The world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens
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.
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.
Having spent his teen years immersed in comic books, Barry Lyga worked for a decade as marketing manager at Diamond Comic Distributors before publishing his first novel, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl (Houghton Mifflin) in 2006.
Harstad, who lives in Oslo, is a guest speaker atSLJ’s August 9 online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books. If you’ve signed up for SummerTeen, make sure to gather your teens to hear Harstad speak on the “The Science in Science Fiction” panel from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Registration is still open.
Veteran YA novelist Caroline B. Cooney is providing the keynote address for School Library Journal‘s upcoming virtual conference, SummerTeen: A Celebration of YA Books, and I thought this would be a good time to ask her about her electronic life–via email, of course. Roger Sutton: Your latest novel The Lost Songs (Delacorte) relies on [...]
It took A.S. King (the A.S. stands for Amy Sarig) 15 years and more than seven novels to finally get published. Now, the YA writer can’t seem to get enough praise for her work—Everybody Sees the Ants, about what it means to want to take one’s life, but rising above it so that living becomes the better option, has received six starred reviews, was a 2012 American Library Association Top 10 Book for Young Adults, and an Andre Norton Award nominee. King also wrote the Edgar Award nominated, 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, and ALA Best Books for Young Adults and Cybils Award finalist, The Dust of 100 Dogs.
Earl Sewell is just one of the many blockbuster authors scheduled to speak at SLJ’s August 9 online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books. We caught up with Sewell, whose novels and “Keysha and Friends” series have made him a huge hit with librarians and teens, to talk about his work and writing for a YA audience.
SLJ’s online event, SummerTeen: A Celebration of Young Adult Books, is just one month away, and we’ve asked some of your favorite participating authors a few questions in advance of the August 9 show. First up is Gareth Hinds, whose graphic novels include Beowulf, a retelling of the oldest extant poem in English, and an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.
Former NFL defensive end and practicing lawyer Tim Green discusses his latest novel, Unstoppable(HarperCollins, 2012), which was inspired by real-life cancer survivors, including Jeffrey Keith, who at 12 lost his leg to cancer but went on to play college sports.
Does your novel have a message for readers?
The message is that if you are a girl, you can do anything. I really didn’t want my female characters to feel stopped by the fact that they were female. I wanted them to be able to control their lives, to do what they were good at, and what they wanted to do regardless of what society’s expectations were. I think that’s a good message for modern girls, as well, and that they need reminding about.
SLJ spoke to Hinton about the 45th anniversary of her most popular novel, experience with writer’s block, and her most recent fascination with Twitter.
Inspired by real family events, and told through the eyes of her granddaughter Natalie, Second Lady Jill Biden’s Don’t Forget, God Bless Our Troops (S & S, 2012) tells the story of what life was like when her son Beau was deployed to Iraq for a year.
An ardent library fan, Bradbury said he wrote Fahrenheit 451 (Ballantine, 1953) on a typewriter in the basement of UCLA’s Powell Library and that his original intention in writing the book was to show his great love for books and libraries. The dystopian novel, about a future society in which books are outlawed, ranked number 69 on the American Library Association’s Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.
Robin Levin is in the news again. This time it’s for being the first school librarian to win the Arch Coal Foundation Teacher Achievement Award, which this year recognized 10 teachers in Wyoming for their leadership and contribution to K-12 education.
Tao Nyeu was unhappy in her job as a web and graphic designer for an advertising firm. Then, as she was browsing in a bookstore in the picture-book section, she realized what she wanted to do. Nyeu put together a portfolio and applied to the School of Visual Arts’s MFA program, and was on her way to becoming a children’s book author and illustrator. Nyeu talks about her lucky break and her most recent book: Squid and Octopus (Dial, June, 2012). The story stars two quirky friends whose characters and personalities are revealed over four vignettes.
