Tag: Jennifer A. Nielsen

Spotlight on: Teens’ Top Ten Nominees – Part 3

TeensTopTen_winner_WMWelcome back to our 4-part series highlighting the 24 titles nominated (by teenagers; no grown-up opinions polluting the list!) for this year’s Teens’ Top Ten list. You can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here, if you missed them earlier. Voting starts this week, on August 15, so encourage the teenagers you know to exercise their right to influence sales, movie deals, and publishing trends by voting here.

Here are the penultimate 6 books nominated for the Teens’ Top Ten list this year:

Since You've Been GoneSince You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson – In this, Matson’s third stand-alone contemporary fiction title, relationships and personal growth share center stage with the unique pleasures of summer’s disrupted routines and subsequent possibilities for change. Matson’s first novel, Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, was a 2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults pick and a 2012 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults pick, and her second novel, Second Chance Summer, was a 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, so her work is already well-established. Matson has an author page, and is active on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

 

The Shadow ThroneThe Shadow Throne by Jennifer A. Nielsen – The third and final volume in the bestselling, historical-fantasy Ascendence trilogy. The first title in the series, The False Prince, was a 2013 Teens’ Top Ten book and a 2015 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults pick. Nielsen has an author page here (currently highlighting the first book in her newest series, The Mark of the Thief), and she’s also on Twitter and Facebook. A movie adaptation of The False Prince is currently underway (it’s still in the scripting phase, so it’ll be awhile still), and rumor (aka The Hollywood Reporter has it that a Game of Thrones story editor is in charge of the adaptation, so this has certainly has the potential to stick around and continue to attract more readers.

Continue reading Spotlight on: Teens’ Top Ten Nominees – Part 3

Notes From a Teens’ Top Ten Book Group Participant: An All-Time Favorite Series

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Voting is open for YALSA’s 2014 Teens’ Top Ten book list- a “teen choice” list where teens nominate and choose their favorite books of the previous year. Readers ages twelve to eighteen will vote between August 15 and Teen Read Week, and the top ten titles will be announced on October 20.

Books are nominated by members of Teens’ Top Ten book groups in school and public libraries around the country, and to add to the excitement surrounding this much-anticipated book list, we’re featuring posts from these teens here on The Hub.

First up, here’s Kara Lavery from Bookhype at the Perry Public Library/Perry High School in Arizona, weighing in on Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Ascendance Trilogy:

The Ascendance Trilogy- The False Prince, The Runaway King, and The Shadow Throne– has to be one of my all-time favorite series!  The most recent book was written this last year in 2014.  The author, Jennifer A. Nielsen, did a fantastic job creating an air of mystery and humor.  With its biting sarcasm and the jaw dropping twists, I felt compelled to read more- to keep flipping the pages from the beginning of The False Prince (one of last year’s Teens’ Top Ten winners) to the end of the The Shadow Throne.

I like rollercoasters.  They’re fast, and the twists and turns are unexpected.  The flips and drops make my stomach flip.  It’s exhilarating!  The Ascendance Trilogy has the unique quality of making you feel like you’re on a rollercoaster- twisting your stomach to match the flow of the story.

The storyline is well developed and the characters are like my friends.  I was practically dying of laughter because the main character is such a smart-aleck and just an over-all devilish kind of character.  The dialogue is witty and the writing style is smooth and exciting.  You can’t just read a chapter here and there.  I mean, you could try, but you’ll end up reading half of a book before you could blink.

Unlike many other cover ideas out there, these covers aren’t cheesy or painful to look at.  It’s not that they’re pretty, but they have meaning.  I love that after you read each book, you can understand why each item on the cover is broken.

Along the lines of The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner, I would suggest this book to anyone and everyone.  If you love action, adventure, surprises, and a subtle taste of romance, you will love these books!

-Kara Lavery, currently reading Welcome to the Dark House by Laurie Faria Stolarz