30 Day Challenge: Day 3

DAY 3: Your Favorite Series

"Everything is a series, isn't it?"

An Anecdote.

Yesterday, Scarletta was showcasing at the Lyngblomsten Midsummer Festival in St. Paul. Art vendors, musical guests, and storytellers wandered throughout the day hoping to find great books, good food, and--more often than not--a glass of water to fight away the heat and humidity. While speaking to a brightly dressed mother-of-two, she noticed our upcoming children's picture book MONSTER NEEDS A COSTUME, the first book of our Monster & Me series. She was off-put by the idea of series, for whatever reason, and remarked that series is so popular these days, how we're losing our love of the singular, of the stand-alone.

And then she bought both Lexicon books. We're so strange, humans.

I'm a big fan of reading series or collecting books by certain authors. Thinking back through all the series that I've read over and over again, and what would be my pick for today's challenge, made me have to create a list! I'm very much a fan of fantasy YA series, which has become more and more popular since Harry Potter. I look back at what I read growing up and into my early adult years...Harry Potter, The Inheritance Cycle (Paolini), Chronicles of Narnia, The Books of Abarat (Barker), The Seventh Tower (Nix), The Abhorsen Trilogy, Lord of the Rings, and so many more. But when I really think about what series I've always cherished over the years, it comes down to The Boxcar Children, The Quartet (Lowry), and Redwall. 

So what's my choice? The Quartet by Lois Lowry. Each book by Lowry always seems to strike a nerve in me, and I come away with something new with every read. I do not read the books often, but I savor every second of every read and that's what makes a series worth picking up.

                                                                                                               

                                                                                                          -Desiree

A fascination with peril and sad endings kept me pretty busy as a young reader. There's no shortage of work out there that damns the hero, finds favor in the good guy falling short. I don't mind a happy ending here or there--and, admittedly, they can be very heartwarming--but there's a great honesty to a book that ends realistically. Perhaps, that's where my love for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events truly blooms. 

For those unfamiliar with the his work, Snicket (pseudonymous) crafted a series that journalistically recounts the misadventures and tribulations of the Baudelaire siblings: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. Constantly on the run from their money-hungry uncle, Count Olaf, and in obsessive search of the elusive VFD, the Baudelaire's lives are comically chronicled with heavy doses of sadness and misfortune. Each of the thirteen books in the series functions as an independent event in the children's journey that leads up to the suspenseful, melancholy, and aptly titled final tome: The End. The series is fantastic, and I would recommend it highly to anyone in need of quick, clever, and sigh-inducing reads. 

                                                                                    -Josh