The Monday Poll: Assign a YA Lit Title for Summer Reading

monday_pollGood morning, Hub readers!

Last week, we asked which summer vacation from YA lit you’d like to take. Your top pick was a summer in Nantucket as evoked by Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland, with 35% of  the vote. This was followed by a trip to the lake as depicted in This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, with 21% of the vote. You can see detailed results for all of our previous polls in the Polls Archive. Thanks to all of you who voted and commented last week!

This week, we want your opinion on assigned summer reading. This time of year, librarians get approached by lots of teens looking for the same-old, same-old classics the librarian was assigned to read when they were in high school. We all know the classics are important- and often even enjoyable!- but it’s refreshing to see a YA lit title on these assigned reading lists now and then, isn’t it? So, readers, let’s say you could assign a YA lit title for high school summer reading, and didn’t have to worry about answering to the PTA or school administration (dreaming big here!). You want to make your students think deeply, and you want them to engage with the material, too, and really enjoy what they’re reading. What would you assign? Choose from the list below, or leave your suggestions in the comments.

[poll id=”212″]

Wrapping Up the 2015 Hub Reading Challenge

2015_reading_challenge_logoThe 2015 Hub Reading Challenge ended earlier this summer and all finishers have been contacted, so I’m here to announce the winner and officially wrap things up!

I’m pleased to announce our randomly selected grand prize winner, Paige R., who will receive a package chock-full of YA books courtesy of YALSA. Congratulations, Paige! Thanks for participating, and we hope you enjoy the books!

This year, we were just shy of 200 participants in the Reading Challenge, with 68 finishers– that’s a higher percentage of finishers compared to last year. Kudos to all of you who took the challenge, and extra kudos to our finishers!

A few facts about our 68 fantastic finishers:

  • 30 of them were first-time participants.
  • There were 59 librarians, 4 teachers, and 5 YA lit fans who didn’t identify as either a teacher or librarian.
  • Every title on the Reading Challenge list was read by at least one finisher, and there was a three-way tie for the most widely-read book! 49 of our finishers read This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, and Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona.
  • Going by list rather than by invidual title, the Printz books were the most widely read, followed by the Morris books and then Quick Picks.

Thanks again to everyone who participated and made this year’s challenge so much fun! We hope you’ll join us for future reading challenges right here on The Hub!

-Allison Tran, currently listening to The Young Elites, written by Marie Lu and narrated by Carla Corvo and Lannon Killea

The Monday Poll: Summer Vacation

monday_pollGood morning, Hub readers!

Last week, we asked you to weigh in on the most painful unrequited crush in YA lit. Your top pick was Miles “Pudge” Halter and Alaska Young from Looking for Alaska by John Green, with 34% of the vote, followed by Cath and Nick from Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, with 25%. You can see detailed results for all of our previous polls in the Polls Archive. Thanks to all of you who voted and commented last week!

This week, we’re revisiting a poll topic from the past with some different titles: which summer vacation from YA lit would you want to take? Choose from the list below, or leave other ideas in the comments.

[poll id=”211″]

The Monday Poll: Unrequited Crushes

monday_pollGood morning, Hub readers!

Last week, we asked which unusual or distinctive name from YA lit you’d give your firstborn. We had a tie! Blue from The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and Ismae from Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers both took in 25% of the vote. We had a great suggestion in the comments, too– Jennifer Billingsley reminded us about Sabriel! You can see detailed results for all of our previous polls in the Polls Archive. Thanks to all of you who voted and commented last week!

This week, we’re curious which unrequited crush from YA lit pulls on your heartstrings the most. Choose from the list below, or leave other ideas in the comments.

[poll id=”210″]

 

The Monday Poll: Baby Names from YA Lit

monday_pollGood morning, Hub readers!

Last week, we asked about your favorite YA series that wraps up with a book aimed at adults. The Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot took the top spot with a whopping 51% of the vote, and Hub reader Leslie C. added a great point in the comments: “While they might not be considered series finales there are a few authors who have books series that have parallel / split off series with characters that are in both their YA and Adult books (Kelley Armstrong’s werewolf characters, Melissa de la Cruz’s witch characters, and Mari Mancusi’s characters).” Thanks, Leslie! You can see detailed results for all of our previous polls in the Polls Archive. Thanks to all of you who voted last week!

This week, we want to know which distinctive name from YA lit would you give to your firstborn baby? (Because for the purposes of this poll, you are definitely going to name your future baby after a YA lit character with an unusual name.) Choose from the list below, or leave other ideas in the comments.

[poll id=”209″]

The Monday Poll: YA Series with a Finale for Adults

monday_pollGood morning, Hub readers!

Last week, we checked in with you about your favorite YA lit trend of 2015 so far, since we’re a little over halfway through the year. The results were pretty evenly spread: 23% of you are enjoying books about cons/elaborate heists (looking forward to Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows?), 22% appreciate the focus on suicide and mental health (All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven comes to mind), and 21% are loving Middle Eastern inspired fantasy, like The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh.  You can see detailed results for all of our previous polls in the Polls Archive. Thanks to all of you who voted last week!

This week, let’s talk about YA series that wrap up with a book aimed at adults. Which one is your favorite? This is somewhat of a rare phenomenon– we could only think of three! So choose from the list below, or leave your suggestions in the comments.

[poll id=”208″]

Tweets of the Week: July 10th

tweets of the week | the hubBooks and Authors

Pop Culture (all about Comic Con this week!)

Just for Fun

-Allison Tran, currently reading Things We Know by Heart by Jessi Kirby

The Monday Poll: YA Lit Trends of 2015 So Far

monday_pollGood morning, Hub readers!

Our last poll inquired about the YA book or series that would make the best theme park (like The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!). 35% of you would line up for admission into the dystopian Chicago setting from Veronica Roth’s Divergent, 23% want to step into the world of Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters books, and 21% want to visit a spooky recreation of 1920s New York a la The Diviners by Libba Bray.  You can see detailed results for all of our previous polls in the Polls Archive. Thanks to all of you who voted last week!

This week, we’re asking you to consider your favorite YA lit trend of 2015 so far. Now that we’re in the middle of the year, you’ve probably had a chance to read a lot of books and get a sense of what topics are trending. What are you most drawn to? What are you seeing a lot of? Choose from the list below, or suggest any other trends in the comments.

[poll id=”207″]

ALA Annual 2015: Day Four Highlights

Last day of the American Library Association conference! YALSA kicked off Monday with the YALSA Membership Meeting and President’s Program. This session is always a great one for YALSA members (and future YALSA members!) to connect with the organization, see fellow members recognized for their achievements, and see the passing of the gavel as a new YALSA president takes office. This year’s meeting was started by now-past president Chris Shoemaker and adjourned by YALSA’s new president, Candice Mack.
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The meeting was followed by a Shark Tank themed program in which YALSA members pitched their innovative ideas for creating digital literacy programs for teens at their libraries. The pitches were judged by a panel of “Sharks” and provided tons of inspiration to the audience.

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The panel of Sharks
Librarians with awesome ideas
Librarians with awesome ideas

In the afternoon, audiobook fans gathered for the Odyssey Award program. This award, jointly conducted by ALSC and YALSA, recognizes the best in audiobook production for kids and teens. It’s a really fun program to attend, because the audience is treated to live readings from the award winning productions.

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The audiobook producers and narrators recognized at today’s program

At the end of the evening, the Hub bloggers wrapped up our conference experience together over good food and conversation.

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Oh, and  here are just a few of the ARCs  acquired this conference that I’m going to have to try fit into my suitcase for the flight home.
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That brings us to the end of our daily conference coverage, but stay with us– we’ll have some more in-depth post-conference coverage coming your way.

If you were here in Francisco with us, we hope you had a great time. If you weren’t, then we hope to see you next year in Orlando!

-Allison Tran

ALA Annual 2015: Day Three Highlights

Day three of the American Library Association Annual Conference was off to a bright start for YA lit lovers, who gathered at YALSA’s YA Author Coffee Klatch. Kind of like speed dating with authors, this event is a highlight of many attendees’ conference experience.

The amazing group of authors participating in the Klatch.
The amazing group of authors participating in the Klatch.
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YALSA members Lalitha Nataraj of Escondido and Kim Christofferson of Salt Lake City eagerly await the authors.
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Author Leigh Bardugo talks about her upcoming book, Six of Crows.
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It seems like this event gets bigger every year!

Another excellent YALSA session for YA lit fans took place in the afternoon– bestselling author Marie Lu moderated a panel of debut authors whose books feature diversity. The room was packed, and the conversation was fascinating! There was a lot of talk about the intentionality of writing diverse stories, and about who the audience is (spoiler: everybody!).

A full house! This topic and these authors really resonated with the audience.
A full house! This topic and these authors really resonated with the audience.
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The fabulous panel and moderator!
Tamara Baltazar and Christopher Estes of Greensboro take a selfie with Marie Lu
YALSA members Tamara Baltazar and Christopher Estes of Greensboro take a selfie with Marie Lu

In the Moscone Center West (where the above session was held), I spotted a gorgeous display of  newly created cover art for classic books.

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That’s it for day three… one more day coming up!

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-Allison Tran, currently reading an ARC of Sunny Side Up by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm