The morning began with Michael Cart giving an overview of some of the important social and political events related to LGBTQ issues. Next, Cart and Christine Jenkins presenting a list of all of the books with LGBTQ content from 1969 to 2010. They booktalked many of these, highlighting some trends (resolution by automobile crash, melodrama, impossibly good looking gay men and the women who love them), the breakthrough books, and the real dingers. It was like being back in library school, taking a class on LGBTQ YA Lit, but it was compressed. If you want to spend more time with these books and these issues, check out Cart and Jenkins’ book from Scarecrow Press, The Heart Has It’s Reasons.

If you get your hands on their bibliography and were not in attendance, please note that this is not a list of recommended books. Some are good and some are not so good. During introductions, we each chose books from the list to highlight. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and Levithan got the most nods, along with the graphic novel Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki. Please add your own recommendations in the comments. (more…)

Albuquerque is beautiful this weekend! Join us in this space for the liveblog Saturday, November 6th at 8:30 Mountain Time of “Beyond Titillation: Sexuality and the Young Adult Novel” presented by Jason Kurtz, Dr. Nicholle Schuelke, and Jamie Kallio.
You can see the recorded liveblog

Meet Them Where They Are and Open the  Door: Urban Teens, Street Lit, and Reader’s Advisory brought together the expertise of Megan Honig of New York Public Library, Beth Saxton of Cleveland Public Library, and Sofia Quintero, author of the YA novel Efraim’s Secret (Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2010).

Presenters Honig and Saxton demanded participants think critically about the definitions of “urban” and “street lit,” as well as admit, on paper, their biases, preconceived notions, and reservations about recommending street lit to young adults.  The discussion and reflection segments of this pre-conference proved particularly valuable. (more…)

The YA Lit Symposium is almost here – in just a few days! Are you going? If you are and are not sure which of the fantastic programs to attend, check out the presenter interviews at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

I posted the final interviews today!

The YA Literature Symposium is quickly approaching! Have you registered yet? The list of programs with times is now available.

The featured program this week/today is:

Meet Them Where They Are and Open the Door: Urban Teens, Street Lit, and Reader’s Advisory

Socioeconomically disadvantaged urban teens are often stereotyped as non-readers, reluctant readers, or readers of a single genre. But just as with other teens, urban teens’ reading choices are informed by their needs, interests, and social landscape. In this session, we will discuss factors that contribute to urban teens’ reading choices, demystify the increasingly popular genre of street lit, and demonstrate proven reader’s advisory techniques and programs for connecting urban teens with a variety of books that speak to them. Presenters:  Megan Honig and Beth Saxton

Presenters Megan Honig and Beth Saxton kindly answered my questions.

KH: Can you share one interesting or thought provoking fact from your presentation?
Beth:  There is not a large chain bookstore within the Cleveland city limits, or a bookstore selling a variety of new books for teens.  It would take a teen who lives near downtown at least an hour on the bus to get to the nearest Borders or Barnes & Noble on a good day.  There is a Borders Express at the mall downtown, the same mall that does not allow anyone under 18 without a parent.

KH: Who should come to your presentation?
Megan: Anyone who wants to learn more about why teens are drawn to street lit and how to do reader’s advisory for street lit fans (HINT: respect their reading tastes!!).

Beth: I think we could have called this “Respect the reader”.  I would say anyone who is interested in how to raise reader’s awareness of titles and who wants to get more books into the hands of their teens.

The full interview with Megan and Beth is available at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

The YA Literature Symposium is November 5-7 in Albuquerque, NM. To give everyone a sneak peek into the presentations I be posting portions of interviews with program presenters weekly until the symposium. Full interviews will be available at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

The YA Literature Symposium is quickly approaching! Have you registered yet? The list of programs with times is now available.

The featured program this week/today is:

Beyond Good Intentions and Chicken Soup: Young Adult Literature and Disability Diversity: How Far Have We Come?

Today’s teens are likely to have friends and classmates with disabilities. Young adult literature increasingly reflects the diverse identities found among today’s teens, and scaffolds the social beliefs they hold about people with disabilities, by including positive portrayals of characters with disabilities. Session participants will critically examine how changing social beliefs about disability are reflected in historical through contemporary fiction and nonfiction YA lit and explore methods to promote acceptance of diversity through the genre. Participants will be able to apply this knowledge when selecting and teaching YA lit. Speakers are Dr. Heather Garrison, Dr. Katherine Schneider, and author Terry Trueman.

The interview with Drs. Heather Garrison and Katherine Schneider is available at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

The YA Literature Symposium is November 5-7 in Albuquerque, NM. To give everyone a sneak peek into the presentations I be posting portions of interviews with program presenters weekly until the symposium. Full interviews will be available at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

This week’s featured presenter for the Young Adult Literature Symposium  is Megan Frazer – presenting during the all day preconference On Beyond Stonewall: The Uphill Journey of Young Adult Fiction with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content, 1969-2010.

Here is a portion of the interview with Megan:

KH: Can you share one interesting or thought provoking fact from your presentation?

MF: One issue around LGBTQ lit that some of the other authors and I have been discussing is whether or not these characters need to be role models. Is including a villainous LGBTQ character reflective of reality or just propagating stereotypes? On the flipside, what about making LGBTQ characters too perfect?

KH: Who should come to your presentation?
MF: I hope that this is a topic that everyone is interested in. I am hoping for an open, honest, and illuminating discussion about the topic of LGBTQ lit. In 2009 SLJ did a self-censorship survey (http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6633729.html), and 47% of respondents said they passed on purchasing a book because it dealt with homosexuality. This is a shocking statistic to me. If you are in that 47%, you need to come to this pre-conference.

**The complete interview can be found at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

The YA Literature Symposium is November 5-7 in Albuquerque, NM. To give everyone a sneak peek into the presentations I be posting portions of interviews with program presenters weekly until the symposium. Full interviews will be available at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

This week’s featured program for the Young Adult Literature Symposium  is Commercial Success and Diversity: Are Both Possible, or Are They A Contradiction in Terms?

Presenter Neesha Meminger kindly answered my questions.

KH: Can you share one interesting or thought provoking fact from your presentation?

NM:  According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “There is no single definition of the term ‘multicultural literature’ as it is applied to books for children and young adults. At the CCBC, we use the term to mean books by and about people of color.” And according to their stats, in 2009, out of an estimated 5000 books published for children, less than 5% were authored by people of color.

KH: Who will be presenting with you?

NM:  Cynthea Liu, Paula Chase Hyman, and Alisa Valdes

**The complete interview can be found at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

The YA Literature Symposium is November 5-7 in Albuquerque, NM. To give everyone a sneak peek into the presentations I be posting portions of interviews with program presenters weekly until the symposium. Full interviews will be available at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

It’s a big week for YALSA deadlines! We have two major deadlines today and another one next Monday.

Symposium early bird pricing expires today! Today is the LAST DAY for you to take advantage of the lowest rates for the 2010 Young Adult Literature Symposium in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  To get the early bird rate, you must register today at www.ala.org/yalitsymposium (if you’re sending in the downloadable registration form (PDF) by mail with a check, purchase order, or money order, it must be postmarked by today).

Teens’ Top Ten voting ends today Today is the last day for teens at your library to  vote in the annual Teens’ Top Ten poll! They can vote online at www.ala.org/teenstopten. We’ll announce the winners during Teen Read Week, Oct. 17-23.

And Teen Read Week registration ends Monday Monday is the last day for you to register for YALSA’s Teen Read Week! Why register? When you register, you tell YALSA that it’s important to sponsor this initiative, which encourages teens to read something for fun and become regular library users. Plus, you’ll receive a free trial of TeenInk for a limited time, be entered to win books from Carolrhoda Lab, Cinco Puntos, and Viz Media, and get access to this year’s Books with Beat @ your library logo. Register today at www.ala.org/teenread !

Two weeks left for bundled conference registration Coming to ALA’s Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting in 2011? Take advantage of bundled pricing from ALA and register for both for $300! That’s a significant savings over registering for each event separately. But hurry: bundled registration is only available until September 30 at www.ala.org/midwinter.

That’s it for this week’s update! To stay up to date on the latest from the YALSA Office, sign up to follow YALSA on Twitter or become a fan of YALSA on Facebook!

This week’s featured program for the Young Adult Literature Symposium  is On Beyond Stonewall: The Uphill Journey of Young Adult Fiction with Gay/Lesbian/Queer Content, 1969-2010.

Presenter Michael Cart kindly answered my questions on behalf of himself and co-presenter Christine Jenkins.

KH: Can you share one interesting or thought provoking fact from your presentation?

MC:  The growth of the literature under discussion. From 1999-2000 a total of eighteen books were published. From 2008-2009 the total grew to 63!

KH: Who will be presenting with you?

MC:  The program will include a panel of authors who write gay-themed work. The writers will be Malinda Lo, Lauren Bjorkman, and Kirstin Cronn-Mill.

**The complete interview can be found at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.

The YA Literature Symposium is November 5-7 in Albuquerque, NM. To give everyone a sneak peek into the presentations I be posting portions of interviews with program presenters weekly until the symposium. Full interviews will be available at the YA Lit Symposium Online Community.