This month’s theme is “You’re Never Too Old,” and it’s based on children’s and young-adult literature. While we’re all adults here(chronologically, at least), many of us embraced reading early in our lives, and some of our fondest memories of childhood involve the books we loved then – and, in many cases, still do. I reminisced about some of my own favorites in this Weekly Geeks post a few months ago. As I moved into those awkward middle- and high-school years, many of my teen concerns and growing-up dreams were themes of the contemporary young-adult fiction that I favored then, and which in some ways has continued to influence what I like in a story. And as a parent, I especially treasure memories of reading to my son when he was very young, fostering an early love of reading in him too – one that he’s never lost. Raising a reader is one of my happiest accomplishments.
Participants in this month’s Carnival have approached the theme from various angles- as former children, as parents, as adults who continue to read and enjoy fiction supposedly written for kids. The fact that we can still get so much out of this literature even when we’re not kids ourselves,or even reading with kids, is why I’ve concluded that “you’re never too old.” This idea has been embraced by Karen of Nouvelle Blogger, who has taken this opportunity to “out” herself as an unabashed lover of children’s and young-adult literature; she could use her kids as a cover, but let’s be honest.
For some of the Carnival-goers, this has been a chance to remember some of their favorite childhood reading. Mike at Everything Under the Sun calls himself a “genre guy,” and shares some of the early science-fiction/fantasy favorites that influenced him in that direction. Anna of Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder talks about hanging out in her favorite reading spot – in a tree in her front yard (I’m envious!) – with her literary friends, particularly Harriet the Spy.
When book-lovers grow up, we tend to get excited about sharing our love of reading with our own children, and we hope it will influence them to develop their own. Rebecca from Rebecca Reads revisited Winnie-the-Pooh and Goodnight Moon in reading them to her infant son. Vanessa, a.k.a. Chef Druck, was happy to have the chance to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to, and with, her kids. Heather of Age 30: A Year of Books and her six-year-old son have their own book club. In a 3 R’s guest post associated with the Carnival, Emily mulled over introducing a baby boy to books – she started by reading to him in utero.
Melody Lee at Melody’s Reading Corner offers reviews of two picture books for young children, The Odd Egg and The Ghost Library, while Michelle of In The Louvre features some of her favorite illustrators in a post with examples. For the older, independent reader, Bobbi from Bobbi’s Book Nook suggests Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls: The New Girl by Meg Cabot and The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.
Alison of So Many Books, So Little Time notes that, according to Wikipedia,
the 1970s to the mid-1980s were the golden age of young adult fiction,when publishers began to focus on the emerging adolescent market, and booksellers and libraries, in turn, began creating YA sections distinct from either children’s literature or novels written for adults.
Maybe that’s why I recall some YA fiction so well, and so fondly – this “golden age” coincides with my own years as a YA (and I think Alison and I are around the same age). Parenthood has given Alison the opportunity both to rediscover, and newly discover, YA fiction with her own daughters. But exactly what does “YA fiction” mean, aside from a marketing angle? Misa from This Redhead Reads and Samantha of Bookworms and Tea are both considering this question.
Questions of definition aside, YA literature is surely popular with the book-blogging community, and the Carnival received a lot of YA book reviews. For your own reading pleasure, and/or that of the teen in your life, here’s a list that may be of interest:
Three more reviews from Melody’s Reading Corner: The Strawberry Picker, Dingo, and I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You
Thirteen Reasons Why and The Truth About Forever, both from Alessandra at Out of the Blue
Shakespeare for Teens and The White Darkness, both from Melanie at The Indextrious Reader
Starcross by Philip Reeve, reviewed by Becky from Becky’s Book Reviews
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Just A (Reading) Fool‘s pick for best book he’s read this year (so far…)
participants had much to say about him at this point, but Bart of Bart’s Bookshelf offered a post about another seven-book series, the Australian Tomorrow series, by John Marsden, which he read straight through. But if you’re serious about your series, head to Bobbi’s Book Nook. She’s submitted discussions of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series by Rick Riordan, the Fablehaven Series by Brandon Mull, and the Mediator Series by Meg Cabot, as well as her individual reviews of the books in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga – Twilight, New Moon,Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn, possibly the hottest series going right now. (And if you haven’t been bitten by it yet, Bobbi is offering a Twilight giveaway at her blog, in celebration of her 100th post.)
It’s your support that makes a Bookworms Carnival a success – thanks for coming by, and I’d love it if you’d tell your friends to visit too by posting a link back here! Please stay as long as you like visiting our many fine attractions!
Hey Florinda – everything looks great! Thanks for including me in the Book Carnival!
Whew, and I thought I was caught up with my Google Reader this morning. Or getting there. Thanks a lot, Flo. 😉
This looks like so much fun! I don’t have a lot of time today – I’ll check as many links as I can.
I taught 6th grade for 9 years, and reading YA lit was part of my job. A very enjoyable part of my job, I need to add!
Bobbi – Thanks for the link back :-)!
JustAReadingFool – Just for future reference, NO ONE calls me Flo :-). Happy reading – there’s some great stuff here!
Daisy – I wouldn’t mind that bring part of my job at all! The post will be here for awhile, so please visit the links at your leisure.
This is a wonderful carnival indeed! Thank you for including my post as well 🙂
I already linked this page to my newest post also.
I am oh-so-happily getting to revisit my favorite Cleary and Konigsburg books with my oldest.
This is a great post. I am unabashedly a fan of well-written things for any age.
Great carnival! Lots of great posts to read by the look of it, thanks for taking the time to put it together and linking to my submission!
Florinda–this is fantastic–now I’ve got to find the time to visit all the wonderful folks who posted. So much fun! Thanks for including me!
Oh, boy. I have a lot of stuff to read. Thanks for choosing mine!
Thanks to all of you folks who have linked back here! It’s always nice to goose the ‘ol Technorati authority numbers (which need rebuilding since I moved the blog to its own domain).
I really didn’t want to leave anyone out, so if you sent me links, you got in. Just like kiddy soccer, everyone gets to play 🙂 Besides, it’s all so GOOD!
Lightheaded – Thanks for the link back, and for the post about what sounds like an unusual and intriguing book!
Julie – Glad you enjoyed your trip to the Carnival! Going back to those old favorite books is one of the best things about parenthood, I think. Say hello to Beezus, Ramona, and Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler for me :-).
Bart – Thanks for joining in!
Karen – It’s a fun way to discover new blogs, isn’t it? I am very glad you joined in!
Mike – Well, aren’t you still on vacation? Get reading :-)! Thanks again for participating.
What fun! Thank you for hosting!
Thank you for hosting the August Bookworm Carnival, Florinda! Now I’ve to find some time to read all the links! 🙂
Finally, thanks for adding my reviews! 😀
Nice book carnival-thanks for putting it together!
Rebecca – Thanks for your submissions, including the one you didn’t plan to include (but I asked for it anyway :-)).
Melody – You’re welcome! Thanks for offering so many great review posts to the Carnival.
Kim – Thanks for visiting – glad you enjoyed it!
nice job with your hosting responsibilities! i finally got a few minutes to check it out – and i’ve now linked my post back here. thanks for including me!
So cool, Florinda! I wish you were holding this at the end of the month because then I could have participated. I have had fun checking out the various links you provided. Everyone did such a great job!
Alisonwonderland – I’m glad you participated! I know you read a fair amount of YA, so I had hoped you would submit a post.
Literary Feline – It was a bit of work, but also a lot of fun. I would have loved to have included something from you, though – sorry the timing didn’t work out!
Such a great edition. I love the theme and you did a great job. Thanks for hosting!
Nymeth – Thanks for being one of the people who gave me such good material to work with! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the Carnival.
Beautiful job putting this together. Thank you so much for hosting!
Dewey – Thanks for the opportunity! I had a great time with this, and if I can come up with another theme idea, you just might see me asking to do it again :-).