My Passion for Young Teen Readers
1:00 AM
In pretty much all my books, but especially with the Tales of Taelis series, I'm thinking of young to mid-teen readers. Why? Because I was that teen reader that had trouble finding fiction that I wanted to read and was age-appropriate. My latest project, my novella for the A Very Bookish Thanksgiving collection has me thinking about them even more.
Despite my arm pain, I was able to write an opening to my novella that I was happy with, after a few attempts with openings that sounded really dull. The main character is eighteen and loves Mansfield Park. The book has had a profound impact on her life. As a teen, there were several fiction books that profoundly affected me. Sarah's Journey Series, Christy, and The Horse and His Boy, were the biggest ones.
When I write books, I often think of my younger teen self and wonder if I would have felt comfortable reading the book and would I have liked it. Would it have helped me grow in my faith? You see, my passion for reaching those younger teen readers is still strong. After all, many of them are in a challenging time in life, and it's so important to reach them with relevant messages.
I know the power the right book at the right time can be. The Sarah's Journey series helped me as a very young teen deal with some attitude issues I was dealing with. When I went through I time when I felt like my life and faith were falling apart, The Horse and His Boy reminded me that God is always right there with a plan for everything. Christy helped me to see the compassion I should have for others and how important it is to build a foundation of faith of your own. I've seen the power of books and my prayer is that each of my books impacts one person for the glory of God.
4 comments
Thank You Sarah for this lovely post. You are a special lady to be helping teens find appropriate books. God Bless.
ReplyDeleteMarion
You are very welcome.
DeleteSarah you are to be commended for wanting to help teens find the right books to read. I did read the Christy books many years ago. I also watched the Christy series that was televised long ago. God Bless your and continued success with your writing. Hope your arm and hand are better.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn
Thank you, Marilyn.
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