Do you think that you are smarter than a 5th grader? I am not so sure this is a true statement for me anymore. I am a judge for the Battle of the Book over at Pittston Consolidated School and part of my duty as judge is to read 5 YA titles. Okay, what is YA? YA is a fairly new genre to the publishing world that concentrates on the teen and pre-teen audience. Please think of the Harry Potter series and the Twilight series…. very large audiences and huge profits for the publishers. Though these blockbusters are not titles for the battle, I did read books I never would have read if not for my responsibilities.
I took my duties very seriously, judges are well respected entities and I did not want to besmirch anyone. I thought I had the titles down pat, but the teens could answer any trivia, tidbit, and theme question we threw at them, all in 30 seconds! These students read, studied, dissected, and reviewed each title until the event. I am so proud of the young adults that joined in on the fun. Their teachers should be our heroes because they accomplished a very difficult feat…. they made reading fun and they made readers champions. So, I challenge our library readers to pick up a YA title soon, these books are worlds away from my days of reading the Nancy Drew series and dreaming of the time that I would be able to drive around town in a roadster!