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books

The Eyes Have It

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Single eyes on covers have been drawing my notice lately. I don’t mean the half-faces that are legion, I mean the disembodied eyes, the eyes without the rest of the face, often just floating in mid-air. It can give a pretty creepy effect. I’ve collected a few below. All synopses are from Worldcat and links lead to Goodreads.

172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad: In 2019, teens Mia, Antoine, and Midori are selected by lottery to join
experienced astronauts on a NASA mission to the once top-secret moon
base, DARLAH 2, while in a Florida nursing home, a former astronaut
struggles to warn someone of the terrible danger there. Kelly reviewed this title earlier in the year.

The Diviners by Libba Bray: Seventeen-year-old Evie O’Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from
small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of
occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum
of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of
the investigation.

Num8ers by Rachel Ward: Fifteen-year-old Jem knows when she looks at someone the exact date they
will die, so she avoids relationships and tries to keep out of the way,
but when she meets a boy named Spider and they plan a day out together,
they become more involved than either of them had planned. I reviewed this one last year. The book’s sequels, The Chaos and Infinity, both feature a similar single eye.

Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi: Ostracized or incarcerated her whole life, seventeen-year-old Juliette
is freed on the condition that she use her horrific abilities in support
of The Reestablishment, a postapocalyptic dictatorship, but Adam, the
only person ever to show her affection, offers hope of a better future.

The few below aren’t images of disembodied eyes, but they bring us a close-up that shows us something reflected within it, which I think is pretty neat.

Blind Spot by Laura Ellen: Tricia Farni was last seen alive the night she fought with Roswell
Hart–a night Roz can’t remember. Can Roz piece together the events of
that night, despite the eye disease that robs her of most of her vision,
in order to clear her name and find a murderer?

Crash by Lisa McMann: Sixteen-year-old Jules, whose family owns an Italian restaurant and has a
history of mental illness, starts seeing a recurring vision about a
rival restaurant, a truck crash, and forbidden love.

13 to Life by Shannon Delany: Jessica Gillmansen, a high school junior, is hiding information about
her mother’s death when she meets Pietr Rusakova, a new student with a
family secret of his own, and the two bond as she investigates local
news stories about werewolves and the Russian mafia. All of the books in this series feature a similar take on this design, although not all of them have something reflected in the eye.

What notable covers have I missed?

Twitterview: Emily Hainsworth

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I am so excited to have Emily Hainsworth, author of the debut Through to You, here as this month’s Twitterview victim. She’s here to talk about the inspirations behind her story, to explain what the green light signifies, and, of course, to talk about her deepest darkest secrets and share her favorite ice cream flavor. Oh, and she tells us who one of her greatest influences is (he happens to share initials with her own main character).

In addition to a Twitterview, I’ve got a finished copy of Through to You to give away to one lucky winner. 

Without further ado, Emily:

Pitch Through to You in 140 characters.
Heartbroken guy finds door to a parallel world where his dead girlfriend’s still alive, only she’s not quite the same person he remembers…
What inspired Through to You?
I wondered what it would be like to see how one choice could cause someone’s life to play out in two completely different ways.

How would you classify Through to You genre-wise?
My publisher likes to call it “light sci-fi,” but I’ve been told it reads a lot like a contemp…with a parallel universe.
Through to You features a male main character. How did you get into the male voice?
I read a lot of Stephen King & as many boy YA novels as I could get my hands on. But I also used to want to be a boy, so maybe that helped.

Did any television/movie/book help you in developing your parallel worlds?

This music video directly inspired my idea of parallel worlds. I can’t explain exactly how a rave in a library did that, but it’s ART, okay:


Tell me about the green light. (YES, I’m leaving it this vague. Good luck!)

The green light is where all possibilities begin and end. (Yes, I will also be that vague!)

What, if anything, should readers walk away with from Through to You?  
I’m not sure I can ask readers to do more than enjoy the story. But for anyone intrigued by choices/2nd chances, I’d love to discuss!

If you had to give your book a “____ meets _____” pitch, what two (or three! or four!) books/films/shows would Through to You be a meeting of?

My agent called it IF I STAY meets 13 REASONS WHY. I might call it BEFORE I FALL meets FRINGE, except I’ve never actually seen Fringe…
Who or what do you write for?
I write for myself. I try to keep the “ideal reader,” as Stephen King calls it, in mind as I go, but I have to love my stories first.
What was your most influential read as a teenager?
As a teenager, MASTER OF MURDER by Christopher Pike. That book helped me realize I wanted to be an author. It’s also a fantastic mystery.
Who are your top three writing influences?
Christopher Pike, Stephen King, Courtney Summers
Who do you believe is breaking ground in YA right now?
Oh man, this is a tough question…I’m going to have to say ALL of the Apocalypsies. I can’t pick just one!
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?
Sit your butt in the chair and write. Every day. Until you’ve finished what you started.
What’s your best writing advice to give?
See above!
What is your writing routine?
My routine has been changing lately, but it often involves a good deal of procrastination and sugar consumption. Then typing. 😉
What gets you jazzed to write?
There’s no inspiration like reading a satisfying book. I get so excited, I can’t wait to get back to my own. 
Do you have a writing soundtrack? Care to share a bit?
For THROUGH TO YOU Trespassers William’s “Different Stars” album was essential. And I always have to include Hooverphonic on my playlists.
What’s next for you?
I have a second book coming out with Balzer+Bray in Fall ’13! It isn’t a sequel, but I hope if you enjoy THROUGH TO YOU, you’ll like it too.
Favorite ice cream?

I can NEVER pick one flavor, so give me a waffle cone with a scoop of mint chocolate chip under a scoop of Bunny Tracks. 🙂

Your deepest, darkest secret?

If I told you that, I’d have to kill you! And I like you too much to ever do that. 😉

Through to You by Emily Hainsworth

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It’s becoming rare to read something different in YA fiction. That’s not to say books that tackle similar topics are bad — they’re not — but when you pick up a book that is so different from what you’ve read before, it’s noteworthy. Emily Hainsworth’s debut Through to You is fresh, inventive, and engaging.

Camden Pike lost his girlfriend Viv in an accident, and he’s grieving the loss hard. It’s not just grief he’s grappling with though; Cam also blames himself for the accident. A few moments of carelessness on his part caused her to die. Viv was everything to Cam. She helped him recover from an injury that sidelined his football career and she was there as his family fell apart and his father become more and more distant from him. She was his guiding strength through so much.

Cam would do anything for just a few more minutes with Viv. He’d do more to have her back completely.

One night, upon visiting the memorial dedicated to her at school — the place where the accident happened — Cam’s visited by a spirit he doesn’t know. She introduces herself as Nina, and she tells him she comes from a parallel world accessible through the green light glowing nearby. In this world, Viv is still very much alive. But as much as Nina warns Cam that going with her to this parallel world isn’t good  for him, he doesn’t listen. He goes. And what he discovers about Viv changes his perception of not only who she is in this alternative world, but it changes his perception of who she was in his world. Was Viv the girl he thought she was? And how does Nina fit into all of this?

Through to You is one dash contemporary, with a dash of science fiction, time/space travel, thriller, and fantasy/supernatural. What keeps it woven tightly, though, is the romance and pursuit thereof. Cam’s desire and passion for his relationship with Viv transcend place and time, and Hainsworth successfully marries her genres because the story remains grounded in the human element of connection.

Cam’s voice is knockout — he is direct and unfiltered, sarcastic and hard to crack open. Despite holding back his true feelings, as readers we know what’s going on in his mind. He’s miserable and pained because of losing Viv, and he shows us this through his actions. He withdraws socially, reacts with intensity, but he lets us inside little by little through his counseling sessions. We learn about him, too, through his reactions to his parents’ divorce and the instability in his family life. While it can be a little jarring and difficult to initially connect to Cam, that distance between reader and character is essential in establishing who he is. He’s not easy to like and he doesn’t necessarily want to be liked, either. The more we become invested in his story and the more we realize that he’s struggling not just with grief, but also with guilt and anxiety and depression and confusion about the future, the more we’re hopeful that he can come to some sort of closure with Viv in the parallel world.

When Cam enters the parallel world, Nina warns him repeatedly that Viv isn’t who he thinks she is. Of course, Cam disregards her warnings because all he wants is to be reunited. This is his chance. And, of course, Nina’s warnings are right — Viv isn’t who she was in Cam’s world. She’s much crueler, darker, and possessive than what she was in his life. Cam can’t get close enough to her, but as he watches her in this parallel world, he comes to discover that he isn’t quite himself, either. That the choices he makes here are influenced heavily by Viv. The longer he’s here and the more he longs for more time with Viv, the more he begins to question what Nina’s warning meant. The more he begins to realize that maybe her warnings were right. That maybe, just maybe, the Viv in this parallel world is the true and honest Viv of his real world.

Fair warning that this next paragraph is spoiler, so feel free to jump down to the following one if you don’t want it.

What Hainsworth does in developing this alternative Viv, one who is so much more controlling and powerful in the relationship, is savvy. Cam’s grief in the real world and his guilt over causing the car accident that ended her life has done nothing but cloud the truth about who she was to him. She was possessive and greedy of his time. She took more away from him than she gave to him — where he thought she was the person who helped him through an injury, the truth was she was the person who kept him from returning to the sport he loved. She’d exerted her control over him and forced him to stray from who he was and what he wanted. When confronted with the truth of who Viv is in the alternative world, Cam realizes that her death frees him. As cruel as it sounds, she was the element keeping him tied down and keeping him from achieving what he hoped to achieve. It kept him from establishing other relationships and from being closer with his friends. His love for her was less about love and much more about being comfortable and feeling as though he were being accepted. This, of course, ties back into the trouble with his parents and feeling like the cast off in the family as they go through divorce. It’s in Cam’s realizations about Viv and what she really was to him that readers really connect with him. Grief can make people blind — for Cam, it makes him blind not only to what Viv was to him, but it protects him from what may be the scariest thing for him: freedom. Her death is his new beginning and the prospect is scary, despite being what he needs and deserves.

As much as the hook and threads of the story are in this romantic element and in Cam’s grieving, what stood out to me was how Cam navigated and began to understand relationships with the adults in his life. In particular, Cam’s interactions with his father were brutal. There’s a scene that stands out to me, where Cam’s father calls him and the tension and strain in their relationship as father and son sear. It’s much less about the divorce or about what it means when parents divorce. This scene and the subsequent scenes with his mother highlight to Cam that making choices about the course of his life rest within his own power. He’s watching two adults who are making choices — and not always ones he agrees with — and he’s observing how adults can be selfish. Cam realizes in this phone call with his father that he is the one with the power to choose what he wants their relationship to be like. These moments tie directly back to the relationship Cam has with Viv; he’s watched a destructive relationship between his parents, and that’s why he didn’t quite put together the potential destruction going on in his own relationship. Moreover, though, this is where the concept of choice and of false choices ties together. The ball is entirely in Cam’s court when it comes to making choices about everything. He just has to find the power within himself to make them and live with the consequences.

The parallel worlds aspect of Through to You emerges not only in concept, but in actuality. It is the ultimate what if?

I haven’t talked much about Nina, the third major character in this story, and that’s because her role is almost too obvious. We know she’s here to help Cam see the truth and she’s here to guide him through the grieving process. Moreover — and this is spoiler — it seems clear from the beginning that she’s going to make an appearance in the real world. She wouldn’t exist only in the parallel world unless she had a complement in Cam’s reality, and readers will know full well what that role is early on. I saw it coming from miles away, but I still found it satisfying. For Cam, Nina is little more than a ghost worth ignoring because she stands in the way of his being with Viv again. But readers know to expect more from her and they know that what she is is much more real and fleshed than what Viv is, despite Viv being depicted as the truth and whole thing. In the moments where Cam attempts intimacy with Viv, there are constant interruptions that break them from one another, where in the moments when Cam and Nina are together (not intimately), things are awkward but they’re solid and unbroken. As much as Cam wanted Viv to be right, he knows she cannot be. It’s clear who is. 

Emily Hainsworth’s debut is tightly written, well-paced, and will appeal to a wide range of readers, especially those looking for something a little bit different. This felt like classic YA to me in some senses, but I’m struggling to put my finger on what made it feel that way. Perhaps because it crosses so many lines in terms of genre and perhaps because it doesn’t follow a lot of the current trends.

In so much as this is a story about grief and loss, it’s ultimately a story about what the past is and whether people can move on from it or whether it ties them down. Through to You is quite minimalist in style, meaning that readers aren’t going to have a lot of world building nor a lot of explanation for the hows and whys of parallel travel. That’s a strength of the book — what it means and how it works lies in the hands of the readers to construct.

Review copy received from the publisher. Through to You is available today.

KidLitCon 2012: New York City

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This year was the third year I’ve attended KidLitCon, and like years previous, it was a blast. But what I find so interesting and worthwhile about this conference in particular — aside from the fact it’s blogger-run, blogger-driven, and small — is that there always seems to be some sort of threads that weave through the day’s conversation. It’s never intentional, but it’s fascinating to see where the interest lies in blogging and kidlit.

I got into New York City pretty early on Thursday after the most painless flight experience of my life. My plane had over 100 empty seats at 6 am, and we got into New York City 20 minutes early. I made my way down to the shuttle area and even though I was told there was a 30 minute wait, they got me on a shuttle immediately. I was thrilled because I had plans to meet Melissa Walker for lunch at 11, and it was just barely 9 at that point.

Except the shuttle ride? It took longer to get me to my hotel from the airport than it took me to fly half-way across the country. I didn’t get to the hotel until after 11, and I had to grab a cab (with my luggage) to get to lunch at Alice’s Tea Cup. Liz told me to go there, and I’m so glad that was where we ended up meeting. Melissa and I shared a pot of Alice’s Tea, along with each enjoying some turkey chili, bread, and then scones. While the food and tea were delicious, the company was even better — and it was nice we made it work, despite the hiccups.

I made it back to the hotel and had to hold out for a while before getting into my room, ditching my luggage, and meeting up with Nova to work on our presentation. And eat gelato. Turns out that both of us are perpetually early people, and while we’d planned on meeting at 4, we met more like 3:35. After some delicious gelato, we put the finishing touches on the presentation then chatted for a couple of hours before she chaperoned me back to my hotel on the subway. Without laughing about my inability to function normally on foreign public transit, that is.

Liz and I made dinner plans, and we ended up meeting with Leila (pronounced Lee-lah, for the curious) and her friend Amanda for dinner down the block. We also met up with a dear friend who works for a publisher, and we all enjoyed some drinks, some dinner, and rousing book chat. There was a lot of discussion all day long about blog tours and the value they have, and it was an interesting conversation to continue on through the dinner. That’s a teaser for a future post, though.

After the dinner, we laid low at the hotel because Friday involved a day of publisher previews, as well as the official KidLitCon dinner. It’s possible we went to bed at 10 pm. Possible.

This year’s pre-con took advantage of being in the city and it was a series of publisher previews. A number of different publishers participated, and we were each assigned a set of them to attend. In the morning, I got to go to Simon & Schuster for their preview.

The preview began with a talk from Meghan McCarthy, who shared the process behind her forthcoming book about Betty Skelton. It was really interesting to hear about how she came to write the story — she had to do a lot of research to figure out where the conflict would be — and maybe more interesting to me was the process behind the art in her books. There was a bit of a discussion about digital and original art, and McCarthy is an original artist all the way.

When the talk was over, we got a nice preview of the spring 2013 titles from Simon & Schuster. Rather than write an insanely long post including the titles talked about, I’m going to share those in a later blog post. But we got to take home a bag full of forthcoming books, and I actually won a raffle prize, which never happens to me.

After the preview, Leila, Liz, and I dropped our stuff off in the hotel room, and we waited for Pam to arrive. She arrived and then we went to a sandwich/soup place for lunch. It was nice to touch base with three really intelligent ladies and to not only talk shop but to just talk personally. It’s much different face-to-face, even when these are people you talk to near daily online. We didn’t get too long to lunch though, since we were all off to a second preview in the afternoon. For me, that was a trip to Harper Collins.

I loved this preview and the way it was set up — we all sat around in a conference room (which feels somewhat more official, of course), but rather than have the publicity and marketing folks tell us about the books, we got to hear from editors of each of the imprints talk about the titles they’ve acquired. There’s something special about hearing the editors talk about that moment when they knew the manuscript they were reading was one they had to publish.

This particular session put so many new titles on my radar, too. Again, I’ll share them later, but there is a lot of really dark, gritty stuff coming out, as well as a number of contemporary titles. Like with the earlier preview, we were given a bag of titles to take home.

The picture on the right is the display case just inside the gates of Harper and features their best-selling titles.

We had some time to kill before dinner would happen, so Liz, Pam, Leila, Amanda, and I all went back to our hotel room to drop off our goods. We also did a little bit of this:

If it isn’t entirely obvious, we all dumped out what we’d gotten and made some trades based on our reading interests. The prize I’d won earlier at Simon & Schuster was a set of “Ready-to-Read” hardbacks which don’t have a real purpose for me — so I gave them to Pam in exchange for the forthcoming Gayle Forman book (which subsequently sent Leila into one of the most enjoyable fits I’d seen all weekend). Also, isn’t it impressive how much space there is in our hotel room? To my left is an entire kitchen, too.

Dinner at 7 was at a sushi bar a few blocks from the hotel, where we squeezed into a table way in the back of the room and got very comfortable with one another. I’m not a sushi eater, but I thought it was a heck of an impressive selection of food. And of course, it didn’t take me long to discover the ice cream portion of the sushi bar.

More important and interesting than the food, of course, was Grace Lin‘s keynote speech. She talked about being a classically trained artist and having eschewed her heritage growing up. After a year-long stay in Italy though as part of her art education, something inside her felt unsure and uncertain and she realized she didn’t know what she was making art for. It wasn’t coming from a place of the heart of her — and that’s when she made the decision to embrace her heritage and her interest in children’s art and fairy tales. This was a really nice way to officially kick off the conference, as it sort of played off the big themes I picked up on throughout the event.

After dinner, a bunch of us went to the hotel bar, did a round robin of who was who, and then I decided it was time to put the finishing touches on my presentation for the next day.

Kid Lit Con

Though the keynote speech for the conference was the last thing of the conference, two questions that came up at that point were sort of what I took as the overarching discussion: what am I doing and why am I doing it?


But before the conference began, Nova and I met up with the other folks giving presentations bright and early so we could check out the rooms we would be in and test out the technology. We had a minor glitch, fixed it immediately, and both of us had a sense of calm about what we were going to do. The room itself was an auditorium, but it wasn’t overwhelming in size, and Betsy was kind enough to tell us how many people signed up for our presentation.

It wasn’t a scary number.

Since we were done relatively quick with that and we had over an hour to kill before the conference began, Nova and I went for caffeine and sustenance, where we talked over our outline one last time. I think we’re both slightly panic-driven (in a good way, not in a bad way), but about that time I started feeling pretty confident about what we were doing. We made our way then over to register for the conference.

Kid Lit Con was held this year at the central branch of the New York Public Library which was crazy beautiful. I’m not a huge architectural person when it comes to library, but I was definitely impressed.

The presentation wasn’t for an hour, so I got to attend a session beforehand, and I went and listened to Sheila Ruth talk about balancing social media. While I feel this is something I have a good handle on, I did learn quite a bit about optimal posting times for different social media outlets (Twitter is 1-3 pm Eastern time Monday through Thursday and Facebook is 1-4 pm Eastern time those days as well, but Tumblr is most active Friday nights — when the other two are dead zones). Sheila talked a lot about designating times of day to do different social media related tasks. So, if you’re going to respond to emails, you can also respond to Twitter interactions, Facebook interactions, and so forth. If you’re going to read through your feedreader, then you just do that rather than do that AND respond to interactions you may get via Twitter or Facebook. She shared a number of interesting tools, too, I plan on looking into a little bit.

I’m so old school and feel it when I go to those things. I rarely ever pre-schedule Tweets (I find it weird to not do it myself) and I don’t bother with Facebook at all for the blog. I think I’m a little bit obsessive compulsive in making sure I’m doing it myself. However, Sheila made a good case for some of these tools and other social media outlets and I might explore the possibility of doing something elsewhere.

As her presentation round down, my anxiety ramped up nicely, especially since the room I was in was across the library. But I made it in plenty of time to settle in and review my notes once more (in the event everything had fallen out of my head by that point). If you missed it, you can see the presentation itself here, and I will write up my notes sometime soon. Before we dove in though, Liz was kind enough to capture the pre-show panic moments for us:

 
We had a nice turn out, and we covered about 90% of what we wanted to talk about — we ran longer than we thought, which is always a better way to be than running too short. We’d decided to let people ask questions as we talked, so some of our outline we ended up talking about differently, but in a way that worked out well since it let us answer the questions that people were most curious about. The questions we got were fabulous, too, and the audience was actually interested in what we were sharing. I guess that’s always my fear: is what’s interesting to me what’s going to be interesting to the people listening? But I think it was really successful, and it was really an honor to present with Nova, who runs some of the most amazing series posts in the blogging world. Truly. I feel like I learned a lot from her in the session. 
Bonus points to our presentation timing was that it was right before lunch, so there was a nice period of downtime before the next session. I was still mentally processing everything so I had about the saddest lunch ever. It didn’t matter though.
 
Do you know how hard it is to get six people to take a photo together and have everyone have their eyes open? This is the closest one we got. This was half of the lunch group in front of one of the NYPL lions — from left to right, that’s Jess Ferro (who gave a really well-received talk about illustrations in kidlit that was going on at the same time as my presentation), Amanda, Leila, myself, Liz, and Pam. 
Rather than have a series of sessions after lunch, there was one large panel to discuss critical reviews and the notion of “being nice” when it comes to reviewing books. It was an impressive lineup of speakers, too. Jen Hubert moderated, and the speakers included Betsy Bird, Liz Burns, Monica Edinger, Sheila Barry, Marjorie Ingall, and Maureen Johnson. After laying out the definitions of what a blog post and a blog review were, the discussion laid into what critical reviews are. Some of the takeaway gems from this panel included the importance of making disclosures where necessary (if you’ve got a “we’ve had dinner together as friends” relationship with someone whose book you’re reviewing, then you better mention it); know who your audience of readers is; and if you only ever post positive comments on books and offer little depth into what the book’s about or what makes it work or not work, then you’re not a reviewer. You’re a cheerleader. Most importantly, though, that doesn’t devalue your work. It just doesn’t make you a reviewer.
Perhaps the most insightful part of that panel though was when Maureen asked how many bloggers had received comments from authors when they’ve posted a less-than-positive review. The number of hands in the audience raised was not surprising to me in the least (and I thought quite low, actually) but Maureen’s face and shock was priceless. Then we swapped some war stories about the insane stuff we’ve heard as bloggers from authors, and it was at that point where it was suggested we develop a set of golden rules for behavior in the blogosphere. Here they are: 
  • If you’re an author, do not respond to reviews if you are unhappy!
  • If you’re a blogger and you get weird emails from authors after a review where they’re unhappy, follow up with their publicist — or as later suggested, maybe contact their agent.
  • Disclose information where appropriate. That includes whether or not you received a book for review and most importantly, your relationships.
  • Don’t marginalize the smaller books nor those authors who may not be on social media. 

It was also firmly decided that receiving ARCs does not undermine reviewing. That’s precisely their purpose, so if that’s what sways a review, then that’s not a review anyway. There’s also no obligation to review an ARC if it’s received.

The basics come down to this: remember people are people. It should be obvious, but sometimes, it’s not (and yes, I have a collection of those emails from less-than-happy people).

Following the panel discussion was the last set of sessions, and I stayed for a session I didn’t remember signing up for but was thrilled I did — “The changing relationship between reader and writer.” At the time, I don’t think it was mentioned this was actually an author session, and it was a discussion with Michael Northrop, Alyssa Sheinmel, Gayle Forman, and Adele Griffin. They took turns talking about how to be yourself on social media while also remaining a private person. Authors are expected in some ways to be on social media, and they each talked about what they do, how they do it, and what value it gives them.

I found it interesting food for thought even as a blogger/librarian — how much do you share that’s public and how much do you hold back? What kind of persona do you take on in your blog or your Twitter? It’s sort of tricky, but one of the answers I really liked about all of this was simple: be “professionally friendly” because we’re all people.

Blog tours came up in this discussion, too, and the authors were fairly enthusiastic about them. They thought, though, blog tours are most effective when the authors are actual blog readers themselves and know what’s out there. They’re tremendous work but they’re almost an expected part of publicity now. But most effective, they agreed, was when there are deadlines and when the ideas for guest posts or tour stops are good. 

The biggest take away, though, was that this is a community, and it’s important to keep it that way. We all can support and interact with one another and build those important relationships between readers and writers. 
This wins the award for most useless photo, doesn’t it? 
The final session of the day was the keynote with Maureen Johnson. Except, it wasn’t really a keynote by Maureen Johnson. Rather, it was a conversation between Maureen and Robin Wasserman (surprise!) which engaged us as the audience. Maureen told us to ask a question, and from there, the discussion spiraled out into the different hot topics that have emerged over the last few months in the blogging world. 
Even though we don’t think it’s the case, the kidlit world is an echo chamber. Things that get us worked up or things where we sigh and say not again aren’t necessarily well-known to everyone else. We have a weird responsibility to respond when criticism arises, even if it’s something we’ve responded to before. The reason these things come up over and over again is that we still such a small segment of knowledge and expertise. This resonated even more when the topic of the relationship between bloggers and publishers came up — it’s the same conversation that comes up at every single KidLitCon and there’s never an answer. That’s precisely because we’re still not sure of that and because it shifts and changes. 
What emerged though from what was easily the most bizarre and strangely charming keynote I’ve ever sat in, though, was that bloggers are important and valuable. Maureen said she credits bloggers and the internet for keeping her career going. So even though our role isn’t clear, we do have a hefty amount of responsibility on our shoulders to continue doing what we do in reviewing, in talking about books, in responding to what the bigger media outlets are talking about, and so forth. 
The last part of the discussion summed it up perfectly — everyone’s a person. It’s simple.
Maureen’s non-traditional approach to a keynote worked so well, I think, particularly seeing how the conversation of the day had swayed anyway. This conference isn’t about being buttoned up or about being an expert on anything. It’s about sharing individual experiences and stories and about putting those together in some sort of meaningful way for yourself as an individual. 
It comes back to those two questions Maureen brought up in her discussion that, I think, really nail it: what am I doing and why am I doing it? They’re questions we continue asking because we are still figuring it out as bloggers. There aren’t rules. There are only individual experiences and insights. 
After the keynote wrapped up, I said goodbye to Nova, my companion and wonderful presentation partner for the day, and then I went back to the hotel room with Liz, Pam, Leila, and a bunch of others before going to the official Kid Lit Drink night. Except . . . I left after only about 15 minutes because the noise and the crowd was a little much for my introverted soul, especially after a long and mentally engaging day. 
I had a few hours of downtime before Liz and Pam came back to the room, and the three of us sat to talk about what we thought of the event. Pam turned to Liz and asked her what her favorite part of the entire event was, and I have to repeat what she said because it summed it up so perfectly:

It’s seeing and spending time with people who get you and have the same interests and passions that you do.

That’s why we blog in the first place, right? To make those connections?

A huge thank you to Betsy and Monica (and Liz) who put the work into making this Kid Lit Con happen because it was — as it always is — a blast. I left totally energized and eager to write on so many different topics. A huge thank you, too, to Nova who was such a wonderful person to present with and who was just a blast to talk with and spend time with.

Third quarter reading roundup

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I’ve been having fun this year looking at my reading patterns by the quarter. It’s interesting to see where I did a lot of reading — and what kinds of reading I did — and it’s interesting to see where things started to slump.

You could call quarter three the slump quarter. In quarter one, I read over 50 books and in quarter  two, I read over 50, too. This quarter? I read 22. To be fair, I read 5 or 6 manuscripts, too, but that still clocks me in under 30. I’m planning on picking up the pace in this final stretch of the year. I’d love to read another 50 or so to at least top 200 books this year.

Here’s what these last three months looked like. Links go to reviews, if posted, and I’ve starred those titles that stood out to me just a little more than others. Some titles may be reviewed more fully in the future:

* 1.  Through to You by Emily Hainsworth (YA): A debut about parallel worlds, choices, the past and the future, with one great male voice in Cam. Review forthcoming.

2. The Right & The Real by Joelle Anthony: A cult story! Reviewed here.

3. The Waiting Sky by Lara Zeilin (YA): I really dug into this story about family, with the great metaphor of natural disaster woven into it. Reviewed here.

4. Holier Than Thou by Laura Buzo (Adult): A kind friend lent me this Aussie adult title aimed for 20-something readers. While I liked this tale of grief and growth, it didn’t quite hit the same notes that CK Kelly Martin’s comparable Come See About Me did.

5. Ten by Gretchen McNeil (YA): A revisioning of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. It was okay — nothing to write home about — and I felt there were a lot of missteps in terms of the author holding the reader’s hand through the fear too much.

6. Speechless by Hannah Harrington (YA): I didn’t care for this as much as Harrington’s first book, though I enjoyed it well enough. Reviewed here.

7. Lullabies for Little Heathens by Heather O’Neill (Adult): This was a dark and literary story about a little girl who never gets to be one. I quite liked the styling — it’s somewhat told in vignettes — though it is also quite sad.

8. Broxo by Zach Giallongo (YA graphic novel): I don’t think this knew what it wanted to be. It was sort of an adventure tale but also a zombie story but also told through flashbacks and legends. I didn’t get it.

9. Spark by Amy Kathleen Ryan (YA): When I got to this point, I knew my reading slump was on. I liked this story still, but it’s one I’ll need to revisit when the third book comes out. I am still invested in the characters and their journey. That’s a good sign for a second book in a trilogy.

10. What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton (YA): A contemporary title about a date rape. It was fine, but it didn’t knock it out of the park for me. Some of the main character’s actions didn’t seem as authentic as I’d hoped.

11. My Book of Life By Angel by Martine Leavitt (YA): A verse novel about a girl who gets trapped into child prostitution. Dark and gritty, but the verse didn’t work for me against such a weighty topic.

12. Skinny by Donna Cooner (YA): I found myself frustrated by this Cinderella story of a teen getting gastric bypass surgery. Reviewed here.

* 13. My Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught (YA): Hallelujah, a fat girl who doesn’t hate herself or her body. Also tackles gastric bypass but at a different angle than Cooner’s book. Reviewed here.

* 14. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (YA): This 2013 title might be one of my favorite reads of this year AND next year already. So sweet but so much longing, angst, and pain to get there. You will be hearing more about this one next year.

15. If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch (YA): Another 2013 title, and this one is a debut. The storyline is fresh and unlike anything I’ve read before — two girls who were kidnapped by their mother and forced to grow up in the literal back woods are rescued and reintroduced to a more traditional world. There’ll be a longer review in the next year, but where the story was strong, there were some holes and some writing/voice things I didn’t quite buy.

16. The Turning by Francine Prose (YA): A twist on the classic The Turn of the Screw but I felt it was much less successful than Adele Griffin’s Tighter from last year. There’s a review coming of this one soon.

17. Forget Me Not by Carolee Dean (YA): Another verse novel, and this one is more successful than most. It’s a dual voice, too, which is impressive, and it makes you question whether one of the narrators is or is not alive. I may review this one soon because it was unique. I’d label is contemporary but others may not!

18. A Certain October by Angela Johnson (YA): Johnson’s stories are so sad for me, and this one was no different. The problem is I never find myself attached to the characters nor the story and, well, this one was no different. I can see many others enjoying this very literary tale of loss and grief.

19. Life After God by Douglas Coupland (Adult): I’ve read and reread this one a number of times and decided it was time again. I liked it less than I did before but it’s still good. Also, very sad. I guess this quarter was about sad books on some level.

20. Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R Hubbard (YA): Did I mention the sad stories bit? This one is a quiet story about the implications of suicide.

21. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Adult): I was taken by the story because I loved how terrible the characters were. Did I love the story though? Not like most readers. But it was good, and I think Flynn is an exceptional writer.

22. If I Lie by Corrine Jackson (YA): A little over-the-top on the drama/tension, as in there’s too much going on, but I genuinely enjoyed Jackson’s writing. It’s about a girl who keeps a secret and the implications therein (spoiler alert — they’re not good for her). I may review this one soon.

23. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell (Adult): I think Rowell writes my kind of romances. I love her style, her slight wit, but her all together grounded and authentic stories.      

I didn’t ditch any novels this month, and I read a few more adult titles than usual (at least given the number of books I did read). I also knocked out a few debuts for not only 2012, but also for 2013. I think part of my slow down was tackling a number of other things blogging wise — I feel like I wrote a novel or two worth of blog posts this quarter!

I’m writing this post before heading to New York for Kid Lit Con, where I’m packing a couple of books to finish. I’ll likely have more than 23 books for this quarter, but I’ll add them to my end-of-fourth-quarter round up. Maybe this won’t look as sad as it does then! And yes, there will be a Kid Lit Con update coming soon. Promise!

Anyone playing along — what’s been your favorite 2012 read to this point? Anything I need to get my hands on in the final stretch of the year?