The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
Alyssa Sheinmel, Adele Griffin, and other young adult authors came together September 29 at the sixth annual KidLitCon in New York City to discuss social media, the obligations authors have to their fans, and the challenges of interacting with an audience.
Facebook, Twitter, and blogs have made authors and book reviewers more visible—but have they also suppressed genuine literary criticism? Several book bloggers gathered at the New York Public Library September 29 for a KidLitCon 2012 panel discussion entitled “How Nice is Too Nice?: Critical Book Reviewing in the Age of Twitter” to explore the impact of social media on the book industry.
A group of educational leaders and innovative thinkers gathered in New York September 19 to discuss the value of high-stakes testing, trends in education, and the role of technology in learning. John Merrow, an education reporter for PBS’s NewsHour and president of Learning Matters, a nonprofit production company focused on education, moderated the symposium, “Education: The Next 25 Years, The Next 25 Minutes,” which was sponsored by the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.
What’s the secret behind a successful picture book? Although the best ones are often informational, they’re also mischievous, subversive, and exhilarating, says Patti Lee Gauch, a former editorial director at Philomel Books who has edited three Caldecott-winning books.
There is still time to register for the 2012 National Council of Teachers of English annual conference, being held in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov. 15-18. It’s going to be quite the party, with 5500 attendees, 700 sessions, and 125 plus exhibitors.
More than 200 Lithuanian school librarians traveled to their capital, Vilnius, on August 8 to attend their first national meeting, “New Generation of a School Library.” Speakers from Lithuania and Russia, and as far flung as Italy, Malaysia, the U.S., and Qatar, gathered to discuss the challenges facing education and school libraries—and to help government officials understand their value in schools.
The cliché about Comic-Con International is that it isn’t about comics any more, but that’s not really true. While the cameras focused on people waiting in line to see the cast of Doctor Who or paying $75 to be chased through an obstacle course by zombies from The Walking Dead, the media largely overlooked a bustling comics and graphic novel scene. About 130,000 people came to this year’s event, held July 11–15 at the San Diego Convention Center.
As summer wanes, we librarians are organizing our calendars for the coming school year. Consider hosting one or more of the following events to get kids, parents and staff charged up and keeping them close to the library!
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.”
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!
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.
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.
