rgz Newsflash: Congrats to Green and Levithan!

The Children’s Book Council (CBC) announced the winners of the fourth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards. Our congrats to John Green and David Levithan for Teen Choice Book of the Year, Will Grayson, Will Grayson. 


Way to go, guys! 

Love is the Higher Law: The Personal Side of Huge Events

David Levithan's Love is the Higher Law tackles the tough subject of September 11, 2001 in a very personal way—through the lives of three teenagers who happen to live in New York City on that day. Their individual experiences come together to create the picture of a city in crisis, and the compassion that can arise out of unthinkable tragedy.

For those who've read the book: What is it about David's way of telling this story that puts this huge-scale event in a very personal light?

And, what other books have you read that deal with something on a grand scale -- war, a big historical event, etc. -- and also manage to make the characters' stories shine through?

Also, if you were born, where were you that day?

Featured Title: LOVE IS THE HIGHER LAW, by David Levithan

Happy Monday, and happy holiday season, readergirlz! It seems to me that our theme for December, Compassion, is perfectly suited for this time of year, and more than that, this week's featured title, Love Is the Higher Law, is a book that perfectly embodies that theme.

First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

David Levithan has written a novel of loss and grief, but also one of hope and redemption as his characters slowly learn to move forward in their lives, despite being changed forever.



Some readers who come to LITHL may not have actually lived through 9/11, which makes this book important in how it communicates the ways that the powers of kindness and compassion helped New Yorkers -- and those who weren't physically here on that day -- move beyond the terror and incomprehension of the attacks. For those of us who were here, and who recall the aftershocks all too vivdly, Levithan's testament to human generosity feels refreshingly -- and reaffirmingly -- accurate. 


"This, I think, is how people survive: Even when horrible things have been done to us, we can still find gratitude in one another." 


That's a quote from Claire, one of the three protagonists of the novel. Last week, when I put out the question of other examples of compassion in the book, our own divas had this to say: 


There's compassion (and shock, and sympathy, and empathy, and disbelief) in Love is a Higher Law from the beginning. For example, flip through just the first chapter and look at that scene where Marisol grabs Claire's hand. (Little Willow)


I love the Travis show scenes in LITHL... the compassion in a room of strangers. And I just happened to be at that show, too. Extra special! (Melissa)


Do you have your own favorite examples of compassion from LITHL? Or even real-life examples of unexpected compassion from others? We'd love to hear 'em! 

Rgz HOST: David Levithan!

Hello, readergirlz! I hope everyone's having a great weekend.

Here's the highlight of mine: I went to see David Levithan at the Ballard Branch of the Seattle Public Library, in a reading/q&a put together by Secret Garden Books.

There's David reading in a moment I very artistically captured. I like to call it "David with Snow Hat."

He read from Love is the Higher Law and from his story in a new short story collection edited by Michael Cart (I highly recommend anything Michael Cart is involved with; he is probably the foremost expert in the history of YA literature, and a man who knows how to pick 'em!), How Beautiful the Ordinary. LOVE is David's new novel, and a favorite of rgz postergirl Jackie, which is saying a lot because Jackie reads a ton of books. A mountain, even. BEAUTIFUL is one of two collections that David has stories in this fall. The other is Geektastic. The title of BEAUTIFUL comes from David's amazing story in the collection. You readergirlz know that I love to listen to authors read, and it's always a fun time for me, and I always get something out of it, but I have to say: this was a truly above-and-beyond listening experience. Very powerful story.

The crowd was super-wonderful, too, and populated by a bunch of teens, yay! (Also there: rgz own Martha Brockenbrough. Double yay.) Thanks to thoughtful questions, we got to hear that LOVE is David's most autobiographical book to date (it deals with being in NYC on September 11), the story behind how he and Rachel Cohn worked together on Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and their other collaborations (including a forthcoming one with an irresistible premise!), how that was different from how he and John Green worked on the forthcoming Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Lesson: David Levithan is a very busy man, and everything he writes is worth reading.

Did you know that David is also an editor at Scholastic? Executive editorial director of Scholastic Press Fiction, multimedia publishing, and Push, actually. How's that for a title? Chances are, he's edited one of your favorite books.

And, with all of that going on, he still took the time to prefect the Liz-with-Author pose. Aww.

Rgz Street Team: Alex reviews Naomi and Ely's No-Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

The rgz Street Team is a group of teens who bring YA reviews to our blog, led by Postergirl Miss Erin. Find out more.

Today, Alex reviews Naomi and Ely's No-Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (did you guys know this book is slated to be a movie starring Hayden Panettiere?!):

Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List is about a friendship that reaches a breaking point, a girl who likes a guy who likes guys, and college life. Ely and Naomi are best friends who have a “No Kiss List” which is made of up of who they cannot kiss in order to preserve their friendship. When Ely kisses Naomi’s boyfriend, Naomi is furious, not because Ely kissed her boyfriend but because she finally realized that Ely would rather kiss everyone else, but not her. In the end, Naomi finally understands that “gay” is not a choice and that Ely will always love her but as a sister.

This book was AMAZING! I love how it showed more than one side of each story. In life, there is always more than one point of view and it was fascinating to see one event from multiple points of view. It switched from character to character and slowly informed the reader of each character's past and their interests. It revolves around a BFF breakup and reading both Ely's and Naomi's point-of-view made it intense. It really makes one wonder what is going through the minds of others around when they are talking. Perhaps they are feeling the same about an event, perhaps not. One of my favorite lines in the book was said by Gabriel, the nighttime doorman. "Is he brown or yellow, or white, or what?" It appeals to me because I constantly have people asking me "What ARE you?" It also shows rather than states Gabriel's ethnicity and appearance. Books that make you visualize characters and scenes without outright describing them intrigue me.