The Everdeen Sisters Are Back
RSSBy Debra Lau Whelan
We first met the two in 2009, when their "Now or Never" video went viral—and gained a huge following among librarians. We caught up with Ogata and Downey to talk about their latest creation—and who they're rooting for this year. Thanks for a third year of fun, ladies. So did your first video lead to anything exciting? Ogata: Yes! We got to meet Suzanne Collins (author of 2009 BOB winner, The Hunger Games)! Suzanne's publicist contacted us, and invited us to attend Book Expo America to get ARCs of Catching Fire and to meet Suzanne. So what's new since we last spoke to you in 2009? Ogata: Our new apartment made its first appearance in the 2010 video, so that's a change, but probably the bigger change is that—instead of being unemployed—I now work in marketing at Kingfisher Books. Downey: And I moved into the coolest sounding department within John Wiley & Sons (Business Intelligence). What do you think of this year's BOB lineup? Downey: There is always a good mix, which is nice. It makes me read books I normally wouldn't, like nonfiction especially. This year, I really want to read all the nonfiction titles (or in the case of Barbie, finish)! Even more so than the others I haven't read! There were books I was happy to see included (Countdown, One Crazy Summer, Keeper) but of course others I was sad were left out! Jaclyn Moriarty's The Ghosts of Ashbury High (Arthur A. Levine) and Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (HarperCollins) stick out in mind, probably because they were our favorites of the year, and we put them in our video! Ogata: It's great! The Battle Commander(s) always does a great job of picking books. Which book are you hoping will win? Downey: I am a huge fan of Countdown. Everything about the book was amazing. I was extremely impressed with really random aspects, for example the pacing. Sometimes you don't really appreciate a book until you've finished and mull it over for a bit. With Countdown, I knew I was enjoying every bit of it as it was happening. From the very beginning to the very end. Ogata: Will Grayson, Will Grayson! Reading this book is like walking on a tightrope between absolutely ridiculous and completely authentic, one minute you are laughing, the next you are cringing, but the whole time you are nodding along because John Green and David Levithan are nailing it. What are some others that you really like? Downey: One Crazy Summer of course, I don't think it's possible to not say that. I really enjoyed As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, as well. It got better with each page! Ogata: The first half of Countdown was great! Did you read all of 16 books? Ogata: Um, right. I read one and a half. So that's probably why I'm rooting for WGWG, because I read it. This "read all 16 books" undertaking was a lot easier when I was unemployed. Downey: I'm excited for everyone to see Summer's pathetic answer, ha ha! I unfortunately had only read seven by the start of the Battle. Definitely my worst year yet. Your latest video is just great. How'd you come up with—and what inspired—the theme, music, and lyrics? Downey: We're huge Ke$ha fans, ridiculous as she is, so "Blow" was on my shortlist of songs to parody. And because we like Countdown so much, we played homage throughout the video! We stuck to the classics: Summer dancing around like a fool, me throwing books. Ogata: Well last year, we made a video that didn't champion just one book, but talked about the battle in general, so we decided to do the same this year. We tried to reference as many of the titles as we could. One thing we did new this year are the black-and-white photos. We tried to use Countdown's documentary feel, so we found photos that tied in with the different books and photoshopped ourselves into them. How long did it take to finish? Downey: Lyrics were written in about a day. And the video was shot and edited over a weekend. You're such fans of YA literature, so do you guys have any plans to write your own novels? Ogata: I had a really great idea about a young teenage girl who's forced to enter a death fight against other children, but it turns out that's already been written. Downey: I think I'll stick to writing bad songs about them. This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe.
Summer Ogata (right) and Lauren Downey—better known as the Everdeen Sisters—are back. And this year, the 24-year-olds have another Youtube smash to show us just how much they love SLJ's Battle of the Kids' Books Contest (BOB).
A screen shot from their latest Youtube video.
