Reconnaissance Mission: Becoming a Book Scout for Rebellious Writing

Hello fellow rebels!

Our history books seem to portray that rebellions are started when shots are fired. That the only thing of importance are the soldiers that fought the battles, the soldiers that fell, the soldiers that obtained the victories.

What those stuffy textbook writers forget is that without food in their stomachs, clothes on their backs, and information in their minds, the soldiers on the battlefield would be the most useless part of the rebellion instead of the most glorious.

My point is, a rebellion is built not just on armies but also a vast network civilian supporters.

And just like any, this Rebellion is in need of such a network.

While all of us on the #RW team are avid readers of YA fiction, there is only so many books one can read. We are always looking for clean books to recommend, and we also want to warn against bad ones.

So, we would like to invite you, fellow readers, on a reconnaissance (or spying) mission: to be book scouts for Rebellious Writing.

The job of a book scout is to scout out and give us their personal ratings of Young Adult age-range literature, especially for how much swearing, abuse, and lust is present in the work on a 1 to 5 scale. Much like a spy's communication to an army, these simple brief "reviews" would provide a guaranteed spoiler free look to see if a book is clean enough to enjoy without loss of our souls or tempers.

To give you an idea, a 5 star book would be one that:

1. Has no swear words (spelled out or in symbol talk). Words such as crap, suck, screw, etc., are technically vulgar words as well though they are not considered swear words. Since we wish to advocate for clean literature, I personally would include these words as swear words. Phrases that allude to swearing (e.g. he cursed) are acceptable. 

2. If abuse (alcohol, drug, child, or domestic) is in the book, it is shown in a negative light and has clear consequences. We don't wish to recommend books that would glorify that kind of stuff.

3. Has no explicit sexual scenes (including making out), or any impurity beyond mild kissing between a male and a female.

Being a book scout is completely voluntary. You, the scout, set your own terms of involvement. You can make one recommendation, you can make 250 if you so desire. You can do it regularly, you can do it once in a blue moon. The choice is entirely yours. 

These book scout reviews will be published on the Rebellious Writing Goodreads group and will be also published here on the blog as "Book Scout Bulletins".

To submit your book scout reviews, and for other ways to get involved with Rebellious Writing, please visit the "Collaborate" page located in the drop down menu under "Mission" and fill out the Google form. Any questions about the form may be emailed to the team email: 

therebelliouswriting@gmail.com

I look forward to seeing what books you readers bring forth to us! 

March well,