Adele

I am an English teacher and the YA literature review blogger, Persnickety Snark.  I live in quiet Adelaide, reading copious amounts of YA and vigorously integrating Web 2.0 into my classroom. I blog, I podcast and I laugh way too much and way too loud.
 
Your favourite book as a child?
I can remember being particularly entranced by Animalia way back in the day.  I would spend hours poring over that book reading poems, falling in love with alliteration and trying to find Graeme Base in every page.

Later on Alanna: The First Adventure (Book 1 – The Song of the Lioness) by Tamora Pierce made a huge impact on me.  I loved reading about a girl who dismissed her expected role in society, pursuing her dream to be a knight.  Magic, love, intrigue and sword fights equaled a darn good read.

What's a book that made you cry?
I read Jenny Downham’s Before I Die and Gayle Forman’s If I Stay within 24 hours of one another and it was a literal tear-fest.

A book that made you laugh?
Lisa Mantchev’s Eyes Like Stars.  The faeries in that novel use the most laugh inducing language and imaginative insults that it’s impossible not to dissolve into a fit of giggles.  Case in point – Cobweb asks the protagonist, Bertie ‘Could we wear spandex and blow things up?’  The idea of a constantly wet and downcast Ophelia, sopping around also amuses me beyond words.

What are you currently reading?
Australian debut writer, Christine Hinwood’s Bloodflower, and it’s blowing my mind, the story slowly unfurls while gripping your curiosity with an iron fist. 

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Mr Darcy but that’s so pedestrian, everyone has a crush on Mr Darcy.  I am very partial to Jonah Briggs (On The Jellicoe Road) and Gilbert Blythe (Anne of Green Gables).  I like them uptight and proud!

What’s your favourite reading place?
Public transport, it something about the gentle movement and the focus required to ignore everyone else that makes the bus my most productive reading venue.  Bed would have to be the most comfortable and my chosen place to devour a book.

Who is the author you’d most like to meet? (living or dead)
Melina Marchetta, I’d be rendered mute, but I have loved her work since the second I started reading it and she’s just lovely.   I have a huge hankering to hit New York and meet Gayle Forman (If I Stay) as she’s pretty cool.

Favourite book-to-film adaptation?
One of my favourite films is 10 Things I Hate About You which is an adaptation of Taming of the Shrew.  I love this movie so much because it possesses so much snark and spark. 

I really enjoy the adaptation of Stephen King’sThe Stand into a mini-series in the mid-90’s and Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers HBO mini-series in 2001 was amazing (if not entirely accurate historically).

On a quiz show, your special subject would be:
Teen movies – specifically John Hughes films or random film knowledge (it’d be great to find it useful for once).

And what are you generally doing when you're not reading?
Posting reviews on my blogs, interviewing authors, marking essays, podcasting or watching television.  And then there’s the dreaded Twitter – it’s my best friend and enemy all in one beautiful, time wasting package.