Category: Events

Over this past weekend, we had the honor to attending the Annual American Library Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois. ALAAC17 was a get together of librarians from all over the country (and in some cases the world) to come together and celebrate libraries, literacy, books, and information sciences. This week we are going to share with you the things that we saw, the things we did, and the books that we got that we are the most excited for.

Serena’s Top 5 Books from ALAAC 2017

“Wishtree” by Katherine Applegate

As we all know, I am a massive fan of Applegate’s Animorphs series, and for a long time, that’s all I ever knew here as. It wasn’t until I was in library school and her Newbery Medal award winning book “The One and Only Ivan” was assigned as a reading requirement that she came back on my radar. It was pretty shocking to me, in a lot of ways. I mean, I always knew she was a great author, but the Animorphs books, rightly and not rightly, were not thought of as “high literature” for kids and teens. So it was thrilling to see her literary talents on display in a manner that couldn’t be poo-pooed away as just all that sci-fi nonsense. All of that said, once I knew she’d be at ALA, I gathered up my favorite Animrophs book and got in line. The book she was signing is her latest middle grade novel, “Wishtree,” a story told from the perspective of “Red” an ancient oak tree that has come to be known as the wishtree by those in its neighborhood. When a new family moves into the area, Red learns how important wishes are for those who aren’t always welcomed everywhere they go. Also…I got a picture with her and it was so exciting! I was at my all time most fangirling state ever.

“Thick as Thieves” by Megan Whalen Turner

I got to meet Megan Whalen Turner twice, not counting the third time when I got to listen to her present at a panel! It was all super exciting for me, a long-time fan of her “The Queen’s Thief” series. It’s been around 5 years since her last book came out, and there’s typically a rather lengthy period between the publication dates of her novels. To me, this just builds the anticipation. But I felt so bad for her! Both at the book signing and at the YA Coffee Klatch where I met her a second time, she was busy apologizing for the long wait for her book and I just wanted to hug her and be like “Stop apologizing! We’d all wait forever for your next book! They’re THAT good, and if it takes longer to write them to maintain the ridiculous level of quality to storytelling that you have, don’t apologize for it!” Her latest story features Kamet, who we met several books ago, and who is the personal slave to a Mede diplomat. Slave or not, Kamet sees a bright future of power and control coming his way, as he is soon to be given to the heir to the emperor. All of this goes out of the window when his master is murdered and he is blamed for it and must go on the run with an Attolian soldier, fleeing to the backwards kingdom of Attolia itself with its ridiculous thief-made-puppet-King, Gen. Expect a review for this one coming up soon, as I’ve already dived in!

“Jane, Unlimited” by Kristen Cashore

I’ve been a fan of Kristen Cashore since devouring “Graceling” many years ago. I then proceeded to read the next two novels in the series, and have been waiting for a new story from her since! It’s been a while since she’s written anything or appeared anywhere, so meeting here at ALA was very exciting. She also spoke on a panel I attended and had some interesting thoughts on what it means to write YA and whether young adult readers are really that different from adults. At the same panel, one women asked (rather inappropriately since the panel was a general session, not a meet and greet with the specific authors there….conference etiquette lesson!) whether the ARC version of “Jane, Unlimited” had the chapters in the right order (yes, ARCs are uncorrected but not THAT bad!), and Kristen said she wasn’t surprised to be asked. So, now I’m very curious about this book! From the description, it seems like a fairly straight forward story of a girl who is in mourning for the loss of her caretaker and Aunt who died several months ago, when she gets caught up in the glamours, and dangerous, lives of a wealthy family. Excited to read it and find out what’s what!

“Skythe” by Neal Shusterman

The story behind this one was of me walking past a super short line for a signed copy of this book, thinking to myself, “Man, I shouldn’t, I already have too many,” then meeting Neal Shusterman at the YA Coffee Klatch and hearing all about this book which sounded amazing and having all the regrets. I then went back to the booth and was lucky enough to snag a copy, but I missed out big time on that signature opportunity! Shusterman described the idea of this book as his desire to right about what the world would look like after we’ve solved many of the problems we struggle with today. Notably, we’ve cured ageing and it is possible to live forever. To deal with population control, scythes came into existence: an organization dedicated to randomly killing off people. The story follows Citra and Rowan who have been apprenticed to a scythe and are now facing the challenge of what it means to take on this role. Definitely sounds intriguing, so big points to Shusterman for a successful book talk that snagged my interest!

“Wonder Woman: Warbringer” by Leigh Bardugo

Take a guess as to what book on this list was the one that Kate teased up yesterday? Shocking no one, it is “Wonder Woman: Warbringer.” This book has been on my list ever since I heard about it and when I saw a massive crowd gathering around a booth at ALA, I wandered over and was not at all surprised to see that it was this book inciting the hysteria. I snuck my way in and was able to nab a copy for both me and Kate. I don’t think I need to go into much detail about why I’m excited for this book, cuz…obviously. It’s an added perk that this one is written by Leigh Bardugo. This book is the first of a foursome of DC heroes who are getting novel adaptations in a “DC Icons” run, and I have some feelings about the authors chosen to write the other books (notably “Catwoman”s author being Sarah J. Maas whose books have left me pretty frustrated in the past.) But Bardugo is a solid choice, and I’m excited to see what angle she takes for Diana’s tale.

And that’s it, folks! Our week of ALA-related posts has come to an end. Next week we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming with our July Highlights post and more book reviews! Have a happy Fourth of July weekend to all of our U.S. readers!

Over this past weekend, we had the honor of attending the Annual American Library Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois. ALAAC17 was a get together of librarians from all over the country (and in some cases the world) to come together and celebrate libraries, literacy, books, and information sciences. This week we are going to share with you the things that we saw, the things we did, and the books that we got that we are the most excited for.

Serena’s Top 3 Events from ALAAC 2017

As Kate said, this wasn’t our first rodeo at the massive library festival that is the ALA annual conference. In many ways, I feel like this fact allowed me to more fully enjoy this experience. If anything, knowing the ins and outs of things saved me a lot of time standing in lines when I knew better the tips and tricks for when to get where and how early. This was also my first trip to Chicago, and other than the nightmare traffic (thank God Kate was driving and handled all the challenges of massive city driving with aplomb), I very much enjoyed experiencing the culture the city had to offer. As Kate also mentioned, we went with largely the same group of library friends this time around. And, again, being the second go-around I think this opened up more pathways for everyone to pursue panels/speakers/author signings as they wished rather than needing to move in a massive, terrified-by-Vegas-and-the-crazy-convention-crowds group that we did before. I had a great time hanging out with all of my library friends at these various events! But, as I can’t highlight them all, here are my top three! (My phone takes awful pictures, so you’ll have to excuse the lack of photography for my post, unlike Kate’s!)

“Generation Gap: Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Look at Youth and Technology” Panel

So, I’ll be honest, the main reason I slotted this panel into my schedule was because I discovered that this would be the one and only place where V.E. Schwab would be signing copies of her books. But, that less-library-oriented-than-it-should-be reason for attendance aside, I was pleasantly surprised by the content of the panel itself and the variety of topics related to technology, libraries, and publishing that were covered. Open access, gaming, and publishing challenges with DRM (digital rights management) were all topics that were brought up and discussed, both from the perspective of the authors on the panel, and through comments by the librarians in attendance. Many of these questions didn’t have clear answers, which was part of what made this panel stand out in my mind. The authors on the panel were:

• Cory Doctorow, “Walkaway”
• Annalee Newitz, “Autonomous”
• V.E. Schwab, “A Conjuring of Light”
• Susan Dennard, “Windwitch”

“Problem Solving: Teaching STEM with Comics” Panel

On Friday, before the true madness began, there was a whole day of sessions targeted towards different subjects having to do with comics and graphic novels. While I went in mostly interested in a later panel that had to do with how graphic novels can be catalysts for change in society, looking back, this panel focusing on non-fiction graphic novels really stood out. I’m not a huge non-fiction reader myself, but coming from that perspective, I can see the huge potential for using graphic novels as a way to introduce non-fiction topics in a way that will appeal to readers who may feel intimidated by traditional non-fiction publishing. Specifically, it was noted how graphic novels allow authors to deep-dive into a very specific topic, but leave them free to not provide an entire history of other elements that may surround it, as many non-fiction biographies and histories are almost required to do. I unfortunately failed to take good notes this early in the conference, but “Audubon” and “Inconegro” and “The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation” were a few that were mentioned.

2017 Alex Awards Panel

Kate and I ended up at this one purely based on the unadulterated fun that we had at the Las Vegas conference when we got the sheer pleasure of hearing John Searles present (supposedly) about his book “Help for the Haunted.” What we got instead was, in his own words, “reckless gossip!” and it was amazing. So, while we knew that this previous experience was probably an outlier from what Alex Award panels are typically like, we knew we’d have to slot this one in anyways. There were shockingly few slide shows that involved Zumba instructors in giant Jack-o-lantern tank tops, but it was still quite interesting all the same. I hadn’t heard of many of the authors on the panel, and now have an even longer reading list due to this event. One common feature that became clear was the need for honesty in young adult literature. Teens aren’t looking for the harsh truths of life to be glossed over for them, and many of these authors’ works tackled serious topics in an upfront manner, presumably a trait that contributed to their winning this award. The authors on the panel were:

• Manuel Gonzales, “The Regional Office is Under Attack!”
• Rob Rufus, “Die Young with Me: A Memoir”
• Scott Stambach, “The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko”
• Sarah Beth Durst, “The Queen of Blood”

Next up, Kate’s top five books that she nabbed while at the conference!

Over this past weekend, we had the honor of attending the Annual American Library Association Conference in Chicago, Illinois. ALAAC17 was a get together of librarians from all over the country (and in some cases the world) to come together and celebrate libraries, literacy, books, and information sciences. This week we are going to share with you the things that we saw, the things we did, and the books that we got that we are the most excited for.

Kate’s Top 3 Events from ALAAC 2017

Ah, ALAAC (American Library Association Annual Conference). The conference where librarians come together to mingle, educate, and get a sneak preview of books that are coming out in the near future, as well as meet the authors who write them. This isn’t my first ALA experience, as in 2014 I went with Serena and our friends from library school. That time it was in Las Vegas, a city that seems like a strange choice for librarians. The good news is that we got into some odd shenanigans at the Pepper Mill and have many stories to tell. This time, however, it was in Chicago, and the deep dish pizza was far more appetizing than the desert scorch. It was mostly the same group that went again this year, though since it was the second time for most of us we knew the ins and outs of the convention and what to expect. In this post I will talk about the three things I saw that I liked the most.

Gene Luen Yang Speaking

Gene Luen Yang is a pretty formidable guy. Not only does he write acclaimed comics such as “American Born Chinese”, “Boxers and Saints”, and “The Shadow Hero”, he is also the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His big project with this is the ‘Reading Without Walls Challenge’, in which he encourages young people to go outside their usual comfort levels when it comes to reading and to try reading 1) a book about someone who doesn’t look or live like you, 2) a book about a topic you don’t know much about, or 3) a book in format you don’t normally read for fun. He is an inspired speaker and absolutely charming, and hearing him talk about how he started writing comics was heartfelt and inspirational. Plus, he totally passed me during a panel and said a polite ‘hello’ to me, which seriously made my day. He had a lot to say about the need for diversity and windows and mirrors in children’s literature, and he also had some really fun and insightful things to say about Superman vs Batman. Basically, I love this guy and loved that I got to see him. 

The Young Adult Author Coffee Klatch

The last time we went to ALAAC we participated in the YA Coffee Klatch, in which YA authors visit your table for five minutes and talk about their most recent book. I basically had a heart attach when Marcus Sedgwick sat at our table last time. This time, not only did I have one heart attack, I had multiple, because we got some SERIOUSLY AWESOME authors to sit with us. When the first one to sit down was Neal Shusterman to talk about his book “Scythe”, it was already worth it. But then we also got to hear from Kwame Alexander and Nnedi Okorafor, two other really big authors. Seeing as I LOVED the book “Akata Witch” and am excited for Alexander’s upcoming “Solo”, it felt like we had hit the jackpot with this coffee klatch this year. Though we only scratched the surface of the people that we got to see, we still got some good titles to look forward to, or to pick up already (I still need to get my hands on “Scythe,” and this just reminded me of that). And plus, I’m never going to say no to free coffee, especially when we have to get up early.

The Booklist 50 Years of YA Panel

Okay, so yeah, it’s all pretty YA oriented for me, but that is my passion as a librarian, and once again there was a great panel about the topic. Daniel José Older, Kristin Cashore, Brandy Colbert, Nicola Yoon, Neal Shusterman, Deborah Heiligman, and Megan Whalen Turner all gave their insights into the genre that they write, past, present, and future. Given that I LOVE Shusterman and Yoon, this was bound to be a winner from the get go. But everyone had some really good things to say about teens, the genre as a whole, and where it should go (as in to keep striving for diversity). It was a very good opportunity to see some of the best in the business.

Next up from me is hearing about the five top books I got at ALA that I’m most excited for. Because yes, this is also the kind of event where not only do you get free books, you get books that haven’t even come out yet. But before that, Serena is going to tell you the cool things that she did while at ALAAC 2017!!