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A Brief History of YA Literature

ByMichael Thal

As a teacher fresh out of grad school and subbing for the Los Angeles Unified School District, I began reading YA fiction to uncover gems to motivate my students. I initially discovered Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly. Published in 1942 and considered the first book explicitly written for teens, Daly’s novel for girls had a…

Pop’s Picks for 2015
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Pop’s Picks for 2015

ByMichael Thal

In 2015 Pop’s Blog erupted on the Net reviewing over 30 YA novels and short stories. We decided to focus our attention on books published by independent publishers and authors because too many review sites tend to ignore these amazing books. Yes, we’ve read and reviewed popular books like Paper Towns by John Green, but…

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Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja

ByMichael Thal

If you are a student in fifth grade through high school and would like to review a book for Pop’s Blog, feel free to submit it to Pop at [email protected]. Today’s guest reviewer is Martik Arakelyan, who will review Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja. About the Reviewer Martik Arakelyan is a 5th grade student…

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BeSwitched Witch

ByMichael Thal

The beauty about the BeSwitched Series is how seamlessly the books are connected yet each is very independent of the other. Readers can easily read book two without worrying about missing something from book 1. However, the books are so good, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by missing any of them. In BeSwitched, Surla,…

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Riches to Rags

ByMichael Thal

Seventh grader Dylan Jones knew all about the good life. His family had lots of money so Dylan got what he wanted. Even so, everyone liked the boy because he was a carefree and happy child. Miss Wickware, Dylan’s history teacher saw potential in the youth, too. He just needed a bit of education from…