readergirlz is a literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize. The rgz blog serves as a depot for news and YA reviews from industry professionals and teens. As volunteers return full force to their own YA writing, the organization continues to hold one initiative a year to impact teen literacy. All are welcome to "like" us on Facebook!
It's coming! Sunday is the first day of #YALSA Teen Read Week, readergirlz! Did you remember we are celebrating with #RocktheDrop on Friday, October 14? Instead of dropping YA books in public places in April for Support Teen Lit Day, we are collectively leaving our books in the wild a week from Friday for Teen Read Week, #TRW16. So here are your bookmarks. Print and place them in your favs, and be ready to leave the books someplace special for a happy reader to find. Full info here.
As always, snap a pic and post: #RocktheDrop and #TRW16. We want to see your contributions! Let's get ready. One, two, three...GO!
Today's the day, rgz! It's time for Operation Teen Book Drop, 2015, also known as #rockthedrop. April 16th is YALSA'sSupport Teen Literature Day.
Quick! Print out a bookmark below, created by Little Willow. Place it in a favorite YA book, and leave the novel in a public spot to be found. Tweet or post a pic at our facebook page with the hashtag #rockthedrop. Show your love for YA lit and brighten someone's day.
Off you go! Be sneaky. Be creative. Have fun! Oh, and if you find a book, let us know that, too! Drop a note in the comments. Alrighty. GO!
It's under a month away! It's coming! Operation Teen Book Drop, 2015, also known as #rockthedrop. For right now keep an eye for that YA book, or several, you own and want to leave in a public place on April 16th. We'll be celebrating YALSA'sSupport Teen Literature Day. Happy finders will be enriched by your beloved reads.
This year instead of a book plate, we are going with a bookmark by Little Willow. Placed in the book, all will know you are leaving a FREE gift. You can print your own by right clicking one of the below and opening the image in a new tab.
JLC -- HIT is a riveting read! Tell us what inspired you to write it.
LG -- Thank you, Janet! HIT was inspired by a true story. Ten years ago, my daughter's best friend was hit in a
crosswalk on the way to school. With her life threatened, her urgent brain
surgery sent her family and friends spinning through a dark wait.
Inspired by her experience, my novel tells the story of one girl struck down by
the very grad student she is crushing on. Plans, goals, and dreams are
shattered, as everything comes screeching to a halt.
JLC – You chose to
write the book in two viewpoints: Sarah, the girl who’s struck by a car, and Mr.
Haddings, the young man who was behind the wheel. I was amazed by your choice
which worked beautifully! Can you tell us when you decided to write the book this
way and share some of the challenges faced?
LG -- Well, it was
originally six voices!
JLC -- Wow, six?
LG -- :~)
JLC -- Who were they?
LG -- Sarah, Haddings, Cydni, Luke, Janet, and Mark. Different
editors along the publishing journey suggested reducing it to four, then
finally two. Without introducing some sort of fantastic element, like Sarah
wandering the hospital in spirit form, I needed at least two voices to tell the
story as she is so long in surgery.
JLC – You write so
deeply and truly about family and family relationships in HIT. Can you give us
a peek into your process for this?
LG -- I think the real
event was so charged and poignant, gestures, words, and phrases became haunting
notes in my mind. It was simple to stream those straight into the novel. I also include the
struggles I’m having or have had in the past: how to mother and let go, how to
love the right person, how to separate your identity from another, etc. By
digging deeply and bringing battles to light, there’s a chance the work will
ring with a reader.
JLC—They say every
story is about character change. Sarah’s accident forces not only the central
characters but every character in the book to change. How did you determine the
way each of these unique personalities would change through the events of the
story?
LG -- Thank you for
noticing, Janet! I started from a place where everyone was caught up in the
everyday. They were selfishly focused. The accident arrests each of them,
giving them a chance to stop and assess where they are and what is important.
So often, this is one of the gifts within a hardship. I naturally landed on
their starting points, riffing off my friends and my own traits. I amplified
every facet to better the tale. Seriously, my friends are blessed with so much
grace, I had to work hard to weaken them. :~)
JLC— What would you
like readers to take away from this book?
LG --’d really like
readers to consider the concept that within every hardship there are sweet red
seeds. Like Dottie tells Sarah, under the leathery pomegranate skin, there is
beauty. We just have to look for it. The truth lines up beautifully with Hit-and-Run: the Gratitude
Tour. We're doing. Both Justina
Chen and I tend to write about
this.
When trials hit, how do we run in triumph? When we have
a blind spot for blessings, how do we embrace gratitude? Award-winning authors
and readergirlz co-founders, Lorie Ann Grover and Justina Chen, share the
trials and triumphs within their own lives and their books’ characters,
inspiring teens and adults to #hitwithgratitude.
What we now realize is that our message is going to stretch beyond this tour
across four states. We will continue to hit the road, encouraging readers to
#hitwithgratitude now and in the years to come. For example, how about a 30 Day Challenge to #hitwithgratitude
daily through the month of November? Why not tweet, fb, and Instagram
shout-outs for those you are grateful for? Who are the people who have crossed
your life that you’d like to #hitwithgratitude?
JLC -- I love this idea!
LG -- There are so many ways
we can encourage each forward, right? Let’s do it.
I officially
#hitwithgratitude: readergirlz and Janet Lee Carey!
Adult/Teen Librarian
Danielle Dreger-Babbitt from Mill Creek Library WA is here to Roar with
readergirlz for Banned Books Week Welcome Danielle.
Tell
us about Banned Books Week Banned Book Week was started 32 years ago to celebrate
the freedom to read after more and more books were being challenged in
libraries and schools. According to the American Librarian Association, over
11,000 books have been challenged since 1982. Over 200 of them happened in
2013! You can learn more about Banned Book Week on the ALA website.
What
do you do to spread the word about Banned Books Week and Intellectual Freedom
Issues? I
do a banned book display each year.My
favorite displays are the ones I did in 2011 when library patrons wrote about
their favorite banned books and the 2012 display that took up a whole shelving
unit. I love being able to showcase these banned and challenged books.
Along with each year’s display, I include Banned Book
lists and pamphlets as well as bookmarks and buttons for library customers to
take home. We’ve had essay contests where readers write about their favorite
challenged or banned books and win copies of banned books. When I visit the
middle schools to talk about books in the fall I often bring along books that
have been challenged from other parts of the country and have the students
guess why they might be banned or challenged.
Readers
Roar: (Let’s hear what teens have to say about banned books)
“If people read the books before they banned them, they
might have a better understanding of why the book is important. If you ban a book,
it only makes me want to read it more.”- Jessica, Grade 11
Any
Banned Books you would like to highlight? Some
of my favorite banned and challenged books include Persepolis by Marjane
Satrapi, Shine and TTYL by Lauren Myracle, and 13
Reasons Why by Jay Asher. And my
absolute favorite banned/ challenged book is Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins. Most teens are amazed to hear that it has been taken out of some
schools and libraries!
What
can readergirlz do to celebrate Banned Books Week? Check
out the activities on the BannedBooksSite . Readergirlz
can celebrate their freedom to read by reading one or two banned or challenged
books during Banned Book Week. Bonus points for reading these all year long,
not just in September and for sharing these titles with their friends and
family.
More ideas from readergirlz diva Janet Lee Carey: Grab your
favorite Banned Book and RIP = Read in Public. Do a selfie while reading your
favorite banned book and post it on your favorite social networks. Use twitter hashtag
#BannedBooksWeek and @readergirlz when you post on twitter.
Use the site Support Banned Books Weekto
add a temporary banner below your profile photo. Divas Janet Lee Carey and Justina Chen's photos:
ONE
LAST BIG ROAR from guest poster, Danielle The
best way to support libraries is to use them! Check out books and DVDs and CDs,
use the databases to find information, and attend as many library programs and
events as your schedule allows. By doing these, you are showing us that you
think libraries are important. There are many ways to give back to your
library. Consider becoming a volunteer or join the library board or Friend’s
Group. Teens can join the library’s Teen
Advisory Board and help make decisions about future library programs and
purchases. You can also donate books to the library for
the Friends of Library Book Sale. The money from these sales supports library
programs and special events!
About
Danielle Dreger-Babbitt I’ve been a teen librarian
for over 10 years and have worked in libraries in Massachusetts and Washington.
I’ve been an Adult/ Teen Librarian at the Mill Creek Library for over 5 ½
years. I’ve been active in ALA’s YALSA
(Young Adult Library Services Association)
for the last decade and have served on committees including Outreach to Teens
With Special Needs, The Schneider Family Book Award, and most recently The Alex
Awards, for which I was the 2014 committee chair.
In my spare time I write for children and teens. I love
to read YA and MG fiction and cooking memoirs/ cookbooks. I own two cats and
two badly behaved (but adorable) dogs. I also love to travel and recently
visited Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina.
Hello from ALA Midwinter, rgz! I saw a lot of YALSA teens on the floor yesterday, and I was happy to share readergirlz buttons. So many cheerful faces, square glasses, and books bulging in bags. Thanks for dropping by the Blink booth for Firstborn. Such a great celebration. Super fun to see postergirl Jackie Parker Robinson, as well!
Okay, in anticipation of the awards tomorrow morning, check out this video of some of your childhood favorites. We'd like to see a similar video for the Printz!
Here's to the festivities and thanks to all the librarians for their work in selecting this year's winners!
This just in from YALSA. Be sure to participate as it sounds super easy and fun!
On October 17, 2012, help YALSA celebrate Teen Read Week™ by joining the conversation about teen reading and young adult literature! We’re encouraging people of all ages to Tweet their YA lit reading recommendations, thoughts and ideas on YA lit and more via the hashtag #TRW12 any time on Oct. 17. To get all of the details, please visit: http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2012/10/08/join-the-conversation-about-teen-reading/. Have a wonderful Teen Read Week! To learn more about Teen Read Week visit www.ala.org/teenread.
Rock on, rgz! Share what you are reading next week!
We recently got word from Beth Yoke, the executive director of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA):
We need your help! Carl Harvey, President of the American Association of School Librarians, has initiated a White House petition on school libraries, which specifically petitions the Obama administration to “ensure that every child in America has access to an effective school library program.” About 17,000 signatures are still needed in order for this petition at http://wh.gov/Wgd to be reviewed by White House staff. Please sign the petition and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to sign it by Feb. 4, 2012, and help us spread the word about it (if you send a Tweet, please use #saveschoollibraries). We really appreciate your support! To learn more about how you can support school libraries, visithttp://www.ala.org/aasl/aaslissues/toolkits/parentoutreach. Thanks for all that you do to open up the world of reading to young people.
Easy enough right? And how important are those school libraries? Mine was a haven in the midst of all things school. First, it was air conditioned! Very important in Miami. Second, it was quiet. Third, I knew exactly how to behave among the stacks of books waiting to be opened. Everything is clear and orderly in the world of school libraries. You find what you need. Help all young people to access the haven!
We wish you all great reading as we celebrate YALSA's Teen Read Week! "Picture it @ your library" is this year's theme. In keeping with that, we recommend p*tag, the first YA poetry e-reader collection. With 31 poems inspired by 31 images, this work is a perfect fit for this year's TRW.
So check it out. Support a poet. And take a stab at writing to the images yourself.
Oh, and did you see the Teens' Top 10? What do you think?
Okay. 31 poets, 31 images and you have p*tag, 31 poems linked by tagging and repetition. It went like this: wait until you are tagged, pick an image, and then write a poem, using 3 of the words from the previous poet's poem. Ready, set, go! And we were off, under the guidance of Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. This ekphrastic approach to poetry, where poems are inspired by art, fueled the poets fully. While the resulting poetry collection is eclectic, the repeated words give a notable continuity to the stream. There's an organic pulse running from beginning to end as readers witness this captured Art Happening on their e-readers.
Personally, David L. Harrison tagged me, so I was able to read his wonderful poem "Family Reunion at the Beach." Then I was off to choose a photo from Sylvia's posted images given to inspire us. The photo of a crowd, blurred by the camera's movement, caught my eye. It seemed as if spirits were leaving bodies despite the people's focus locked on the stage. I then chose three of David's words from his poem: clasping, future, and eyes, for my own haiku "Crowd." Finally, I tagged the lovely poet, Julie Larios. I would later learn she used my words: trapped, eyes, away.
All other poems were hidden from the participants until the release of p*tag. So it was a delight to download and read the stream, read how images and poems and repeated words created a complete work of art. I love how one poet responded to another, and immediately offered another point of view. You can see this particularly between Julie Larios and Michele Krueger. One writes of rising above, the other finding "peace in place." Stephanie Hemphill's' "In Praise of Luck" lifted my spirit, although I'd call it providence. :~) And oh, the delight to see one I esteem so highly, Lee Bennett Hopkins, write with few words just like me.
So here is a poem a day for the month of October while we celebrate YALSA's Teen Read Week. How perfect for the theme "Picture it @ your library."Download p*tag onto your device. Visit the website to learn more, see photos, and try your own hand at the ekphrastic approach to poetry. Thanks, Janet and Sylvia! *standing ovation*
p*tag
compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
available on e-readers
Oh, man. You guys around the world were INCREDIBLE! It took three divas an entire week to post all the pics that flew in. There may be a few more to go up, still. Can you believe that?
We had readergirlz dropping books all over the United States. We had drops in Japan, India, and England. Rock the Drop was INTERNATIONAL!
So one thing's for sure. We'll be rocking the drop next year for Support Teen Lit Day. Let us know if you have any suggestions for the initiative. Now watch for Micol to announce the winning drop! Coming soon...
Just a quick update on our plans for YALSA's Support Teen Literature Day, April 14th, 2011. You know we have ALWAYS orchestrated Operation Teen Book Drop since we began in 2007. Because this past December we teamed up with First Book in A Novel Gift, and helped with the donation of 125,000 YA novels to underserved teens, we are shaking things up a bit.
This year, we are refining our focus and simply encouraging rgz around the world to drop a YA book in their own community to celebrate Support Teen Lit Day. Why not make this the annual honoring effort? Imagine people around the world finding copies of the best literature in unexpected places, gifted out of love for YA lit. Everyone can participate to raise awareness of the day!
Soon, we'll have a banner for your sites and a bookplate for you to download and glue into your donation. We'll have other fun details as well. Watch for all the upcoming info, and be ready to ROCK THE DROP!
Well, it's March, rgz, and do you know that means it's our 4th birthday? Woohoo! Raise a book and drop a comment in celebration. Share your love!
Looking over the past 4 years, I recall our launch, March 1st, 2007, in honor of Women's History Month. How about our migration from MySpace to Facebook and Blogger and Twitter? I think of great chats like the midnight worldwide extravaganza with Stephenie Meyer, Halloween, 2007. I think of 31 Flavorites where we hosted a different author everyday. I think of celebrations for Teen Read Week, donations of 30,000 books to underserved teens through Operation Teen Book Drop with YALSA and Guys Lit Wire, and the recent A Novel Gift with First Book, driving hundreds to register for 125,000 books. I think of winning the National Book Award for Innovations in Reading and the James Patterson Grant.
I think of great dialog, passionate teens, and those who work to serve them. I think of an amazing crew of ladies who has donated their time to sustain this site.
Here's to YA literature. Here's to you, rgz! Happy 4th birthday!
We invite you to tell us about your favorite books, chat with October featured author, Laini Taylor, about love and goblins, and tell us who you'd love to see featured on the readergirlz blog.
Want to find out more about YALSA's Teen Read Week? Check out the wiki here, and contact your local library for events in your area!
Looking for a Book with Beat to read?
More than 11,000 teens voted on the top ten reads in 2009. Check out the winners of the Teens' Top Ten 2010, to be announced October 18th at 11 a.m. Central!
Many hands devoted themselves to helping readergirlz get books into the hands of Native teens living on tribal lands: GuysLitWire, YALSA, If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything, publishers, and the many librarians, teachers, and champions of YA and Native teens who helped us make this project a reality!
Welcome to the TBD 2010, Post-Op Party! Did you Rock the Drop? Did you hit the TBD Wish Lists? Then join us here at the top of the hour.
And if you weren't able to drop a YA book in your community with 100 authors across the country, jump into the conversations anyway and celebrate the 10,000 new books donated by our beloved publishers. Today in honor of Support Teen Literature Day, those books fell into the hands of teens on tribal lands.
Ok, other than the books (which I will get to in a moment)...
Besides stalking the HarperCollins booth for a glimpse of TELL ME A SECRET advance copies (!!!), I teamed up with Loriene Roy of If I Can Read, I Can Do Anything, an organization devoted to the literacy of Native teens and children, to talk about readergirlz/GuysLitWire/YALSA and publisher's third annual Operation Teen Book Drop!
We chatted with several groups of librarians who were working tirelessly in both urban and rural settings, community libraries and school libraries, to bring books into the hands of many teens. These people are passionate and dedicated, and we're really excited to have a chance to work with them. Many thanks, especially to Susan Hanks and Liana Juliano for everything!
And as a side note, LIBRARIANS ARE AWESOME! I knew when I met a bunch of Seattle/King County area librarians in the airport - including Judy Nelson, Angela Nolet, Dave Sonnen, Cecilia McGowan, and lots of others - that the trip was going to be fab (and it was really cool that they wanted my TELL ME A SECRET bookmarks - the first to receive them besides my mom!). Then I sat by Nancy Pearl on the way home! (Nancy: the answer to the secret question is..."takeoff decision speed.")
Highlights included meeting YALSA folks and being deemed an honorary YALSA rock star (thanks to Beth Yoke!), hanging out with my peeps at the HarperCollins meeting school/library/account divas Laura and Camilla and editors Tara, Rosemary, Molly,and Sarah - who are all rock stars in my book , seeing copies of TELL ME A SECRET fly off the table (and even signing some - surreal!), catching some of the Best Books for Young Adults panel discussion, especially hearing my editor's work with Jenny Valentine honored for Broken Soup (yay, Catherine!), and being present for the 2010 Youth Media Awards!!!! (Hooray for all of the very deserving winners, especially Libba Bray, Tanita Davis, L.K. Maddigan, Grace Lin, Jerry Pinkney, Tanya Lee Stone, and others!)
At the Kidlit/YA Tweetup organized by Mitali Perkins and Deborah Sloan, I ran into Kate Messner, Dawn Metcalf, Edith Cohn, Mitali Dave, Marissa Doyle, Ann Haywood Leal, Jennifer Rummel, EgmontGal, HipWriterMama, and so many others! Here are a few pics (my camera takes terrible inside shots, so I include credits...):
And here's one the inimitable Mitali Perkins and Vivian Mahoney (HipWriterMama!) after meeting Vivian in person for the first time, after working together on readergirlz for years!
I stayed with friends Kasson and Kathryn in Boston, who not only fed me, housed me, and even turned up their heat for me, but they carted me to and from the T-station so that I wouldn't get lost in the big (well, bigger) city. Then there was new music from Kasson and knitting wonders from Kathryn. Thanks, K&K! Here's my favorite thing I spotted in their house:
Plus some envy-worthy art from Etsy:
Now...on to the book stack. Here, let's look at them one more time and drool:
The publishers at ALA were exceedingly generous to us YA book groupies, and I picked up copies of (in order of the stack, release month in parentheses):
The Heart is Not a Size, by Beth Kephart (4/10) Stranded, by J.T. Dutton (6/10) Borderline, by Allan Stratton (3/10) Very LeFreak, by Rachel Cohn (1/10) The Timekeeper's Moon, by Joni Sensel (3/10) Captivate, by Carrie Jones (1/10 - see her Story Secrets!) Life As We Knew It/The Dead & The Gone/This World We Live In, by Susan Beth Pfeffer (3rd book in 4/10) Tangled, by Carolyn Mackler (1/10) Before I Fall, by Lauren Oliver (3/10) Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green & David Levithan (4/10) Illyria, by Elizabeth Hand (5/10) Happyface, by Stephen Emond (3/10)
And a couple of copies of Tell Me a Secret for upcoming blog giveaways! What a weekend!
Thanks also to 
And with 
Plus a couple from the 
