Behind the Blog: WORD for Teens

Behind the Blog: Reviewer Speak Week

It's Thursday of Behind the Blogginess, and today we're hanging with another awesome teen reviewer. Everyone say hi to Nicole!

Nicole, of WORD for Teens

www.wordforteens.blogspot.com

Nicole posts positively spiffy reviews on her site, rounded out by interviews and contests. Like any AP teen who blogs, she's got to be a mistress of time management to read and review and survive school! And to do it all so well.

INN: Why did you start blogging at WORD for Teens?
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Nicole: Because my mom told me I was talking so much about book that I needed a place to let it all out- and that's the honest truth. She runs a few blogs of her own, and I had been helping her keep them updated. I have a bad habit of talking and talking about things I love, and my main love is books. After talking to her for an hour straight, she told me I needed a blog or something so other people (besides her) could hear what I had to say... and so her ear didn't fall off from all the talking. And so WORD was born.
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INN: Was there an amazing book that you read this year that took you by surprise?
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Nicole: That's easy. Christina Meldrum's Madapple. I was expecting it to be an interesting book, but nothing out of the ordinary - and it ended up being extraordinary. I was also surprised by how much I liked Melissa Walker's Violet on the Runway, as I'm not very interested in fashion.
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INN: Do you have a favorite word? Is it used in any of your favorite books?
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Nicole: My favorite words are actually MADE UP WORDS from the Broadway musical Wicked, simply because they're so much fun to use in real life. (And Wicked was based off of Gregory Maguire's Wicked, a very good book, but I enjoy the musical better.) The words would be swankified, hideodeous, and confusifyed. My favorite regular word has to be spiffy; it describes things so well. I can't remember any book that that's in off of the top of my head, but I know I've seen it before.
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INN: Name three up-and-coming YA authors that are worth following.
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Nicole: Alexa Young - if the rest of her Frenemies series is as enjoyable as the first one, it should be a fun series to read. Besides, her blog is one of the funniest things in cyber space. Laura Preble - she's already had two books published in the span of a few years, so she's not up-and-coming so much as more-people-need-to-discover-her. However, her Queen Geek Social Club series has me laughing out loud and the website based around it is also very cool.
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This is bad, I can't think of one off of the top of my head that would be considered up-and-coming... so... let's just stick with YA authors for a third one and go with Eoin Colfer, because his Artemis Fowl series rocks my pink, green and blue socks.
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INN: What's your advice for other teen reviewers?
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Nicole: Just because nobody's commenting or you think nobody's reading your blog doesn't mean you should stop blogging. Somebody will find you and somebody will appreciate your opinion - or argue with you over it. Never give up! (And that was ridiculously inspirational, so I shall add onto that don't be afraid to have fun - use crazy smilies like *-* and spruce your site up. Bright colors rock - just not too many of them!)
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Thank you SO much, Nicole!

As Behind the Blog continues, we'll be chilling with The Book Muncher tomorrow.