Tip of the Day: Stay tuned for future posts from me on: 1) what teens in my lib are reading now; 2) how teen fans of different genres show their author/book love.
On Saturday, I volunteered as an author handler for the Seventh Annual Rochester Teen Book Festival in upstate NY. WOW! What a great day!
Highlights for me:
1. Meeting online writer aquaintance Cyn Balog in person for the first time (her paranormal romances are excellent because they are so different; no vamps, zombies, or werewolves for her).
2. Learning that everyone loves Beth Fantaskey's JESSICA books so I should read another vampire novel too.
3. Scoring an ARC of Cyn's cool new book TOUCHED (my review here). Thanks, Cyn!
4. Hearing A. S. King talk to teens -- and adults -- about how your high school self does not identify you for life. And how we all must learn to accept everything about ourselves.
5. Watching a teen volunteer whip up an awesome PowerPoint of Cyn and Beth's book covers in a matter of minutes, and then man the computer and slides during the next two sessions.
6. Hanging with my old awesome intern/new YA librarian Kelley (she blogs here).
7. Being in a gym full of music and teens and authors and noise and seeing people of all ages sitting on the bleachers quietly reading their new autographed books.
8. Seeing hundreds and hundreds of teens excited about books, reading, authors, and TBF!
Thank you to the librarians, authors, publishers, donors, and attendees who make this festival possible and FREE for all to attend!
Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing
4 comments:
It's nice that hundreds and hundreds of teens came to the book festival. Do they mostly come with their friends, or with their parents? Did you notice authors and families coming from Toronto which is the nearest mega city in driving distance? I should visit Rochester again.
Most teens were either dropped off at the Fest by parents, or came on school busses with their teachers and friends. Some also come with their parents. I don't know if there was a big Toronto showing although we did have 1 author from there. Lots of teens came from smaller suburban and rural areas in western NY. Such a great showing. Guessing 3000 total people attended!
This was a really great event. I came over from Canada for it, and I'm really glad I did. I was also really excited with how excited the teens were. It's awesome to see them get that excited for authors and books.
Ashley -- thanks for the feedback! It's great to hear from those who traveled for the event that it was worth it. :)
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