Reviewer Spotlight

Branch: Sugar Creek Branch

Amanda, a youth specialist at Sugar Creek Branch, is our reviewer of the month for May. She is an avid reader and frequent contributor of thoughtful fiction reviews for both adults and teens. Here is what Amanda has to share with us:

Growing up, I was your classic bookworm—nose always stuck in some book or another—and I’m still a bit like that today. Reading is just such a basic part of my life, that if I went a day without reading something, anything, I think that I would go mad. I would probably end up reading the back of the cereal box or my shampoo bottle or something crazy like that!

I’ve loved books since I was teeny-tiny; one of my earliest memories is of sitting on my mom’s lap and listening to her read fairy tales to me (maybe this is why I love fantasy so much!). I tease my husband about watching all those reality television shows, and he teases me about “checking out half the library” and lugging home so many books to read. What can I say? A day without books, to me, is like a day without the sun.

I read pretty much everything—fantasy, science fiction, graphic novels, mysteries, romances, non-fiction, humor, biographies, young adult fiction, and of course, juvenile fiction—except for horror, true crime, and westerns (somehow I never really got into those genres). With my job I have the privilege of reading more juvenile fiction than anything else; some of my favorite children’s and young adult authors are: Lloyd Alexander, Joan Aiken, Ludwig Bemelmans, Susan Cooper, Roald Dahl, Julie Reece Deaver, Edward Eager, Cornelia Funke, Karen Hesse, Madeleine, L’ Engle, Gail Carson Levine, Patricia MacLachlan, William Pene du Bois, John Scieszka, Dr. Seuss, and Vivian Vande Velde.

Some of my favorite adult fiction and non-fiction authors are: Susan Wittig Albert, Donna Andrews, R. Scott Brunner, Charles De Lint, Carole Nelson Douglas, Janet Evanovich, Anne Fadiman, Julie Garwood, Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, Jeff Smith (author of the “Bone” graphic novels), and Bailey White.

I’m thankful for some of the truly great teachers and professors that I’ve had who opened my eyes to so many different authors, and I’m extremely thankful to my parents for teaching me the love of reading. I really enjoy sharing my favorite books with others, and I look on writing reviews as just another way of telling people about the latest, greatest book I’ve read. Now if I could only enjoy doing laundry the same way that I enjoy reading, then I’d be set.

Thanks Amanda!