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Kid Lit Con 2014, Sacramento: The Recap

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Last week, I headed out to Sacramento to attend the 8th annual Kid Lit Con. It was my fifth time going, which is hard for me to wrap my head around. I got out to Sacramento mid-day on Thursday after what felt like a never-ending flight (it was a completely fine flight, just long) and spent two full days attending sessions, catching up with long-time blogging friends, and meeting new people. 

Pictured above are the view from my hotel room (on the left), which looked out over a park and Sacramento’s City Hall. On the far left of the picture is the Sacramento Public Library, which is where the event was held. The photo on the right is from the lobby of the hotel, which had a vintage library feel to it. It ran both sides of the lobby and onto the second floor. 
This was the first year that Kid Lit Con had a theme, which was diversity. Most of the sessions focused on some aspect of diversity, from how to be conscious of portrayals of diversity in what you’re reading to why an author would want to have as diverse a cast of characters in her novel as possible. 
Friday, the first full day of sessions, the first program I attended was about finding and reviewing the best in diverse kid lit. The speakers were good, and they shared a couple of blogs I hadn’t been aware of before. For the most part, it was a session about why blogging about diversity and diverse books is important. 
Immediately following that session was my own presentation on using social media effectively. Here’s the Prezi for those who couldn’t attend or who did attend and wanted a copy of it. A couple of questions that aren’t addressed on the Prezi itself: to turn on Twitter Analytics, go to analytics.twitter.com, and you can see them there. I mentioned you’d have to go to ads.twitter.com to see them, which is true, but it looks like they’re not in the Analytics dashboard itself. The thing people were most interested in during the session was my plug for Diptic, an image collage app/program you can get for $1. I highly recommend spending that single dollar, since it’ll let you create collages, as well as put text overlays onto those collages. The image I pulled with the Facebook section on the Prezi was one I made with Diptic. I also spent a bit of time talking about how to use Tumblr to re-promote backlist posts you’ve made, in order to take what you already have and make it new again. I think the rest of the Prezi is self-explanatory, but if anyone reading this wants more information or has questions, let me know and I’m happy to answer. Photo on the left is courtesy of Melissa Fox. 
I had a great lunch with a pile of long-time blogging friends, and then attended a session with Hannah Gomez, Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Edith Campbell called “Getting Beyond Diversity and Getting to the Story.” I loved how energetic a speaker Jewell was, and it was maybe this session from which I took the most away. Hannah talked about how, when she went through the roster of Kid Lit Con attendee blogs, she noticed three types of bloggers: bloggers who talk about a wide variety of topics and books are just part of their blog; bloggers who are “greeters” of sorts and who post short reviews and participate in memes on a really regular basis and who tend to keep things short; and finally, bloggers who are more analytical and tend to write longer posts, with less frequent reviews. I thought about this breakdown all weekend and think it really impacted how I took in some of the other sessions. Not in a bad way, though.
When that session wrapped up, there was an author meet-and-greet. I don’t know how many authors were there, but it was a nice number. I spent part of the event talking with Stephanie Kuehn, and I convinced her to join everyone for dinner afterward. 
Everyone at Kid Lit Con went out to dinner that night, then because of some inconsistent dessert service, I went out with Leila Roy, Hannah Gomez, and Faythe Arrendondo for dessert and drinks at the hotel restaurant. 
Saturday began early, as I met with Hannah and Faythe to talk about our presentation later that afternoon. We had a solid breakfast, and we talked a bit about what we hoped to accomplish, and then we spent a good amount of time talking about how excited we were to meet and present with our fourth panelist, Summer Khaleq. 
The first session on Saturday was the keynote with Mitali Perkins. She was a great speaker, and she offered up a 10-point checklist for seeing and thinking about diversity, race, and culture in kid lit. I thought that was one of the best take aways from the event. 
Pam Margolis was the second speaker of the day, and she talked about how to reach readers in a very digital environment, beyond your blog. I loved Pam’s style and enthusiasm in presenting, but a lot of what she’d suggested is stuff I probably wouldn’t do, though I appreciate when other people do them. During her session, I kept thinking about Hannah’s blogger breakdown, and Pam really hit it hard for the first two types of bloggers, especially those who are eager to take pictures, to be bookstagramers, who want to hop on YouTube, and who are excited about using tools like Vine. While I enjoy bloggers who do that — and I do! — I’m not the type and I don’t think I would ever be. Part is discomfort, part of not having patience with technology, but the biggest part is that for me, blogging is about writing. It’s an outlet TO write, so playing with YouTube or Instagram for blogging/book related purposes doesn’t suit my needs. And what’s great is…it’s okay. This session made me further appreciate those bloggers who do do those things, since there is time, effort, and bravery in putting yourself out there like that. 
Shannon Hale was the second keynote of the day, and she Skyped in. She talked about why she writes diverse characters, and at one point, she got so choked up about seeing the type of girl she’d hoped she’d depicted in her book, that I almost got a little choked up myself. 
I skipped out on lunch Saturday since I’d been hit by jet lag bad and wanted to be fresh for the second half of the day. The session I’d been looking forward to the most was next, which was the #WeNeedDiverseBooks panel, featuring S. E. Sinkhorn, Mike Jung, Karen Sandler, and Martha White. They talked about how the campaign came together, the projects they’d worked on so far, and what was in the works. We got a sneak peek at the now-live diverse YA reading flowchart, which you can see, print, and share here. The session was great, and I was really excited to meet both Mike and Stephanie after their panel. I’ve been reading and following them both for a while now, and it’s always nice when you get to put a face in person to a name. 
Photo by Guinevere Thomas
The very final session of Kid Lit Con was the panel I was a part of, along with Faythe, Summer, and Hannah. Faythe and Hannah are both librarians, and Summer, second from the left, is a 16-year-old YA reader who is so thoughtful and articulate. It was an honor to be on a panel with all three of these ladies. We called ourselves the downer panel, since our session was far less about making people feel good and more about putting to action the things we’d talked about all day. We talked in depth about how diversity is more than race or culture — it includes body image, socioeconomic status, and more. We talked about how you have to call things out when they’re being done poorly and how you should point to examples where things are being done well. Since it’s hard to summarize what a panel discussion talked about in depth, it’s probably more useful to offer up the downloadable brochure than Hannah created for our panel about how to read and blog diversely. Looking for diverse blogs to add to your reading diet? You’re going to find them there. 
When our session wrapped up, it was on to a banquet dinner at the hotel. It was a nice time for decompressing and catching up with friends, old and new. I didn’t stay the entire four hours, since I had a very early flight to catch.
While I wish there had been more talk of actual blogging at Kid Lit Con this year, I appreciated how diverse the diversity discussion ran throughout the two days. More, as Hannah noted, it was nice to be at a small conference where diversity was well-represented among attendees, too. It was amazing to look out at a crowd while presenting and see people of all different colors, shapes, and backgrounds. That doesn’t happen as much as it should at bigger conventions like ALA or BEA. It was nice to meet new people, as well as reconnect with old ones. Spending three nights with Leila was a blast as always, and it was really nice to be on the same page with our jet lag and exhaustion by the end of the weekend. 
Next year, Kid Lit Con hits Baltimore, and I’m already looking forward to it. A huge thank you to the coordinators of this year’s program — it was well-run and really enjoyable. 

Plagues & Epidemics

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I’ve noticed a lot of plagues and epidemics in YA fiction lately. It used to be that a plague was a good way to explain a decimated world in a YA post-apocalyptic story, but more frequently now I’m seeing stories that tackle the plague during its rise and dominance rather than its lingering after-effects. This includes some historical fiction about the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which can evoke the same sort of mood as post-apocalyptic tales set in a fictional future. To many who lived through it, the 1918 flu may have felt like the end of the world.

Below are a few titles published within the last few years that feature plagues or epidemics prominently. I tried to focus on stories where the plague is the plot rather than simply exposition. Are there any that I’ve missed?

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe
Sixteen-year-old old Kaelyn challenges her fears, finds a second chance
at love, and fights to keep her family and friends safe as a deadly new
virus devastates her island community. | Sequels: The Lives We Lost, The Worlds We Make

Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
In this twist on Edgar Allen Poe’s gothic short story, a wealthy
teenaged girl who can afford a special mask to protect her from the
plague that decimated humanity in the mid-1800s, falls in love, becomes
caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow an oppressive government, and
faces the threat of a new plague. | Sequel: Dance of the Red Death

Conversion by Katherine Howe
When girls start experiencing strange tics and other mysterious symptoms
at Colleen’s high school, her small town of Danvers, Massachusetts,
falls victim to rumors that lead to full-blown panic, and only Colleen
connects their fate to the ill-fated Salem Village, where another group
of girls suffered from a similarly bizarre epidemic three centuries ago. | Kimberly’s review

Love is the Drug by Alaya Dawn Johnson
A chance meeting with Roosevelt David, a
homeland security agent, at a party for Washington DC’s elite leads to
Emily Bird waking up in a hospital, days later, with no memory of the end of
the night. Meanwhile, the world has fallen apart: A deadly flu
virus is sweeping the nation, forcing quarantines, curfews, even martial
law. And Roosevelt is certain that Bird knows something. Something
about the virus–something about her parents’ top secret scientific
work–something she shouldn’t know.

A Matter of Days by Amber Kizer

In the not-too-distant future when a global pandemic kills most of
humanity, a teenaged girl and her younger brother struggle to survive. | Kimberly’s review

A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier
When the Spanish influenza epidemic reaches Portland, Oregon, in 1918,
seventeen-year-old Cleo leaves behind the comfort of her boarding school
to work for the Red Cross.

Pandemic by Yvonne Ventresca
Lil is left home alone when a deadly pandemic hits her small town in New
Jersey. Will Lil survive the flu and brave her darkest fears?

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters
In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their
toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners
flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her
scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first
love, killed in battle, returns. | Kimberly’s review

The Program by Suzanne Young
When suicide becomes a worldwide epidemic, the only known cure is The
Program, a treatment in which painful memories are erased, a fate worse
than death to seventeen-year-old Sloane who knows that The Program will
steal memories of her dead brother and boyfriend. | Sequel: The Treatment | Dual review

A Few Cybils Reads

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Cybils nominations close tomorrow (have you nominated your favorite YA SFF yet?), and all Round 1 panelists, including myself, are deep into their reading. Here are a few recent reads.

Dark Metropolis by Jaclyn Dolamore
I started off my Cybils reading with this atmospheric novel inspired by Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent film Metropolis. I don’t know much about the film – aside from the fact that it exists – so I went into the book pretty blind. Happily, I really enjoyed it. It’s told from the third person perspective of three different teens: Thea, a girl who works at a cocktail bar whose father died in the war and whose mother suffers from “bound sickness” due to her husband’s death; Nan, a co-worker of Thea’s who wakes up one day in an underground prison where she’s forced to do menial work for no pay; and Freddy, who has the ability to bring people back from the dead.

The three teens’ stories intertwine, coalescing to tell a story about a massive conspiracy featuring forced labor, dark magic, and the beginnings of a revolution. The plot is quite complex, and the shifting perspectives help to illuminate it piece by piece, making for an engaging read. The place and time of the story is never specified, but it feels a little 1920s, post- World War I-ish. (Dolamore has stated on Goodreads that she intended it to be 1927 Germany, which fits.) This is a moody, creative story that would be a good fit for fantasy readers looking for something a little different.

The Devil’s Intern by Donna Hosie
Mitchell was hit by a bus and now he’s dead. As luck would have it, he’s ended up in Hell, and he’s landed the prestigious position of intern to the Devil with a capital D (not to be confused with the lower-case devils as all other denizens of Hell are called). He spends his time hanging out with his three best friends – all teenagers who died in different eras of history, including a Viking warrior – and trying his best to please his immediate boss, Septimus, and avoid the Big Boss, the Devil. Things really get going when Mitchell learns that Septimus has a device that will take the user out of Hell and fling him – plus any tagalongs – to any point in history. Naturally, Mitchell decides to use the device to prevent his death. He initially tries to do it alone, but his friends insist on coming along.

This is a time travel story and it makes great use of the device. The reader visits each of Mitchell’s friends’ lives, at the point of their deaths, and it’s here that Hosie shows what a great plotter she is. It reminded me a little bit of the time travel in Prisoner of Azkaban. The tone is different, but the philosophy behind the time travel is the same. We even get a scene that calls to mind Harry saving himself from the dementors – though the end result is very different.

This is a really enjoyable, funny, and often moving read – just don’t think about the premise too hard.

Prince of Shadows by Rachel Caine
In her latest, Rachel Caine leaves modern vampires behind and instead tackles Shakespeare’s Verona. This is a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet from Benvolio’s point of view, though Caine does make some major adjustments to the original story. Benvolio is the titular Prince of Shadows, called such because he wears a disguise and robs the wealthy residents of Verona at night, stealing from them for the thrill of it – and occasionally for revenge.

Benvolio’s two best friends are Romeo and Mercutio. Romeo is just as insipid as Shakespeare wrote him to be, but his feelings for Juliet are the result of a curse rather than youthful foolishness. The biggest change to Shakespeare’s story is Mercutio, who is gay in Caine’s re-telling, a fact which propels much of the story’s conflict. It’s a wise change that adds a lot of emotional depth to the story. Benvolio himself pines after Rosaline (as Romeo does at the beginning), but that relationship is pretty underdeveloped. Rosaline doesn’t actually get a lot of page time. The book is at its most successful when it explores the thorny friendship between Benvolio, Romeo, and Mercutio. A bit of magic near the end makes this a fantasy story, though it’s fairly light. Caine incorporates some of Shakespeare’s dialogue in an unobtrusive way that feels natural. The story is a bit overlong but a worthwhile read for fans of classics retold.

The Death Business in YA Fiction: A (Short) Reading List

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An interesting micro-trend I’ve noticed in the last few publisher catalogs I’ve read for forthcoming titles is the death business. We’re talking teens who are working in graveyards, at the morgue, or elsewhere within the funeral business. This isn’t a new topic, but it’s one I’ve seen creeping in more regularly. I won’t lie: it fascinates me. I love the idea of stories where teens face death but in a way that’s more on their own terms and in a space within the industry because it gives a different perspective on grief, on loss, and on life more broadly. The teens tend to be less in-the-moment because the losses they’re seeing or thinking about aren’t necessarily personal to them, but yet, they’re impacted by them by virtue of it being part of their work. 

These stories are quite realistic, too. In small towns, especially, the death business is often a family business. It isn’t strange to have teens growing up in a home that is attached to the funeral parlor (and that’s something I’d love so much to read about — think about how you make friends or how holidays like Halloween must be or what you do when there’s a memorial going on downstairs and you have a date over — there are a lot of possibilities here). I’m less interested in horror, supernatural, or paranormal tales set in graveyards, though those are good, too. I’m more interested in the teen who is digging the graves. 

Here’s a look at YA that explore some aspect of the death business. It’s a small list, but it’s an interesting one. All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. And please, other titles that fit the theme are welcome, so tell me about them. 

Putting Makeup on Dead People by Jen Violi: Donna’s discovery, that she wants to be a mortician, helps her come into her own and finally understand that moving forward doesn’t mean forgetting someone you love.

The Morgue and Me by John C. Ford: Eighteen-year-old Christopher, who plans to be a spy, learns of a murder cover-up through his summer job as a morgue assistant and teams up with Tina, a gorgeous newspaper reporter, to investigate, despite great danger.

Going Underground by Susan Vaught: Interest in a new girl and pressure from his parole officer cause seventeen-year-old Del, a gravedigger, to recall and face the “sexting” incident three years earlier that transformed him from a straight-A student-athlete into a social outcast and felon.

Six Feet Over It by Jennifer Longo: When fourteen-year-old Leigh’s father buys a graveyard and insists she work there after school, she learns much about life, death, and the power of friendship.

 

The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner (March 3, 2015): Aaron Rowe walks in his sleep. He has dreams he can’t explain, and memories he can’t recover. Death doesn’t scare him – his new job with a funeral director may even be his salvation. But if he doesn’t discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up.

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds (January 6, 2015): Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey, Matt’s snagging fifteen bucks an hour. Not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. She’s got a crazy name, and she’s been through more crazy than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She’s tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he’s drawn to her, and definitely why he can’t seem to shake her. Because there’s nothing more hopeful than finding a person who understands your loneliness—and who can maybe even help take it away. (Description via Edelweiss)

This Week at Book Riot . . .

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A quieter week at Book Riot, since I have been preparing to head out of town for KidLit Con. I have a pile of ideas up my sleeve for when I get back to make up for it.