Let’s switch around who we have sharing their picks this week. Let’s talk to someone who is in the business of getting YA books into the hands of those who work with teens. We’ve got the manager of school and library marketing, as well as social media, from Little, Brown, Zoe Luderitz.
Zoe Luderitz is the Manager, School & Library Marketing and Social Media at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She also has her MLIS from San Jose State University. She did not want to give us a head shot, so imagine her smile right about here.
Thinking about how I would introduce YA to non-YA readers was more of a challenge for me than I thought it would be! I’ve always been such a fan of teen books. When I was a teenager I was into alternative lit. I loved Francesca Lia Block and read all of her Weetzie Bat books. The worlds she created of real teen lives mixed up with unexpected circumstances always appealed to me. My friends and I would draw stars and faeries on our notebooks. I would have died if Holly Black was around when I was in high school! I absolutely would have loved the Tithe series.
But YA was still so new when I was a teenager. There was not the variety that there is today. It was just becoming a “thing” when I started High School. I completely remember my freshman year when Speak was making the rounds. Then my senior year when the new The Perks of Being a Wallflower came out it was the first time I had heard about a fiction book for teens specifically.
Though I was interested in children’s lit when I started my marketing internship at Candlewick Press in college I came away with a real love for YA. I read Feed by M.T. anderson and The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. I realized the depth and breadth of new YA.
When I started working at The Horn Book I became fascinated by the conversation around YA literature. The topics ranged from more traditional realistic fiction to fantasy to paranormal romance. I started the year that Twilight came out. But it was also the year that The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian was published. One of my very favorite books of all time. I still remember sitting on the couch in The Horn Book offices opening it up not knowing the awesomeness that was in store. When I got my job at Little, Brown working on that book had me starstruck.
I love that some of my favorite books of all time are written for teenagers! Sweethearts by Sara Zarr, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock that’s coming out this summer from Matthew Quick. And I promise I’m not just naming Little, Brown titles! Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron, The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han, Going Bovine by Libba Bray. The list could go on and on.
YA is such a welcoming place. You can read realistic fiction like This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen AND graphic novels like American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang. Science Fiction like Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi AND novels in verse like This is What I Did by Ann Dee Ellis. The characters and emotional experiences are some of the best out there and if you haven’t yet, you should definitely join the club.