Reader Girls Blog

Here's a list of names: Courtney Summers. Jenny Han. Simone Elkeles. Amanda Howells. Jennifer Echols. Nina LaCour. Sarah Dessen. Kody Keplinger. Elizabeth Scott. Lauren Strasnick. Jay Asher. Julia Hoban. Julie Ann Peters. John Green. Gail Giles. April Henry. Stephen Chobosky.  Yes, they're authors. YA authors. And they have written some of THE best contemporary novels on the market. We know we've missed others and did not mean too. But the purpose of listing these authors is to draw your attention to a new challenge we recently heard of.  ReggieWrites  at her wonderful blog, The Undercover Book Lover , is running a challenge: The 2011 YA Contemporary Challenge .  We agree with what Reggie said in her post about this challenge. We love paranormal, fantasy, and other genres, but contemporary novels have a power the others don't--they can make a place within our hearts or psyches and remain either for a long time or forever. Yes, fantastic books like the Harry Potter s

We received gift cards over the holidays and took advantage of the many End of Year and clearance sales. We also swapped a bunch and received some for review. We received for review: Human Blend by Lori Pescatore The Girl Who Became a Beatle by Greg Taylor House of the Star by Caitlin Brennan Libyrinth by Pearl North Sugar Rush by Kimber An Thanks to Tor Books, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Lori Pescatore and Kimber An These are Touring books we received: The Sapphire Talisman by Brenda Pandos Wake Unto Me by Lisa Cach Faerie Winter by Janni Lee Simner Dark Moon: A Wereling Novel by Steve Feasey We swapped these ARCs: Plague: A Gone Novel by Michael Grant Numbers Two: The Chaos by Rachel Ward Once in a Full Moon by Ellen Schreiber Fallen Angel by Heather Terrell The Lying Game by Sara Shepard Winter Bloom by Tara Heavey How to Make a Bird by Martine Murray The Snowball Effect by Holly Nicole Hoxter The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley N