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YA Literature

The following (or previous, depending on how you look at it) 25 posts are book reviews with trailers and links to other books that I completed for my Young Adult Literature course this fall. The books were chosen from ALA lists and were read over the course of the semester.

I really really enjoy reading YA lit. It is probably my favorite genre. One of the things I discovered while working on this assignment was the sheer volume of really great YA literature that is being published now. A few years ago, I was pretty up to date on all the most recent YA offerings, but this assignment had me reading many books that I have never heard of. I was able to sneak a few oldies but goodies in as well, since some of the lists included older books like The Hobbit and Ella Enchanted, but most of the assignment was one of discovery for me.

While reflecting on this assignment and my coursework for my MLS during my daily walk today, I was thinking about what drew me to pursue this degree. I think its the idea of it. As I've gotten older, my college, idealistic self is sometimes put aside for the reality of adult life. However, librarians are really keepers of that flame of idealism. Librarians provide snippets of information, they are veritable walking collections of annotations. I used to be sad about the fact that I know a little bit about a lot of things but am not an expert at really anything. A jack of all trades but a master of none. But this is exactly what a librarian should be. How else can we start the conversations that open minds and fill them? My coursework continues to expose me to different books in every genre, to databases and web 2.0 tools and ways to incorporate social media. As I continue to absorb information, it will only serve me better when I decide to switch careers and become a full time librarian.

As a girl, I wanted to be a librarian so that I could be surrounded by books. Now I see what it is that I really want out of this. I want to be a concierge of knowledge. I want to help people seek and know and stretch themselves. 

 Anyway, enough of my late night ramblings. Enjoy the rest of your evening and don't forget to curl up with a great book. I've only put 25 of them on here for your perusal.

~Heather

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