Anderson's Recap

(I know, finally, right?)*

On Saturday, September 24 I was in Chicagoland for the 7th Annual Anderson's Bookshop Young Adult Literature Conference.  This is my third time attending this conference and what I love about it is the opportunity to meet and hear a whole bunch of awesome authors in a fairly intimate setting.  I believe I heard that there were about 270 people attending the conference, mostly teachers and librarians (but some teens and others, too!).  Really, for the number of authors that I heard and met, it was well worth the registration fees (and even the drive up to Chicagoland and the hotel beforehand).

My partner in crime for this adventure was the lovely Kelly of Stacked.  (Check out Kelly's recap here!)  We headed to Naperville Friday evening and had a lovely dinner and many geeky conversations about blogging and books.  We arrived at the conference hotel nice and early to peruse the bookstore, collect swag (including a couple of ARCs!), and scope out our seats.

While perusing, we randomly met another book blogger, DJ of DJ's Life in Fiction.  He's totally sweet and you should definitely check out his fantastic blog.  (Check out part one of his recap here!)

A-conferencing we go!

So, we scoped out a table near the front of the room and we ate breakfast and checked out the program schedule while we waited with bated breath to see which author would claim the RESERVED spot at our table.  It turned out to be Antony John, he of the adorable accent and the fabulous upcoming novel The Five Flavors of Dumb and 2008's Busted: Confessions of an Accidental Player.  And Antony was very, very nice and personable and it was great to talk with him about his book and the gorgeous cover (being featured this week at that cover girl).  In fact, talking with him convinced me that I had to buy his book and I'm so glad I did because I really enjoyed it (review to come).

Many lovely books to buy!

The conference featured a combination of headline talks and panel discussions.  We started the day with brief talks from three of the headliners - Blue Balliett, Pam Muñoz Ryan, and Kenneth Oppel.  Blue shared photos from the teeny weeny town of Three Oaks, Michigan, which was the inspiration for the setting of her latest novel The Danger Box.  Pam talked about the research she did for her latest novel The Dreamer, which is based on the childhood of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.  And Kenneth Oppel (who is unexpectedly snarky and hilarious - hurrah!) talked about the inspiration for his latest novel Half Brother, which is based on actual chimp experiments performed in the 1960s and 70s.

James Klise, author of Love Drugged (which I loved), in the local authors panel

After these talks, we split up into smaller panel discussions.  I attended a panel called "You Thought You Knew Them", featuring the three authors we had just heard, each of which makes a departure with their latest books.  After that one, I attended a panel featuring local authors Simone Elkeles, Stephanie Hemphill, Stacy Kade, and James Klise.  I'm not going to go into great detail on the panels because this post is long enough.  Suffice it to say that it was a great opportunity to talk with authors and ask questions.  Simone Elkeles is hilarious, Kenneth Oppel has a book coming out in 2011 that's about a teen Victor Frankenstein, James Klise says that he's "addicted to writing for teens", Stephanie Hemphill assures aspiring authors that there is "enough room in this world for everyone who wants to write", and Stacy Kade encouraged us to let kids write what they want to write (even if it's horror!).

After the morning panel sessions, it was time for lunch and a talk from Charles Benoit, author of You.  But before we headed back in for lunch, I had the pleasure to meet Karen from Harvard, IL and I just have to give her a shout-out because she said some very sweet things about my blog.  Hi, Karen!  Okay, back to Charles Benoit.  He is hilarious and a very engaging speaker.  Though he's a newbie to writing YA, having written adult mysteries previously, I've heard nothing but great things about You.  Charles talked about his storyteller mother and how she inspired him to be creative.

David Levithan, John Green, Siobhan Vivian, Dana Reinhardt, Charles Benoit

Then it was time for more panels!  I attended the Contemporary Edge panel with Charles Benoit, John Green, David Levithan, Dana Reinhardt, and Siobhan Vivian.  There we learned a bit about Siobhan's new novel, Not That Kind of Girl, and had a very interesting discussion about language in YA novels.  David Levithan points out that a YA author's job is not just to write how kids talk but to "use words to find truth".  Sometimes four-letter words most aptly express a feeling.  While David has an adult novel coming out next year, John Green expressed that he has no desire to write for an adult audience, saying, "Teenagers matter to me as readers in a way that adults don't."

Next I was off to a Supernatural Panel, featuring Claudia Gray, Nancy Holder, Sophie Jordan, Kiersten White, and Debbie Viguié.  There was a very interesting question asked about research for fantasy novels.  Debbie said that she likes to examine lore that most people aren't familiar with and Kiersten said that it's difficult to compete with popular culture.  People read a certain series or watch a certain TV show and think that's how vampires/werewolves/faeries/etc. have to be.  But the truth is that there can be many interpretations of the same lore and there's tons of lore to interpret, too.  Kiersten also said that she sees paranormal creatures as metaphors for human emotions. 


After this last breakout session, we gathered in the ballroom once more for talks from Dana Reinhardt and David Levithan & John Green.  Dana showed us a bunch of proofs of her cover, which had many incarnations until they settled on the current one.  And David Levithan did an interpretive dance while John Green explained that the idea of two characters with the same name was inspired by David's experience at college with another student named David Leventhal.  Here's a little treat for you getting to (close to, I promise) the end of this post: 




(It's just a snippet, but it gives you an idea of the awesomeness.) 


Now, during the conference there were several times set aside for getting authors' autographs and I got a bunch of books signed.  I knew that hearing the authors talk would make me want to buy books, and I managed to get away with only purchasing four books:  The Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John, Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian, The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt, and You by Charles Benoit.  


AND I got a treat for one lucky reader!  Tune in tomorrow to see what signed ARC I'm giving away!

Thanks to Anderson's for a lovely conference!

*And I apologize because, though I took about eleven billion pictures, almost 100% of them were terrible.  I am not a photographer... I will stick to blogging, thanks. 

Audiobook Review: Liar

Liar by Justine Larbalestier, narrated by Channie Waites.  (Grades 9+)  Brilliance Audio, 2009.  8 discs (9 hours, 8 minutes). Review copy provided by my local library.

Okay, so I didn't read this one last year when everybody was buzzing about it and there was that big thing about the cover.  But I have finally caught up and... man, this book is weird.  Weird doesn't mean bad...

except for the narration of the audio recording.  I'll be completely honest here: I hated the narration.  It just didn't work for me.  The accents didn't work for me.  The reading didn't work for me.  I.  Just.  Hated It.  And after reading some of the comments on Justine Larbalestier's spoiler thread (seriously, do not read it unless you have read the book...), I think there's a lot that I missed by listening to it instead of having the print in front of me.

So it's a tribute to the book that I was willing to listen to the whole thing.

I don't know how much I can say without giving stuff away, so I'm not going to say a whole lot.  In my opinion, it's best to go into reading Liar without knowing anything about it.  Just plunge right in and see what you think.  There's a major freakin' plot twist in the second part of the book and you'll no longer be reading the book you thought you were (or will you?).

Someone in Justine's spoiler thread said that Liar is truly a book written for readers, written to be different for every reader and thus give every reader ownership of the story.  I completely agree with this and it's what makes the book so masterful.  Well done, Justine.

But seriously, read the print version.  Don't bother with the audio.

Do check out Justine's post about peeking in on the audio being recorded.  And check out another review of the Liar audiobook at Reading With My Ears.

Liar is on shelves now!

Hey!  I'm an Audible affiliate, so if you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link, I will receive a referral fee. 

Banned Books Week Interview

Hey, Story Snoops interviewed me for Banned Books Week, making me feel like all kinds of a celebrity*.  Go on over there and check it out!!

*This week they're also interviewing Judy Blume, Meg Cabot, and Ellen Hopkins, among others.  As my friend MW would say, "Holy cats!"

Wicked Girls

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill.  (Grades 7+)  HarperCollins, July 2010.  408 pages.  Review copy provided by my local library.

Ann's the queen bee, daughter of the most important man in town, always gets her way.

Mercy's the pretty one, catching the eye of every boy (and man) in town.  She doesn't have money or status like some of the other girls, but that doesn't keep her from wanting to live like it.

Margaret's the plain one next to her cousin Ann, pining over Isaac and wondering if he'll ever return her affections.

Oh, and did I mention that it's 1692?  And these three girls are about to cause a stir in Salem?

When two young girls come down with a mysterious affliction, rumors of witchcraft spread  throughout the town.  Ann sees the attention the girls are getting and, anxious for some power of her very own, she convinces the girls to play along, blaming witches for the hysterical fits they're putting on.  In a world so utterly restrictive to girls and women, is it any wonder that they relished their power?  But when innocent blood is spilled, they'll have to decide if it's worth it.  In this fictional story based on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, author Stephanie Hemphill examines what might have been going on inside the minds of the "afflicted" girls.

Between the subject matter and the verse format, this book is packed with teen appeal.  The pages go quickly and Ms. Hemphill does a nice job of showing why the girls might have acted as they did.  I could totally buy her premise that in their restricted lives each of the girls clung to whatever bit of power she was able to scrape up.  These are 17th-century Mean Girls.

I did have a couple of problems.  First of all, I couldn't keep the narrators straight because their voices were too similar.  There wasn't anything that discerned between them except the name of the character speaking under each poem's title.  In a story with multiple perspectives, you need to be able to tell the characters apart.

Secondly, I am not at all an expert and I do understand that this was a fictionalized account, but at least one of the characters referred to "bloomers" on multiple occasions throughout the book.  "Bloomers" were named after Amelia Bloomer who popularized the undergarments in the 1850s.  I'm of two minds about issues of historical inaccuracy in fiction.  Okay, it's a small thing and maybe Ms. Hemphill just used that word because it'd be something her audience would be familiar with or because it fit the cadence of the poems better.  And it's underwear, who cares, right?  But it was enough to jolt me out of the story each time I heard it (and I actually put down the book the last time so that I could go look up bloomers and see if I was right that it was anachronistic), so to me that's a problem.  Plus, it's got me thinking that if there was one inaccuracy, maybe there are more that I don't know enough to catch.  I get that it's fiction, but I also want my historical fiction to be, well, historically accurate.

(All that said, I am not an expert on historical undergarments.  Anyone know more about this than me and want to chime in?  Also, I'm interested to know what you think about piddly details in historical fiction.  Is it okay to get them not-quite-right because they're just little details or do you want exacting accuracy?  Is it okay if the author addresses it in her author's note?  Is it okay if it helps the modern audience understand what's going on, even if it's not mentioned in the author's note?)

Ahem.  ANYhoo.  Ms. Hemphill does include an author's note, which I loooove.  I believe that she did a great deal of research for this book.  She also includes information about each historical figure that the characters in the book were based on.  Most interesting to me, perhaps, was the information about what happened to each of the historical figures after the Salem Witch Trials were over.

To sum up: Wicked Girls has a lot of potential teen appeal.  The format didn't quite work for me, but I liked the book well enough.  I'd definitely recommend it to fans of historical novels-in-verse.  It maybe most reminded me of The Apprentice's Masterpiece by Melanie Little, so I'd recommend that as a readalike.  Also, teens interested in the Salem Witch Trials should check out Ann Rinaldi's A Break With Charity (and The Crucible, of course, but teens probably get that one in school).

Read more reviews at ReaderGirls, Dog-Eared and Well-Read,  and Pure Imagination.

Wicked Girls is on shelves now!

Don't forget AudioSynced

It's gettin' to be that time, again.  Send me a link to your September audiobook posts (email or leave it in the comments) and I'll add 'em to the roundup that'll post on October 1!  Feel free to snag the graphic above to use in your post(s).

In My Mailbox #48

I didn't think I was going to have anything for IMM this week, but I came home from the Anderson's YA Lit Conference late Saturday night to find two books on my doorstep!  In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.  Head on over there to find out what delightful books bloggers received in the mail, purchased, or checked out from the library this week! 

Crazy by Han Nolan (Harcourt Children's Books, September 2010).  

Summary from publisher: 

Fifteen-year-old Jason has fallen upon bad times - his mother has died and his father has succumbed to mental illness.  As he tries to hold his crazy father and their crumbling home together, Jason relies on a host of imaginary friends for guidance as he stumbles along, trying not to draw attention to his father's deteriorating condition.  

Both heartbreaking and funny, CRAZY lives up to the intense and compelling characters Han Nolan is praised for.  As Jason himself teeters on the edge of insanity, Nolan uncovers the clever coping system he develops for himself and throws him a lifeline in the guise of friendship.

I like things that are heartbreaking and funny, so I'm happy to take a look at this one!

Wildthorn by Jane Eagland (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, September 2010).  

Summary from publisher: 

They strip her naked, of everything—undo her whalebone corset, hook by hook. Locked away in Wildthorn Hall—a madhouse—they take her identity. She is now called Lucy Childs. She has no one; she has nothing. But, she is still seventeen—still Louisa Cosgrove, isn't she? Who has done this unthinkable deed? Louisa must free herself, in more ways than one, and muster up the courage to be her true self, all the while solving her own twisted mystery and falling into an unconventional love . . . Originally published in the UK, this well-paced, provocative romance pushes on boundaries—both literal and figurative—and, do beware: it will bind you, too.

I love the premise - very intriguing - and the cover.  

Annnd I also picked up some loot at the aforementioned conference, BUT I'm going to wait and tell you about that in my conference post(s).  I will say this: the authors were awesome and there was much love for librarians in that room.  I really appreciate the thoughtful and kind inscriptions that the various authors put in the books I had signed!  *love* 

So, that's my mailbox.  How about you?  Tell me one book that you got in the mail, bought, or checked out this week that you are most excited about! 

Around the interwebs

Links!  I have links for you!  (And that is as eloquent as I can be after this exhausting week...)

Oh my, was there a big kerfuffle about censorship and just in time for Banned Books Week.  See, this guy in Missouri objected to Laurie Halse Anderson's book Speak being used in high school English classes because he said that it should be classified as "soft pornography".  He also challenged Sarah Ockler's Twenty Boy Summer and Slaughterhouse Five. And then the interwebs exploded.  Read Laurie's response.  Read Sarah's response.  And Paul Hankins of RAW INK started the Twitter feed #SpeakLoudly, urging people to speak up against censorship.   Oh, and there's a whole list of Speak Loudly posts over at Bookalicious and also at The Reclusive Bibliophile.

I don't know that I have anything to add except I am a librarian and I will Speak Loudly for my patrons' right to read whatever they choose to read.

In other news, Librarian Pirate has compiled a Good Reads list of Mock Newbery titles.  Anybody have a Newbery pick already?

The Cybils panels have been announced!  Congratulations to all the wonderful bloggers who were selected to be judges.  I seriously can't wait to see what's nominated and which books make the shortlists!  Only one week to go until nominations open on October 1, so you'd better be thinking about what books you want to nominate!  I have a couple of mine in mind...

And I think that's all I've got for you.  I am headed back to Chicago this weekend to see my husband John Green and a lot of other fabulous authors at the Anderson's YA Lit Conference on Saturday.  If you will be there, please come say hi to me and Kelly of Stacked.  I promise we are very nice people and I would love to meet you!

ALA is Not Your Mom

Okay, I was pointed to this post - Seven Things I Hate About Librarianship - by Jen of Stacked and maybe I'm just in a crotchety mood, but I felt the need to respond to #2:

Two: The main professional organization, ALA. Then again, it is called "American Library Association," which may make some wonder who's interests they are really watching. But name aside, it just seems more like an expensive subscription to some journals. At my level, I don't think it does a whole lot.

This blogger goes on to say that he/she dropped his/her ALA membership and has "not looked back".

Now, I'm not here to get up on my soapbox and shout to the world that ALA rules.  I'm also not here to say that ALA is terrible and a waste of money.  I'm here today to say that ALA is an organization made up of US.  It's not some magical entity floating around to solve all librarians' problems.  ALA is what we make of it.

Therefore, if you're not getting what you want out of ALA (what is it that you want out of ALA, anyway?), the only way to change that is to get involved.

ALA is not your mom.  ALA is not there to do your laundry and pick up your socks, metaphorically speaking.  ALA exists to create a professional network for the sharing of ideas, the bettering of our profession, and the education of library staff.  (Read the actual mission statement here.)

You know what is absolutely NOT helpful?  People complaining about something and not doing anything to change it.  ALA is what you make of it.  If you don't like it, get involved and change it.

(Full disclosure: Yes, I'm an ALA member.  Yes, I wish it was cheaper because I find the reported average salary of beginning librarians to be actually laughable [Who the heck did they survey?  Either that's way off or everyone I know is grossly underpaid].  No, someone from ALA did not ask me to write this blog post.)

ETA (9:23am):  I'm hearing in comments that lots of you would prefer to be members of divisions only (like YALSA, ALSC, etc.) if you could do so without being a member of "Big ALA".  If the divisions were not part of Big ALA, I wonder if the price for membership would go up?  And if the price for joining just the divisions was the same as joining the divisions + Big ALA, would you still want to join just the divisions?  I'm curious here.  I'm assuming that the divisions are somehow subsidized by Big ALA, but I don't know that for a fact.

Spaceheadz Winners!

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway for a copy of Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka.  The random number generator picked #12 and #2, who are Karen D. from Texas and Jessi E. from Texas.  The winners have been notified by email.

Thanks for playing!

Love Drugged

Love Drugged by James Klise.  (Grades 9+)  Flux, September 2010.  304 pages.  Reviewed from purchased copy.

Someone at his high school knows Jamie's secret.
It's not his best friend.  It's not his girlfriend.  It's not his teacher.
Someone at his high school knows that Jamie's gay.  And before the secret spreads all over school, changing everything, Jamie's determined to fix the problem.  He's determined to be straight.  He has the miracle pill that will help him.  If it doesn't kill him first.

First of all, I have to give a shout-out to Lisa Novak who designed the cover.  The book's got a wildly intriguing premise, but the cover caught my eye before I knew what the book was about.  I saw the cover and I thought I want to read that book.  I just love the cover.

I also love what's inside the book.  I love the characters, especially Jamie.  He's a kid who's trying to figure out what it means to be who he is.  I was rooting for him the whole time, even when he was making bad decisions.  He's down-to-earth and I could understand why he chose the path he did.  Jamie felt very real to me, even when some of the plot elements went over the top a little bit.

To me, the tone of this book was perfect.  It's funny and light enough to differentiate the book from the scores of depressing YA novels, but it's serious enough that it gives the reader something to really think about.

The plot goes a little bit over the top in some places, and I wish that more of the secondary characters had been a bit more fleshed out.  Dr. Gamez, the developer of the pill, for example.  He's pretty much painted as a bad guy, and it would have been really intriguing if we'd seen another side to him.  I'm not saying that I want to be besties with a doctor who would develop a pill to "cure" homosexuality, but he would have been a more three-dimensional character if he'd had some good intentions.  Celia, too.  I get that we're seeing the story from Jamie's perspective, but it didn't seem like Celia had any faults (or if she did, they were faults that Jamie blamed himself for).

Oh, but those are minor things that didn't prevent me from really enjoying this debut novel.  I will certainly be looking for more from James Klise (a librarian!).  I think this would make a great book discussion selection.  It's certain to start conversations.

Read another review at The Bibliophilic Book Blog.

Love Drugged is on shelves now!