The North TexasTeen Book Festival just keeps getting better! The later date this year – April
instead of last year’s March – surprised me, but the schedule change meant the
NTTBF had the entire Irving Convention Center to itself this past Saturday. And
it needed it. The convention center was packed with more than 70 authors and nearly 8,000 attendees, more than double last year’s attendance.
Yes, it was
hectic. Fortunately there were security personnel to direct the traffic that streamed
up and down the escalators. Concession stands sported long lines at the concession stands (note: go
before the end of each hour’s panels), and some of the panels having to turn
attendees away for lack of room. After being confronted by long lines of school buses last year, I took DART, which
stops near the convention center, to avoid the parking crush.
My take is: thousands of people, mostly teens, crazy about books, is worth some aggravation. But maybe next year the festival can expand over an entire weekend? (There was a
separate session Friday for educators.) Monitors had to urge attendees to give
author panels time to get to their next appointment, but how great is it to see
kids mobbing authors as if they’re rock stars? To see them begging authors, book
bloggers, and BookTube stars their own age for autographs and pictures?
The level of enthusiasm made the
festival worth being nearly run over a few times. Hey, it was a festival, not a
staid and stodgy conference.
My sights were set first on the
Lone Star All-Stars panel. How have I gone so long without knowing about the
amazing reading lists complied by the Texas Library Association?
Two of the lists – Lone Star for grades 6-8 and TAYSHAS for grades 9-12 – were featured at the festival. These are designed to encourage students to explore a variety of current books. These are
lists for recreational reading, not intended to support a specific curriculum,
and each title has been favorably reviewed in professional review services.
In addition to the Lone Star and
TAYSHAS lists, the Texas Library Association also has suggested reading lists
for younger kids as well as adults. Click on "reading lists" here to see everything.
The NTTBF panel of Lone Star
All-Stars included authors of current and previous list titles Karen Blumenthal (Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought
Different), Rachel Caine (Ink and Bones), Christina Diaz Gonzalez (Moving Target), Gordon Korman (Ungifted), Marie Lu (Legend series), and Teresa Toten (The
Unlikely Hero of Room 13B).
“What these lists (Lone Star and
TAYSHAS) do is introduce readers to a lot of voices they might not have heard
of,” said Blumenthal, a longtime Dallas resident.
Korman agreed. “Every state has a
list like these. One of the great things about lists like that it provides a
level of critical acclaim for books that don’t get the Newbery level of
acclaim.”
Does not getting Newbery Medal from
the American Library Association (which only honors one book each year) mean a
book isn’t worthy of being read?
“Most of my books are funny,”
Korman said wryly, “and you know the funny movie doesn’t win the Oscar.”
Kids apparently agreed on the
worthiness of the books in question, avidly asking questions and descending on
authors at the panel’s conclusion, a phenomenon repeated over and over during
the festival.
I’ll post more about the NTTBF,
especially the popularity of BookTube and how to set up your own book channel,
later. In the meantime, don’t forget that this coming Saturday, April 30, sees
a revising and expanded Dallas Book Festival at the Central Branch of the Dallas Public Library, 1515 Young St., Dallas,
from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
I’m looking forward to hearing author Joshua Hammer
discuss his The Bad-Ass Librarians of
Timbuktu, among other, but one librarian personally recommended Adam
Mansbach’s Go the F**k to Sleep for
all parents who’s been at their wits end over their kids' sleeping habits.
(Check out the YouTube readings by Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson and others.)
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