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!
Operation Teen Book Drop keeps rolling on, rgz! Shout out to Maureen Kearney with the Pima County Public Library in Tucson who just finished a month-long Teen Book Drop drive. Over 250 books were donated from 9 branches! Woohoo! Here's Maureen loading boxes:
The books are being sent to the Dr. Fernando Escalante Community Library and Resource Center on the Pascua Yaqui reservation, and the Venito Garcia Library, which serves the Tohono O’odham nation in Sells, AZ.
Let's give a cheer for the success of the TBD Wish List! I heard from Colleen at Guys Lit Wire that ALL 772 BOOKS WERE PURCHASED! A total sellout, in the very best way. :~)
You all ROCKED THE DROP!
Ojo Ecino Day School and Alchesay High School have new books descending on them daily now as Powell's delivers.
Here's to Colleen who built and maintained those lists and twittered her fingers off. Here's to Guys Lit Wire and the special help of extra tweets from celebs like Neil Gaiman. And here's to you. Many of you were able to buy multiple copies.
If you have any suggestions for next time around, leave them in the comments for us! Otherwise, do a little dance, rgz!
I just saw this in the comments and wanted to be sure you all saw it. WAY TO GO, KATHLEEN DUEY! Read this Rock the Drop story by the National Book Award Finalist:
"I left three books in various places in San Antonio TX--where I was attending an amazing library conference. On the way home, there was a young man in the airport crying. I sat near (not by) him and when he glanced up, I asked if there was anything I could do to help.
His answer: "Make this deployment go by fast." I put out my hand and he gripped it hard for a few minutes, then wiped his face and pulled in a long breath. Then he sat up straight and we talked a little. I saw a book poking out of his travel bag. He said it was "dark stuff, kind of like twilight, but not." So I asked him if he would accept a gift from me and I signed my last copy of Skin Hunger for him. He is in Iraq by now. He is 19. Send him and everyone else in the war zones good thoughts. Please."
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.
To celebrate Support Teen Literature Day, join the TBD 2010Post-Op Party, rgz! Tell us how you rocked the drop!
* Do you have a photo of your book left in your community to upload into the chat? * Are you one of the participating 100 YA authors dropping their own works in teen hot spots? * Did you support the TBD Wish Lists over at Powell's which are adding hundreds of books to two tribal libraries? * Or do you just want to hang out and share how you heart YA lit?
YALSA, GuysLitWire, If I Can Read I Can Do Anything and rgz just finished dropping over 10,000 publisher-donated books into the hands of teens on Native American tribal lands across the country. We are ready to partaaaay!
*squeeeee* You guys are doing GREAT! Over 100 books purchased at the TBD Wish List in 24 hours! You have Guys Lit Wire running around over there. Way to go, ladies! The books are dropping on Ojo Encino and Alchesay High School, adding to their tribal school libraries.
Colleen has constructed amazing lists and a beautiful post at Guys Lit Wire, so be sure to check it out if you haven't yet. Here are the photos she chose to share from American Youth. Beautiful.
And here are her speedy instructions for purchase:
"First, hit the Powells site and on the upper right click on "wish list". From there you will be prompted for the email address of the list owner. Type in "guyslitwire@gmail.com". You will then be given the choice to select either Ojo Encino or Alchesay. Once you are looking at the lists (which contain hundreds of titles) you can make your selection of a new, used, or sale copy. After your done and ready to make your purchase you will be asked to confirm that you are buying books for a certain wishlist. Checking those boxes will keep the lists up to date and prevent books from appearing as unsold even after they were purchased. Now all you have to do is enter the mailing addresses, and here they are:
Mary Nickless Ojo Encino Day School Librarian HCR 79 Box 7 Cuba, NM 87013 (505) 731-2333
Marilyn Hill Alchesay High School 200 Falcon Way Whiteriver, AZ 85941 928-338-4848"
So there you go. Read, reflect, and reach out for TBD 2010, rgz!
Did you know rgz is a nonprofit organization? Yep. But if you want to help support Operation Teen Book Drop, check out these items that will spread the news.
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!
And with 
Plus a couple from the 
