Friday Fun: Making Time for Reading

For this Friday, enjoy these links to interesting articles!


Hooray for YA: Teen Novels for Readers of All Ages
Excerpt:  A good novel doesn't just transcend the boundaries of its target market — it knows nothing about target markets. Young readers have always reached above their reading level to get to meatier stories, and lately we've seen adult readers reaching into the world of teen fiction in search of the same thing — no-holds-barred storytelling.


Take a Look, It's In a Book, and On the Street, And In a Park . . . 
Excerpt:  The theme to LeVar Burton's iconic PBS children's show is, for children of the '80s (or anyone who raised them), like a war cry; it breaks the ice at parties, brings strangers together. If you ever walk by a group of tipsy youths belting the theme song after midnight, you can bet that they will all believe themselves best friends afterwards. Reading Rainbow is our Cheers.


How to survive the age of distraction
Excerpt:  I think most of us have this sense today, if we are honest. If you read a book with your laptop thrumming on the other side of the room, it can be like trying to read in the middle of a party, where everyone is shouting to each other. To read, you need to slow down. You need mental silence except for the words. That's getting harder to find.

Who Says YA is Dark?
Excerpt:  Next week we'll take a highly scientific look at 2010's YA covers and see if the darkness really is too visible. Because as Laurel Snyder points out, "dark" can mean many things, and I'm a fan of being literal to the point of sarcasm.