Short takes from teen book fest plus quarantine updates

(Post updated to reflect cancellation of Writefest Houston)

Diversity comes to the big (and biggish) screens

Stories for (but not limited to) young adult readers have long been fodder for movie and TV adaptations. Nothing against Little Women, but the recent North Texas Teen Book Festival hosted a range of more recent – and sometimes harder-edged – books taking their places on the big – and small – screens.

Angie Thomas (l) & Julie Murphy

Panelists Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda), Max Brallier (Last Kids on Earth TV series), David Levithan (Every Day), Sarah Mlynoski (Upside Down Magic), Julie Murphy (Dumplin’), and Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give) joined moderator/podcaster Sara Roberts to talk about what it’s like to see their books come to life in a different medium – and whether they’ve brought new readers with them.

Responses ranged from Mlynoski (whose movie adaption is due this summer): “I don’t know yet but I learn people get a lot more into it.”

To Albertalli: “I’m not sure people knew it was a book,” of the Love, Simon, movie adaptation of her coming of age story, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda. (Which didn’t keep festival teens from finding, and sporting copies of the original.)

To Murphy: “People tell me, ‘my dad’s seen your movie.’” (Dumplin’, based on the book of the same name). “Dad may not have turned into a reader,” Murphy said, “but I’m glad he’s getting the story.”

However, writers acknowledged that Hollywood can be slower to pounce on themes of diversity than publishers. Having movies about “a black girl (The Hate U Give), a gay boy (Love, Simon), and a fat girl (Dumplin’)” as Thomas noted, necessarily mean more traction for characters whose diversity mirrors that of increasing numbers of young readers.

“You have to ask the film people to make sure the world (on film) around your characters is just as diverse,” Murphy said.

When the session turned to Q&A, one young fan said, “I write, but about serious things and the problems of the world. But when I tell people, they say, you’re a kid, you should be writing about happy things, like ponies. What do you say to that?”

Authors bluntly favored the questioner, although not all responses were suitable for print. “I look forward to you signing a book for me one day.”

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Rick Riordan as patron saint of mythic adaptations

l-r, Marsick, Chokshi, Hernandez, Mbalia

It’s no secret that adaptations of classical myths are hot properties in literature for kids and teens. Middle-grade author Rick Riordan first primed the pump with his wildly irreverent takes on Greek divinities, but his Rick Riordan Presents imprint within Disney Publishing has expanded to feature a multitude of other cultural myths adapted to modern life. 

The Rick Riordan Presents! panel at the North Texas Teen Book Festival drew on books by Indian American writer Roshani Chokshi (Gilded Wolves series), Cuban Carlos Hernandez (Sal and Gabi Break the Universe) and African Kwame Mbalia (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky). 

Rebecca Marsick opened the discussion with the observation, “All of your books involve other dimensions.”

“Every book is a thought experiment – what if this happens?” Hernandez said. The alternate dimension is this other possibility.”

“Portal fantasy and alternate dimensions are just cool ways to explain magic,” Mbalia said. “Things just are, and you’re free to explore the stories. We don’t have a lot of time to explain in books. We have to get to the meat.”

What, Marsick asked, did the writers’ personal cultures bring to their stories?

Or perhaps, Hernandez said, it was a matter of what they didn’t bring – the blanks he felt necessary to fill in. “One of the things I wasn’t seeing in the (Latinx) literature was the joy. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t happy. Things feel wild and magical all the time, even when we struggle.”

Chokshi also noted that a writer’s experience with myths may vary, citing differences between the stories she and her husband, from another part of the country, learned. “India is a big place (and) I’m not trying to represent an entire country in a book. What we have to do is celebrate these stories. Try to get the general strokes of the mythology and then let it live.”

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I still feel well nearly ten days after that North Texas Teen Book Festival, but the world of in-person literary events is narrowing as the CORV-19 pandemic spreads. Still, writers are resilient. North Texas WORDfest’s
“all-you-can-meet” festival of creative connection, originally scheduled for this Saturday, March 21, has morphed into a virtual festival from 7 p.m. Friday, March 20, through 4 p.m. Sunday, March 22. As of this writing (March 16), the only place I find to register for the limited number of online sites is at the WORD – Writing Organizations ‘Round Dallas Facebook page, which promised an updated schedule to come.

Sorry to report that Writefest Houston, originally scheduled for May 4-10, has been cancelled dur to the COVID-19 pandemic. Look for it to return in 2021. As of this writing, summer events are still scheduled – the June 13-14 DFW Writers Conference in Hurst, Texas, and the June 26-28 Agents & Editors Conference of the Writers League of Texas in Austin. I will post here as updated information is available.