YA Authors You Need to Read: E. Lockhart

This article first appeared on the examiner on July 26, 2010.

E. Lockhart is a full time YA author who writes funny heartfelt books for teens. She has a doctorate in English literature and currently lives in the New York City area. All of her teen books are published under the name E. Lockhart, but she also writes other types of books with her full name Emily Lockhart.

Lockhart’s first book for teens was “The Boyfriend List” published in 2005. Fifteen-year-old Ruby has everything going for her, a group of best friends, a perfect boyfriend, interesting albeit annoying parents, and then she loses it all (except the parents) and has panic attacks instead. Trying to figure out what went wrong, Ruby starts therapy and comes up with the reason: boys. She comes up with a list of all her boyfriends, even the ones that were imagined and unofficial and crushes from afar. Ruby (Roo) is a funny typical boy-obsessed teenage girl. At times she is shallow and self-centered, and other times she really is the victim of her cruel peers. For a full review, click here.

Subsequent books

“Fly on the Wall” (East Greenbush YA Librarian Chrissie Morrison’s review here)
“The Boy Book” (Goddess Librarian review here)
“Dramarama” (Goddess Librarian review here)
“The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks”
“How To Be Bad”
“The Treasure Map of Boys”
“Real Live Boyfriends”

You can find more information about Lockhart at her website and blog and also follow her on twitter.

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YA Authors You Need to Read: David Levithan

This article first appeared on the examiner on July 29, 2010.

David Levithan was born in 1972 and works as an editorial director at Scholastic and as the founding editor of the PUSH imprint. The PUSH imprint was created to find the newest voices in teen literature. Levithan is one of those voices.

Levithan has written many books on his own, but he has a real talent for collaborating with other YA authors. One of the most popular collaborations is “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”, a book co-written with Rachel Cohn, and later made into a movie with Michael Cera. The story opens with Nick performing with his queercore band and Norah in the audience. Nick sees his ex-girlfriend Tris, panics, and asks complete stranger Norah to be his girlfriend for the next five minutes. Norah knows Tris and for a variety of reasons agrees to Nick's strange request. Five minutes turns into something much much longer. The story is told from both points of view in alternating chapters. Cohn wrote the Norah parts and Levithan wrote the Nick parts. There were no inconsistencies with two authhors, nothing sounded false or like it was just thrown together. It's actually quite amazing that both voices were as riveting and compelling as they were. For a complete review click here or here for East Greenbush YA Librarian Chrissie Morrison's review.

Other Books

“Boy Meets Boy”
“The Realm of Possibility”
“Are We There Yet?”
“Marly’s Ghost”
“Wide Awake”
“Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List” with Rachel Cohn. (Goddess Librarian review here)
“How They Met and Other Stories”
“Likely Story”
“Love is the Higher Law”
“Will Grayson, Will Grayson” with YA Author You Need to Read John Green.

You can find more information about Levithan at his website and his facebook.

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YA Authors You Need to Read: John Green

This article first appeared on the examiner on July 22, 2010.

John Green is a New York Times Bestselling author of four books for teenagers. His first book won the Michael L. Printz award and his second book earned him a Printz Honor mention. In addition to his writing, he is incredibly popular on the Internet with his twitter and his youtube channel. When not spending time writing or tweeting, Green devotes his time to his newest project—a baby boy.

“Looking for Alaska” won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award and was also listed as one of the American Library Association’s top ten Best Books for Young Adults. “Alaska” is a heartbreaking story of friendship between three teens at a private school. Miles, ironically nicknamed Pudge because of his complete lack of body fat, is looking for his great perhaps—his life altering experience. He finds it when he meets Chip, nicknamed the Colonel, and Alaska, a wild carefree girl with deep dark wounds that only occasionally surface. The characters are interesting, three dimensional, and dynamic and the story is realistic and well written. Green’s inaugural novel definitely deserved the high honor of the Printz award.

Subsequent Books

“An Abundance of Katherines” (review here)
“Paper Towns” (East Greenbush YA Librarian Chrissie Morrison’s review here)
“Will Grayson, Will Grayson”

You can find more information about John Green on his website or follow him throughtwitter. You can watch his vlogs with his brother Hank Green on their youtube channel.

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YA Authors You Need to Read: Sarah Dessen

This article first appeared on the examiner on July 16, 2010.

Sarah Dessen is the kind of YA author that librarians give to adult readers who aren’t familiar with YA and want to know “what it’s all about.” She represents YA very well. Her books are interesting, emotional, and well written for both teens and adults.

Dessen (which rhymes with lessen, according to an e-mail from the author received many years ago) was born in 1970 in Illinois, but grew up and has lived most of her life in North Carolina. She still lives in her hometown, a benefit for someone who routinely taps in to her memories of high school for her novels. She attended UNC and graduated with a degree in English. Three years after graduating, she published her first book “That Summer” and continued with eight more YA books. A movie with Mandy Moore, “How to Deal”, based on her first two books (“That Summer” and “Someone Like You”) was released in 2003. Her 10th book will be published in May 2011.

Dessen’s most recent book is “Along for the Ride”. The daughter of divorced parents 18 year old Auden has always been an adult. As a young child she taught herself to stay awake at night to try to prevent her parents from fighting. She threw herself into her schoolwork and studied instead of slept. She had acquaintances but no real friends, choosing to focus on her future academic career instead of having fun with kids her own age. After she graduates high school Auden makes her first spontaneous decision and decides to spend the summer with her father and his new wife and baby. While there she meets the mysterious Eli and learns how to connect with her family and make real friendships. You can find the full examiner review here and local East Greenbush YA Librarian Chrissie Morrison’s review here.

Previous Books

“Lock and Key” (East Greenbush YA Librarian Chrissie Morrison's review)
“Just Listen” (Morrison's review)
“The Truth About Forever”
“This Lullaby”
“Dreamland”
“Keeping the Moon”
“Someone Like You”
“That Summer”

You can find Dessen on her website, livejournal, and twitter.

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