Achuka and Teensreadtoo

While you're waiting for me to finish reading my first ebooks, here are two review sites for young adult/children's literature:

Achuka

I love this site. Not only is it dedicated to YA/kids' books, but it introduced me to one of my favourite books, Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan. I'll post a review of that one when I've reread it, but it's a brilliant book (for those with a dark sense of humour; it's about a boy with a talking brain tumour, you have been warned) and I'd never have found it without Achuka. I read the review on Achuka, thought 'talking brain tumour? wow!'), took one look at the (groovy) cover, and went to look for it in my local book shops. It wasn't on any shelves, so I had to order it in specially. It took 2 weeks, but it was worth it.

'Henry Tumour' is definitely for teens and above. There is frank discussion of sex(uality) and cancer; I wouldn't give it a 'mature' rating, because there's nothing graphic, but it may offend some, or at least make them feel queasy...

I bought this book in 2005, and it was the first fiction book I bought that I discovered while broswing on the net. If I hadn't been online, I might never have discovered it - and that's a book published by Doubleday! When I was at school, I used to give and get recommendations for kids/YA books to and from friends, but now this isn't so common, as most of them mainly read 'adult books' (snigger) now. Since, I just browsed book shops for new titles every month or so, until I discovered the internet is an important source of info about books I might like to read. I hope this blog introduces some excellent books to people who might otherwise never have come across them. Browsing online sites is getting easier what with intelligent linking systems (ie 'customers who bought/viewed 'Book Y' also bought/viewed 'Book X' and 'Book Z'), and the ability to preview the first few pages free as one can in a brick-and-mortar book shop, but often books sold through online shops have no or not-very-useful customer reviews, so I think review sites will prove more and more useful for helping people to find books that they'd never find in the high street shops, as well as those they might.

Teensreadtoo is a massive site with loads of book reviews, author interviews, and information about books' release dates. I recommend having a good poke around.:-)