Hatchet (Gary Paulsen) as discussed by Lindsay Cummings

The book was HATCHET, by Gary Paulsen.

“Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience – waiting, and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking.”  (from Hatchet by Gary Paulsen)

And after that, I couldn’t stop reading. I couldn’t stop signing myself up for these magical journeys that would transport me away from my confusing, teenaged world ,and drop me into entirely new ones where anything was possible.  Where I could be a girl who kissed vampires (oh, Edward), or a boy whose magic saved the world, or a girl with a bow and a mockingjay pin whose rebellion and courage had the power to change EVERYTHING.

YA is magical. It is real, because to teens, the world is a horrifying and beautiful place all at once. YA is what takes us from our experiences in the scariest years of our lives, when we don’t even know who we are, when we don’t even know what we will become or where we will be in the future, and throws us into a time and place where anything is possible. YA gives readers hope. It gives readers excitement. When you’re a teen, everything matters. Everything is the best day and the worst day all at once. The tiniest of choices can affect you for the rest of your life.

Why YA? Because life is short, and I want to read the best of the best. There is NO better way to do it than diving into the pages of a YA book.

About Lindsay Cummings