2011 LA Times Festival of Books

The LA Times Festival of Books is this weekend (April  30th – May 1st)! If you live in the Southern California area this is a wonderful FREE event filled with hundreds of authors, artists, and book lovers! There’s even a children’s book stage (bring your kids) and a YA Stage! Not to mention the plethora [...]

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Teens in Turmoil

Not all teen novels are about popularity and dating, some novels delve into darker themes like death, suicide, and war. In fact, darker issues have become more an more popular in recently published books. Death was on the forefront of the Teens in Turmoil panel at the LA Times Festival of Books where three daring young [...]

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Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Young adult authors Lisi Harrison, Amy Goldman Koss, and Robin Palmer all spoke at the LA Times Festival of Books back in April. Each promoted their current books and shared some insight into writing, teen readers, and their process. The following are a few quick tid-bits from their half-hour panel: Robin Palmer writes books that [...]

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John Green and David Levithan: Co-Writing a Book

Young adult authors John Green (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines) and David Levithan (Boy Meets Boy, Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist) spoke at the LA Times Festival of Books about their experience co-authoring their latest book Will Grayson Will Grayson. This story is about two young men with the same name who meet [...]

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Boys Will Be Boys: Guys Talk YA

What makes a book for boys? How do we get boys to read more? These questions and more were discussed at the LA Times Festival of Books YA panel this past weekend. Authors Ben Esch (Sophomore Undercover), Blake Nelson (Paranoid Park, Gender Bender, Girl), Andrew  Smith (Ghost Medicine), and Allen Zadoff  (Food, Girls, and Other [...]

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Quote of the Week: Heather Brewer

“Vampires are people too. They’ve got their own problems, they just drink blood.” “I don’t believe in happy endings…unless…they have blood.”  – Heather Brewer Heather Brewer is the author of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod vampire book series. She said the above quotes at the 2010 LA Times Festival of Books.

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She’s All That: Writing for Contemporary Girls

Three YA authors came out the LA Times Festival of Books this past weekend to share their point of view on writing for teenage girls. Authors Robin Benway (Audrey Wait Series), Cherry Cheva (Duplikate, and She’s So Money), and Joanna Philbin (The Daughters) had the following to say: How are teens different today than in [...]

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LA Festival of Books YA Line-Up

Every year Los Angeles shows it’s book pride by celebrating the written word in one glorious weekend of book bedazzlement! If you aren’t familiar with this fantastic festival it is the Los Angeles Festival of Books hosted on the UCLA campus. This year the event takes place on the 24th and 25th of April, and [...]

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