Her entry begins:Since I write for children, I read everything from picture books to novels for adults. Here is a favorite in each category:About How to Survive Middle School, from the publisher:
Adults:
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn. This epistolary novel is one of the most clever I've read. It was recommended by my 10th grade English teacher, with whom I still keep in touch. In this book, a tiny island nation pays tribute to the creator of the phrase: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." A statue with these words falls prey to time and weather and letters begin to fall off. Residents of the island are then not permitted to use those letters in their correspondence. It's fun to read the correspondence as fewer and fewer letters of the alphabet are used.
Young Adults:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This somewhat autobiographical novel dances the line between heartbreaking and...[read on]
Writers Read: Donna Gephart.Eleven-year-old David Greenberg dreams of becoming a TV superstar like his idol, Jon Stewart. But in real life, David is just another kid terrified of starting his first year at Harman Middle School. With a wacky sense of humor and hilarious Top 6½ Lists, David spends his free time making TalkTime videos, which he posts on YouTube.
But when David and his best friend have a fight, David is lucky enough to make a pretty cool new friend, Sophie—who just (gulp) happens to be a girl. Sophie thinks David's videos are hilarious, and she starts sending out the links to everyone she knows. Sophie's friends tell their friends, and before David knows it, thousands of people are viewing his videos—including some of the last people he would have expected.
--Marshal Zeringue
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