The Chosen Blog Tour: Guest Post

Today we have with us Andrea Buginsky, author of The Chosen. For more posts on this blog tour, please visit this page.

Into the Past

I loved to read when I was a kid.  Now that I’m writing books for young adults, I have a much better idea of what it takes to produce books for children of all ages.  Though I haven’t published any books for younger children, I have tried my hand at writing stories for them, and I can tell you from first hand experience that it’s quite hard to come up with characters and plots that will keep a child interested, especially in this age of computer and video games.  It seems more kids today sit in front of a screen than a book.  Hopefully, with the amount of attention ebooks are getting, they’ll start sitting in front of an ereader screen too.

If I were to meet my past self today with the way things are now, I would definitely want to introduce her to books and the wonderful world of reading.  There were some wonderful books I loved to read growing up, as there still are today.  Here are some books I would recommend to myself at my past ages:

Age 5:

“Good Night Moon”
“Corduroy”
“Where the Wild Things Are”
“The Pokey Little Puppy”
The entire “Magic Tree House” series
Dr.Seuss books

Age 11:

The entire “Harry Potter” series
The “Ramona” books by Beverly Cleary
Rick Riordan’s books (“Percy Jackson,” “Heroes of Olympus,” “The Kane Chronicles”)
“Charlotte’s Web”
Judy Blume books
“The Popularity Papers”
“Priscilla the Great”

Age 16:

“Twilight” saga
“The Vampire Diaries”
“Eragon” series
“Sweet Valley High” series
“Little Women” series

Age 20

Danielle Steel books
Nicholas Sparks books
John Grisham books
Nora Roberts books

Some of these I did read, and would want to make sure I read again.  Some I didn’t read, and wish I had, like “Little Women.”  Some weren’t around when I was a kid, and I wish they had been, like the “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” series.
There are so many incredible books available, both new and old, that helping a child find one he or she will like shouldn’t be hard.  Just look for books based on their interests, and set up a specific time of day for them to read.  Shut off the electronics, find a comfortable chair with good light and watch their imaginations soar.

Thanks so much to Andrea for joining us today! If you would like to win a PDF copy of Andrea’s book to read for yourself, we are running a scavenger hunt May 25-31. Just answer any of the questions on THIS FORM. Any correct answers will count as entries, up to 8 entries total. The winner will be announced on July 3 at Lost For Words. Good Luck!