Before I go listing my YA novel picks for 2008, I have one caveat: I am rather tired of the way people slap the word “spiritual” on everything including the kitchen sink, without really telling you what they mean by the usage. So, in the process of giving you my Top 5 Best Spiritual YA Reads…

A few weeks ago I received an invitation from Beliefnet co-founder and editor-in-chief teve Waldman to make note of my “Best Spiritual Read of 2008.”  One book clearly came to mind. It’s a pretty simple, straightforward book, though I’ve tried to remember a better or more challenging, more sublime, or more esoteric book to put…

The New York Times has a story about Muslim punk rockers, the amazing life-imitates-art phenomenon of “The Taqwacores,” a novel by Michael Muhammad Knight.  They didn’t exist until Knight’s novel started circulating in the Muslim teen community. “This book helped me create my identity,” one Muslim teen told the Times. The punks object equally to how…

I think it’s fair to say that 2008 was the year of “Twilight”–as in Stephenie Meyer’s the “Twilight Series,” as in vampires and vampire-human love, as in star-crossed romance taken as far as it can go, as in crazy, screaming teenage girls (and their moms) cheering on Meyer everywhere she goes, and as in crazy,…

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