Welcome back!
#YearofYA originally started out as #SummerofYA, 3 years ago this month! I told Tavia how I missed being in a book club, especially to talk about books I love to read (young adult). As a librarian, I read widely – many books that will appeal to my elementary readers, middle grade titles so I can steer my growing readers when they leave our school, and even a handful of adult books sprinkled in, for myself (!) & to be able to chat about them with the teachers in my building, my family of readers, and to remind myself that YA is still my favorite!! Tavia and I have never lived close enough that we could have our own book club, so we turned to other ideas… Could it be virtual? Google Hangouts? Vlogs? A blog with a chat… Then she helped me work out how it could be done as a Twitter chat! The very first Twitter chat I participated in was when we launched #SummerofYA! Unbeknownst to us, 2 other friends & YA lovers were launching their own YA Twitter book club the same summer & it’s been so fun and a learning experience to grow #YearofYA alongside #2jennsbookclub!
In these last 3 years, I’ve loved so much about this book club! It’s kept Tavia and I reading what we love, but also pushing us to try new genres, formats, and authors we wouldn’t have, due to the variety of themes we come up with each month. I love coming up with those themes via texts and voxs and tweets with her… Sometimes we feel dry of ideas, other times it’s a gold mine and we need to keep them all in a shared doc! I love our process of Tavia’s creative contribution to developing the slides, my curation of content for the blog post, and coming together to write questions each month. Despite busy schedules, changing jobs, moves & a million other responsibilities, this book club keeps us anchored each month.
More than anything, I love the people we’ve connected with. When I talk about Twitter, I talk about y’all. The friends I’ve made through #YearofYA are doing amazing things for readers across the country, but I’m lucky to chat with you and connect about books and life each month. It’s amazing how relationships grow on Twitter, and I’ve been fortunate to meet several of you in person! Thank you for bringing your thoughts, enthusiasm, and wonderful selves to our book club chat… And becoming great friends to us!
It’s so hard to believe everything that’s come from a crazy idea I sent over Voxer, and how that friend and I could turn it into all this …
OK! This month’s theme is one of our favorites from the past: adult crossovers! What books are out there written for adults, that teens can also enjoy & learn from? If you really want to challenge yourself this month, find an author who writes for teens and adults, and read one of each! (Meg Cabot & Neil Gaiman come to mind…) Remember, #YearofYA gives you a theme, you pick the books!
We can’t wait to chat with you on June 28th at 8pm! If you are new to our chat, come prepared to share what you read, grow your TBR list, and answer some questions that will connect what you read with the rest of the group’s reads!
A few lists to get you started:
