It's Day 5 of Armchair BEA. I was too busy to draft up my post for yesterday's topic, but I'm back for more today :-) The general topic for discussion today is keeping it real. That is, how do we, as bloggers, keep our material fresh? How do we grow our audience? The genre topic is children's and young adult literature.
Keeping it Real
While reviews are big part of my blog, I do like to mix things up every now and then by participating in memes and general discussion chats to help keep things fresh and interesting. When it comes to growing an audience, I think it's important to actively comment on other blogs you enjoy. Meme participation, especially for new bloggers, is a great way to attract new blog readers/followers (and to discover new blogs). Participation in blog hops, read-a-thons and/or events such as Armchair BEA also help to grow an audience. Twitter is another great way to connect with follow readers and book bloggers.
General book-related discussion chats seem to generate a lot of activity on my blog, and I find they are a great way to engage new and existing followers, especially followers who aren't big into historical fiction, the genre I most often review. However, I have difficulty consistently coming up with discussion topics that I think would not only be of interest to fellow book bloggers, but also encourage them to comment. This is the component of blogging that I'd most like to get better at.
I'm looking forward to reading about how other bloggers keep things real.
Children's/Young Adult Literature
I don't read a lot of children's literature, but I have a lot of fond memories of the books I read as a kid. I have a 7-year old daughter who is just starting to read chapter books, and many of the books she is eager to try are those I loved when I was her age. My favourites include:
- Judy Blume's Superfudge series;
- John Peterson's Littles series;
- All of Roald Dahl's books, but especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory;
- Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert O'Brien;
- Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little by E.B. White;
- The Ramona Quimby books by Beverly Cleary; and
- Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The one series of children's books I re-read (often) are the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling, although I don't know that I would classify them as children's books, at least not the later novels in the series. What do others think?
I'm not a really big reader of YA novels, but I generally enjoy those I do read and have lots books within this genre on my TBR pile. Since I'm not a young adult, I usually read YA books when I'm in the mood for something lighter (although I recognize that not all YA books are light). Here are my favourites:
- The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins;
- Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series;
- John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series;
- The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak;
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares; and
- Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy.
Do you read children's and YA literature? If so, what are some of your favourites?
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