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We’re no strangers to book series. There have been numerous series to capture our hearts: The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Anne of Green Gables. However, the books I’m talking about today are part of a different category of serialized books. These are the books that you spent many weekend hours trying to collect, searching for that one you were missing, hoping to finish a complete set.

These books don’t need to be read in a specified order. Sure they’re numbered, but only to hook us collectors and make us feel incomplete if the books on our shelf don’t follow the perfect sequence. No, each title is a new adventure with familiar characters and they create a certain kind of charm that we still can’t resist.

Once upon a school year dreary, while I pondered weak and weary (as a broke undergrad), I lived in a haunted house.

It was rumored that the rickety, 19th century mansion-cum-student housing was once inhabited by a family annihilator. Unexplained things happened all the time: the television changed channels without warning, and footsteps echoed from the off-limits attic. Belongings disappeared, pictures leapt from walls. A roommate swore on a bottle of Jose Cuervo that she’d once awoken to the nebulous form of what looked like a child at the foot of her bed.

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Let’s start with the obvious: young adult (YA) is booming. It’s an unavoidable fact of book life. You find yourself waiting for weeks for a copy of The Hunger Games from your library, you get lost in the mass of books shoved onto the small shelves in bookstores, and publishers seem to only talk about YA in all its forms. YA is the “it” group, and for very good reason.

If you’re over 18 and reading this post, do not be ashamed to walk into the teen section of a bookstore or library. You’re in the midst of some great stories about self-discovery, overcoming adversity and discrimination, and all those things that every individual experiences at some point in life. The age of the protagonists in YA defines the genre, not the readership. Take a look at the Harry Potter craze! Children, teens, and adults were all reading about the boy wizard.

Speaking of wizards, another enticing and popular genre is fantasy. It’s a genre people love to love, or love to avoid. Surely there’s a story in each reader’s life when they first read fantasy, even if it was just to try it out. Depending on the book, the reader either became hooked or avoided the genre like the plague.

But fantasy can be intimidating; all those alternate worlds, creatures, pages to keep track of. It’s overwhelming!

And that’s where the beauty of YA simplicity waltzes in. YA is notorious for simpler writing with big plots. This is perfect for those extending feelers around the fantasy genre. No one wants page after page of description and back-story on a bush on the side of the path (think Lord of the Rings) for their very first. While those can be nice and interesting, it’s more suited for the established fantasy lover. Instead, YA fantasy is like a giant pool with tiny steps leading you ever so slowly deeper and deeper into the variety of magical possibilities.

So… what makes a good YA fantasy, you ask?

While fussing around on Quirk's Tumblr, I stumbled upon this wonderful video on the blog Lauren Reads YA. 

Lauren put together a great recap of Ransom Riggs' visit to Boekhandel Den Boer in Baarn, The Netherlands. Bestselling YA author Tahereh Mafi is also in the video. 

Have a look, and be sure to follow Lauren on Tumblr! 

The first two books in Charles Gilman's Tales From Lovecraft Middle School series are currently in bookstores everywhere, with the third title, Teacher's Pest, due out this Spring. 

We're currently hard at work on the fourth title in the series, Tales From Lovecraft Middle School: Substitute Creature, and we're looking for a model for the cover!

Here are the details from our art director, Doogie Horner:

We're looking for a woman to be the cover model on a book cover called Lovecraft Middle School: Substitute Creature. It's the 4th entry in a middle grade fiction series about a middle school where a bunch of the teachers and students are secretly monsters, inspired by the novels of H.P. Lovecraft.

Model Description: Female, 35-50 years old. Should look like a substitute teacher: bookish, shy, like a quiet librarian or cat lady. The kind of woman who wears her hair in a bun. Should be pretty, but also kind of average. Long face and thin nose a bonus.

Note: We will use Photoshop to turn you into a terrifying ghoul! The book cover is lenticular. Held at one angle, you will look like yourself. When the book is turned though, you'll transform into a terrifying ghoul [through the magic of Photoshop].

We're shooting sometime in December, or possibly early January, at a studio in Philadelphia. Should take about 4 hours. Pay is $150.

If interested please email two recent headshots to [email protected] Please write Lovecraft Middle School in the subject line of your email.

Photo via Doobybrain

Remember those childhood trips to Pizza Hut — that greasy pizza justified by the fact that you were picking up a Book It! star? Those hologram buttons proudly displayed on your Jansport? How many of you thought that this program was long gone, that the program dissolved when buttons went out of style and the Boxcar Children stopped going on adventures?

Well, believe it or not, the Boxcar Children are still going on adventures and the Book It! program is still thriving. This week marks the 23rd year of National Young Readers’ Week — an event co-founded by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. That’s right — stuffed crust meets Washington, D.C.

The Book It! program has evolved a bit since the mid-80s — minutes and books are logged online and this year, in addition to the Pizza Hut sponsorship, Book It! is partnered with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Today’s Book It! program even features a lemur named Dewey who teaches card-holding young readers how to utilize their library.

Visit the Book It! website to learn more, and relive a bit of your childhood.