BEA - Blogger Buddy Interview

Since I can't be at BEA meeting up with other bloggers, I'm excited to participate in the Armchair BEA activities!  Today I would like to introduce you to Jeanne from Necromancy Never Pays.  I was lucky enough to "meet" Jeanne and interview her about her reading life!

If you could name one book – picture book or novel – that every child/tween/teen should read in their lives, what would it be and why?

I think every teenager should read Cory Doctorow’s novel Little Brother, because it’s about the dangers ahead if Americans choose what they see as “safety” over liberty, and it demonstrates ways kids can make a difference.

Who or what would you accredit to fostering your lifelong love of reading?

My parents read to me, had books in our house, and took me to the library. We didn’t watch television on school nights, so I had more time to read than other kids my age.  I think my love for poetry was fostered by my mother’s love of reading rhyming poems--like from Dr. Seuss and Robert Service--out loud.

As a parent, what did you do that was successful in encouraging your kids to read?

Read out loud to them and brought home books I thought they would like.  I still try to read some of the books they’re reading so we can talk about them.

If you could choose any character from children’s through YA books to visit for a day, who would you want to visit and what would you do with him/her, what questions would you ask him/her?

Can I have a bunch of quick visits in that one day?  I’d like to go to Narnia and talk to the Beavers and find out what trout tastes like when it’s cooked right after being caught, and I’d like to to to Weetzie Bat’s LA and dance with her whole family at one of their picnics under the trees, and I’d like to fly using strap-on wings at the cavern on the moon of the Heinlein story “The Menace from Earth,” and I’d like to swim with Percy Jackson and see the deep parts of the Pacific ocean.  Three hours at each place; it can work!  In fact, if I get a whole 24 hours, I could stretch it by going to sleep under the stars of Lorien while the elves sing.

Can you describe what makes an ideal reading spot for you?  

February through September: Hot sun, sand, surf, a beach chair, and an umbrella.  October through January: an easy chair in front of a roaring fire with my feet on an ottoman and a cat in my lap.

Since your blog name started with a Would You Rather? question, can you create a Would You Rather? question for young readers?

Would you rather get a wish from the Psammead in Six Children and It or half a wish from the coin in Half Magic?

How would you finish the sentence: Reading is…

An essential ingredient in my day.  If I don’t read or hear enough of a story, I don’t have anything interesting to muse over as I go about my daily business.

Thank you, Jeanne, for sharing more about yourself and your reading life!  It doesn't surprise me that you were read to as a child and had access to books - that's what all the research and literature seems to say about fostering a lifelong love of reading for students.  I completely agree with your recommendation of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.  It is a very interesting and thought-provoking book!  And as far as your Would You Rather? goes...I'm going to have to go read those books first and get back to you!