It's All About the Read: Young Adult Annotation

About Me

When I was teen, I was on a heavy Stephen King and Peter Straub reading jag. I couldn’t get enough of these authors. Today I still have my collection of these books residing on a shelf of my bookcase. Sometime in my early twenties I became less enamored with King’s readings. I don’t know if my taste just changed or I had burned out on his style. I have to say though that The Shining by King was the first novel I read of his and my favorite out of all his books.

I then started leaning more toward suspense and thrillers and less of horror. Some of the authors I followed were Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson. My favorite Patterson novels were The Beach House and When the Wind Blows. They were other suspense authors peppered into the mix, but this is the one genre where I mostly stuck to favorite authors.

When my children were in grade school, the Harry Potter craze was all the rage, and I was just as engrossed in reading the books as they were. I found out at that time how much I enjoyed fantasy and many young adult novels. It seemed that YA authors were more creative in many ways than most adult novel authors. My sister-in-law is a YA librarian at a high school, so she would advise or buy certain books for me to read. For young adult reads I didn’t really stick to one author, but would go off recommendations and reviews for great YA books. Yes I devoured the Twilight series, but I can’t say this was my favorite YA read. The best young adult novels I have read are Jellico Road by Melina Marchetta and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

I still enjoy reading suspense and thrillers as well as many young adult books, but in the last few years, I have also started reading many gentle reads that pull at the heart strings. Again there is no specific author that I stick to, but mostly go off recommendations and reviews to select reads from this genre. Some of my favorites in this category are: Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.

I am not much of a non-fiction reader unless I’m forced to read it. In addition, I a little romance goes a long way in a book, so I’m not a big romance novel reader.

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Young Adult Annotation

The Lucy Variations

Sara Zarr

Synopsis

Not even fourteen years old yet, Lucy is being honed by her family and piano teachers as a promising concert pianist. The right people knew her name, her performances were booked well in advance, and her future was destined for success. Now that she’s sixteen, it has all come to an end. A family death and betrayal led her to walk away while on stage. The weight of carrying on the rigid family expectations in the world of concert pianists is now on the shoulders of Lucy’s very talented ten-year-old brother Gus. Then Gus gets a young new piano teacher, Will, who not only knows how to keep Gus focused on his lessons, but is also interested in helping Lucy rekindle her love of piano on her own terms. When you're used to performing for sold-out audiences and world-famous critics, how can a charismatic piano teacher ever coax Lucy to play just for herself?

Elements of this Young Adult novel

Pacing –This novel is unhurried with moments allowing the reader to get drawn into the characters’ lives.

Characterization – Teens can relate to Lucy who outside of her struggles with her family’s expectations is also struggling with trying to fit into school life with her few close friends.

Story line –It tells of the everyday actions and thoughts that take place from the viewpoint of the protagonist, Lucy, concerning the interactions with those around her and focused on the tragedy of abandoning her career as a concert pianist.

Frame/Tone – The frame work for this story is current San Francisco where the protagonist reveals her perspective of her relationships with her family, teachers, and friends in a leisurely unfolding manner.

Style – this novel’s main focus is on the straightforward feelings and emotions of Lucy and her relationship with those around her.

Read-A-Likes

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The Last Forever by Deb Caletti

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