Author Jason Edwards (center) with two speed dating attendees.
Ding! With the peal of a bell, 21 children’s and YA authors started to spread the love about their books, chatting eagerly to tables full of enthusiastic librarians. The venue? It was the American Association of Publishers’ Children’s Library Marketing Committee Speed Dating event, taking place on June 28 at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas.
Now, before you get too excited, this wasn’t a dating event in the literal sense (as far as I know). Rather, each author had just three and a half minutes to tell attendees all about their upcoming or recently published books. Attendees could also pose questions to the authors, roaming (quickly) from table to table in this fun, quirky event that was thoroughly enjoyed by all in attendance.
The authors in attendance included:
Adi Alsaid, Let’s Get Lost (Harlequin Teen, July 2014)
Ken Baker, How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love (Running Pr., 2014)
Author Greg Pilozzi during his three-and-a-half minute spiel about his book ‘Number One Sam.’
Joan Bauer, Tell Me (Viking, September 2014,)
Suzanne and Melanie Brockmann, Night Sky (Ballantine, October 2014)
Nancy J. Cavanaugh, Always, Abigail (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, October 2014,)
Jason Edwards, Chronicles of the Monster Detective Agency:Initiations (Rogue Bear Pr., 2014)
Sara Farizan, If You Could Be Mine & Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel (Algonquin, October 2014)
Alan Gratz, The League of Seven (Starscape, August 2014)
Dorothy Hearst, Spirit of the Wolves (December 2014, S. & S.)
A speed dating attendee with author Joan Bauer (right).
P. J. Hoover, Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life (Macmillan, September 2014)
Catherine Linka – A Girl Called Fearless (Macmillan, 2014)
Jenny Lundquist – The Opal Crown (Running Pr., October 2014)
Jonathan Maberry – Fire & Ash (S. & S., 2013)
Elly MacKay – Shadow Chasers (Running Pr., 2014)
Bob Pflugfelder – Nick and Tesla’s Super-Cyborg Gadget Glove (Quirk, October 2014)
Greg Pizzoli – Number One Sam (Hyperion, 2014)
Ami Polonsky – Gracefully Grayson (Hyperion, November 2014)
John Rocco – Blizzard (Hyperion, October 2014)
Kat Spears – Sway (Macmillan, September 2014)
Robin Talley – Lies We Tell Ourselves (Harlequin Teen, September 2014)
Elizabeth Wein – Black Dove, White Raven (Hyperion, February 2015)
‘Science Bob’ Pflugfelder.
When asked why he decided to write his book Let’s Get Lost, debut author Adi Alsaid replied with a smile, ” I’ve always thought of myself as a writer since about 11 years old, when I had to write sentences using vocabulary words in school.” His novel’s main character, Layla, takes a road trip to see the northern lights in Alaska. Told through the eyes and voices of characters she meets along the way, Let’s Get Lost saves Layla’s own voice until the end of the story.
Robin Talley, author of Lies We Tell Ourselves, set her novel in 1959 Virginia, where a black girl sent into an all-white school as an impetus for desegregation falls in love with a white girl. Talley’s parents who told her their stories about going to school in Virginia during the 1950s, served as the inspiration for her book.
Two titles that really caught my ear and eye? Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky and A Girl Called Fearless by Catherine Linka. Grayson Sender, the protagonist of the first title, has a secret, and a question: what if who you are on the outside doesn’t match who you are on the inside? A girl living in a boy’s body, Grayson yearns to break free—but is scared to share her secret. This story of identity, self-acceptance, and friendship for middle graders seemed to really resonate with the attendees at my table.
Authors Ali Alsaid (left) and Ken Baker.
In A Girl Called Fearless, a synthetic hormone in beef has wiped out nearly 50 million American women 10 years earlier, including Avie Reveare’s mother. When the Paternalist Movement starts to protect the remaining young girls, freedom and choice are becoming scarce. And when Avie’s father arranges for her to marry a much older—and richer—gentleman, she is faced with the choice to remain and obey; or to flee to Canada to preserve her freedom.
The highlight of the event came when Theodor Giesel Award-winner Greg Pizzoli, author of Number One Sam, plopped himself into a chair and asked us with a grin, “Can I read you my new story?”
Our answer was a resounding “Yes!” It was the perfect ending to a zany-yet-informative preview event, and my “must read” list expanded with each ding of the bell.
SLJ First Steps columnist Lisa G. Kropp is the youth services coordinator at the Suffolk Cooperative Library System in Bellport, NY.