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The Suspense Is Killing Me
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:08:17 -0500
It's time to turn our attention on CCBC-Net to our topic for the second half of October: thrillers, suspense, horror and other offerings for young adults who like tense or frightening plot and story elements.
Tim Wynne-Jones's new novel "Blink & Caution" (C//andlewick Press, 2011), combined with an inquiry from a teacher looking for suggestions for a teen who only reads Stephen King, got us thinking about this topic.
My own reading experience with "Blink & Caution" turned a little "life imitates art" over the summer. I was so engrossed in the story as I waited for a bus to go home from work that I got on the bus in a fog, and was almost home before my subconscious finally got my attention. I literally sat bolt upright in my seat, pulled out of the world of the story with the sudden realization that I didn't have my bag with me--the one that I use each day to go back and forth to work and not only had my usual stuff in it but also my complete ALA conference travel and schedule information. I'd left it at the bus stop.*
Reading "Blink & Caution" had me on edge in a way that I don't usually experience (or seek out) when reading. But (lost bag aside), it was exhilarating.
Some young adults are drawn to that feeling of suspense or edginess, they like books that make them tense, or scare them silly. What books do you suggest for readers like this? And what are your own favorite y.a. books that go bump or bang in the night?
Megan
(*After a frantic series of phone calls when I got home, I'd given the bag up for lost, but a very kind student had picked it up and an email was waiting for me at work the next day. No Blink & Caution suspense in the aftermath, when I retrieved it from him before one of his classes--but I did put in a plug for the book!)
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Tue 18 Oct 2011 09:08:17 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:08:17 -0500
It's time to turn our attention on CCBC-Net to our topic for the second half of October: thrillers, suspense, horror and other offerings for young adults who like tense or frightening plot and story elements.
Tim Wynne-Jones's new novel "Blink & Caution" (C//andlewick Press, 2011), combined with an inquiry from a teacher looking for suggestions for a teen who only reads Stephen King, got us thinking about this topic.
My own reading experience with "Blink & Caution" turned a little "life imitates art" over the summer. I was so engrossed in the story as I waited for a bus to go home from work that I got on the bus in a fog, and was almost home before my subconscious finally got my attention. I literally sat bolt upright in my seat, pulled out of the world of the story with the sudden realization that I didn't have my bag with me--the one that I use each day to go back and forth to work and not only had my usual stuff in it but also my complete ALA conference travel and schedule information. I'd left it at the bus stop.*
Reading "Blink & Caution" had me on edge in a way that I don't usually experience (or seek out) when reading. But (lost bag aside), it was exhilarating.
Some young adults are drawn to that feeling of suspense or edginess, they like books that make them tense, or scare them silly. What books do you suggest for readers like this? And what are your own favorite y.a. books that go bump or bang in the night?
Megan
(*After a frantic series of phone calls when I got home, I'd given the bag up for lost, but a very kind student had picked it up and an email was waiting for me at work the next day. No Blink & Caution suspense in the aftermath, when I retrieved it from him before one of his classes--but I did put in a plug for the book!)
-- Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Tue 18 Oct 2011 09:08:17 AM CDT
