10 Things I Love About This Character: Ellie Linton, The Tomorrow Series

Last year I wrote an article about the "strong female character" which was very well received. (It was even featured by WordPress in their "Freshly Pressed" section.) Since then, I've been thinking about doing a series devoted to individual characters that I consider "strong." This series will not be limited to female characters--I will include …

My Review of the Movie Divergent, Where I Don’t Compare it to That OTHER Franchise

MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR THE MOVIE DIVERGENT: There was once an episode of All in the Family where Edith was recounting the story of how she hit a car with a can of cling peaches (in heavy syrup). Archie got so sick of hearing her say cling peaches, Edith began replacing the words with "Mmm-Mmm." …

Why Allegiant by Veronica Roth Didn’t Work For Me—It’s Not The Reason You Think

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK ALLEGIANT BY VERONICA ROTH—PLEASE STOP HERE IF YOU PLAN TO READ IT. Another week, another fandom meltdown. In some ways it’s justified. In others, not so much. The biggest controversy over Allegiant by Veronica Roth, the final book in the young adult dystopian series that started with the …

Are Young Adult Movie Franchises Dead in the Water?

This past week Publisher’s Weekly linked to an article by Tara Aquino on the web site Complex.com about the failure of three YA movie adaptations this year: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Beautiful Creatures and The Host. While she doesn’t exactly come to the conclusion that young adult franchises are a dead commodity, she …

Fan Films: Filling In The Gaps Left By Hollywood

Recently, Mainstay Productions released on YouTube a fan-made short film entitled The Hanging Tree. Under twelve minutes long, it dramatizes a brief vignette from the childhood of the character Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games. The crew that shot the film is made up of several people with professional film credits, though mostly with independent …

Six Things That Bug Me About Modern Young Adult Fiction

I love modern young adult fiction. I read it more now than I did when I was a young adult. I'm constantly stunned by the variety in genre, the talent of many of the writers, and the pure inventiveness of many YA books. But there are a few things that annoy me that pop up …

5 Great Books Left Off NPR’s Top 100 Teen Novels List

Last week NPR published the results of their poll for the 100 best young adult novels of all time. Yes, moi participated and voted. To say I'm a little perplexed by some of the books that weren't included is an understatement. (Even more perplexing is some of the books left out of the original list …