Happy Birthday, readergirlz!

Well, it's March, rgz, and do you know that means it's our 4th birthday? Woohoo! Raise a book and drop a comment in celebration. Share your love!

Looking over the past 4 years, I recall our launch, March 1st, 2007, in honor of Women's History Month. How about our migration from MySpace to Facebook and Blogger and Twitter? I think of great chats like the midnight worldwide extravaganza with Stephenie Meyer, Halloween, 2007. I think of 31 Flavorites where we hosted a different author everyday. I think of celebrations for Teen Read Week, donations of 30,000 books to underserved teens through Operation Teen Book Drop with YALSA and Guys Lit Wire, and the recent A Novel Gift with First Book, driving hundreds to register for 125,000 books. I think of winning the National Book Award for Innovations in Reading and the James Patterson Grant. 

I think of great dialog, passionate teens, and those who work to serve them. I think of an amazing crew of ladies who has donated their time to sustain this site.  

Here's to YA literature. Here's to you, rgz! Happy 4th birthday!

March: Closing post for The Adoration of Jenna Fox

It's our closing post with Mary E. Pearson, everyone! *sob* It's been such a fantastic month of discussion about The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I've pasted all the links below that we've accumulated in the sidebar. Feel free to revisit them!

Thanks to Mary for her patience as we relocated our discussions and rgz LIVE! this month. Feedback from rgz is that everyone is so happy our interactions are open to all now!

Drop your own thanks and fangirl love to Mary in the comments. Mary, know you are always welcome to hang with rgz! We heart you! Thanks again for all your time. Best to you in your writing!

~Lorie Ann

March Welcome
postergirlz recommended reads for March
How far would you go to save someone?
What are you self conscious about?
Happy anniversary!
postergirlz recommended reads
Has medicine saved your life?
What superhuman ability do you want?
Does the real you reside in your brain, heart, or gut?
Do you want to live for 200 years?
How do you define yourself?
rgz LIVE! with Mary E. Pearson
The Adoration of Jenna Fox Cover
Poll
Do you give too much of yourself?
What's your final take-away from The Adoration of Jenna Fox?

March: Do You Give Too Much of Yourself?

There is a "gray page" titled Pieces where Jenna describes working so hard to give pieces of herself to others that she has nothing left for herself. Do you ever feel that way? Why?

March: Has medicine saved your life?

I love this response from Mary that she dropped in the rgz MySpace group forum. Here it is for everyone to enjoy. Has medicine saved your life?

"Hi Dia! As you well know it takes a long time to write a book and Jenna Fox took me over two years to write so in the course of this time a lot of inspirations and ideas jump on board, but two of the triggering questions that got it going were "How far would a parent go to save their child?" and also, "How far will medicine advance in fifty years?"

I asked myself both of these questions when my daughter was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. We were very fortunate that medicine and technology had advanced far enough that her life was saved, but just fifty years earlier she would have died from it. So it was quite natural to wonder where medicine and technology might be in another fifty years.

And wondering is what drives most authors isn’t it? And then in the course of writing, I wondered more things! Like, will something like the soul which is so faith-based, ever be addressed by science? Or are there some things that will always be unexplainable?

I also wanted to explore "hyper-parenting" because now as we have more and more "miracle" children, I wondered about the pressures that might put on a child.

I like exploring gray areas in my writing--things that have no clear cut answers or present dilemmas--or at least for me they are! I am sure some people view these situations differently and that is what makes books and reading and opinions all so fascinating."

~Lorie Ann