Dozens of YA Authors Join the Second Annual NYC Teen Author Festival
RSSBy Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 03/26/2010
John Green, E. Lockhart, and Jacqueline Woodson were just some of the more than 60 young adult authors who descended on New York City last week to take part in the second annual NYC Teen Author Festival.
Author-editor David Levithan, who is vice president, editorial director at Scholastic, spearheaded the weeklong effort, which involved more than a dozen author readings, discussions, and book signings at libraries and bookstores throughout the five boroughs—and set the stage for the release of the much-anticipated New York Public Library’s (NYPL) “Stuff for the Teen Age,” a compilation of some of the best books, books, DVDs, music, graphic novels, movies, and games for young adults.
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Checking out YA titles at the NYPL 42nd Street branch during the second annual NYC Teen Author Festival. |
Other YA authors, including Levithan, Nick Burd, Matt de la Pena, Gordon Korman, Barry Lyga, Michael Northrup, Jon Skovron, and Jake Wizner discussed “Getting Inside the Mind of a Teen Boy” at a Barnes & Noble in Tribeca.
And Rachel Vail, Alice Hoffman, and Coe Booth were just some of the more than 50 others who fanned out across public libraries throughout the city to read to high school students.
Perhaps one of the most significant highlights of the week, however, was the release of “Stuff for the Teen Age,”—renamed last year from “Books for the Teen Age,”—a wonderful resource that librarians have turned to for the last 81 years—and which now includes 100 teen-tested multimedia titles.
Among the new additions to this year’s 10 categories are “Deal With It” (books that deal with difficult issues), “Kick A$$” (books with strong characters), and “Bad Romance” (edgy love stories).
Teens from all over the city showed up at NYPL’s 42nd Street branch for the unveiling of this year’s list to talk to their favorite authors and to rock out to their favorite songs.
Kenneth Londono, a teenager from NYPL’s Kingsbridge branch in the Bronx, was pleased that his favorite, Gentlemen (Scholastic, 2009) by Michael Northrop, was included in the “Mystery” category. “It was very suspenseful, and I liked that the English teacher was the suspect to the missing boy’s disappearance,” explains Londono. Meanwhile, another teen, Melissa Collazo, was thrilled that Prophecy of the Sisters (Little Brown, 2009) by Michelle Zink was in the “Zombies, Werewolves, and Ghosts(Vampires are so 2008!)” category. “It depicts two completely different twin sisters who battle internal conflict,” Zink gushed. “It is a battle of good versus evil.”
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Libba Bray (left) with ones of her fans, Brittany Gaston, 20. |
Libba Bray’s Printz Award-winning Going Bovine (Delacorte, 2009) was named to the “Freaky Chaos” category. She and Standiford even gave a rock concert with their band, Tiger Beat.
Megan Honig, NYPL’s YA material specialist in central collection development, developed the comprehensive list, along with YA librarians and teens.
Rachel Kauder Nalebuff, who wrote my little red book (Twelve, 2009), and Lesley Fairfield, author of Tyranny (Tundra,2009), were pleased that their books were included in the “For Real” category, a collection of nonfiction books ranging from a memoir to a cookbook.
“The whole point for my book is to get it into the hands of teenage girls” says Nalebuff, who wrote about what it’s like to experience a first period. “This list will help do that.” Fairfield also believes her graphic novel, which deals with eating disorders, will help young girls.
The festival’s closing events took place on March 21 and involved about 70 participating authors in a mass book signing at the popular kids’ book store, The Books of Wonder in the Flatiron District.
