Ya Books - Blog Posts

When I drink a big fountain soda, it always reminds me of Remy and the Quick Zip.

I call it Mim's Theorem of Monkey See Monkey Don't, and what it boils down to is this: it is my belief that there are some people whose sole purpose of existence is to show the rest of us how not to act.

Mosquitoland, by David Arnold

Story Crush Tour came to town!!

People who have to announce that they are trustworthy deserve to be lied to.

The Impossible Knife Of Memory, Laurie Halse Anderson

The End Games by T. Michael Martin It's in my TBR pile!

At the beginning of a book.

It was by sheer coincidence and pure awesomeness that the book I'm reading matched my backpack.

Maybe nothing will ever change for us," he said. "But don’t you want to be around when it does?

The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken @alexbracken

Even when life turns out different than what you’ve planned, it’s always better to try and fail than to wonder what could have been.

Wanderlove, by Kirsten Hubbard

Georges Simenon Thrillers complete collection

Romans policier de Georges Simenon

I'm just gonna say it, if you liked the hunger games series and are looking for another book similar, try: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

The main series has six book with three more after (which I'm yet to read).

It follows a young girl by the name of Juliette who lives in a world that's dying because of global warming. A simple touch from her skin can result in death. Now the new government, known as the Reestablishment, plans to use her as a weapon to keep rebels in place.

Throughout the series there's themes of dystopia, mental and physical isolation, rebellion, friendship, romance and war.

The age rating for this series is 12+

I read this series in less than a week, it's addictive.

the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.

A Circle of Chaos

So, who puts in the effort to try and ban or challenge a book? I would think, and could agree to a certain extent, that parents are those who attempted to restrict their children’s access to books (thou I don’t know why they just don’t do it as parents instead of loophole out of their authority and try to use someone else’s) at their child’s school depending on their age (where some of their authority has temporarily been given over to the teacher or administration). However, while parents make up the second largest percent of challenges against books (32%) only 37% of all challenges occur at schools or school libraries with the majority happening at public libraries (59%) by other local library users (33%).

Books are also not the only things get challenged and for some, removal of the book includes vandalism, theft and destruction (burning books). In 2018 62% of all challenges or censorship actions in libraries were against books, but 15% of challenges were against meetings, 10% were against databases, films and games and 6% were about artwork. This scope of the challenges is the reason for the focus of censorship during banned books week as these challenges extend past the idea usually presented that books are banned because the material is “too mature” for the age group it was recommended too but has to do more with the prejudice behind those promoting the bans and can create an horrific self-fulfilling prophecy as those who were limited in the experiences and connections to these book will remain close-minded and become the passionate censorship leaders of our future.

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/statistics

Challenges to the Future

As stated, books are great at taking the reader in and allowing them to experience something new. In the late 2000s and continued today, multiple researchers find that while the Harry Potter series focused prejudice specific to the wizarding world (blood status, class, speciesism), children who had read the series had translated the messages of equality into their own lives and lessened their prejudices of class, race, immigrants and others.

With an easy skim, two of my favorite children’s books/series are on this list: Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling (of course), and The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. While this large list of 130 of the most frequently challenged books overall (2) does not give the reasons why by looking at the titles you can see these of Cuban-stories (anti-communism, immigration), children growing up (books that mention changing bodies, sex-questions), “attacks” on religion (books with a non-Christian focus: witchcraft mostly), and challenged due to LGBTQIA+ content are again about trying to keep children “pure” and to block them from learning about the world around them. The list focused on YA novels, noted as those written for a YA audience, with a YA main character or frequently on high school reading list (3) has a similar content of banned books but with the addition of some books that to some may just be traumatizing such as The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl.

We know these stories, fiction or non-fiction, can improve young people’s mental health by knowing they are not alone with their feelings or questions, and that introducing someone to a different culture and mindset will increase communication, open-mindedness and reduce violence. I can understand not wanting to children exposed to things too early, but for most and as with my parents, what was seen as too old for me was not accurate and more of a personal desire. We must also remember that children are stronger than we think and children who grow without a diverse experiences will lose out not only because they will have less in life to enjoy but that as they interact with those who are different they have shown to be afraid and become violent.

(1)    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-everyone-should-read-harry-potter/

(2)    http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/childrensbooks

(3)    http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/YAbooks

The Perfect fan cast for Alastair Carstairs

It was extremely difficult to find ethnic Persian men that had blond hair but not coloured eyes and pale skin. After searching for a few minutes I believe I found the perfect fan cast for Alastair.

Meet Hamid Fadaei

(Alastair's real hair is dark brown and he has beady eyes).

Happy Wayward-son-releasing Day😍