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Sometimes it seemed like she had climbed into my head, plucked out the words, and recorded them in her journal, fifty years before I’d thought them.
Engaging library programs play a critical role in keeping kids reading.
Writing the middle grade biographical series, Muslim Mavericks, means stepping into lives wildly different from my own—from disabled comedians to trailblazing Olympians—and learning to tell Muslim stories with humility and breadth.
Writing to me feels like the closest thing you can get to that sense of wonder of digging up something new, only the digging happens on the page.
As a former fairy chaser, I can tell you that representation changed my life. It’s what led me to the library, becoming an author, and finding my community.
When I began working on The Aftermyth, I wasn’t interested in retelling Greek myths as they’ve always been told. I was interested in what happens after the myth ends.
How many times had I been called too loud? Annoying? Too much? In my original draft, I was unknowingly touching a tender spot in my life that I hadn’t even realized was there.
As a longtime reader and writer, I’ve found light in words. My hope is that young people also find it in the pages of my books.
I wrote this relationship because I believe that love is limitless and that traditional expectations can be severely limiting. This theme can be applied to so much more than someone’s sexuality. What better takeaway can a teen have than the notion that their future is full of infinite possibilities?
We’re on the precipice of great change—the technology is here, and people are using it—so we need to confront it head-on.
The spirit of a teen girl is always formidable. There’s so much to explore. It’s a gift to spend time inside the mind of one who has a lot to say, who wants many things, who gets plenty wrong—and who does not have to shrink to be loved.
Imagine taking something as devastating as bullying and turning it into joy and hope. That is my goal with The Right Back at You Project. I want to bring the conversation about bullying out of the shadows and into the open in as many classrooms as possible.
I’ll always be a Jo, but I’m trying to be a little more like Beth March.
Without effort, our culture will inevitably dissipate over generations. It takes intention to keep the stove on. To keep the recipes alive. To talk to our parents and grandparents to learn what we can, and pass it down to the generations that follow.
The best storytellers I know put their emotions on the page or screen and don't seem to make a distinction between children and adults.
The genre helped me rewrite the narrative of my own story. I was not a victim of the world around me, but girl who could save herself.
In the kitchen, you’re a team. You have each other’s backs. No matter what happens, keep going. Knives out. Flames blazing. You are a band of wild pirates.
I’d like to think that history is not a moral judgment on the contemporary individual but a record of human choices and their consequences. As such, it is a guide. History shows us how to make different choices, how to recognize old patterns appearing in new guises.
When I started researching this book, I came across countless other invisible women, scientists whose achievements and contributions were overlooked, ignored, trivialized, or cannibalized by their male peers.
Lee & Low publisher and co-owner Jason Low says publishers must continue the commitment to diverse titles while also contributing to the larger fight for the freedom to read.
Storytelling helps teens reflect, translate their inner world into language, and hear themselves with clarity.
Lullabies for the Insomniacs strings together the countless lonely sleepless nights I spent as a teenager, stranded in the turbulence of my mind and emotions.
Lullabies for the Insomniacs strings together the countless lonely sleepless nights I spent as a teenager, stranded in the turbulence of my mind and emotions.
Hopefully, we will choose to learn and grow from the mistakes we make in digital spaces . . . and to be kinder people in the future.
Readers deserve a chance to discover as many different stories as possible.
I wanted to bottle up all that magic from the past month by writing a book that might inspire other girls like me, while also channeling the fun and romance I’d experienced. And that was how my debut novel, You Had Me at Hello World, was born.
The Page (AZ) Public Library prioritizes the diverse needs of its community—addressing hunger, digital equity, and social-emotional learning for students—while actively including and recognizing its Indigenous community members.
In 1838, sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké were the best-known, most hated women in the United States. My book tells why.
Since I was eleven, middle-grade books for drama kids have come a long way.
If I wanted to belong, I had to be intentional about it. Somewhere along the way, I came into my own.
Amanda Chacon, 2024 School Librarian of the Year, wants her peers to know: "We matter."
We put such firm boundaries around what is spiritual vs what is religious vs what is make-believe. Are these distinctions needed?
What would you do if you found a magical device that could turn back time—but only by five minutes?
If we want kids to grow up reading for fun, then we need to give them books that captivate.
Dr. Whitney Casares discusses her book, One-of-a-Kind Body and body image with pre-teens and teens.
What started out as a simple way to provide a voice to my younger self by giving my main character autism became a rallying cry.
To me, that’s the beauty of a great fictional monster. They hold up a mirror to our lives, and what we see might scare us, but it also provides the much needed sense that we’re not alone.
It’s hard for a child to think about the future, which always feels so far away when you’re a kid. That’s why we have to think about the future for them.
That first step to sparking the wonder of budding makers begins in the library, reading stories that inspire them to get hands-on and building their creative confidence.
Writing Lena and Dimas’s story was a healing process for me. Through them, I could explore the idea of what it would be like if fate could be controlled, if it was a tangible thing that could be woven to ones will – and what that would mean to the people of the world this was possible in.
It’s my hope that young readers, whether you have a name for yourselves or not, feel seen and held by Briar and Finn. Like them, you’re here, and you exist.
To echo Guatemalan Archbishop Gerardi’s words, “Knowing the truth is painful, but liberating. Without it, the scars will never heal.”
Why do none of us, including many, if not most, Puerto Ricans, know so little about our own mythology?
Books shaped my life, and in gratitude, I try to make books for young readers that show what it’s like to live under an oppressive regime.
My upcoming novel, If Looks Could Kill, pits a modern yet mythical Medusa against the real-life, true-crime, name-unknown murderer we call Jack the Ripper.
Courage reaches very directly to the heart of why I write. It’s not easy navigating the teen years.
Obviously, every parent has their own version of these issues; these are just some of ours. But it’s a delicate balance, and we’re well aware of our risk of wobbling a bit as we try to strike it.
I was almost finished writing “The Picasso Curse” when the theme of the book occurred to me—decision anxiety.
When an author bears witness to the experience of adolescence through a real, living, breathing, complicated, messy protagonist caught in a web of complicated, messy relationships, readers notice.
In sisterhood, you see various versions of yourself, souls raised in the same forage yet emerging in various shapes and conditions.
As my community expands from Library Journal to now include School Library Journal, I am eager to understand more about what you, our SLJ readers, value and how our publications can best support your needs.
In eighth grade, I was scared of the world finding out the truth about me. But I think, even scarier, was admitting that truth to myself.
How I ended up writing Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom and The Vanishing of Lake Peigneur, two companion books sprung from a single seed.
Next time you’re worried you’re not quite as alone as you think, remember that not all spooky encounters are what they seem. And you’ll maybe even get a fun story out of it.
Get a sneak peek at CHAMPION, which comes out on September 2.
I can’t wait for readers to experience the characters’ journeys to debutante delirium in the fashion capital of the world. Everyone is cordially invited to attend!
My writing life has been an imperfect storm, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I promised myself when I began writing for teenagers in 2017, that I would tackle topics often silenced or totally ignored in households within my faith community specifically.
Maybe I DO have something I’m hoping kids will learn from my books after all: That even when the world feels like it’s falling down around them, they can still find laughter.
Because I love imagery, developing an image system for a verse novel is one of my favorite challenges.
Entering portals requires bravery and hope and the willingness to see what happens, which are generally good things to apply to living life in general.
How does what we put on our plate intersect with climate change? How can we think about our diet in a way that is kinder for the earth and ourselves?
Sometimes we are not okay. Sometimes we crave respite from the onward march. Sometimes we need the relief of being seen. And that, I believe, is okay.
The memory of a song helped inspire my latest nonfiction book, Many Voices, Building Erie, the Canal that Changed America.
As a writer, it’s been fascinating to watch the publishing team and artists add a visual layer to these books. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how and why they do it.
For me, gardening is not only a way to neatly symbolize the writing journey—I feel that it’s also one of the best methods for gathering story ideas.
I always needed the girl I tried to leave. Every word we write shapes a chance to see the world and ourselves in new ways.
I have compiled a handful of more-or-less tangible examples: what they did, the doors they opened, and the things they made possible.
Are we in the midst of a dystopian revival? It certainly seems like it, and I AM HERE FOR IT. Like, literally.
I once heard an accomplished children’s author say, when asked what her new novel was about, “Oh, you know, growing up and stuff.”
For me libraries have been, quite literally, a place of adventure and magic. So I think it was only natural that when it came time to find a setting for my book idea about a family who collects magical objects, I would choose a library.
Authors Chris Baron, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Shana Youngdahl, and Caroline Starr Rose talk about community, hope, courage, and wildfires.
A large percent of our disabled population is getting subpar care and the only way we’re ever truly going to see change is by speaking about and voting for health equity.
The nine picture books cited in Mahmoud v. Taylor are not pornography. Nor are they obscene. What is obscene is a Supreme Court decision that denies the basic humanity and equality of LGBTQIA+ people.
When we ban books or defund music programs, we don't just silence stories; we sever lifelines. We remove safe, creative pathways for young people to explore emotion, identity, and connection.
In Praise of Curation: The practice of advising readers holds something dear—trust | From the Editor
AI-generated booklists are possible—and even published. So what is the value of human curation?
I learned so much about myself while writing this book. As a mother. As a daughter. As a cycle-breaker. As a storyteller. And I’ve come to realize just how quickly perfectionism can sabotage all four of those roles.
What if I wrote about a girl who was devoted to a dream but then lost it all: a girl who, like me, had been a bright, perfectionistic student, and gave everything to an institution that didn’t love her back?
Living and creating with my partner is one of the great joys of my life. Love is an experience. Love is work. It comes with ease and also requires discipline. Don’t think about it too much. Just do it.
If you are a teen librarian, please feel free to use any of these techniques to make sure THREAT OF THE SPIDER is at the top of your circulation list!
With Dan in Green Gables, I’d like to pay homage to a book that helped me through difficult times—and offer some compassion and love to my relatives in the Smoky Mountains by focusing on happy memories of them, and what could have been, if they’d only embraced me.
Sometimes, in order to honor their whole personage, instead of choosing approval or someone else’s desire, girls must choose themselves.
Big or small, we need to be talking about our boobs, especially with young women. Maybe our new battle cry for boobs should be, “We must—we must—we must DISCUSS our busts!”
A romantic comedy is delightful enough on its own, but traveling to a new destination through the eyes of one’s protagonist brings with it an additional sense of escapism and adventure, especially if traveling in real life isn’t possible.
Author Ann Braden tackles difficult subject matter in her middle grade books. But she knows the value of an escapist read and wants the children's publishing world to respect and understand the kids who reach for "Wimpy Kid" more often than a title deemed to have more literary merit.
By sounding a warning before the catastrophe comes, it might motivate some readers to find ways to take action to mitigate the very worst of it.
When I sat down to write VESUVIUS, my debut YA historical fantasy set in the final days of Pompeii, I did so to put queer people back in the narrative.
Eventually, the time will come when you have to go your own way like me and Aaliyah. You’ve got this and if nobody else believes in you, don’t worry—I do.
In a policy void, educators seek to maximize learning, turning to core skills, chiefly reading.
Books are crucial tools in understanding the lives of those who may look or sound a little different from the majority.
If Castle Swimmer sounds like a story you would enjoy, then I have some additional, queer YA comics I’d like to recommend, in celebration of Pride Month.
When I told my mother about my newest adventure, she jokingly sang the refrain she used to sing to me and my siblings when she suspected we were up to no good: “Someone’s gonna end up cry-ing!”
Of course, the problem with being a writer is that you’re always writing. I literally couldn’t help myself – every step of that journey, I was making a book inside my head.
Giving all the attention to the showier talents prevents us from seeing the true potential of many of the kids in our lives as well.
I hope you enjoy every step of their story, spend some well-earned time-away-from-time in Pocket, and try dressing for your own fairy tale.
I hope readers close this book feeling the same kind of sleepy magic you experience watching the sunrise after a night spent sitting up and laughing with your best friends.
I wanted warmth to radiate off the page. Kids deserve a model of what respect looks like, what empathy looks like, what support looks like. Especially nowadays.
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