Monday, November 30, 2009

2010 YA Debut Author Challenge

One of my Nestie friends, drew my attention to the 2010 YA Debut Author Challenge, being hosted by the The Story Siren.  Basically, this is a challenge to read at least 12 books written by new young adult (YA) or middle grade (MG) authors in the New Year.  I am always up for a book-related challenge, so I am ready to sign right up!

It has been many years since I read YA and MG novels.  I certainly didn't leave them behind when I entered early adulthood, but I had stopped reading them until this year.  However, this year two things happened to change that for me.  The first was the Twilight saga.  My coworkers at the hospital were 100% enamored with these books, and being one to jump on a literary bandwagon whenever one is presented to me, I devoured the four books in the series.  And I loved them.  The second thing that happened was that I heard a lot on the Nest Book Club about the author Sarah Dessen.  And after hearing so much about her, I decided to try her books out.  And I was NOT disappointed!  Her novels are the kind of books I like to read in the adult world, tailored for the high school crowd.  And although I am not in the high school crowd anymore, I am not so old that I can't relate to the themes of friendship, love, and family that are in her novels.  I am so glad to have found her...she really has made me look closer at books on the YA shelves at Barnes & Noble when I am looking for reading material!

Here's a (so far incomplete) list of the books I plan to read for the challenge:

  1. The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin by Josh Berk (who I went to high school with!)
  2. The Cinderella Society by Kay Cassidy
  3. Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes
  4. The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter
  5. Tagged by Mara Purnhagen
  6. The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard
  7. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
  8. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
  9. Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
  10. More books TBA as I find them!
For those interested, I used the website The Tenners to begin creating my list.  I hope you will join us!

3 comments:

Jennifer Cervantes said...

Thanks so much for including my book, TORTILLA SUN. I'm honored. :)

the story siren said...

YAY! Thanks for joining the challenge! It's going to be so much fun! And you've got a great list of books! Good luck!

Unknown said...

Hey! Thanks for including my book. I hope you enjoy it!

Mara Purnhagen