to blog about resilience. Believe me, I’d much rather write about things that invoke a different kind of response, like moose drool. Or donuts. (Or, as my daughter would add, moose drool *on* donuts. She gets a kick out of stuff like that.)
But it seems to me there’s a nugget in my sister’s dread that’s worth exploring. Because I think the issue of teenage judgment—both real and imagined—has more to do with resilience than it would first appear. I’m thinking of my sister’s scars, but I’m also thinking of Spirit Day this past October 20, and the glut of teen suicides in the wake of bullying. When I was listening to NPR last week, a commentator was talking about this subject and mentioned that, while some of the bullied suicides were gay, not all of them were. The common denominator was that they were perceived to be different.
It seems to me that a major component of resilience is tolerance, both in yourself and the people around you. If you’re going through an episode in your life where you have to be strong, it’s important to find someone who, if they can’t identify with what you’re going through, can at least imagine going through it. Those tolerant, understanding buddies? They may not be the ones you think.
In The River, my heroine, Veronica Severance, makes a series of mistakes along those lines. At the beginning of the book, she’s judgmental of the people around her, thinking that since she’s a transplant from the city, she’s better than her neighbors in the country. Ya-huh. You just know attitude can’t continue.
Secondly, she’s drawn to people based on the way they dress and their taste in music. And yes, in real life those things can really endear someone to you, but they don’t go deep enough to tell you about their true character. It’s no accident that, in order to see the truth about the people around her, Veronica has to be submerged in something that’s much more treacherous than it looks on the surface. Surfaces can lie.
So that’s about it. If you’re in need of resilience, I’m with you. Stay strong. Practice tolerance and seek out tolerant buddies. Veronica’s mother would also tell you that comfort food helps, and to be sure to enjoy a donut now and then.
But please, for my sake, hold the moose drool.
- Mary Jane Beaufrand
Posted on 11/1/2010
Posted on 11/1/2010
Happy day after Halloween, all! Are you as chocolate-hungover as I am? Darn those magical elves at Hersheys!
Sugar crash notwithstanding, I'm thrilled to report that today marks the kickoff of my duties as Author Liaison and Diva over at the readergirlz blog. My first post has just gone live, so if, like me, you're a huge fan of Lauren Oliver, swing by and read all about BEFORE I FALL, our featured title! Lauren talks about our theme of the month, resilience, and it should surprise exactly no one that she has only brilliant things to say. Stop by and join the conversation!
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By: Lorie Ann Grover,
on 10/21/2010
As we get ready to change to our new format, I wanted to reflect on how we came to be, remember what we've done together, and just pause to appreciate our journey. I made this for all of you. Thank you for being a part of rgz. Thanks for the lemonade. :~)
Feel free to repost!
Posted on 10/20/2010
By: Kimberly Pauley,
on 10/19/2010
From Lorie Ann Grover, co-founder of readergirlz:
Hey rgz,
As we get ready to celebrate Teen Read Week together, we also wanted to celebrate rgz upcoming new format.
This October is our last feature as you know it. So be sure to share the love with Laini in these remaining weeks.
So what's up? Well, how about the realization that we ALL read way more than one book a month, right? And the postergirlz pick such awesome recommends. How about this:
* the divas choose a theme a month
* you nominate songs for that theme, and Little Willow will build the playlist
* we'll have a community service spotlight for the theme
* the postergirlz'll nominate the very best YA books for the theme, new releases or old
* one book will be featured EVERY Monday
*squeeeeee* Our Author Liaison diva, Micol Ostow, will be outreaching to each weekly feature for a guest blog post and will invite them to hang with us in the comments. If the author is under deadline and can't make it over, we'll still have a post and be able to chat it up, share the love, leave questions, and so on.
The readergirlz website will continue to hang with a final issue, hence that playlist you all helped build. And the fabbity archives will remain available for your book clubs and libraries.
Feel free to spread the news and be ready for quick changing content of the very best in the children's lit industry. Of course we'll still have Cover Stories and Story Secrets and other posts of awesome that the divas bring to the table. The rgz SALON and Street Team will also continue with their posts, along with reports from our rgz HOSTS across the country.
You know we are always looking for great ways to further teen literacy and social service. Watch for this changeover on November 1. So, what do you think?
Enjoy Teen Read Week, and always, always, always: Read, Reflect, and Reach Out!
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 10/18/2010
'Jackass 3D' breaks box-office record (for highest-grossing October opening with a $50 million score at the box office this past weekend) (MTV News)
- Microsoft plans blockbuster launch for Kinect (pouring a $500 billion budget into a "major... Read the rest of this post
Posted on 10/16/2010
From Lorie Ann Grover, co-founder of readergirlz:
Hey rgz,Add a Comment
As we get ready to celebrate Teen Read Week together, we also wanted to celebrate rgz upcoming new format.
This October is our last feature as you know it. So be sure to share the love with Laini in these remaining weeks.
So what's up? Well, how about the realization that we ALL read way more than one book a month, right? And the postergirlz pick such awesome recommends. How about this:
* the divas choose a theme a month
* you nominate songs for that theme, and Little Willow will build the playlist
* we'll have a community service spotlight for the theme
* the postergirlz'll nominate the very best YA books for the theme, new releases or old
* one book will be featured EVERY Monday
*squeeeeee* Our Author Liaison diva, Micol Ostow, will be outreaching to each weekly feature for a guest blog post and will invite them to hang with us in the comments. If the author is under deadline and can't make it over, we'll still have a post and be able to chat it up, share the love, leave questions, and so on.
The readergirlz website will continue to hang with a final issue, hence that playlist you all helped build. And the fabbity archives will remain available for your book clubs and libraries.
Feel free to spread the news and be ready for quick changing content of the very best in the children's lit industry. Of course we'll still have Cover Stories and Story Secrets and other posts of awesome that the divas bring to the table. The rgz SALON and Street Team will also continue with their posts, along with reports from our rgz HOSTS across the country.
You know we are always looking for great ways to further teen literacy and social service. Watch for this changeover on November 1. So, what do you think?
Enjoy Teen Read Week, and always, always, always: Read, Reflect, and Reach Out!
Posted on 10/16/2010
As posted at Holly Cupala at at the readergirlz blog:
Posted on 10/5/2010
Posted on 10/4/2010
Last month, I posted an open invitation to the Hopewell Hotel, asking if anyone was interested in participating in a roundtable discussion of September's picks, Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson. Before I knew it, I had a number of volunteers, ready and willing to talk about hotel life, New York City, Law & Order, and unicycling actors - not necessarily in that order.
Little Willow: Let's jump right in. What was your favorite part of Suite Scarlett?
Melissa Walker: Being introduced to the Martin family was sheer delight. I've never met characters whom I wanted to know in real life so quickly. I think my favorite parts were the intros to each of them -- I was so excited to hang out with them for a while!
Lindsay F: When Spencer punched Eric. Big brother to the rescue!
Marjolein: I loved that there was a big piece for theater,(I think Suite Scarlett itself would be a perfect story to turned into a play!) the long gone glory of the Hopewell and the mysterious Mrs.Amberson with her even more eccentric demands.
Little Willow: What was your favorite scene in Scarlett Fever?
SamanthaRowan: When Max muscles Dakota out of being Scarlett's lab partner. It's a good piece of foreshadowing and it reaches all of us on a deep level. We all remember the pressure of finding a lab partner or being picked for the dodge ball team.
Melissa Walker: I loved it when Scarlett met Lola for lunch and they finally talked openly about things with Chip. It felt so real and sisterly, especially for these two girls who love each other but don't always communicate well. Fantastic moment.
Lindsay F: When Scarlett pushed Max off his stool. ...I think I just may like violence in MJ's books.
Mariah: When Spencer got pelted with doughnuts!
Little Willow: Do you think Suite Scarlett warranted a sequel? Why or why not?
Micol Ostow: Definitely! Scarlett and her world are so colorful that I think there must be infinite sequels and stories to tell!
Mariah: Yes, because the characters could never stop giving wonderful stories and making messes of things!
SamanthaRowan: Yes. There were certainly enough story lines to follow. There's probably a logical sequel to Scarlett Fever too.
Melissa Walker: Yes, and I would very much like to follow the Martin siblings into middle age. Please, Maureen?
Lindsay F: I think Suite Scarlett was a good stand alone novel. However I think Scarlett will always be doing something worth writing about. I feel like Scarlett Fever was more of a cliff hanger than S.S.
Marjolein: Defininetly warrented a sequel, and I am still curious what is going to happen now that I finished reading Scarlett Fever.
Little Willow: Which of Scarlett's siblings did you like the most? Why?
Olivia Wood (elfarmy17): Oh, Spencer, definitely. He's the older brother I've always wanted. He has his own life, but he's okay with sharing parts of it with Scarlett. As she says (somewhere in a paragraph regarding Spencer's past girlfriends, I think), Spencer “always shared the stuff that mattered.” They're the epitome of what I think two siblings' relationship should be: separate people who do their own stuff, but still incredibly close.
Mariah: Spencer! He is one of the few male characters in a book, who is not the love interest, that I have fallen for! Without any egging on by the main character's feelings, I fell head over heels!
Little Willow: Spencer was my favorite Martin as well.
SamanthaRowan: Spencer. I can feel him with the most clarity. I still have a little trouble believing he's straight, though.
Melissa Walker: Oh, okay, I'm going with Spencer to
Posted on 9/29/2010
Today I'm over at the YA Contemps blog, talking about April Henry's latest release, GIRL, STOLEN, for our Spotlight Wednesday feature. It's a great, compulsive read, so definitely check it out (but not unless you've got a chunk of time to devote, because it's hard to put down)!
I'm also very excited to be spreading the word about October's featured author over at readergirlz, Laini Taylor. If you haven't yet read LIPS TOUCH, now's the time - preferably before Laini's upcoming Twitter chat on 10/20!
So there's my blog post, utterly honest in its title representation - two awesome authors who are not me. Get reading!
Posted on 9/22/2010
Posted on 9/21/2010
Posted on 9/19/2010
A few years ago, I read The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It by Lisa Shanahan and thought it was delightful. (Read my full-length review of the novel.) Lisa recently shared the backstory of this book with me, which I'll post both here at Bildungsroman and at the readergirlz blog, since the book is one of our recommended reads for September. Here now is Lisa with the story behind the story:
I first began writing my novel The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It during a heartbreakingly difficult time in my own family. In the late nineties, my older sister gave birth to triplets, only to be diagnosed days later with cancer. Months after that, my dad was also diagnosed with cancer too. Then followed this extraordinary year, where we had the intense pleasure of watching the triplets who were so little, grow fatter and funnier and more content - saying first words, eating their first solids, taking their first steps, embracing life - but also the agony of watching my dad and sister get sicker and sicker. One of the hardest things about that time was coping with the extreme, sudden swings between joy and sadness, nearly every single day.
Although none of these actual events appear in my novel, in some strange way, the emotional texture of that time - the tenderness, the fear, the confusion and even the happiness got woven into a story about a girl called Gemma Stone, who is in the middle of one of the most difficult years of her life too. She is the one trying to find the courage to say the big 'I do' to everything this life offers; her wacky, eccentric family, the charismatic Raven De Head, her sister's bizarre fiancé, bridesmaids and in-laws, school, drama, Nick Lloyd - the whole bittersweet glory of loving people up close.
I hoped to write Gemma's story in a way that would make a reader both laugh and cry, sometimes almost in the same breath because this was something I experienced in my own family. Emma Quay, an Australian illustrator that I often work with, once said to me about my books, "You have a whole gallery of flawed, imperfect families." To which I could only laugh and agree because this is the place from which I write.
- Lisa Shanahan
Posted on 9/16/2010
Have you checked out our postergirlz recommended reads for September? Our non-fiction pick is Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Genealogist by Buzzy Jackson. She offered up these words of wisdom for you aspiring writers lurking here and at the readergirlz blog:
How to Write
Sure we all know how to write: a series of letters forming words, forming sentences, forming paragraphs... et cetera. So why is it so difficult to write in a way that expresses who we are inside and what we feel? For most of us there's one big reason: fear of the less-than-perfect.
It took me two books and hundreds of pages to get over my own fears of not writing well enough. Well enough for... what, exactly? Ah, there's never a good answer to that question.
Most of us can come up with a cool idea for a poem, a story, or even a Facebook post, but when it comes time to put the words down on the screen, we're suddenly faced with the fact that what we're feeling doesn't quite match what we're writing. It's just not good enough – that's what we tell ourselves, anyway.
Stop telling yourself that! I'm serious: Just stop it. The very first step to writing well is to learn to make that inner "it's-not-good-enough" voice shut up. We all hear it, but the folks who learn to ignore it are the ones who end up making things: books, songs, fashion, films... You must start ignoring the critic inside your head.
Will ignoring the critic make you a good writer? Not by itself, but it will allow you to do one of the two things good writing requires: practice writing. Just like dancing or biking or drawing, the more you write, the better you get at it.
The second thing every good writer does is read – a lot. Read as much as you can and read everything you can. Try to mix your genres: science fiction one week, Joseph Conrad the next. Personally I find that good books fall into two categories: those that are so good they intimidate you and make you afraid to even attempt your own writing, and those that are so good they inspire you to sit down and write your own great book.
The next time you get a good idea, take one of those inspiring books with you for courage, sit down, and just start writing. Tell the inner critic to shut up, and just write. No matter what the result, know this: you've just overcome something most people can't: fear of not being good enough. You're good enough. And the more you write, the better you're going to be at it.
- Buzzy Jackson
Posted on 9/14/2010
Now that it's September, I'm officially back in NYC full-time! Though I miss the quiet of 90 open acres and no one around but my fam, it's nice to be back with friends, and back into the book scene. Last night I attended the B&N Back to School Bast, where I heard readings from new releases and heard a rockin' performance from TIger Beat, the best (and to my knowledge only) YA-author rock band around.
Tiger Beat (pictured above) is Daniel Ehrenhaft, Natalie Standiford, Barnabus Miller, and Libba Bray. And if you like their books, you'll love their music.
Read more about the night and other recent goings-on about the town in my readergirlz NYC host post from earlier today.
For those of you who don't know, I've been hosting for readergirlz since March 2009, writing up the various literary events that happen in and around my fine city. As of November, I'll be taking on a new role at the site, coordinating content from featured authors. My first author will be Lauren Oliver, whose novel, BEFORE I FALL, blew me away.
What else? Oh! While I was upstate, I fell MADLY in love with my Kindle. Too bad I only began this affair AFTER I returned from my 5-week honeymoon - it would have been great for traveling. Well, maybe on the next marriage.
(I kid, I kid...)
But yeah, Kindle. Didn't think I'd be into it, now I can't put it down. Back in January, I joined up with some other authors in a challenge to read
100 books this year. I'm now somewhere in the 80's, and I think I have the convenience of the kindle to thank for that.
What about the rest of you? Where do you come down on the subject of e-books?
