While I attended the National Book Festival in Washington, DC in September, I was waiting to write about it later to include the videos or links that the Library of Congress was producing. As of today the videos of my favorite YA authors are still not ready for posting from the LOC. That being said, I am also a procrastinator and I took another fabulous grad course in between.
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| National Book Festival 2012 |
The weather was perfect for a fall weekend, still warm and sunny with cool nights. Book lovers and authors from across the country converged on the capital with one thing in mind,
talking about and sharing their love of books. I quickly found a map and located my weekend home,
The Teen Book Tent. I quickly realized that I should have arrived at least an hour earlier to see and hear my favorite author, John Green, because there was standing-room-only by the time I showed up. The tent was filled with teenage girls and some boys all laughing with excitement in anticipation for the comedic author and video-blogger.
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| John Green |
When he finally hopped onto the little stage, the roar of clapping and squealing could be heard all over the mall. My husband who was at Air and Space heard it too and commented on how great is it that kids get so excited about an author. John Green did not disappoint at all as he read from and discussed his award-winning new book,
The Fault in our Stars. He gave a silly back story about the original draft being mostly about him and then finally after writing numerous other novels he was ready to tackle a story about teens who were living through cancer. The book is touching and true-to-life which resonates with teens. Green then answered lots of questions from the kids with his usual humor and self-deprecation. His presentation and discussion were worth the trip.
The next author on my "must see" list was Maggie Stiefvater who wrote the
Shiver trilogy. This group of books revolved around the world of werewolves and of course the required love story. While I enjoyed these books and found them entertaining, her latest book which was winning rave reviews was
The Scorpio Races which I had just started to read. The book is different, very imaginative and deals with mythological man-eating horses who emerge from the sea. It was not a subject-matter that I would normally jump into, however, the reviews were very positive. Maggie is petite and a ball of energy. She was trained as an artist and has done sketches for her books. She shared her love of all things faerie, folklore and mythology, hence the variety of creature-characters in her books. She mesmerized her audience with tales of her life, writing and love of art and literature. She was a treat. Her new
Raven series is also a hit with teens.
Another author I visited with was Ellen Hopkins who discussed her series that began with
Crank. These novels are written in verse and delve into the world of teen drugs, pregnancy and all of the associated trauma associated with these events. What many may not realize is that these are loosely based on the experiences of her daughter who had been an honor student who detoured along the way. Another author who was very entertaining was Sukie Stachouse's author, who was a surprise. She appeared to be your everyday middle-age lady who writes the very provocative novels on which the
True Blood series is based
. The last author I needed to see was David Levithan who is an editor and writer. I had read several of his novels each unique and his latest is winning rave reviews. This new novel is called
Every Day. All of these authors were entertaining, inspiring and the reason I love YA literature.
The next author on my "must see" list was Maggie Stiefvater who wrote the Shiver trilogy. This group of books revolved around the world of werewolves and of course the required love story. While I enjoyed these books and found them entertaining, her latest book which was winning rave reviews was The Scorpio Races which I had just started to read. The book is different, very imaginative and deals with mythological man-eating horses who emerge from the sea. It was not a subject-matter that I would normally jump into, however, the reviews were very positive. Maggie is petite and a ball of energy. She was trained as an artist and has done sketches for her books. She shared her love of all things faerie, folklore and mythology, hence the variety of creature-characters in her books. She mesmerized her audience with tales of her life, writing and love of art and literature. She was a treat. Her new Raven series is also a hit with teens.