Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Happiness is . . .

. . . a really lovely fan letter.

See, when I mentioned here that I get more fan mail from adults than teens it was said wistfully—with a little sadness even. One of my teen readers saw and understood:

In your latest blog post, you said that most of your fan mail comes from adults. Because of this, I believe that, being the teenager I am, I should send you fan mail.

So, here is your fanmail from a teenager:

I luuuuuurve the Magic or Madness trilogy. Each one is incredibly fawesome. I made the mistake of bringing them to school this past year, where I could not read them straight through. (Side note: Fellow classmates give you weird looks when you’re reading a book entitled Magic Lessons.) I had to wait until I finished my work to read them. I did not want to wait. They were too awesome.

So, yeah, I loved them a lot. I can’t wait to read How to Ditch Your Fairy. It too looks awesome. Good luck finishing your new book.

Oh, and in regards to the last line of your latest post: You better stay a YA writer. I will be sad if you don’t. D:

– Khy

Thank you, Khy, you made my day. Week, really. No, month. Actually you may have made my entire year. Bless!

I especially liked that she talks about how she read the trilogy. It reminded me of when I was still in school and would read books under my desk when teachers weren’t looking. Yeah, I know, I was bad to the bone. When I was caught up in a book it was pretty much impossible to stop reading so International Studies and Maths be damned I was gunna keep reading till I finished even if there was a class going on.1

Like Margo Rabb says one of the most amazing parts of writing YA is the gorgeous letters you get from adults and teens—but especially teens. They’re who I write for after all.

  1. Apparently, Khy is more disciplined than I was. [↩]

Posted by Justine at 1:18, 20 July 2008 under Fans & readers, Magic or Madness trilogy | 12 Comments »

Comments

  1. cei cei Says:

    i read under my desk. heck one time my math teacher sent me to the principal for telling him that i wasn’t going to start something until after i finished my chapter :)

    July 20th, 2008 at 3:58 am

  2. lotti Says:

    It always annoyed me when teachers told me off for reading under my desk. It’s like they cannot appreciate the need to finish a good book. But what irritated me the most is when ENGLISH teachers told me off for it. I mean, come on. Books are what your subject is about, right? RIGHT?

    July 20th, 2008 at 4:21 am

  3. Rene Says:

    Yep, I read in class, too. At least one of my teachers thought it was funny. Not sure if I got busted in the other classes.

    What a lovely fanmail. :)

    July 20th, 2008 at 9:11 am

  4. 4. Justine Says:

    Um, just in case there are any teachers or parents reading this: READING UNDER YOUR DESK AT SCHOOL IS BAD. Clearly I’m encouraging the reading part, not the ignoring your teacher part.

    *Cough* *cough*

    Quick tip: It’s always best to have your text book handy to slip on top so you can quickly slide novel/manga out of way and it looks like you’ve been reading text book all along.

    July 20th, 2008 at 9:47 am

  5. rsg0569 Says:

    I get in trouble for reading when I’m not supposed too more then anything else put together! lol! If Justine Larbalestier is reading this, I have huge bags under my eyes from staying up all night trying to finish the Magic or Madness Trilogy!

    July 20th, 2008 at 12:42 pm

  6. khy Says:

    You have to be disciplined in those tiny private schools. The teachers spot EVERYTHING.

    July 20th, 2008 at 12:55 pm

  7. the dragonfly Says:

    The reading under your desk thing cracked me up…I so did that when I was in school. Got in trouble a lot. (not real trouble, mostly just sighs and stern looks.)

    July 20th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

  8. hillary! Says:

    I’ve found that some teachers will ignore your not payinf attention in class if you’re doing something extremely odd like reading, because apparently teenagers don’t actually read.

    July 20th, 2008 at 8:15 pm

  9. rebecca Says:

    i read under the desk a lot in seventh grade. whenever the teacher came in, we’d try to hide our books, and one day i got a really good one taken away from me. it was horrible, having to wait till the next day to get the book back. i was soooo mad. after that, i stopped trying to hide the book, and the teacher stopped taking it away. i learned that if you don’t act guilty, you can get away with anything.

    July 20th, 2008 at 11:56 pm

  10. celia Says:

    In school, I read under my desk ALL THE TIME to the point that my previous year’s teachers would warn the new teachers every fall. I found this out in HS, when my art teacher mentioned having been warned about it. (I only ever read in her class once, and I felt more guilty about it than any of the other classes.) In 5th grade English, once, my teacher was trying to catch me not paying attention to the class, so she’d call on me to read out loud after every other person.

    July 21st, 2008 at 11:35 am

  11. Anri Says:

    I’ve always been pretty good at math, so I used to go ahead in our math book so I could read during that time. I’m pretty sure our teacher noticed, but since I was done with my work, she let it go.

    July 21st, 2008 at 6:21 pm

  12. PixelFish Says:

    Under my desk, over my desk, in the bathroom. Pretty much anywhere I could. In fact, my parents had to have a talk with the school librarians and I could only check out books with a permission slip one semester because I was completely ignoring my homework in favour of all the books. My teachers had to frisk me for books, like Harriet the Spy got frisked for her notebook.

    Dubious accomplishments of seventh grade: I worked my way through all the Babysitters Club books, the Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, The Nancy Drew Files (actually almost all the Nancy series), and The Three Investigators. Oh, and Anne McCaffrey and Piers Anthony. Most of the series books I could read in an hour, so I’d check one out one period, read it, return between periods, and get a new one. Wash, rinse, repeat. My librarians still remember me as this plague that swept through their genre sections. :)

    July 22nd, 2008 at 1:44 pm

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