In continued celebration of the theme of Teen Read Week, even if the week itself is over, I interviewed author Cindy Pon about her new book, Silver Phoenix, and about reading beyond reality. Okay, sure, it was because our schedules didn’t meet up for getting the interview up during Teen Read Week, but I think it’s an important enough idea that we should continue to discuss reading beyond our reality long after the week officially celebrating it ends.

I especially like what she had to say about universal ideas in literature — even if you’re not Asian, or English, or a ballet dancer, “This is why stories are so wonderful to me. If the author did her job, you can love and relate, even to something that isn’t exactly like you.”

I plan to continue to interview authors, teen readers, and other bloggers over the next several months, probably one a week, so stay tuned. If you’re interested in this issue and have something you’d like to submit as a guest post for Tu’s blog, please also let me know at stacylwhitman AT gmail.com.

Also, if you didn’t see it last week, I guest-posted over at Myth, the Universe, and Everything, talking about folklore, fantasy, and the kinds of stories I’d like to see for Tu Publishing.