10 Year Celebration and a Fond Farewell

Dearest readergirlz,

When we began this nonprofit organization ten years ago, readers in all demographics did not have access to authors. This access was our aim, our mission. The founders of readergirlz were driven to make those connections around the world. And we did.

Beginning in Myspace, traveling to Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter, readers connected directly with young adult authors. One such memory: midnight, October 31, 2008, readers around the world chatted with Stephenie Meyer, and we sat back with glee. Whether a best seller or not, we brought  diverse books to the spotlight, including the quiet and profound, such as No Laughter Here.

Our second passion over the ten years has been to get books into the hands of underserved teens. Readergirlz dropped hundreds of thousands of books to teens in hospitals and on Tribal Lands with the help of amazing partners like YALSA, First Book, and If I Can Read I Can Do Anything. Around the world, readergirlz celebrated Support Teen Lit Day and Teen Read Week by leaving young adult books in public places to be found by other readers. Operation Teen Book Drop and #RocktheDrop brought joy to many.

Our motto has been: Read, Reflect, and Reach Out. We have done that together. At our busiest, there were 30 volunteers from across the industry giving their time to books that featured gutsy girls and to the gutsy readers themselves. Librarians, teachers, booksellers, bloggers, and authors gave generously. Our funding was from our own pockets, libraries and schools who generously donated, and award money we garnered from The James Patterson PageTurner Award and The National Book Foundation's Innovation in Learning Prize. We never sold ad space to remain unbiased in bringing the best literature forward to you.

In ten years, we have seen girls graduate high school, enter the workforce, go to college, pursue master's degrees, marry, and have children. Together, we mourned the passing of one of our dearest. We miss her still.

Readergirlz, you have encouraged one another and motivated authors to keep writing. Some of you have grown to become writers yourselves. And we are so happy for you! You are gutsy women, strong citizens, and it is an honor walk beside you.

In light of the ease and accessibility today to find, follow, and enjoy connections between authors and readers, the co-founders, divas, and support team are returning to their own work fully, ending readergirlz. Many former contributors will continue to write the very best books for the very best readers, young adults. The readergirlz website will be active through the end of 2017. The blog is complete, archiving our past, and it will remain accessible but not active.

As an aside, I, Lorie Ann Grover, will keep the readergirlz facebook page open as I love occasionally sharing what crosses my desk and having a touch point with you in the future.

So, raise a book, to what we created together, rgz. It has been an honor to read together, reflect together, and reach out together. I speak for all who worked in our organization over the 10 years: we love you so, and we will see you soon. In person or on page.

<3 Lorie Ann Grover

with Justina Chen, Janet Lee Carey, Dia Calhoun, Little Willow, Holly Cupala, Martha Brockenbrough, Micol Ostow, Melissa Walker, Mitali Perkins, Liz Gallagher, Elizabeth Scott, Sara Easterly, Jackie Parker-Robinson, Hipwritermama, Miss Erin, ShelfElf, Jen, Kat Ogden, Bethany Hegadus, Crissa Jean Chappell, Stephanie Guerra, Rene Kirkpatrick, Judy Nelson, Sharon Levin, Lyn Miller-Lachmann, Professor Nana, Priya, Silence is Golden, Vanessa, Sarah, Enna Isalee, Jacqueline, Olivia, Alex, Marlena, Taylor, Vampire, and Nancy Pearl

Picture This, How Pictures Work: Molly Bang

Calling all design students, illustrators, or those who want to understand more about visual composition. Chronicle Books released a revised and expanded 25th Anniversary Edition of Molly Bang's Picture This, How Pictures Work.

Brian Selznick calls the work, "the Strunk and White of visual literacy." Leonard S. Marcus calls it, "a peerless handbook and guide for anyone who wishes to make picture books."

Molly's book grew organically out of her quest to understand picture structure. She first tested the concepts successfully with 8th and 9th graders and then adults. With input from Rudolf Arnheim, the dean of the psychology of art in the United States, the book took its illuminating final form.

Dive into this perfect work and see the connection between shapes and emotions. You'll be ready to build the emotional content of your own imagery with a book you will reach for again and again.

Picture This, How Pictures Work
by Molly Bang
Chronicle Books, 2016

Diva Delight: Hidden Figures

If you get a chance to see the movie, follow up with the book: Hidden Figures. Or if you miss the movie, be sure to grab the adult nonfiction or young reader's edition and get to know these gutsy women mathematicians: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden.

"The contributions made by these African-American women have never been heralded, but they deserve to be remembered--and not as a side note in someone else's account, but as the center of their own story. These women should be celebrated not just because they are black or because they are women, but because they are an important part of American history."

So ends Margot Lee Shetterly's prologue in the Young Readers' Edition. Be ready to be inspired by intelligent women who strode through the Cold War, the Civil Rights fight, the Space Race, and the fight for Women's Rights. These women increased airplane production in wartime and helped the US into space. There is so much, readergirlz. Read, reflect, and reach out. Girls love reading...and math.


Hidden Figures
Hidden Figures Young Readers' Edition
by Margo Lee Shetterly
HarperCollins

Diva Delight: Hideous Love and Wicked Girls

Did you get a chance to read these two beauties from Stephanie Hemphill, readergirlz? From Mary Shelley to the girls involved in the Salem witch trials, you'll be in the thick of characters longing to be esteemed and loved.

Both are novels-in-verse, with delicious poetic language. Get ready to sink into the settings and hold your breath at the turning points.

Here is what Booklist said about Hideous Love:

Few stories-behind-the-story get retold as much as the writing of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but the ever-reliable free-verse poet Hemphill, author of the Printz Honor Book Your Own, Sylvia (2007), manages to plumb from it her own vein of riches. For starters, Hemphill does not obsess upon the novel, instead letting it rest as a distant metaphor. Instead, she tracks Mary’s young life—and a tumultuous life it is, as she suffers multiple dead children, affairs, suicides, and deaths. First and foremost, this is a chronicle of Mary’s stormy long affair with the married poet Percy Shelley as they, often with the infamous Lord Byron and Mary’s jealous stepsister Claire in tow, outrun scandal across Europe. The girlish accessibility of the prose subtly transforms to something darker and more mature, with Hemphill’s restraint her finest quality, whether speaking about art or sex or death: “We both know / that sorrow cannot be measured / by the size of a little one’s shoe.” This is, as intended, an ideal companion piece for teens studying the original classic. Grades 7-12. --Daniel Kraus

Booklist also gave Wicked Girls a Starred Review. You don't want to miss any works from this Printz Honor Winner. Finish up your vacation with a novel-in-verse from Stephanie Hemphill!

Hideous Love
Wicked Girls
by Stephanie Hemphill
Balzer & Bray

Holiday Fun: Guilty as Charged!

Here's a step away from the usual at rgz for the holiday season. Guilty as Charged! the Party Game of Pointing Fingers offers fun exchanges for friend and family gatherings. After reading a topic card asking such as, Who's most likely to:
,
Compliment a complete stranger on their moustache
Alphabetize their book collection
Take the last piece of pizza,

everyone in the group uses a pointer to reveal their answer. When we played, there was laughter, denial, and groans of agreement in our family. If you are looking for that last minute gift or searching for the perfect party spice, add this from Chronicle Books. You'll be amazed how others perceive you. It may be something to write about...

Guilty as Charged!
Chronicle Books

Celtic Tales: Kate Forrester

Everything about Celtic Tales, Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Wales calls to be held, read, and visually absorbed. The design is simple but beautiful. Kate Forrester's imagery is beguiling. I've awaited this release with images from the catalog taped to my wall. In the sophisticated art, there's a refined simplicity. The Celtic tales themselves are fresh and surprising.

This is a beautiful pick to gift someone for the holidays. Just be aware:

"Do not think the fairies are always little.

Everything is capricious about them, even their size...

Their chief occupations are feasting, fighting, and making

love, and playing the most beautiful music."

~William Butler Yeats, Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry.

Celtic Tales
illustrated by Kate Forrester
Chronicle Books, 2016

Famous Friends: Jennifer Castle and Bill Spring

In the spirit of celebrating friendship, check out Famous Friends by Jennifer Castle and Bill Spring. The cover doesn't do justice to the breadth of the text. From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, and John Lennon to Paul McCartney, the little features and anecdotes are delicious. I found myself smiling over the bromance between Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. So fun and dear. Kindred spirits finding each other on our planet should be treasured. Go through a trove in Famous Friends. Too much fun. Yay for Marilyn Monroe and Ella Fitzgerald. I mean, seriously! #beautyallaround

Famous Friends
by Jennifer Castle and Bill Spring
Scholastic, 2014

#andnowwewrite

Over on the readergirlz facebook page, we are sharing the thoughts of YA writers and industry professionals post U.S. election, 2016. Feel free to add your views as well. #wethepeople #inked #andnowwewrite #love.

Onward, rgz. Read, reflect, and reach out! ~Lorie Ann Grover

Comics Confidential: Leonard S. Marcus

I've only popped open this exquisite work and already have quotes to share:

"Art-making at its best is a confrontation with the mysterious and the irrational. If we listen to the people concerned mainly with classification or marketing, we end up not making honest and true works of art, but only product, rubber-stamped and made to fit into a prefab box that might as well be a casket." David Small

"Without quite realizing it, these indie artists and writers had invented a new art form--a new kind of book for which people at first did not have a name. By the early 2000s, the books were everywhere." Leonard S. Marcus

Whether you call them graphic novels or comics, the current creators are a force in the publishing industry. Comics Confidential, Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box, compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus, is a documentary treasure of the creative contribution from thirteen viewpoints. Each interview includes a comic and sketches or manuscript pages about "the city." Those nest among personal stories of out of the box artists, including Harry Bliss, Hope Larson, and Sara Varon.

Thank you, Leonard, for stopping and sharing so beautifully the backstories, practices, and thoughts of this group. And thanks, Candlewick Press!


Comics Confidential
Thirteen graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box
compiled and edited by Leonard S. Marcus
Candlewick Press, 2016

~Lorie Ann Grover

The Ghosts of Heaven: Marcus Sedgwick

Master storyteller Marcus Sedgwick winds four separate tales along a connecting spiral shape. Twirling from prehistory into the future, characters face the symbol of life that "copies itself and builds on itself, forever."

A girl in a cave with a charred stick, an accused woman plunged below water, a poet in a sanitarium, and an astronaut turning in a spiral in space all find the stair to climb higher and higher, while they remember the past and reach forward into the future.

Marcus' woven stories turn the reader round and round, yet he leaves them before the light of wet grass, an apple tree, and love. If you didn't cross paths with The Ghosts of Heaven last year, readergirlz, find it and turn, turn, turn.

The Ghosts of Heaven
by Marcus Sedgwick
Roaring Brook Press, 2015

All We Have is Now: Lisa Schroeder

My most recent read is All We Have is Now by Lisa Schroeder. With the end of the world quickly approaching, how would you spend your last hours? What if you were a homeless teen, what choices would you make?

Lisa explores the value of now and the gift of kindness. A diverse group of characters is met and wishes are fulfilled as humanity explores compassion when all is to be lost in moments.

Thought provoking and hopeful, be kind to yourself and read All We Have is Now, rgz. A great follow-up movie would be Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.



All We Have is Now
by Lisa Schroeder
Point, Scholastic, 2015

Memory of Light: Francisco X. Stork

Just finished The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork. The exploration of depression is honest and may give words as well as hope to those within the condition. Learning to exist in the midst of the trial is displayed with a tender compassion.

Watch for Vicky's story of crisis and recovery. It may help you find your own memory of light or assist another along the path beside you.

The Memory of Light
by Francisco X. Stork
Arthur A. Levine Books, Scholastic, 2016
Edited by Cheryl Klein

This is the Story of You: Beth Kephart

Each Beth Kephart book which sails onto the shelf is like polished sea glass refracting the light of truth. This is the Story of You is a poetic rendering of loss and isolation after an epic storm. Mira is asked if she is strong enough to stand on her small, destroyed island and help the community that has shaped her every heartbeat. With her mother and brother off-island, she finds her family is broader than she ever expected.

Find the work, readergirlz, and listen to Beth's love of the sea. Draw your mind in directions unexpected, and finish the last page with the sound of the ocean and one girl's resilience shoring you up in your own story of you.

This is the Story of You
by Beth Kephart
Chronicle Books, 2016

Dan vs. Nature: Don Calame

With this on the cover: "An outrageously funny and wickedly raunchy romp in the woods," how could I NOT crack the book open? Dan vs. Nature delivers. Author Don Calame caught me from the first line and kept me beside Dan the entire way. I was laughing out loud through the 375 pages. Seriously.

Dan sets out on a wilderness adventure with his future stepfather and his best friend. The mission, apart from survival, is for the teens to stop Dan's mother's upcoming marriage. Matters are complicated by Dan's assignment to care for the Life Skills class baby doll along the journey and the addition of a geektastic hot girl being added to the group. From bears to bugs to lightning storms, the group is tested and tried. The male author carefully unwraps the emotional journey of one boy recovering from abandonment by his father, hit by hilarious physical trials, amidst a group of hard-earned friendships.

I zipped through this work, rgz, laughing and thinking of who to loan it to next. Find it. Laugh. And look for more by Calame. Well done!

Dan vs. Nature
by Don Calame
Candlewick Press, 2016

What book did you start with in 2016?

Happy new year, rgz! Sending our love and wishes for many great books to fall into your hands.

I started 2016 off with:



How about you?

Diva Delight: Secret Garden and Christmas to Color

We are all coloring our heads off this holiday season. Check out these two beauties!



The first is Secret Garden, Artist's Edition, by Johanna Basford. There are 20 drawings to remove, color, and frame. The paper is heavy stock, and you are going to love the imagery collected from her two previous works, Secret Garden and Enchanted Forest. These images were considered the most popular and the larger format awaits your color. Laurence King creates such exquisite works for readers.





This beautiful coloring is from YATOPIA.



The second is Christmas to Color from HarperCollins by Mary Tanana. This one has imagery on both sides of the pages. The holiday theme makes it perfect to leave out on the coffee table for any in the mood to relieve a little stress and express themselves. I had guests coloring during Thanksgiving. Such a fun way to bring together family and friends.

   

Find your fancy and crack open your Crayolas this holiday season!                                                      

Secret Garden, Artist's Edition
By Johanna Basford
Laurence King, 2015

Christmas to Color
By Mary Tanana
HarperCollins, 2015

#GiveBooks

So many publishers are participating, rgz! Just hashtag #GiveBooks and publishers are matching the mention with donations to #FirstBook. Isn't that amazing? So well done!

Here's the link to make it super easy if you want to hit your multiple sites.

#ReadReflectReachOut

Happy holidays!

Diva Delight: Dead End in Norvelt

We don't often feature books with central male protags, but this one from Jack Gantos also has a fierce senior female, Miss Volker, in the spotlight. And we don't regularly recommend middle grade novels. Yet, why not read outside YA? Isn't it the story that matters, not the age of the main character? Did you read, Dead End in Norvelt? You don't want to miss it. I was literally laughing out loud as I relished each page. I had to read passages to my family which in turn got us all giggling.

Blending truth and fiction, Jack Gantos writes of Jackie who spends the summer helping Miss Volker write the town's obituaries. The original citizens are passing quickly from the scene, even a bit suspiciously. The work brims with memorable characters living and dying in 1962.

The book won the Newbery in 2012 and the Scott O'Dell for Historical Fiction. Here are a few reviews:

A bit of autobiography works its way into all of Gantos’s work, but he one-ups himself in this wildly entertaining meld of truth and fiction by naming the main character . . . Jackie Gantos.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A fast-paced and witty read.” —School Library Journal

“A more quietly (but still absurdly) funny and insightful account of a kid’s growth, kin to Gantos’s Jack stories, that will stealthily hook even resistant readers into the lure of history.” —BCCB

“This winning novel, both humorous and heartwarming, takes place during the summer of 1962, when narrator Jack Gantos turns 12 and spends most of his days grounded. Jack’s main ‘get out of jail free card,’ and one of the novel’s most charming characters, is Miss Volker. The blossoming of their friendship coincides with the blooming of Jack’s character.” —Shelf Awareness Pro

* “There’s more than laugh-out-loud gothic comedy here. This is a richly layered semi-autobiographical tale, an ode to a time and place, to history and the power of reading.” —The Horn Book, starred review
“Gantos, as always, deliver
rs bushels of food for thought and plenty of outright guffaws.” —Booklist

* “An exhilarating summer marked by death, gore and fire sparks deep thoughts in a small-town lad not uncoincidentally named ‘Jack Gantos.’ The gore is all Jack’s, which to his continuing embarrassment ‘would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames’ whenever anything exciting or upsetting happens. And that would be on every other page, seemingly. . . . Characteristically provocative gothic comedy, with sublime undertones.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Find this funny, poignant book, rgz, and get ready to laugh.

Dead End in Norvelt
By Jack Gantos
Square Fish, paperback

The One Child Policy: Firstborn and The Only Child

From the collection of Gendercide Posters on Polyvore 
by Lorie Ann Grover

At the close of October, China announced an end to their One Child Policy. According to the New York Times, Chris Buckley, October 29, 2015:

BEIJING — Driven by fears that an aging population could jeopardize China’s economic ascent, the Communist Party leadership ended its decades-old “one child” policy on Thursday, announcing that all married couples would be allowed to have two children.

The decision was a dramatic step away from a core Communist Party position that Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who imposed the policy in the late 1970s, once said was needed to ensure that “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth.”

For China’s leaders, the controls were a triumphant demonstration of the party’s capacity to reshape even the most intimate dimensions of citizens’ lives. But they bred intense resentment over the brutal intrusions involved, including forced abortions and crippling fines, especially in the countryside.

The efforts to limit family size also led to a skewed sex ratio of males to females, because traditional rural families favor boys over girls, sometimes even resorting to infanticide to ensure they have a son.

The One Child Policy is what motivated my writing of Firstborn. I was appalled that the practice of gendercide was still occurring in many countries around the world. The book was welcomed with a starred review from Kirkus and is now available in paperback.



Another book recently came across my desk: The Only Child, by Guojing. An illustrator from the Shanxi Province of China, she brings to the page her own memories of isolation in a wordless, graphic picture book. With starred reviews from Kirkus and PW, the book is resonating the loneliness that grew from China's earlier legislation. The black and white artwork is beautiful and captivating.



According to the Author's Note:

"The story in this book is fantasy, but it reflects the very real feelings of isolation and loneliness I experienced growing up in the 1980s under the one-child policy in China."

In celebration, we applaud the reform in China. If you'd like to make an impact, readergirlz, there are organizations dedicated to helping women carry their daughters to full term. One Christian organization is All Girls Allowed. Of course, there are many ways to #ReadReflectandReachout if you hold a different persuasion. The It's a Girl movie will do much to help you understand the worldwide situation.

As I sign copies of Firstborn, "Let them live!"

Firstborn
By Lorie Ann Grover
Blink YA Books, 2015

The Only Child
By Guojing
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2015

The Last Day of October: Breast Cancer Awareness Month

As you maybe get dressed up for a party tonight, remember it's the last day of the month we've raised awareness for breast cancer. Hopefully, we've celebrated those who were blessed to recover and remembered those who have passed from the disease.

This was always my intent with the publication of Loose Threads thirteen years ago. I caught the characters in my life, particularly my grandmother, Margie Garber, and her walk with the disease.

I'm thankful that today a book can continue to reach the right readers through e-books and print-on-demand.

Here's to compassion and assistance for those in treatment right now, readergirlz. May books be used as comforts on their journeys, and may they renew those who love and support them.