Awesomeness: Into The Wild Nerd Yonder

YAY!!! It's The Week of Contests, Games, and PRIZES!!!

Are you guys excited? I'm excited. I have some fun things in store for you this week, so stay tuned to win books, critiques, drawings, and...nope, that's pretty much it right there.

Today, The Elana Johnson has organized a massive spread-the-love for authors. She asked a ton of writers to recommend books that they absolutely 100% adored, and so you'll probably be seeing a bunch of posts like this one today. Or you can just go here to see them all.

I offer up Into The Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern. I've already talked about how much I love this book here, but it immediately came to mind again when Elana said to pick a book I'd give 10 stars to because I loved it so much.

Quick Summary: Jessie is in between social groups, what with her friends going punk while she'd prefer to sew skirts out of pikachu fabric. But when her supposed best friend does the unthinkable, the nerd crowd starts looking way more appealing than it should...especially that freakishly cute boy with the flooded pants and white sneakers.

It's hard for me to talk about this book without going, "I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!" I get this fluttery feeling just thinking about it, which makes it hard to say anything intelligible. So this won't be much of a review, just a straight up love fest.

I loved this book because I felt like I could have been Jessie. No, I WAS Jessie at one point in my life. I wish wish wish I had this book to read as a nerdy teen girl. I want Jessie for a best friend for my 16-year-old self. We would have gotten along so very well.

I love that Julie Halpern got this reaction out of me. Her writing is so real and quirky and easy on the eyes. I loved that she addressed that awkward period between friendships. I loved the normal and yet awesome family Jessie had (Especially the relationship with her brother. [I was very close with my brother, too!]). I loved that she wrote a book about finding real friends no matter where they happen to be socially.

Just...LOVE.

Into The Wild Nerd Yonder is also one of a few books that totally sucked me into contemporary YA fiction. It made me love a genre I didn't quite gel with before—it taught me that contemporary can be just as magical as fantasy. It made me want to try, to learn, more about it. It made me want to grow as a writer and experiment.

For that I want to thank Julie. Times ten.

AND I want to spread the love! So for this Day 1 of The Week of Contests, Games, and PRIZES, I'm giving away a copy of Into The Wild Nerd Yonder.

This is my first book giveaway, guys. I'm stingy with the monies, so you must know that I really love this book.

TO ENTER: I only ask two things—be a follower (on Twitter or the blog) and leave a comment. I know, you don't have to pimp me or anything! Easiest contest ever! (Especially on this blog, am I right?)

I will draw one winner TOMORROW AT NOON MST, and, uh, they'll win Into The Wild Nerd Yonder. Duh.

As part of this whole author love day thing-a-ma-jig, I have been asked to direct you to the fabulous Jamie Harrington for the next book recommendation. Enjoy.