Pass the Parcel

Cait and Mime over at Notebook Sisters (see button above) are having a blog party this month featuring YA books and authors. One of the games is a pass the parcel thing ... er, a tag, really. Here is my fill-out, and I volunteered to let a girl who doesn't have a blog borrow mine, so her answers will be below. If you want to participate, just head over to the above blog. It's my understanding that there will be terrific giveaways involved in this insanity fun!


1. Name your top 5 favourite YA authors!
Frankly, due to the layout of my library, I spend most of my time in the children's section still ... but I do have some favorites.
J.R.R Tolkien (since Cait and Mime declared him a YA ...)
Matthew Christain Harding
Rick Riordan (mostly because of his name though - Riordan means bard - how cool is that for an author? Oh, and his retelling of mythology is genius)
Bryant Davis
Molly Evangeline


2. What's the last YA book you read and what did you think of it?
By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson, I believe. I liked it and thought it very well done, and I now want to read the next three books ... and I believe I may take notes from it for the writing of Water Princess, Fire Prince, which follows a similar format (in that the two main characters don't meet until half-way through the book.

3. What's your favourite YA genre? (Dystopian, romance, sci-fi, contemporary, etc.)
Christian Fantasy - if it's well done.

4. Let's talk characters! Pick a character you love and tell us why?
I'll go with Suzie from The Peleg Cronicles. She's just adorable, and her faith in God is so innocent and childlike. Yes, I love the young and innocent.

5. Top YA villain?
Gollum. Tricksie Hobitsies!

6. Top YA couple?
Billy and Bonnie in Dragons in our Midst. They're prophesied to marry, and, for some odd reason, I like those sorts of romances. They're both half-dragon, she has wings, he can breath fire, and they make such a great team.

7. With dystopian on the decline, what do you think will be the next hot-trend in YA?
I dunno. Maybe Fairy Tale Rewrites!

8. What's the next YA book on your to-be-read pile?
Tears of a Dragon, the final book in the Dragons in Our Midst series. (I'm not too sad about it ending ... there is a prequel series and a sequel series ... so I can find out more about this interesting twist on dragons)

9. What's the fastest time you've ever finished reading a book in? (And what was the book?!)
I don't remember.

10. (And now for the burning question) Do you think books should be sorted according to colour or title? (This matters.)

The only thing that matters when it comes to where a book is on my shelf is whether an author's books are all together. Someday I may get a bad enough case of writer's block that I'll pull everything and sort it by author's last name ... but for now ... I'm not worried about it. Color sounds like fun though ... 

And now for Robyn Hoode's answers:

1. Name your top 5 favourite YA authors!  Since Cait said LoTR counts as YA, J.R.R. Tolkien is my favorite author. The other four YA authors are Rick Riordan (I’m looking forward to his Norse series!), Madeleine L’Engle, Cornelia Funke, Anne McCaffrey, and Catherynne M. Valente (just the books about September).

2. What's the last YA book you read and what did you think of it? The Keeper and the Rune Stone by Paige W. Pendleton. I liked it. It only has 24 chapters and she wrote it in a way that made me wonder when she was going to start the story. But then I got to chapter 19 and it turned out that the author had been leading up to the climax the whole time. And she had an item in the story that seemed so insignificant, but it turned out to be so important! It was a good book.

3. What's your favourite YA genre? (Dystopian, romance, sci-fi, contemporary, etc.) Fantasy. With dragons, preferably. No contest. J

4. Let's talk characters! Pick a character you love and tell us why? A character? Only one? I’m going to pick Masterharper Robinton from Pern. I fell in love with him. I love his humor and his light-hearted attitude. My other pick is Samwise Gamgee. He’s so sweet and loyal. So, yeah, I picked two. J

5. Top YA villain? Oh, dear. I’ll have to think about this one. Um… Luke from the Percy Jackson series. Or the Marquess from The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making. *gasping for breath after such a title*

6. Top YA couple? I’m going to say Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Though, I also like Sam Gamgee and Rosie Cotton.

7. With dystopian on the decline, what do you think will be the next hot-trend in YA? I hope it’s back to fantasy with fairies and other mythical creatures. J

8. What's the next YA book on your to-be-read pile? Artemis Fowl. When I get to a library.

9. What's the fastest time you've ever finished reading a book in? (And what was the book?!) Well, I read a board-book to my sister in… that’s not what you meant? J Well, I read Eldest within 3 days. That was fast. Not the fastest, but fast.

10. (And now for the burning question) Do you think books should be sorted according to colour or title? (This matters.) Title. I want to be able to find the book I want without having to know what color it is.