Senior Project with a Focus on YA Authors

Senior, Destiny Burnett and her mentor, Susan Larson
I am writing this post to brag about the president of Bookmarked and share some links showcasing her wonderful writing skills and ability to offer insightful reviews for the books she reads. Destiny has been in the high school book group since she was a freshman, and she is an avid reader and reviewer. Bookmarked members have been writing reviews and nominating books for YALSA's Teen's Top Ten since 2010. The group also reviewed books over an 18 month period for SLJTeen. During that time Destiny had six book reviews published as well as an author interview which you can read here. 

When I heard that Destiny was looking for a mentor for senior project, I knew just the person, but there was a problem. Destiny wanted an internship with an anthropologist. Lucky for her we couldn't find someone like that to mentor her. I have known Susan Larson a long time, and I knew that the two of them would make a connection. Susan was the long time book editor for the local paper and currently has a radio show about books on a local station. Susan is the most well-read person I know and has interviewed more authors than anyone that I know. As I predicated they hit it off spectacularly, and I think that both of them would agree.

For her senior project, Destiny made an exploration of several YA authors to find out what influenced them the most in their writing. Her mentor made some book recommendations, and then the two of them made a decision on which authors would be best to interview. After each interview Destiny posted what she learned on her blog. 
Follow these links to read her wonderful posts: 
1. Interview with John Ed Bradley author of Call Me by My Name
2. Interview with mystery writer Julie Smith who's YA novel is Curse Busters
3. Interview with Adi Alsaid who's debut novel is Let's Get Lost. Review of Alsaid's book.
4. Interview with Greg Herren author of the YA novel, Dark Tide 
5. Interview with M. H. Herlong who wrote the middle grade novel, Buddy

If you enjoy reading Destiny's interviews, please post a comment on her blog. I think that Destiny would love knowing that her writing had an impact on you. (By the way Destiny did an awesome job on her senior project presentation last week. She really nailed it.)

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