The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
In her first novel, Carol Rifka Brunt tells a story of love and loss, sibling rivalry, secrets, and jealousy. June Elbus is 14 when she finds out that her uncle Finn, the one person in the world who seems to understand her, is dying of AIDS. June is devastated when he dies, and wary when she’s approached by Finn’s longtime partner, Toby.
Teens no longer have to moan when they’re assigned Shakespeare and Dickens, thanks in part to a group of YA authors who’ve revamped and modernized works by such classic authors, making them far more accessible to students than ever before.
Gareth Hinds, Marissa Meyer, and Sean Michael Wilson were among the speakers participating on the “Classic Twists” panel during SLJ’s SummerTeen virtual conference on August 9, sharing their views on writing adaptations for young adults.
Why can’t teens get enough of romance novels? Because they fill readers with much needed hope and guidance, say a group of YA authors speaking on the August 9 SLJ online event SummerTeen panel, “Who Will Mend This Broken Heart?”
Maggie Stiefvater, A.S. King, and other YA authors came together August 9 to talk about possible sequels to their novels, the role of social media in their lives, and their different approaches to writing series.
Caroline Cooney fans will be pleased to know that the YA author has finished her fifth “Janie” book—a short story called Janie Face to Face.
“I can’t tell you how astonishing it is to me that I have written five books about this girl and this boy, about their families and their friends, who do not exist in real life, but are so large in my heart and my history,” says Cooney, the keynote speaker at Thursday’s SLJ SummerTeen, a daylong online event featuring the hottest names in YA lit. “The fifth book poured out, as if I had known all along what really happened to Janie Johnson and [her boyfriend] Reeve Shields.”
A lonely child, a manipulative villain, and resourceful orphans take center stage in Newbery-Award winner Laura Amy Schlitz’s spellbinding new novel, Splendors and Glooms (Candlewick Press, August, 2012). Schlitz talks about her novel and considers the sources of the chillingly claustrophobic, Dickensian world she created.
Waitress, calligraphy instructor, and technical editor are just some of the jobs Maggie Stiefvater had before becoming a writer. Now the New York Times bestselling author is busy working on the sequel to The Raven Boys, the first in a four-book series. Stiefvater is a is a guest speaker at SLJ‘s August 9 online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books.
Meyer is a is a guest speaker at SLJ‘s August 9 online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books.
Kacvinsky is a is a guest speaker at SLJ‘s August 9 online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books.
A New York Times and internationally bestselling author of “The Iron Fey” series, Julie Kagawa is a is a guest speaker at SLJ’s August 9 online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books.
EVENT TIME: Thursday, August 9, 2012, 10:30 AM-5:30 PM ET
Join School Library Journal and SLJTeen for SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books and take your summer reading to new heights! Be the first to find out about the hottest upcoming titles, and attend panels on romance, science fiction, classics and more with YA’s coolest authors. Register now!
Fourteen years ago, I waited in line at a public library circulation desk with my three-year-old niece, Sara, who was clutching a well-worn copy of In the Night Kitchen. When her turn came, she handed the book to the clerk, and anxiously held her breath as it was checked back in.
Photograph by Corey Hendrickson.
Island: A Story of the Galápagos is packed with fascinating, well-researched facts about this archipelago and your exquisite paintings of its unique flora and fauna. How’d the idea come to you?
While working on my last picture book, Coral Reefs, I was reading a lot about evolution, and I was thinking, “Well, maybe I could do a book about evolution.” But how could I do it in a way that was a little different? Nothing [...]
SLJ caught up with author-illustrator Tad Hills about Rocket Writes a Story (Random, 2012), which follows a loveable dog as he tries to write his own book, and is the sequel to the bestselling picture book How Rocket Learned to Read (Random, 2010).
We’ve been talking to the great authors who will be part of our SummerTeen virtual event on August 9. Read on if you missed a few or just want to review as you get prepped for this summer author-palooza! Registration is still open.
A statement on the official Berenstain Bears website says its publisher, HarperCollins, spent more than a year developing a campaign to market several of its titles through a kids’ meal promotion scheduled to start in August with the Atlanta-based chicken sandwich chain.
When Cecil Castellucci was in the indie rock band Nerdy Girl, she went by the name of Cecil Seaskull. Now the author of books and graphic novels for young adults has a new release, The Year of the Beasts, and is busy working on The Tin Star, a two-book sci-fi series that takes place on a space station.
Pete Hautman is the author of Godless, the 2004 National Book Award-winner in the category of young people’s literature, and most recently LA Times Book Prize winner The Big Crunch, as well as many other books for teens and adults, including Blank Confession, All-In, Rash, No Limit, Invisible, and Mr. Was, which was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
As a kid, New Zealand-born author Karen Healey wanted to be an astronaut or a dinosaur-hunting cowgirl—but not a writer. Things changed when she was bullied, and she started making up fascinating adventures that “all revolved around me being awesome.”
Scottish comic book writer Sean Michael Wilson has more than a dozen western-style graphic novels and manga-style books released by U.S., U.K. and Japanese publishers (his manga have even been published in the mobile-phone format in Japan). Wilson says he tries to create comic books that are different from the “normal superhero/fantasy brands” and collaborates with a variety of non-comic book organizations, such as charities and museums. His main influences include British and American creators, such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Eddie Campbell.
