Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish
Top Ten Tuesday is here again! Are you excited? I'm excited. Okay, let's go. This week's theme is The Top Ten Gateway Books/Authors In My Reading Journey. I'll be featuring books/series from my childhood, middle school, high school, now and everything in between and giving single sentence explanations for each book. I tried to keep them in order of when in my life I read each book. If we have any of the same gateway books, let me know! I'd love to hear what you have to say.
1. The Bailey School Kids series by Debbie Dadey for introducing me to long, chapter book series and, in hind sight, introducing me to paranormal/fantastical books.
2. Amelia's 6th-Grade Notebook by Marissa Moss for helping me through those awkward years and also for teaching me that books with pictures aren't only for babies.
3. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli for being the first book that I truly remember being effected by and for making me a happier person.
4. The Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard for being the first mystery style book I ever read and for inspiring me to create a book blog (on the first try in, like, 2009.)
5. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for being the first book I read in school that I actually enjoyed and for being one of the first books to show me just how powerful the messages in books can be.
6. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher for very similar reasons to that of Speak; For giving me all the feels and for sticking with me years after reading it.
7. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald for teaching me that not all classics they make you read in school are incredibly boring and for showing me that symbolism is hella cool.
8. Divergent by Veronica Roth for being the first Dystopian novel/series that I dared to read and for teaching me that just because I like the first book in a series doesn't mean I'll like the rest. (Awkward.)
9. Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs for showing me that just because a book looks scary doesn't mean it is and also for teaching me that I do actually like paranormal-style books (or whatever this is considered.)
10. The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer for shocking me into realizing that I do enjoy the sci-fi genre and also for introducing me to the idea of re-imagined twists on fairy-tale re-tellings and the idea of re-tellings in general.
I totally forgot about the Amelia Notebook. I loved that book!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant list :-) I'm not surprised that Divergent was a gateway book for you. A fantastic series! Speak is really special too.
ReplyDeleteGreat list! I love Speak! and 13 Reasons Why, they're such great books that really hit home with heavy issues.
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Great picks - Thirteen Reasons Why was SO GOOD and I really need to reread it soon!
ReplyDeleteThis list is awesome - I agree with so many of them and still need to read Miss Peregrine's and Cinder.
ReplyDeleteAhh, so many awesome books here!! I love what you said about Miss Peregrine - I have no idea what genre it's considered either, lol, but I love that it wasn't what I expected it to be!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved The Great Gatsby, it's on my list too :)
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Oh! I read Cinder, too and I thought THAT was unique!
ReplyDeleteAwesome list!