Had to chant to myself "Kids like series. Kids like series." in order to finish Lemony Snicket's The Austere Academy (#5). I am still not getting the series. It's drab, predictable, and the children love it. I'm glad they do.
Beany Malone series makes me way happier than anything should. Great literature? No.
Still, Ellen Schreiber's Dance with a Vampire (#4) irritated me. Will it be popular with the girls who like vampire romances? Absolutely. Do I have two copies? Sure. Is it annoying? You bet. How many times do we need to hear that Raven wants to be a vampire and loves her vampire boyfriend? How many black, alt-designer outfits must she mention by name? Part of my dislike is that Raven seems to think she is original, when she is merely a lemming of another color (black). If she really wanted to be original, she would wear double knit polyester dresses and probably wouldn't drone on about how she wanted a group of friends who were just like her.
I sense personal feelings intruding on my enjoyment of the book.
Speaking of series... have you ever read the first three Dragonriders of Pern books by Anne McCaffery -- Dragonflight; Dragonquest; The White Dragon? There's minimal "suggestive" parts, but nothing anywhere near what I've read in some teen books. They're fantasy, dragons... and good. She also wrote three "young adult" books -- Dragonsinger, Dragonsong and Dragondrums, the plots of which intermingle with those of the three main "adult" books (though our 7th grader has read all six of those mentioned). Thanks!
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