Comments on: Fabulous Blogs You Should Be Reading

By: Carrie Jones

Carrie Jones — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:14:31 +0000

Varian’s book IS amazing. You have to move it up on the pile. Really. It is just that good.

By: Colleen

Colleen — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:03:46 +0000

Another blog that should not be missed is Doret at thehappynappybookseller.blogspot.com. I have found a lot of books through Doret and am always impressed by the work she does to find good books on all sorts of teens by all sorts of authors. She has lately been reading sports books for teen girls and is always a reliable source for good book info on minority characters and authors. She works hard and it shows. Plus she's bookseller and I love to hear what she thinks of new books out there.

By: Karen Healey

Karen Healey — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:36:28 +0000

Another excellent collective blog you might want to put the word out for is Livejournal’s 50 Books by Writers of Colour Challenge (http://community.livejournal.com/50books_poc/).

The actual challenge is to read 50 books by PoC in a year, but even if you don’t take the challenge proper, it is a superb collection of reviews of all kinds of books by PoC – the YA section is not neglected, and I’ve found some real gems through the reviews there.

By: MissAttitude

MissAttitude — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:57:55 +0000

thanks for the shoutout Justine!
I’m not a great speller either. Thank god for spell check

By: susan

susan — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:29:48 +0000

Justine,

Thank you so much for the nod. I can’t thank you enough for your post, and your books will be on our shelves.

When I visited my library today, you were the first author I looked for.

By: Shalonda

Shalonda — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 21:08:00 +0000

And I would like to add that my post was not created for recognition.

I wrote my post because I was compelled by your courage and your honesty. I was moved by your willingness to create a character who is different from the cookie cutter characters in most YA books. While I admit that I often enjoy the cookie cutter characters, it is always refreshing to read genuine characters. It is nice to see characters who reflect those groups of people who are underrepresented in mainstream YA fiction.

So thank you, Justine! You are truly admirable.

By: Shalonda

Shalonda — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:44:08 +0000

Justine, thank you so much for the mention.

And thank you, Khy, for the compliment!

By: Meggin

Meggin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 20:18:28 +0000

I read about this on another blog, Read Into This, and I’m writing a post on my YA blog, too

Congrats on the publishing houses- I hope other publishers follow that!

By: khy

khy — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:33:57 +0000

Yay Shalonda! She is the best.

By: Tarie

Tarie — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:16:38 +0000

Justine, thank you so much for the link love for Into the Wardrobe! It is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS that your post on the US cover of Liar is being circulated in two YA publishing houses. ) I hope other publishing houses follow suit!

By: Mary Anne Mohanraj

Mary Anne Mohanraj — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:30:47 +0000

Justine, the way I teach my students that difference is by giving them test sentences — and I still reference the test sentences in my head, substituting in alternate words, every time I’m about to write effect/affect, to make sure I’m using the right one. For example:

We must work together to effect change in the publishing industry.
— (the verb effect is like ‘create’)

There’s so much you can do to affect this terrible situation — talk, blog, protest.
— (the verb affect is like ‘have an impact on’)

and, for the noun versions:

The effects of the discussion of the Liar cover will be wide-ranging.
— (the noun effect is like ‘consequences’)

The Bloomsbury PR person clearly had a miserable affect in the weeks following this mess.
— (Well, if she didn’t, she should have. This noun version of affect is a psychological term, meaning ‘the mood someone appears to have’. You don’t see it so much in everyday life, but for example, I had a friend who used to be manic-depressive, and went on some medication that gave her a ‘flat affect’ — her apparent mood was very calm and unemotional. Which might not correlate much to her actual mood, which is why it’s useful for psychologists to have a term to distinguish the two.)

Hope this helps.