More Mockingjay

There’s a fairly lengthy piece over at Publishers’ Weekly on “Marketing Mockingjay.” Scholastic’s marketing team sure has been busy! I’m really enjoying the 13-District blog tour. There’s a great variety of YA bloggers taking part. Today the tour stops at one my favourite YA book blogs, GreenBeanTeenQueen, representing District 4.

The hype around Mockingjay was also mentioned in a New York Times piece the other day about the rising number of adults reading YA books. According to the article, “47 percent of 18- to 24-year-old women and 24 percent of same-aged men say most of the books they buy are classified as young adult. The percentage of female Y.A. fans between the ages of 25 and 44 has nearly doubled in the past four years. Today, nearly one in five 35- to 44-year-olds say they most frequently buy Y.A. books. For themselves.”

Teens decide where the story goes in online interactive novel

Here’s a neat example of how a publisher is using digital space to connect with teen readers:

Simon & Shuster has launched a teen-targeted online serial novel, Loser/Queen, by author Jodi Lynn Anderson. Teens are invited to visit the Loser/Queen website to read the first few chapters of the book and then vote on how the story will continue. New chapters based on poll results will appear each Monday until September 13th.

The best part? Readers will have a chance to own a hard copy of the book they helped create. A paperback and e-book version of the final novel will be released December 21, 2010.

For more on this project, check out this YPulse interview with S&S Vice-President Justin Chanda.

USA Today features Summer YA Reads

Today, USA Today’s Pop Candy blog features a list of “Ten summer young-adult books you’ll want to read, despite your age.” Compiled by librarian Nicole S. (of Booked Up), this is a terrific list of some of the most hotly anticipated teen (and some children’s and middle-grade) titles of the year.

My one beef with this article is that they aren’t all exactly “summer” reads—you’ll have to wait until late September to get your hands on a few them. In my mind, September = Fall. Only 3 of the 10 are currently available. In spite of this, I agree that these are all titles to get excited about.

Personally, I’m eagerly awaiting the release of Mockingjay (the final installment of The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins and the hilarious-sounding Zombies vs. Unicorns edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. Both made Nicole’s list.

The piece ends with a plea for support for public libraries. Nicole writes:

Although all of these books will be available in bookstores, I urge you to use your local library instead. Public libraries across the nation face severe budget cuts this summer, with services, staffing and branch locations being stripped to the bare bone. While you’re at the circulation desk, please ask your local librarian what you can do to help your system of choice keep fighting the good fight.

Right on, Nicole!

Choices wins 2009/2010 Stellar Book Award

Choices by Deborah Lynn Jacobs has been named the winner of the 2009/2010 Stellar Book Award.

The Stellar is British Columbia’s Teen Readers’ Choice Award.  From November to April, B.C. teens read, rank, and review nominated titles. In order to vote in April, teens must have read at least five nominated books. Voting takes place online.

Choices was also named an ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults.  It also  made the Young Adult shortlist for the 2008 Sunburst Award.

Click here to see a book trailer.

America’s Next Top YA Author?

Tyra Banks has landed a three-book deal with Delacorte Press for a YA fantasy series entitled Modelland.

According to  several media reports today, the first book is scheduled for a summer 2011 release.  Variety reports that “Modelland centers on a teen who manages to get into an exclusive academy for ‘Intoxibellas’—who are the most exceptional models known to humankind and harbor unknown powers. Once there, she finds herself competing to be accepted as part of that world.” It’s Top Model meets Harry Potter.

On her website, Banks writes that the book will be “for all the girls and guys who want a lot more FANTASY in their lives – and some fierceness and magic, romance and mystery, crazy and wild adventures, and, yeah, some danger too.”

I hope Modelland is just a working title.  Banks has said the books wil be an extension of the Tyra band, so I expect the title may end up morphing into some form of  Tyra-ism, like “smize.”

Joan Clarks asks if we should do away with the YA label.

There’s was an  essay in yesterday’s Globe and Mail by author Joan Clark in which she argues that the YA label does a diservice to readers and authors. “Simply put,” she writes, “the Y/A label influences whether a reader is likely to choose or ignore a book” and suggests that the YA label can be off-putting to both adolescents and adults.

It’s an interesting argument, but I’m not sure I agree with her completely. It sounds like she has some hang ups about her work being labeled YA.  Sure, calling something YA might deter a reader, but it might just as easily attract a reader. Personally, I appreciate the label. There are certain common conventions in YA that appeal to me, and I know that by visiting the YA section of a bookstore or library, I’m likely to find something I’ll enjoy. Besides, there’s no rule that says adults can’t select books from the YA section or teens can’t select books from the adult section.

There’s been a lot of speculation recently as to who’s actually reading YA. By many accounts, the genre has quite a large adult readership who obviously aren’t deterred by the label. And while to some degree, the label is a marketing decision, it doesn’t mean it’s completely invalid. I heard Kelley Armstrong speak at a Reader’s Advisory workshop recently, and she remarked that her adult fiction sells quite well when it’s “accidentally” shelved alongside her YA novels. This practice leaves her with some uneasiness however as there’s content in her adult novels that younger teen readers might not be ready for. I think in many ways, the YA label acts as a sort of guideline that helps parents, teachers, librarians, and even teens themselves, find suitable books.

Publisher’s Weekly asks “What Do Teens Want?”

Did you see the recent Publishers Weekly cover story, “What Do Teens Want?” The article, which is still available online, presents some interesting data about teen reading trends based on a survey conducted with over 3000 members of Teenreads.com.

As the article admits, the survey reached “an exceptional group” of “über readers,” of which 96 percent were female. Personally, I can’t help wondering about the rest of the teen demographic. What are the reading habits and influences of so-called “non-readers” or occasional readers, particularly boys? Do they seek book information? Where do they go?

2009 Govenor General’s Literary Award Finalists

The 2009 Governor General’s Literary Awards Finalists were announced recently. Four out of the five nominees in the Children’s Literature — Text category are YA:

• Shelley Hrdlitschka, Sister Wife. (Orca)
• Caroline Pignat, Greener Grass: The Famine Years. (Red Deer Press)
• Robin Stevenson, A Thousand Shades of Blue. (Orca)
• Tim Wynne-Jones, The Uninvited. (Candlewick Press)

I read and enjoyed Sister Wife and The Uninvited, but the other two YA titles are new to me. I don’t think teens pay much attention to the GGs (or anyone outside the publishing or library world for that matter.) I have mixed feelings about award programs in general. I think it’s important to highlight the “best of the best” of Canadian literature, but I often think that a lot more could be done to promote awards programs, like the GGs, to readers. As prestigious as the GGs awards are, I’m not sure they have much value if readers aren’t aware of them or don’t care.

More awards news soon…

Little Brother wins 2009 Sunburst Award

Cory Doctorow’s YA novel Little Brother has won the 2009 Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.

Did you know the text of Little Brother is available online for free? Visit Doctorow’s website for links to a variety of downloadable versions. Download it, read it, and then tell me what you think! It’s been on my to-read list for ages.

The other shortlisted works in the Young Adult category were:

The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
Dingo by Charles de Lint
Wild Talent: A Novel of the Supernatural by Eileen Kernaghan
Night Runner by Max Turner

Teen lit for beginners

When I tell people I want to work as a young adult librarian, I’m often asked how YA literature is different from adult literature. It can be hard to explain, especially to those who have never read a teen book.

Recently, the A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy blog alerted me to a terrific piece by Mary Pearson over at Tor.com called What YA Lit is and isn’t. Pearson ponders why the genre is so often the subject of derision,  and attempts to clear up some of the most common misconceptions about teen books:

“ Young adult books are not a lesser, watered-down version of adult books. They are not any easier or harder to read than adult books and they are certainly not any easier to write. They are just different.”

She goes on to say:

“I think sometimes there is still this basal reader mentality when it comes to teen books, like it is a stepping stone to the “grown-up stuff.” Basal Reader Year 10. Hm, no. It is simply its own unique type of literature that explores the teen experience.”

Pearson’s passionate defense of YA is inspiring—and I can’t help but smile at some of her snarky comments!