It’s YA lucky day! It’s Teen Thursday!
Where we bring you YA news from around the globe and highlights from the
BookPeople Teen Press Corps blog! Don’t forget to check out the blog for new reviews,
event reports, and other teen news!
Texas Teen Book Fest 2015 News!
It’s that time of year again – time to gear up for the Texas Teen Book Festival! The announcements of the awesome authors attending the 2015 festival are starting to come out. Here is the latest:
Jennifer Lynn Barnes is returning to TTBF again this year. We are super excited to hear all about the most recent book in her Naturals series!
This week also saw the announcement of author Maria E. Andreu joining the program! Check out her latest book, The Secret Side of Empty, which is fiction based on her own personal experiences.
To start planning your visit, information about attending this year’s festival is up, and you can keep it tuned here for author line up & programming announcements.
DEADLINE APPROACHING!! All you writers – don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity!
New for this year, is a fiction writing contest sponsored by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books. You know Delacorte as the publisher of Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands & Teeth), James Dashner (The Maze Runner), Matt De La Pena (The Hunted), Ann Brashares (The Here and Now), Frank Portman (King Dork), and Libba Bray (Going Bovine). Delacorte’s got YA chops, to be sure. There is a deadline – July 1! – so be sure to check out all the rules and entry form. Good luck and happy writing!
Are you excited yet?? You should be!!
Get the news first by following TTBF online:
http://texasteenbookfestival.org/
#TTBF15
@TXTEENBOOKFEST
Facebook
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Texas Teen Book Festival (formerly the Austin Teen Book Festival) happens on Saturday, September 26, 2015 on the campus of St. Edward’s University. This event – and parking – is free and open to the public.
Summer Reading!
In case you didn’t know about it, the BookPeople summer reading program is open to all readers going into K-8th grades. Each grade level has a list of six recommended books to read. To participate, all you have to do is come to the store and pick up the bookmark for your age group, read all six of the recommended books, or three of the recommended books plus three books of your own choice. You can read all the details here.
For teens going into grades 6-8, we recommend –
Every Day by David Levithan
The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosain
Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
Why not combine your summer required reading for school with these books? After you’ve read six books, bring the completed bookmark back to the store and we’ll exchange it for a $5 BookPeople gift certificate. Easy peasy.
June Buzz Book Review!
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
Teen Press Coprs reporter, Aurora, reviews this month’s buzz book.
More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera is pretty interesting. It’s not one of those ideal fantasy world stories and I kind of like that. These kids go through real world problems and issues. They’re not rich, not the smartest, not perfect. This book does have a bit of a futuristic element, but still set in present day. There is this thing called Leteo, a procedure to make you forget things. Obviously, it’s not something that really exists, but what if it did? This is the story of a boy named Aaron and his life in a world where Leteo is real.
Here’s the rest of Aurora’s review.
From the Blog!
In addition to Aurora’s review of More Happy Than Not, the Teen Press Coprs has been busy reviewing books. Here’s a peek at what they’ve been up to –
Monday was National Best Friends Day. The TPC picked fictional characters they would like to be friends with IRL. Hermione is of course on the list – who wouldn’t want to be friends with her? – as well as some that may not be as obvious. Check it out!
Xander reviews When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds.
Jason Reynolds. JA-SON REY-NOLDS. *claps* This book, guys. I stayed up past midnight listening to the audiobook; once I started, I couldn’t stop. This book has heart, it has a voice it’s so REAL and tangible and you could tell it’s close to Jason’s heart. He put parts of himself in this book, he wrote it with love and created the characters and made them real, so real.
Aurora reviews Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles.
Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles is a book about finding yourself. All of the teens (and one adult) are in hard places in their life. They don’t fit in or they have issues at home. Either way, most of them think that life is just on repeat and they’re doing the same thing over and over. Something happens to each of them to make them realize that it’s not.
Haley reviews Popular: How a Geek in Pearls Discovered the Secret to Confidence by Maya Van Wagenen.
This book is amazing for, like, a kabillion reasons, but my main obsession with Popular is how realistic it is. Maya doesn’t sugarcoat her story. She makes friends and loses some. She gets bullied, but she also stands up for herself. Maya does a complete 180 — not only in her social status, but also in her self-confidence level. But it’s not all rain clouds and sad puppy dogs. Maya is hilarious! Her comments on the school social system are so spot on (you would think she actually attends my school), and her popularity tips are geek gold.
Upcoming YA Events!
Fun upcoming events of YA interest this summer. Mark your calendar and join us and these authors!
TOMORROW! Friday, June 12 at 7PM
Chandler Baker, author of Alive, a romantic, supernatural thriller about a girl who gets a heart transplant and unexplained things start to happen to her.
THIS WEEKEND! Saturday, June 13 at 4PM
Grand Dame of YA and chapter books, Judy Blume is coming to BookPeople! BUT – please note, she is NOT here to promote a new children’s or YA book. She’s going to be speaking about and signing her new ADULT novel, In the Unlikely Event. Find out more about this event here.
THIS WEEKEND! Sunday, June 14 at 2PM
Tera Lynn Childs & Tracy Deebs, authors of Powerless, a new romantic thriller that blurs the lines between superheros and supervillians. Check out the just released book trailer!
Monday, July 13 at 7PM
Chris Colfer of Glee fame is a middle-grade author. Even though his books are a little younger than YA, some of you might be interested in meeting him and getting his new book, The Land of Stories, Book 4: Beyond the Kingdoms. He won’t be signing any Glee or other memorabilia. Check out the event details and rules here.
Friday, July 17 at 7PM
Mary E. Pearson, author of The Heart of Betrayal, the second book in The Remnant Chronicles. Princess Lia is a captive in the hostile kingdom of Venda, where she, Rafe, and Kaden, have a complicated and uneasy relationship with the Komizar, the unpredictable and sly ruler of Venda.
Tuesday, July 28 at 7PM
Ernest Kline, author of Ready Player One and his new book Armada. While both these books are published for adults, but we know you – our teen customers – love Ready Player One, too!
News from Hollywood!
John Green, Cara Delevingne, and Nat Wolff want to come to Texas! Okay, so maybe they didn’t explicitly say they want to come to Texas, but if enough of us vote, they just might have to make the trip to the Lone Star State. The Paper Towns movie tour will include a visit to the state that wins the fan vote. John explains it much better than I do, so watch the video below or got to the movie tour website for all the details.
A number of us on staff really enjoyed the science fiction survival story that is The Martian by Andy Weir. 
It is a very entertaining and fun read (a good pick for summer reading!), so it’s no wonder Hollywood gobbled it up. Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator) is the director, and Matt Damon plays the main character, Mark Watney. An all-star cast backs him up. The first official trailer of this highly anticipated movie was just released.
And finally, we get the first official trailer for Mockingjay Part 2!!!! We love Katniss.
Be sure to check out more reviews from our amazing Teen Press Corps as well as this week’s new releases over on the Teen Press Corps blog!
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