Young adult literature | The Musings & Artful Blunders of Scott D. Southard

In this installment of WKAR’s Current State, I review the new book by famed YA author Holly Black. It is entitled The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

You can listen to my review on WKAR’s site here (http://wkar.org/post/book-review-holly-blacks-coldest-girl-coldtown). You can also read the script of the review below, after the jump.

Holly Black also was interviewed on Current State about the book and her successful career in young adult fantasy. You can hear her interview via this link.

You can find Holly Black’s new book on Amazon.com here. I hope you enjoy my new book review. Continue reading →

Here’s a confession- I’ve always wanted to write Children’s literature.

Oh, not any typical children’s lit/young adult book, I’ve always dreamt of doing something groundbreaking, stupendous. So, in other words, I’ve built up the idea so much in my head that I can’t even begin to start. None of the ideas I get reach that level. Of course, none could.

Why do I love the idea of writing a book in this genre? Because this is the gateway drug for all good readers (I plan to stop the drug references there). We don’t start by reading War and Peace; we start by reading Lewis Carroll and his Alice. A good children’s lit book will inspire a reader (and writer) for decades afterwards.

I can go on about this for pages–and I’ll probably talk about it again at some point–but let me focus today on one thing I love and two things I think children and young adult lit needs help on. Continue reading →