The Story is About   +  TIME

The YA Connection is a collaborative column collected by Kristi (The Story) and Steph (Reviewer X). In it can be found links from around the YA blogosphere, including, but not limited to, contests links, author blog links, review links, and miscellaneous news pertaining to the age group. Also, Kristi and Steph hold weekly contests accompanying the column, as well as a book and author spotlight.

If you're a blogger, author or publicist looking to have your links added, please email me. Any book donations for giveaways are also greatly appreciated. Please note that the spotlights are not up to suggestion, but rather decided by both Kristi and Steph.

Important Announcement for YA Connection Fans:
Steph and I will be taking a break from our beloved YA Connection. We are both busy with the holiday season and our ever crazy lives! We hope to have the YA Connection back up and running. Tentative restart date of January 10. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and we appreciate all the love and support we receive every week!

Contests (compiled by Kristi)

Win a copy of Handcuffs by Bethany Griffin at Free Book Friday: Teen Edition.

Tasha of And Another Book Read has a copy of The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Freedman up for grabs.

Teen Fiction Cafe is giving away a copy of Zombie Queen of Newbury High by Amanda Ashby!

Hit up Ya Fresh for your change to win Good Enough by Paula Yoo!

Brooke Taylor (Undone) has an ARC of Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles!

If you have a Contest going on, and we missed it, Please feel free to leave a link in the comments!!

Author Musings (compiled by Steph)

A.S. King (The Dust of 100 Dogs) finished her new book! And met Laurie Halse Anderson! Andandand had a piece on her in Writer's Digest.

Stephanie Kuehnert (I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone) is in the thick of revisions (yay?) and sharing funny (erm...) stories about her bartending job.

Cyn Balog (Fairy Lust) is pregnant (!) and having morning sickness. Any home remedies you all know to stop that?

The ladies at Author2Author are weighing in new titles for the new year. Go lendahand.

Aprilynne Pike (Wings) *finally* posted her book cover...! Also, since I posted on my blog I had no idea what her book was supposed to be about, she left a comment giving us the jacket copy. *grin*

Elizabeth Scott (Living Dead Girl): "Things not to do when making bread:" I mean, any post that starts like that is sure to be a winner, yeah?

Here's a new blog that came to my attention: Officially Twisted, home of 2010 debut author Dawn Metcalf (Skin & Bones). In this particular entry, she talks about the similarities between Frankie (from E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks) and Margo Roth Spiegelman (I think that's how you spell it? I'm lazy, y'all) (from John Green's Paper Towns).

Mandy Hubbard (Prada & Prejudice) got her first blurb ever, from Lauren Myracle!

Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing) and her experiences at the Rome airport. Why do all good stories take place in airports?

Alexa Young (Faketastic) shares the Faketastic cover, and other news.

Shannon Hale (Rapunzel's Revenge) has a new (insightful as usual) post: "Write what you know."

Megan McCafferty (Perfect Fifths) shares two poems from her 11th grade philosophical phase. I have a feeling my own upcoming 11th grade will be a slight déjà vu...

Jackson Pearce (As You Wish) shares her torturous time at the dentist. My mom's a dentist - let's just say I hate being at the business end of one of those thingies the use to drill into your teeth. (Random fact: Did you know your teeth are the hardest part of your body? Stronger than bones, they are.)

Diana Peterfreund (Rampant) on why there are bad books.

Guest Blogs / Interviews (compiled by Steph)

Max Leone, the thirteen-year-old who wrote that piece in Publishers Weekly about what boys want in their books, did a guest blog post on The Swivet.

Judy Blume interview over at 7 Impossible Things!

Author Spotlight

Simone Elkeles was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Her funny way of looking at life and the world around her has an effect on the people she hangs out with. If you hear people laughing, you’ll probably find Simone not far away.

Simone has three teen books in bookstores:

How to Ruin a Summer Vacation
Leaving Paradise
How to Ruin my Teenage Life

Coming December 23, 2008. Perfect Chemistry.

Simone went to the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and received her Bachelor’s of Science there in Psychology in 1992. She continued her education at Loyola University-Chicago where she received her Master’s of Science degree in Industrial Relations while working for a manufacturing company creating diversity programs for their employees.

She loves animals (she has two dogs – a labradoodle and a German Shepherd), kids (she also has two of those) and her family. In her spare time she’s the Hockey Mom for her kids hockey teams and is an active Girl Scout leader specially trained in outdoor education. She also spends time mentoring other teen and adult authors. (she also loves sushi, which you can probably tell by reading her books).

Simone writes about teens because she was a teen in the 80’s (when spiked hair and blue eye shadow were “rad”) and she loves writing about those exciting teen relationships and romances.

For more information visit: http://www.simoneelkeles.net/

Blogger Blurbs (compiled by Kristi)

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program for the following announcement:

TUNE IN TO STEPH'S BLOG NEXT WEEK. She's got exciting crap planned!

We will now return you to your scheduled program that is already in progress:

Tasha of Another Book Read reviewed The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman. "From the very first paragraph I was drawn into the story and knew that it would be great."

The Bookworm of Au Courant reviewed The School for Dangerous Girls by Eliot Schrefer. "I don’t recommend The School for Dangerous Girls because it was never able to hold my attention for any long period of time and its unlikable, far-off characters."

Carol of Bookluver-Carol's Reviews reviewed Bliss by Lauren Myracle. "The book was fast-paced and it really kept my attention. It was also very suspenseful."

Em of Em's Bookshelf reviewed The Magician by Michael Scott. "It's easy to get caught up in the adventure and magic, and Josh and Sophie are complex, interesting characters, connected by their birth and yet highly individualized."

Harmony of Harmony Book Reviews reviewed Far From You by Lisa Schroeder. "I was not disappointed."

Kelsey of Just Blinded Book Reviews reviewed Vidalia in Paris by Sasha Watson. "I enjoyed reading Vidalia in Paris and I can’t wait to see what Sasha has in store for us."

Lauren of Lauren's Crammed Bookshelf reviewed My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger. "At the beginning his writing could feel a bit so- so , but as the story continued, and as the characters began to get more developed, it picked up and started to get pretty funny."

Alea of Pop Culture Junkie had a Hardcover vs. Paperback post this week (one of my favs!) This post featured Oh. My. Gods. by Tera Lynn Childs. I have to say I'm partial to the paperback cover myself.

Reader Rabbit reviewed Triple Shot Bettys in Love by Jody Gehrman. "Having adored the first book, Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty (reviewed here), I expected no less from the sequel. Jody Gehrman manages to pull off a great read, even though this book has a more serious undertone than its predecessor."

Kelsey of Reading Keeps You Sane reviewed Beautiful Americans by Lucy Silag. "The writing in this book was really good. It was soft, mysterious and soothing words that had a deep meaning behind them."

Megan of Simply Books reviewed You are so Undead to Me by Stacey Jay. "I really liked this book. It was an interesting take on zombies, and having the power to put the undead back to their eternal rest is kind of cool."

Chelsea of The Page Flipper reviewed The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. "So without giving away too much, I'll say that it was a damn good book. It raised questions I'd never before thought to ask, and gave a frightening glimpse at a possible reality."

Interviews (compiled by Kristi)

Hope of Hope's Bookshelf interviewed Jennifer Zeigler author of How Not to be Popular.

Chelsie of Read, Read, Read interviewed Melissa Walker author of the Violet Series.

The Book Muncher interviewed Barkley Briggs author of The Book of Names.

The Compulsive Reader interviewed Susan Juby author of Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery.

Book Spotlight

"A modern tale of star-crossed lovers with a fresh urban twist. At Fairfield High School, on the outskirts of Chicago , everyone knows that south-siders mixing with north-siders can be explosive. So when Brittany Ellis and Alejandro “Alex” Fuentes are forced to be lab partners in chemistry class, this human experiment leads to unexpected revelations – that Brittany ’s flawless reputation is a cover for her troubled home life, that Alex’s bad-boy persona hides his desire to break free from gang ties, and that when they’re together, life somehow makes more sense. Breaking through the stereotypes and expectations that threaten to keep Brittany and Alex apart, Perfect Chemistry takes readers to both sides of the tracks in a passionate love story about looking beneath the surface."

Our Reviews

Steph: None (again!) but I did two Amaze Me, Faze Me, Daze Me posts this week: More historical fiction and fairies!

Kristi: week of freaggin awesome-ness! Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston, Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers and Need by Carrie Jones.

Visitors of The Story this week!

Thank you so much everyone for taking the time and leaving a comment on my blog! I get so excited every time I see one! I just want you to know that I really appreciate your support and that you continue to make my work at The Story feel appreciated. THANK YOU!

These cool people stopped by The Story and commented on a review or post! I just wanted to thank you personally for stopping by!

Yan, WannabeWriter, tatertot374, Thao, sammyjones57, Daisy Whitney, Raver Reader, dreamingofbooks, violetcrush, and shelburns.