I've been meaning to write a post like this for a while, but reading this gorgeous post on I Was a Teenage Book Geek has spurred me on to do it sooner!
Lauren wrote, in her YA Community Thanksgiving post, that one of the things she was thankful for was: "YA bloggers. You know, YA bloggers who are actually YAs. I am amazed and impressed by bloggers who are still in their teen years and writing way better than I was back then. Or better than I write now. Maybe I should be envious, but I'm not. I'm thrilled. I know how much work blogging is. The fact that teenagers work this hard at blogging when I could barely manage my homework at that age makes me thankful. Because if they're the authors of tomorrow, we're in for a treat."
I agree with this wholeheartedly, and I'm constantly impressed by the reviews sent to this site by our young team. (Thank you!)
I wanted to highlight here some of the book blogs run by young British and Australian bloggers, so here they are, in no particular order... And remember, these are just a few of the great sites out there!
Young Book Bloggers' Sites (based in Britain and Australia)
The Book Slooth Run by Isme, a 14-year-old book-lover living in Western Australia. This site is new to me and I'm really looking forward to reading more of it!
Magic Bean Review Run by Jean, who is 15 and from Scotland, with a passion for all things Japan and Japanese - and also books, of course. A new site that's already full of great reviews and book news.
Dusty Books in the Corner - A brand new UK-based site run by Georgia, who also reviews for Chicklish!
The Sweet Bonjour - A completely fantastic British book site run by Sasha, who is one of Chicklish's original reviewers - in fact, I think she was only the second young person to write to us and ask to review books, a few years ago. Sasha deserves a special mention because a lot of our current young reviewers are her friends. Thanks, Sasha! Sasha is also on the Penguin Spinebreakers team and she's amazing!
Cherry Banana Split - An Australian-based site run by Anna Banana and Cherry Diva, focusing on Australian teen lit and always full of great content. Check out their recent interview with Jaclyn Moriarty - so interesting!
The Beaucoup Review - 12-year-old Ria's site features wonderful book reviews, giveaways and fantastic author interviews. UK-based.
The Mile Long Book Shelf - This is 11-year-old Amber's UK-based site, regularly updated and always lively and interesting. Amber reviews for Chicklish, too!
LovereadingX - Iffath is brilliantly enthusiastic and writes wonderful, detailed reviews. UK-based.
Zoe's Blog 'n' Stuff - I've only just found 12-year-old Zoe's site but I'm really happy I have! There are brilliant reviews for younger readers, and Zoe also reports from Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town.
J'adore - A new UK-based site for teen book reviews and author interviews.
Dragonfly Reviews - I love this British site! It has been around longer than most of the others and I think its owner, Sara, has been too busy to blog for a while, but I hope she'll be back! There are great archives.
Books, Books and More Books - As above, but for Amy. :)
If I've missed out your site, I'm really sorry, but I'm running out of space! Please add yourself in the comments and people should find you.
Huge thanks to all the young book bloggers out there whose sites are such a pleasure to read.
And a special mention to the young book reviewers who review for this site, too. Thank you, everyone!
by Luisa
Image: On the Platform Reading by moriza used under Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en_GB
Great blogs, I've been checking some out! :)
Thanks for the introduction.
Posted by: Nina | 21 April 2010 at 03:45 PM
Great list! These all sound fantastic! ;) x
Posted by: Iffath | 21 April 2010 at 06:50 PM
This looks like a great list - I'm familiar with some of them, but I'll definitely be dropping by all of them soon. Thanks for letting us know about these. :) I checked out Magic Bean Review yesterday and it's awesome.
(By the way, I loved that I got quoted on Chicklish! Thanks!)
Posted by: Lauren (I Was A Teenage Book Geek) | 21 April 2010 at 11:32 PM
Lauren, thanks for inspiring this post!
Nina, thanks for checking out the sites!
And Iffath, I agree. :)
Posted by: Luisa | 21 April 2010 at 11:40 PM
Thanks for featuring Amy, Luisa. She'll be really pleased.
Posted by: Sophie | 22 April 2010 at 10:45 AM
Great post, Luisa! It's great to be introduced to some new bloggers, especially young bloggers who obviously work so hard. Very inspiring! I'll be checking them out! :)
Posted by: Jo | 22 April 2010 at 06:00 PM