Books, Chocolate, Sundries.

In an earlier draft of this essay, there were some great quotes about YA that, sadly, had to be cut for space reasons. Here are some of them below: Michael Cart, the former president of YALSA, told me that we are currently in the “new golden age” of young adult literature. “YA has become the [...]

Tags: Justine Larbalestier, Linda Sue Park, Michael Cart, YA community, YA lit, YALSA

That was a lot of fun being on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC this morning! The segment is online here. One commenter asked me to recommend YA titles that would give an adult a sense of the richness of the genre. Here are a few of my favorite YA titles that I think have [...]

Tags: Brian Lehrer, Jenny Downham, Meg Rosoff, Peter Cameron, Shaun Tan, Sherman Alexie, Zibby ONeal

I’ve been at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference all week, and the last few days here will be a nonstop flurry of activity, so I’m going to post the rest of the outtakes when I get home. (And I’ll recap the conference, which has been amazing, as well.) So check back to read some great quotes [...]

I was thrilled to interview Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief, a novel I loved. In this interview he mentions To Kill A Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye, two classic novels which were originally published for adults, but are hugely popular among teens. Interestingly, several executives at major publishers told me that [...]

Tags: Catcher in the Rye, Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, To Kill A Mockingbird, YA lit

I seem to have had a few toes eaten by lit bloggers since my essay’s been published. They’ve misinterpreted a few things, and several people seem to have mistaken my “surprise” and “confusion” at my novel selling as YA for hand-wringing disappointment. I wasn’t filled with hand-wringing disappointment. In reality, having a book that I [...]

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was published in two simultaneous editions in Britian, one for adults and one for young adults. In America, it was almost published as YA–when the book was at auction here, a YA publisher bid on it, but did not win; it was published only [...]

Tags: Mark Haddon, YA lit

My essay is in the New York Times Book Review! I’m really excited about this essay. I had a great time doing all the interviews—I interviewed over 25 authors, librarians, publishers, editors, and booksellers about the current state of YA literature, and the fine line between YA and adult lit, and I learned so much [...]

Tags: James Patterson, New York Times Book Review, Sherman Alexie, YA lit

I meant to write a long, profound post about the value of writers’ conferences, but I’ve been busy with deadlines and packing and preparing to leave to go to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference in Tennessee. I keep flipping through my photo album from the last time I was at Sewanee, in 2001. I received a [...]

Tags: Sewanee, Sewanee Writers' Conference

My husband went out of town so my daughter and I had some girl time this weekend. Girl time consists of: lounging on the couch watching I Love Lucy, eating chocolate chip cookies, reading a hundred board books, trying on shoes, watching Tina Fey impersonate a pirate on Sesame Street (she had an oddly posh [...]

Tags: Beth Ann Fennelly, Tender Hooks

The words “Jewish librarian” do not automatically conjure up images of alluring, lovely, come-hither ladies, but let me tell you, they should. I recently returned from the Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Cleveland, and I met tons of Jewish librarians, and they are the coolest women ever.* I suggested they make a Jewish Librarian [...]

Tags: AJL, Calendar Girls, Carol Matas, Jewish librarians, Sonia Levitin, Sydney Taylor