YALSA Literature Symposium

It's in a couple of weeks and in St Louis. It's only for a couple of days though and I wish it was longer. I am excited to know it is all YA books and authors and sessions. It makes my heart sing.

I've never been to St. Louis and never wanted to go to St. Louis. Gateway to the West.  There are about 20 neighborhoods there. Chuck Berry was from there.

Some Favorite Oldies

Before I write on YA books I'm reading now, I want to mention a few I liked from my first years as a librarian.

I can't remember the details of this book but I do remember how deeply I felt her pain. She is a waif. She's skinny, blonde, and only finds solace in her blues singing, so she imagines her unknown father to be Black. She never heard of a white blues singer but she has more than enough misery in her life to sing about.

Dreamland has a subtle start. The relationship with her boyfriend seems healthy and then there's a snag. He's so sensitive to things and she knows it's because he's been abused by his father, so she's careful. 

She doesn't want to do anything to upset him. She's careful to be on time to meet him and she stays away from her friends to be with him. Why is he still angry? No matter how hard she tries to please him there's always some detail to make him angry. She has to watch for any snags because she wants everything to be smooth. Smooth for him.

Razzle is a book I wanted to climb into and live. It takes place down the Cape.(Cape Cod)Ken has to move from Boston to the Cape with his parents and spend his summer painting the cottages they just bought. He meets Razzle and she works at the dump. She's odd but he finds his photography improving because of her influence. Razzle introduces Ken to Harley. Harley is gorgeous and aims to please but then why is Razzle on his mind. Why would I want to live in this book? I love Cape Cod, photography and picking through cast off junk. I also like the characters.

The Grave takes place in two times and places.He goes from being a foster teen in 1974 Liverpool to being taken in by a large family in 1874 Ireland. He's got the family he always wanted but now he's in the middle of the Potato Famine. Oh yeah, he travelled through time when he got curious about a huge unearthed grave in the school yard and fell in.

Heir Apparent had me laughing out loud. Giannine is in a virtual game given to her by her father for her birthday. Whatever, at least he remembered. This game has many puzzles that all add up to one quest. Magic dragons, secret pathways, barbarians and even some ghosts are all there to trip her up. If she doesn't get any part of this right, she has to start all over and over and over. If she doesn't get it together, she could actually die. In real life.