Welcome! - Introduction by Louise Tripp

You're reading the inaugural post to the To Grow On book blog. Of course, if you're here, you probably already know that much. The idea for this blog was sparked by a conversation with a co-worker at the library where I am fortunate enough to work. Hearing that I enjoyed reading young adult novels from time to time and wanted to write them myself, she asked me if I could recommend books for adults that might invoke some of the same thrill for reading and that joy in the story we felt when reading the books of our childhood and adolescence. In beginning to consider it, I realized that it could become the core idea for a really great website - a site featuring more personal stories about our relationships with books and reading. Something more than just reviews (though reviews are certain to be included!). My hope was to include stories about our love for books in general (how we came to love them, etc.), specific books we loved as kids and teenagers, and the similarities between the books that excited us then and those that excite us now.

Here's a look at what will come to be our regular sections:

• Friday Favorites – a selected blogger will talk about one of their new or life-long favorite books. 
• The Book Versus The Movie – featuring a discussion of a different book and the movie(s) it spawned each time. 
• Writer Birthdays- Monthly listings of famous author birthdays and occasional tributes to favorites whose birthdays fall within the month. 
• Recreate The Cover – Where we'll invite readers, once a month, to recreate (in photographs) a classic cover of a children's book or YA novel of our choosing. Best efforts will be posted to the site.

But this blog is still in the developmental stage, meaning that it will grow and change (I hope) and new features will be added as it does. We look forward to your comments and hope that you will add us on Twitter and “like” us on Facebook (or join Blogger and become our follower!).

  

JULY BIRTHDAYS

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3rd - Franz Kafka
4th - Nathaniel Hawthorne

5th - Jean Cocteau

8th- Anna Quindlen

10th - Marcel Proust and Alice Munro

11th - E.B. White

12th - Thoreau, Johanna Spyri and Pablo Neruda

15th - Iris Murdoch

16th - Tony Kushner

18th - Hunter S. Thompson

21st - Ernest Hemingway

24th -Alexandre Dumas

26th - George Bernard Shaw and Aldous Huxley

28th - Beatrix Potter

30th - Emily Bronte

31st - JK Rowling

Louise Tripp grew up in North Carolina. She currently lives in Chicago, where she is revising her first YA novel and working in a public library.