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STACKED

books

  • STACKED
  • About Us
  • Categories
    • Audiobooks
    • Book Lists
      • Debut YA Novels
      • Get Genrefied
      • On The Radar
    • Cover Designs
      • Cover Doubles
      • Cover Redesigns
      • Cover Trends
    • Feminism
      • Feminism For The Real World Anthology
      • Size Acceptance
    • In The Library
      • Challenges & Censorship
      • Collection Development
      • Discussion and Resource Guides
      • Readers Advisory
    • Professional Development
      • Book Awards
      • Conferences
    • The Publishing World
      • Data & Stats
    • Reading Life and Habits
    • Romance
    • Young Adult
  • Reviews + Features
    • About The Girls Series
    • Author Interviews
    • Contemporary YA Series
      • Contemporary Week 2012
      • Contemporary Week 2013
      • Contemporary Week 2014
    • Guest Posts
    • Link Round-Ups
      • Book Riot
    • Readers Advisory Week
    • Reviews
      • Adult
      • Audiobooks
      • Graphic Novels
      • Non-Fiction
      • Picture Books
      • YA Fiction
    • So You Want to Read YA Series
  • Review Policy

Texas Library Association 2018

April 11, 2018 |

The Texas Library Association annual conference is one of the best (if not the best) professional library conferences in the nation. I think it fairly rivals ALA and librarians from other states tell me their own state conferences don’t compare. This year was really great – tons of valuable sessions about kidlit and collection management and how to better make your library space a welcoming one for all people, including in particular trans people and people experiencing homelessness.

Long gone are the days when I was so thrilled by the prospect of “free” books that I participated in the initial frenzy in the exhibit halls. Now I wait about 15 minutes for the stampede to die down before venturing in myself, asking a few specific questions – What diverse genre fiction do you have? What are you most excited about in the upcoming season? What do you think has been overlooked? – of the very friendly, passionate, and knowledgeable people staffing the publishers’ booths. (That said, I did still get my foot stomped on the first day by an overzealous attendee who wasn’t paying enough attention to the people around her in her quest for books.) The stack below are the books I’m most excited about adding to the library collection and promoting on our shelves (and reading myself!).

Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen

This is the sequel to Nyxia, one of the three books I discussed in my post on the mini-trend of teens competing with each other to go to outer space. I really enjoyed it, and I appreciated the diversity of its ensemble cast, including the Black protagonist Emmett. I feel like it flew a bit under the radar compared to other big sci fi and fantasy titles, but it’s exciting and fun and also asks the deep questions that SF is so good at. I’m excited to read the second book in the trilogy and hope it doesn’t suffer from a middle book slump. Nyxia Unleashed publishes July 17 from Crown Books for Young Readers.

Contagion by Erin Bowman

Bowman kicks off the first in a new sci fi/horror series with Contagion, about a crew of people who go on a rescue mission to a distant planet after receiving an SOS message – but what they find is horrifying. I tend to prefer my horror on the written page as opposed to the screen, and the fact that it’s also set in space only makes it more appealing. It’s being pitched as Alien meets The Thing. Contagion publishes July 24 by HarperTeen.

 

Mirage by Somaiya Daud

One of the few genre fiction titles I found that’s explicitly diverse, Mirage is a big science fiction story about a girl in a subjugated star system who’s kidnapped in order to serve as the body double for a hated princess – and must endure all the danger that entails. There also looks to be a bit of romance and lots of adventure. This seems really fun and like it’s a really big, epic kind of story, which I’m always yearning for more of in teen SF. Plus the cover is gorgeous. Mirage publishes August 28 by Flatiron Books.

 

Damsel by Elana K. Arnold

Arnold, who has previously stuck to contemporaries, takes a dive into fairy tales with Damsel. It’s an explicitly feminist story, with the “damsel” of the title waking up after being rescued from imprisonment and being forced to fall into the traditional fairy tale role. She’ll be a queen to the prince who rescued her, or so the rite demands – but all is not what it seems. Kelly has loved Arnold’s realistic stories, and I’m excited she’s written a fantasy story now too – it’s the perfect entree into her writing for me. Damsel publishes October 2 by Balzer + Bray.

 

Fire & Heist by Sarah Beth Durst

I like everything Sarah Beth Durst has ever written, so I picked this one up on name recognition alone. It thrilled me even more to learn that her newest book combines my two favorite genres: heist stories and fantasy. It’s about humans who can turn into dragons and steal treasure, like Ocean’s 8 if the women were shapeshifters. I’m pretty psyched. (That’s actually an understatement.) This may be the first book I crack open after I finish up the mystery I’m currently reading. Fire & Heist publishes December 4 by Crown Books for Young Readers.

Filed Under: conference, conferences, ya, ya fiction, Young Adult, young adult fiction

TLA 2015

April 21, 2015 |

I attended the Texas Library Association annual conference last Wednesday and Friday (living in Austin, where the conference was located, makes this easy). There’s just something about the way a library conference exhibit hall smells that makes me happy. I didn’t shell out for a full pass and opted just for the exhibit hall this year, since I wasn’t going to be able to make it to enough programs for it to be worth the money.

The first time I attended a library conference as a graduate student, I was amazed that publishers were just handing out free books left and right (not to mention lots of chocolate). Even over just the past few years, the frenzy at library conferences over the giveaways seems to have increased exponentially. (The staff at the publishers’ booths seemed even more Over It on the last day this year compared to previous years.) Several years into my career, my wonder at the exhibit halls has
significantly faded, in part because of this, but it still gives me warm fuzzies to see so many
people who love reading and libraries all in one place.

I’ve made a conscious effort at conferences in recent years to only pick up those books I’m reasonably sure I will read myself or that I can pass off to someone else to read. With that in mind, here are a few of the books I chose that I’m particularly excited about.

Ink and Ashes by Valynne Maetani
Maetani won the inaugural New Visions Award given by Tu Books, an imprint of Lee and Low, for a debut middle grade or YA novel by a writer of color. Ink and Ashes is a mystery featuring a teenage girl who discovers that her father was a member of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Teens getting involved with organized crime crops up fairly regularly in modern YA, and it’s a theme I usually enjoy (although I tend to dislike seeing it in film).

The Immortal Heights by Sherry Thomas
This is the third book in Thomas’ YA trilogy that she has called “Harry Potter with cross-dressing.” It’s a fantasy where our non-magic world coexists side-by-side with the magical one, much like in the Harry Potter books, but Thomas’ series has a very different feel and her writing style is quite distinct (it’s historical, for one). It’s a classic-style fantasy with lots of magic, adventure, romance, and a fight to bring down an ultimate bad guy. These books are hugely appealing with gorgeous covers.

Wolf By Wolf by Ryan Graudin
I haven’t read Graudin’s The Walled City, which I’ve heard terrific things about, but the buzz over that book is a large part of why I picked this one up. Wolf By Wolf is an alternate history where the Axis powers won World War II, much like Caroline Tung Richmond’s The Only Thing to Fear. Alternate history is a subgenre I love but that I don’t think is done completely successfully a whole lot. I’m curious to see how Graudin’s book fares.

The Hunted by Matt de la Pena
This is the sequel to the 2014 Cybils YA speculative fiction award winner, The Living. I served as a Round 1 panelist this past year and it was a terrific experience. The Living is a great book that I read in nearly a single sitting. It mixes a lot together, but does it successfully: survival story, government conspiracy, a little bit of romance. Protagonist Shy has such a strong, realistic voice and de la Pena doesn’t shy away from writing about how class and race has affected his characters (pun intended). I’ll dive into this one when I need a fast-paced, thrilling read.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older
I have seen so much buzz over this book, a modern urban fantasy where art is imbued with spirits, I’m surprised it was still sitting at the Scholastic booth on Friday morning when I stopped by. The staff at the booth were handing out all of their display copies so they didn’t have to ship them back to New York City, and I knew this was my only chance to get a copy of the book (there were no giveaway copies, probably because its publication date is fairly close). When I grabbed it, the staffer clapped and told me how great it was. So I’d say I’m excited to read it.

Death Marked by Leah Cypess
Another sequel to a Cybils finalist, one I probably wouldn’t have read if it weren’t for the Cybils. I’m excited to see how Ileni’s story continues.

Filed Under: conferences, Uncategorized, Young Adult

The Bookish Update from ALA Midwinter 2015

February 5, 2015 |

I just got back home from the great blizzard of 2015 that may more commonly be known as ALA Midwinter. I’ve lived in the midwest most of my life, and I have to say, Sunday’s blizzard was something else entirely. That was fun on a whole new level.

That said, rather than write a lengthy update about Midwinter — most of my time was spent talking with people and not behind meeting room doors — I thought I’d talk about the books I picked up on the show floor, as well as the publisher events I went to.

I didn’t get to the exhibits on opening night, like I have in the past. In fact, I spent very little time wandering the exhibits this year, and in a lot of ways, that was really nice. Though, I think the general consensus was that the floors were much more empty this year than in previous years, and that was something I did notice. I had no problems talking with people, I never felt like I was smashed in crowds, and it was nice to talk with the publisher reps and get their recommendations for favorite titles this season.

Here’s everything I picked up, with links to Goodreads for further descriptions:

Persona by Genevieve Valentine (March 10): This is an adult book, but with YA crossover appeal.

Get In Trouble by Kelly Link (February 10): Adult title, but so much buzz around it. I’ve never read Link before and am excited to try this collection of short stories.

Dark Rooms by Lili Anolik (March 3): This adult title is pitched as Gillian Flynn meets Twin Peaks, so…

Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis (March 10): Horror + cannibalism. This one keeps popping up as a YA title, but I think it’s adult with YA appeal to it.

None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio (April 7)

A Sense of the Infinite by Hilary T. Smith (May 19)

Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu (May 12)

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (April 7)

Anything Could Happen by Will Walton (May 26)

Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott (June 9): These books always squick me out and yet I can’t stop with them, either.

Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan (May 12)

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (May 19)

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes (June 9)

The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell (May 5)

The Truth Commission by Susan Juby (April 14): This book was talked up to me in Toronto last November and I’m so excited to have my hands on it!

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith (March 3)

Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond (August 11)

Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu (June 2)

Immaculate by Katelyn Detweiler (May 26)

Invincible by Amy Reed (April 28)

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon (September 1)

Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (April 21): I started this one on the train home, and I’ve already marked so many incredible passages. I’m excited to finish it, even though it’s not an easy read at all.

While at ALA, I attended two publisher meals, including a breakfast with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, as well as a lunch with Simon and Schuster. I ended up not taking the books either publisher offered at their previews because I’d already had them in my piles or at home (or had access to them on Edelweiss). But what I love about these previews is seeing what sorts of trends are popping up.

This year’s big one? Alternate formats.

I suspect if you spend any time clicking through the links above, you’ll see exactly what I mean. There are a LOT of books that are not in traditional narrative. They’re done in lists, in a hybrid graphic/prose style, in verse, and in myriad other formats. It’s interesting to see this emerge as a trend because it happens to be one I like a lot. I love seeing the creativity in how a story is told and how that format raises the stakes in the story itself.

Kimberly did a good job talking about the Youth Media Awards earlier this week, and all I really have to add to her commentary is that I was so glad to see Gabi, A Girl in Pieces win the Morris, and I was thrilled to see Carnival at Bray pick up a Printz honor.

There’s not a whole lot more to say except that I’m planning on spending my next few days devouring books because everything sounds so good, so appealing, and so perfect to be reading right this second.

Filed Under: conferences, Uncategorized

INSPIRE: Toronto International Book Festival, Part 3 – The Sites, The Sounds, & The Wrap-Up

November 26, 2014 |

This weekend over at Book Riot, I put together a post on the literary tourism that could be done throughout the city of Toronto, including some of the best bookstores, libraries, festivals, and more. Part of the post I was able to put together because of the bookstore tour I took part of while at the INSPIRE: Toronto International Book Festival.

Since I couldn’t put all of the bookstores into that post, I thought I’d share them over here, along with some of the photos and highlights of each shop.

Before we headed out for the tour on a private bus (which was awesome), the bloggers met with Vanessa and Zena from Tourism Toronto, as well as Dominique, who was one of the Renaissance Hotel representatives and picked out a delicious breakfast selection for us. I’m a sucker for breakfast, so having it family style was even more enjoyable, since it meant sampling everything. The best thing, though, was what I ended up going back for on my last day in Toronto: banana bread french toast.

All of us international bloggers took a photo together before hopping onto the bus:

Left-to-right: Jane, me, MaryAnn, Gabi, Thea, Ana, and Liz in the back.

When we got to our first stop, Book City, we met with Michael Kaminer, who was our tour guide, and we also met up with a number of local Toronto book bloggers who joined us on the tour. Michael wrote about how Toronto is a great city for bookstores in the Washington Post last year, and he took us through several of the stops he made and which he wrote about in his piece here.

Book City reminded me a lot of the old Crown Books we used to have in the states. The set up and the way books were shelved felt like a used book store, but it isn’t — this is a new book store, though remaindered titles are left to sell through, rather than shipped back, so there is almost a wider selection of titles than many new bookstores have.

We got to meet with the manager here, who told us much of their customer base is older, and that they strive to provide really good service, meaning that if someone calls from around town, it’s not past them to sometimes deliver the book that the customer wants. I found their children’s and YA section to be fairly underwhelming, which made sense because of who their customer base was and what it was they happened to be looking for.

The second stop on our tour was to BMV Books, which is a used bookstore. They aren’t the kind of used store that takes anything, though. They, too, cater to their customers and in particular, they look for books that are harder to find and, in some cases, which are more collectible items.

This was one of my favorite stops on the trip, as it had a huge selection of titles. There were four floors to explore, including an entire floor dedicated to children’s and YA lit (where I saw a great variety of titles) and an entire floor dedicated to comics. I ended up buying a graphic novel here when we had time to wander around, and I spent some time enjoying the shelves on the first floor that were marked as “old novels.”

The next stop was one that Michael called one of his favorites: Ten Editions Books. When you think of used book stores, this is the kind of place you think about. It was packed from floor to ceiling with books. Then, the back of the store featured additional piles and boxes of books.

There were indeed ladders attached to the shelves, so you could climb up and pick through books. For some perspective on how tall the shelves were, the bottom right photo there is taken from above my head — I couldn’t reach the shelf below the one labeled “children’s,” and I’m about five foot two. This was a neat place, though not my favorite because I don’t find the smell of old books romantic or sensual at all. For those who do love it, though, this would be a paradise. 
We walked to the next store, Bakka-Phoenix, since it was just around the corner. This was, hands down, my favorite store. The entire shop is dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction. The upstairs portion was new books, and the downstairs featured Star Wars/Star Trek titles. Bakka-Phoenix is where a number of well-known speculative fiction authors got their start as book sellers, including Cory Doctorow and Robert J. Sawyer, and Leah Bobet is currently one of their staffers. The seller who was there when we went was super nice, and she was so eager to talk about books and the tricky business of recommending books and getting to know your customers and what it is they may or may not like. We got to talk about book covers and how sometimes, the ugliest book cover can have the best story beneath it, and sometimes, selling the book with the ugly cover is a game of trust between seller and customer. 
When we were leaving the store, a customer was walking in and saw the crowd as we were heading out. The seller mentioned it had been a bunch of bloggers, and the customer mentioned how much he loved The Book Smugglers — and he got to meet them. Then he mentioned how he loved Liz B’s writing, and he got to meet her, too. It was a neat moment for a blog reader to connect with the bloggers he reads. 
The next stop on our tour was right next door, Caversham Booksellers. This is a specialty shop focused on mental health books — if there were a guide or a book you needed about mental health, this is North America’s largest store focused on it. They’re especially focused on Freudian/psychoanalysis. It was neat to see the inside of a very focused store like this, and when we were there in the middle of the morning on a Friday, it was quite busy. 
Following Caversham, we hopped back onto our bus and got to see another traditional used book store, Willow Books. Unlike Ten Editions, this store was more spread out, and while it, too, featured some great piles and boxes as display spaces, there was more room to breathe. The tour guide suggests this is like a messier version of The Strand or Powell’s books, which might be a little bit of a stretch in terms of size and selection, but in terms of how it was set up and unassuming, that’s a pretty fair assessment. 

The best find at Willow Books for me was the glorious David Bowie Beta tape I found in one of the rows of books. I mean, I guess if you have a spare Beta player around, that might be something you’d need. And something maybe you’d be looking for in a store like this.

Our final stop on the book store tour was to Seekers Books. The store owner told us a little bit about the background of the store, which is located down a flight of stairs, below the main street, and focuses on esoteric, philosophical, occult, and spirituality titles. It’s a used shop, but it also has new books in it, too. The owner got inspired after majoring in psychology in college and meeting a professor who talked about spirituality and other topics that aren’t traditionally part of a major in psychology. From there, he decided a book store dedicated to these ideas was what he wanted to do.

More interesting than that, though, was his philosophy that people will find the right book for them. He often has people who come in and don’t know what they’re looking for, but because this shop offers such a unique mix of titles, they often walk away finding exactly what it is they didn’t know they were looking for. Seekers has a nice vibe to it, and the way its set up lent itself to browsing and perusing.

One of the most interesting parts of Seekers for me was the huge selection of middle grade and YA novels in the back room. This was something I hadn’t seen at many of the other stores, and it felt like an interesting selection to have in a store like this.

While the book store tour was such a neat experience, it was certainly colored by Kaminer’s perspective that indie book stores were the best places. It’s not a bad assertion, nor were any of his tour stops poor choices. Many of them weren’t necessarily of interest to those of us on the tour though, meaning that during browsing time, some of us were done pretty quickly and ready to move on to the next place. I wish we’d seen a wider variety of stores, and this was something that was asked on the tour, but wasn’t particularly well addressed.

One of the most interesting things said on the tour, though, was from Jane, who pointed out that nearly every book store we went to had titles that featured male fantasy books (think pulpy, guy hero saves a vulnerable and attractive female stories) and none of them had a romance section. What did that say about the tour we went on? What did it say about the types of readerships these books have? There’s a lot of food for thought in that comment and I’m not sure how to unpack it.

***

I’ve talked at length about the highlights of the trip, the highlights of the INSPIRE: Toronto International Book Fest (TIBF), and the bookstore tour through the central part of the city. To wrap up this short series, I thought it would be worth talking about what worked for the event and what could be improved for the future.

TIBF Highlights


I think this was covered pretty well in my first two posts here and here. I think TIBF achieved what it set out to do, and I look forward to seeing what they have on tap for the future in terms of programming and panels.




What Could Be Improved


For the first year, there was a lot that seemed like it worked pretty well. That said, there were a number of things that definitely fell between the cracks.

  • The convention center had no wireless internet. They did not even have an option to pay for a day of service. There was spotty public wifi located downstairs in the convention center, if you found the right corner, which made it impossible to live tweet or blog about any of the events. The green room, which was open to media, didn’t have wireless, either. If the goal of bringing in bloggers was for media coverage and if the goal of bringing international bloggers was to do that, this was a big failure. I didn’t turn on my data, and I didn’t have an option for wireless in the building, so I felt no reason to do any writing at all until after the event. 
  • More YA panels. There was very little YA presence at TIBF, and the names they had were fairly well-known. I would have loved to see more local authors and more local YA authors. Toronto and the GTA, as well as Ontario more broadly, have a ton of YA presence, so tapping that would have been great. 
  • One of the things that Ardo mentioned in her own write up on TIBF was that there was almost no outreach to local bloggers. That…seems like a pretty big missed opportunity. How great would a local advisory committee have been? I know I would have loved to get to know the local bloggers better, as what conversation we did have was on the tour bus between book stores. It seems like they have a great community, and I wanted to hear more about it. 
  • It was impressed upon us that part of why they wanted to bring in international bloggers was to not just cover TIBF, but to also talk about the city itself. That’s why we got passes to check out some of the attraction for free, as well as why we got to do this book store tour. However, no time existed to do this. I took an extra two days for myself on this trip, but because of the flight change, I didn’t get time to explore Toronto, either. If we were to visit any of these places or to talk about the city, we should have been given more time to do so. This isn’t a criticism of being given the opportunity to attend — that was amazing — but rather, one of the goals wasn’t achievable because of the time table. It’s hard to tear yourself out of a book festival to go to a museum when you want to attend sessions. It was fortunate that Ana, Thea, and I could get to the CN tower on Friday evening, thanks to their being open late and being right next to the hotel we were staying in. 
  • Better advertising. This was an event I could have envisioned a lot more people enjoying, but there was little word about it. Even when they reached out to us bloggers, it was early to mid October, which isn’t enough time to request time off work or save money for many people. Hopefully, if this happens next year (and I hope it does), there’s more lead time to advertise it. And, hopefully, they tap the local scene better. 
  • One of the most interesting things I noticed was that there were very few people in my age demographic at the event. It could have been different when I didn’t attend on Saturday, but on Friday, it was primarily kids (it was a day for kids and that was a day they had off school) and on Sunday, it felt like an older audience. There were few 20- and 30- somethings in attendance. It was mentioned part of why bloggers were brought in may have been to fill this gap, but I think the lack of advertising and lack of tapping the local scene may have impacted this, as well. This is an audience hungry for events like this. 
  • Maybe the biggest thing tying almost all of these issues together was this: the TIBF didn’t make it clear what they were hoping to do. This is insight we got before the fest opened on Thursday, that they wanted this to be a consumer facing event, meant for general readers and a general interest audience. It wasn’t for professional reasons and it wasn’t a trade show, and because there’s not something like this in this part of the world, there wasn’t an easy way to advertise and tap the appropriate markets. Trade shows are a very different world than consumer shows. If there had been wifi and live tweeting and a more tapped local scene, then the show could have hit more radars after the first day of those in the greater Toronto area, bringing in more people — many in that 20- to 30- something demographic — and generating more interest. 





Overall Verdict


As I mentioned in my other posts, I’d absolutely consider going again. I really like Toronto, the prices for a trip during this time of year — as unpleasant a travel time as it is — were reasonable, and the event itself was fun. Even the hiccups and criticisms are minor and in no way really impacted the fun I had. In fact, this was the first time in a while I walked away from an event feeling energized and inspired to write and engage with books in new and thoughtful ways.

Filed Under: conferences, inspire book festival, toronto, toronto international book festival, Uncategorized

INSPIRE: Toronto International Book Festival, Part 2 – The Event

November 24, 2014 |

Onto the second part of this multi-part series of posts about the INSPIRE: Toronto International book Festival, I’m going to talk about the event itself. Later this week I’ll wrap up with writing about the outside activities and sites I visited, then end with a post on what worked and what could be improved to make this a really knock out event.

The INSPIRE: Toronto International Book Festival (TIBF) ran for three days, from Friday, November 14 through Sunday, November 16. It kicked off on Thursday night, though, with a launch party. Prior to the launch, bloggers who were invited to meet with a handful of the event creators and facilitators, which gave us insight into how TIBF came to be what it is and what the vision for the event is. Unlike BEA, TIBF is meant to be a consumer-facing festival, meaning that the goal isn’t to bring in the industry but instead, to draw in the general public. In other words, it wants to be more like what Book Con would hope to be, and the purpose isn’t to talk up or get buzz going for upcoming titles. It’s on selling readers what’s already out there and encouraging reading in whatever form it takes.

Other countries throughout the world hold large consumer book festivals, but something similar in scope doesn’t exist in North America, aside from the Gudalajara Festival. TIBF wants to fill in that gap, and the hope is that by being located in Toronto — which is quickly accessible to a large population — it can do just that.

I’d say for the inaugural year, it didn’t do a bad job.

The Metro Centre, where the event was held, was so much more pleasant than the Javitz, and I think a large reason for that was it was much smaller and because this event wasn’t as huge as BEA, there was more room for spreading out and making it an experience for attendees. When you went upstairs, where the exhibition and event floor was, attendees were greeted with a really neat display of old printing presses:

All of the programming stages, save for one of the multicultural ones, were on the same floor, meaning it was easy to go from program to program and dip into the different discussions without feeling like you were being a distraction. More, it never got too loud: the sound from the main stage didn’t bleed into the smaller stages. There was enough space between the vendor booths and the stages, too, that it wasn’t hard to hear in booth nor on stage. 
Some of the exhibitors took the time to create really great booths, too. At BEA and at ALA, the booths are pretty standard: you get so much space, and you use it to pack in as much stuff as you can. But again, because this was a consumer event, the idea is less about the stuff and more about the experience. The best booth was, hands down, the Simon & Schuster Canada booth, which was set up like a cozy house, and each of the rooms had books that fit the theme. Cookbooks were in the kitchen, children’s books were in the play room, and so forth:
There were eight stages/feature areas, including an entire stage area dedicated for a First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Literary Circle. I didn’t get a chance to attend any of the sessions there, but I dropped by to grab a picture of it, and I also stopped by the accompanying bookstore, where I spent the bulk of my book money. I’ll talk a little bit more about this in a final post, including a link to the store for anyone interested in browsing or buying books that could be extremely difficult to find otherwise. 
What the event coordinators told us about this specific element of the TIBF was that rather than go out and curate their own program for the First Nations stage and run the risk of appropriating culture or making huge missteps, they contacted the connections they had with members of the groups and asked them to create their own lineup of programming. They were given money to bring in their speakers and given money for those same people to get an honorarium for taking part. Though this is something a general attendee wouldn’t know, this spoke volumes to me. From the beginning, the event was meant to include a diverse array of voices, and they put their money where their mouth is. 
If I have any regrets about what I didn’t get to do at TIBF, it would be that I didn’t get to spend time here. If I go back in the future, I’d want to spend a few sessions, if not an entire day, listening in to the programming here. 
On Friday, after the bookstore tour, most of my energy was zapped, but I did manage to make it to a session that I’d been really looking forward to: “I Don’t Give A Damsel: Writing Strong Young Women,” featuring Meg Wolitzer, Gayle Forman, Sarah Mlynowski, and E. Lockhart. The session, as the title suggests, was meant to explore what a “strong female character” was and why and how these particular YA writers develop strong females in their work. It was hosted by Lainey Gossip, who kicked it off by asking each of the panelists what was meant by “strong female character.” I snagged a short video of their responses (and yes, I was sitting near someone who was taking their sweet time opening a can of pop):

At times, especially during the Q&A, I felt like the panel went a little off the rails and became too self-conscious and directed at adult readers of YA, rather than YA readers (I even heard one of the panelists comment that a “real YA” was asking a question — which was odd, since I thought most of the audience looked pretty young). It wasn’t bad, but I ended up sneaking out before the end, since I thought the meat of the discussion happened early on, with questions like the one above.

I skipped out on the event Saturday — the only regret I have about that is missing Margaret Atwood — but on Sunday, I hit up a number of really interesting panels.

The first was called “Books By Their Covers: Redesigning Classics,” featuring Elly MacKay (who redid the Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon covers for Tundra), Debbie Ridpath Ohi (who redid the middle grade covers of the Judy Blume books), and Cybele Young (who redid the covers for the Kit Pearson books). This session was fantastic — all three of the artists talked about “getting the call” and being asked to redesign covers for these hugely iconic books and what their design process was. How did they choose the images they did? What sort of mediums did they work with?

The most interesting take away from this was how Elly MacKay does her art. If you look at the top picture, you can see her hand placing the tree in the image. She illustrates and paints, then she cuts out her work and puts them inside a box, where she can rearrange them. When she’s arranged them the way that she likes, she’ll photograph it. You can get a closer look at all of the covers on her website. I’m regretting that I didn’t pick up the Emily set now (though I did, thanks to the exceptionally attentive and helpful folks at the Penguin Random House Canada booth, pick up the first book in the Kit Pearson series, which features the design above).
The second panel I went to was “Comedy…? What’s Funny in Funny Books?” and it featured Ryan North, Kate Beaton, and Chip Zdarsky. This panel was, as you’d expect, a complete riot. I know very little about humor or funny books, so I really enjoyed hearing about the process behind how funny writers come up with their jokes. 

Aside from a stomach that hurt from laughing so much, the biggest takeaway from this panel was that even funny people know it can be weird and uncomfortable to try something new — and sometimes something series — and that the only way to grow is to go for it if you believe in it. The audience who doesn’t like it will skip it and those who do will only encourage you to grow your art and style. There was great chemistry on the panel, and the way they were all able to play off one another made it even funnier.

The final panel I went to was at the end of the day on Sunday, and it was “Diversity, DJs, and DIY,” featuring Greg Frankson A. K. A. Ritallin, Kayla Perrin, Stacey Marie Robinson, and Leonicka Valcius. Right before taking the stage, I got the chance to meet Leonicka, who I’ve been following on Twitter for a while and who has some incredibly insightful thoughts on diversity in publishing and the book world more broadly, and it was a treat to hear her talk about it on a big stage.

Something I found interesting — and troubling — was that there were so few white people sitting in the audience for this session. Maybe it was because the session was at a really bad time (it was one of the last of the entire event, on Sunday evening and came on the heels of Maggie Stiefvater talking on the main stage) but I suspect there’s still some belief that a diversity panel isn’t “for” white people. If anything, after this session, I feel completely opposite that. This was a session I needed to go to, even though I’ve heard some of this discussion before. Aside from insight into what publishing is or isn’t doing to bolster the voices of marginalized writers, the biggest take away I got came from Robinson, who talked about why she chooses to self-publish her work and how she thinks that self-publishing is one of the most interesting avenues for marginalized voices and stories right now.

This is something I hadn’t thought about before, and Robinson opened my mind to thinking about self-publishing in a bit of a different light. Like New Adult got its biggest audience via self-publishing, I suspect this is and will continue to be the case for diverse writers. More, it’s not about going this route because it’s the only option; rather, it’s going this route because it’s a way to subvert the gates that are hard to break down and even harder when you’re not white.

Leonicka talked about how publishing itself remains so white because it’s difficult to break in when you don’t have privilege to do so. In other words, going to college, getting an internship in the industry, then taking on a job that doesn’t pay enough to cover the bills — those are things people from marginalized backgrounds can’t often do in the same way that white people can. It was impossible not to look at those two discussions in tandem.

Another really interesting takeaway for me was how the Canadian landscape is different than the American one when it comes to reading and publishing. Perrin, who writes for Harlequin, talked about how in her first books, she was asked to change the setting of her stories, since American readers would be more reluctant to pick up a story set in Toronto than they would be a story set in Chicago. There was a good conversation about how black voices are represented and understood when they’re from Canada, as well — Perrin noted that her readers are sometimes surprised she’s Canadian.

I wish more people were in the audience to hear this panel. Perhaps in the future, a similar panel could be put on at a better time or, even more radically, maybe it could be a main stage event or not be competing with a large main stage event.

TIBF had so many other sessions I wanted to go to and didn’t get the chance to, either because they were scheduled against panels I wanted to see or because I was so drained from other events, I couldn’t get myself there. This is the kind of event, though, I would be interested in attending again — when the schedule goes up for next year, I’ll definitely be looking to see if it’s worth the trip. Toronto is closer, cleaner, safer, and so much more appealing to me as a visitor than New York City. While mid-November is kind of a crummy time to travel north, it didn’t bother me much: there aren’t huge tourist crowds, hotels and airfare tend to be cheaper (I stayed in the nice hotel for an extra night on my own, and it was under $100 with taxes which I consider more than a fair price), and this was a nice time to get away before the holidays consume everything. While I didn’t have to pay for my pass to attend the event as a member of the press, the cost of $25 for the opening night party and three days of events is extremely reasonable.

While the event’s attendance seemed like it waxed and waned — on Friday, for the Kid’s Day, there seemed to be far bigger crowds than on Sunday, though the event competed with the city’s Santa Claus parade that day — it never felt packed and unbearable. I could wander the booths and could always find a chair for the sessions. One of the things I mentioned to a couple others was that the set up lent itself to browsing, mingling, and sitting. The last one seems like it’s not important, but it is: there were seats and chairs and lounging areas throughout the convention center, which made it nice to collect yourself, your stuff, and to just browse through the books you bought.

One of the very last things I noticed at the fair, and something I thought was just a nice touch, was that there was an entire gallery of children’s books illustrations to browse. The event celebrated the entire landscape of the book world in a really accessible and fun way. Also, thumbs up to the publishers who took the little extra steps to make finding books about certain topics easy to find, both through labels (like below) and through being eager to talk about them.

 

Filed Under: book festivals, conferences, diversity, inspire book festival, toronto, toronto international book festival, travel, Uncategorized

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