NYC Teen Author Festival
Rocco Staino, Carlisle Webber -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2009
I Have Seen the Future… and It Sounds Like This
The first sign of spring in New York City isn’t the blooming crocuses—it’s the unveiling of the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Books for the Teen Age list. This year, however, things are a little different. The list has been renamed Stuff for the Teen Age, but at least one thing hasn’t changed. Another sign of spring, the NYC Teen Author Festival, kicked off with a weeklong celebration of teen author readings held throughout the city. SLJTeen caught one of the readings on Wednesday, March 18, at NYPL’s Mulberry Street Branch, which happens to be housed in a former chocolate factory in SoHo.Over 60 teens, many from beyond New York City, gathered for an event entitled I Have Seen the Future… and It Sounds Like This, which featured six popular YA authors who read from their works in progress. The host was PUSH editor and author David Levithan, who set the tone for the evening by being both jovial and disarming.
Here is a sneak preview of what’s in store from these always entertaining authors:
Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing, Delacorte 2007), who admits that she has always been attracted to creepy things read from her upcoming book Going Bovine (September 22, 2009). This title follows a boy with Mad-Cow Disease who is off on a road trip with his game addicted friend Gonzo.
Barry Lyga (Boy Toy,Houghton, 2008) stepped into character as he shared a preview of the sequel to The Astonishing Adventure of Fanboy and Goth Girl, entitled Goth Girl Rising. Dead mother, slit wrists, mental hospital, nerdy hot boyfriend, teen angst—this book has all the elements that teen readers yearn for. Don’t look for this until October 19, 2009
Justine Labalester (Magic of Madness Trilogy,Penguin, 2006) shared a work tentatively titled White Heat. She shared that her publisher thinks that her titles suck! The new title sounds like a cross between an historical novel set in the 1930s and a magical alternate world. BTW, Labalester is also the wife of Scott Westerfeld.
Eireann Corrigan (Ordinary Ghosts,Scholastic, 2007) talked about her upcoming title Person of Interest, to be published by Push. The book is about two high-achieving girls who fake a disappearance to increase their chances of getting into a good school. What starts out as a humorous stunt ends up to be deadly serious.
Holly Black (Spiderwick Chronicles, S&S) read from a manuscript straight from her editorwith Post-It notes still attached. Her upcoming book, The White Cat, is a caper in an alternate world that involves boarding-school gambling, where the most popular wager is betting on which teachers are hooking up with whom.
Rachel Cohn (You Know Where to Find Me, S & S, 2008) shared her new character Very LeFreak, an iPhone-addicted teen who is sent to a rehab center called ESCAPE (Emergency Shelter for Computer Addicted Persons Everywhere). At ESCAPE, addicts are rehabilitated by activities such as butter churning and cheese making. Call it Caddy Shack meets Wii meets Gossip Girls.
Scott Westerfeld’s (Uglies Trilogy, Simon & Schuster) Leviathan (due out in October) is a steam-punk novel set in 1914 with Darwinian creatures, a cross-dressing Scottish girl and German clankers. You’ll have to read the book to find out what a “clanker” is. Books for the Teen Age The New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age celebrated its 80th birthday on Saturday, March 21, 2009, with some major changes. In addition to the name change, the list has shrunk from 400 to 100 titles. Although there are definitely still books on the list, there are also movies, music, and games. With names like “For Real,” “Girl Drama,” and “The Undead,” the themed lists that were the backbone of Books for the Teen Age highlight the hottest trends in YA reading and entertainment. With help from teens, the Stuff for the Teen Age team put together lists that represent the digital, visual, fast-paced world of teens while also acknowledging the pleasure of curling up with a good book. Myers, one of the most popular authors among the teens that NYPL surveyed, spoke passionately about his views on the future of education. “Libraries were my salvation,” he said, citing the importance of young people’s access to a variety of newspapers, books, and the “arena of ideas.” What’s in Myers’s future? He has just finished an historical book in the form of a screenplay and is currently working on a play that’s also a poetry cycle. In closing, Myers asked everyone in the room to sing “Happy Birthday” to honored author Coe Booth, adding to a week of YA celebration around NYC. See more Stuff for the Teen Age Web site and for a look at Tiger Beat, the all YA author band that played during the fest, check out E. Lockhart’s blog. (Contributed by Carlie Webber)
(Contributed by Rocco Staino; photos by Tiffany Emerick)
In the beautiful Celeste Bartos Forum, part of the NYPL’s iconic Fifth Avenue building, teens, librarians, and authors gathered to check out book displays and try their hand at gaming. After introductions from NYPL teen specialists Jack Martin, Megan Honig, and Chris Shoemaker, author Walter Dean Myers took the stage. (Pictured left, YA authors Jenny Han, Coe Booth, and Siobhan Vivian)
