Jeffe and I were speculating the other day as to whether or not the YA genre actually existed when we were growing up (a nebulous period in the 70’s and 80’s, to be specific.) We took it to Twitter and the general consensus was that it didn’t. I started reading at a pretty early age. I know some of my favorites in 3rd and 4th grade were things like Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden…but after that things get a bit hazy. At some point I was handed Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, because I got mono in 4th grade and I distinctly remember not being allowed to participate in recess in the months that followed (which meant a lot of reading.) I remember reading Ogre, Ogre in May of that year, which was the 8th book in that series. Did I get all of his puns?… Read more