How to use this Page

Hey, readergirlz! We have a #rockthedrop update for you, courtesy of Lorie Ann Grover:

YALSA has decided to discontinue Support Teen Literature Day in April. We've enjoyed celebrating the day for 8 years by rocking the drop through Operation Teen Book Drop. We've donated thousands of books to teens in hospitals and those on Tribal Lands. We've left young adult books around the world to be found by happy readers. Well done, all!

SO WE ARE GOING TO CONTINUE ANYWAY! We are going to #RocktheDrop in October, on Friday, the 14th, of Teen Read Week. Deal? For now, stash those books to the side, and we'll collectively drop them together next fall. We'll give you a heads up as the time approaches. Let's get those donation piles taller in the meantime.

Be ready to #RocktheDrop on October 14th, 2016. It's going to be a great addition to Teen Read Week. Ready, set, go!

Learn more about #rockthedrop aka Operation Teen Book Drop.

Add a Comment

It's under a month away! It's coming! Operation Teen Book Drop, 2015, also known as #rockthedrop. For right now keep an eye for that YA book, or several, you own and want to leave in a public place on Thursday, April 16th. We'll be celebrating YALSA's Support Teen Literature Day. Happy finders will be enriched by your beloved reads.

This year instead of a book plate, we are going with a bookmark by Little Willow. Placed in the book, all will know you are leaving a FREE gift. You can print your own bookmarks! Right-click on one of the images below, save the file, print as many as you want, and get ready to Rock the Drop on Thursday, April 16th!

Add a Comment

I read A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly nearly five years ago, when it was a readergirlz book selection. Planning to write a review, I took notes, but the paper filled with quotes rather than commentary. When I happened upon those quotes today, I thought I'd share them here see which of my readers also read and enjoyed the book. Let me know in the comments below!

"It was a strange feeling -- worrisome and exciting all at once. Weanxilicious?" - Page 186
...to which I added, Hello, portmanteau!

"Emily Baxter's poems made my head hurt." - Page 208
Spoiler alert: Emily ends up being her teacher.

Weaver smiled a sad smile. "You know, Matt," he said. "Sometimes I wish there really was such a thing as a happy ending."
"Sometimes there is. Depends on who's writing the story."
"I mean in real life. Not in stories." - Page 366

Mattie considers Paradise Lost:
It was a dreadful thing that he did, and he is not to be admired for it, but right then I felt I understood why he did it. I even felt a little sorry for him. He probably just wanted some company, for it is very lonely knowing things. - Page 372

I know it is a bad thing to break a promise, but I think now that it is a worse thing to let a promise break you. - Page 374

When Weaver asks her why she's going now, she tells him, "Because Grace Brown can't." - Page 376

She considers turning back, but:
There's no going back once you're already gone. - Page 377

All page numbers refer to the hardcover edition.

One of my notes that was not a quote. I wrote, "Mattie has a dictionary that her mother bought - her mother saved up money to get it. Mattie looks up a word a day." I took note of this because when I was very little, my mother gave me my own small dictionary so I'd be able to look up words whenever I happened upon one I didn't know yet. Due to both its size and its importance, that dictionary was the top-most book on my stack of reference materials for years.

Related posts at Bildungsroman
Roundtable: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly

Add a Comment

The concept of #hitwithgratitude began with the release of my young adult novel HIT coinciding with the release of Justina Chen's YA novel release, A BLIND SPOT FOR BOYS. As close friends, critique partners, and co-founders of readergirlz, it was a short leap to the thought of going on tour together. Rather than rgz coming to us, we'd go to you all!

To join two houses, Blink Young Adult Books and Little Brown Books for Young Readers, would be novel. Yet, with a love of literacy, two books releasing so close together, the support of two houses, and being besties ourselves, it was an easy decision to hit the road side-by-side. 

How about the hashtag #hitwithgratitude? Where did that come from? Justina and I a few years before had taken a test, springing from Shawn Achor's book THE HAPPINESS ADVANTAGE. We discovered out of more than 20 personal strengths, we both ranked Gratitude in our top five abilities. It was interesting, and we filed it away. We also ran across Ann Voskamp's book, ONE THOUSAND GIFTS: A DARE TO LIVE FULLY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, and we discussed the beauty of numbering our blessings. Personally, I was being hit with wave after wave of chronic illness diagnoses from lupus to rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, while Justina was being hit by an unexpected divorce, being abandoned in China, and finding her long way home. 

In 2014, as Justina read HIT and I read A BLIND SPOT FOR BOYS, we were struck by how both novels carried the theme of enduring trial with a thankful heart. A theme we've shared with readergirlz across the country since our beginning in 2007. We chatted about choosing to be BETTER NOT BITTER and choosing PRAISE NOT PITY. There was room to be thankful in the midst of trial: not because of it (that would be irrational), not in spite of it (that would be grim determination), but thanks in the midst of it, knowing there is a greater purpose and lessons to be learned.

With #hitwithgratitude, we set out initially on tour with our books to encourage readers of all ages to hit back with gratitude even when hit by heartache, loss, and physical testing. As time passes, we'll likely travel together around the globe more, carrying the same injunction. Along the way, we'll meet with readergirlz, media, librarians, teachers, students, and book clubs of all ages. We'll exchange stories, listening wholeheartedly, and encourage everyone to share a pic, a text, a video, or a post with the hashtag: #hitwithgratitude. Sharing, our personal gratitude we can hit, encourage one another, with our thanks...over and over...and over. 

Join us, rgz. Let's run and #hitwithgratitude!

Hit-and-Run: the Gratitude Tour
Portland: October 2
Yakima: October 3, 4
Launch Party, Sumner, WA: October 7
Tempe: October 16-18
South TX: November 12-16
YALSA Symposium: November 15

(If you'd like to contact us regarding a visit, virtual or personal, jot an email to lorieanngroveratclearwiredotnet. We'd love to see you, rgz, and share a bit of our gratitude for each one of you!)

Add a Comment

Adult/Teen Librarian Danielle Dreger-Babbitt from Mill Creek Library WA is here to Roar with readergirlz for Banned Books Week
Welcome Danielle.

Tell us about Banned Books Week
Banned Book Week was started 32 years ago to celebrate the freedom to read after more and more books were being challenged in libraries and schools. According to the American Librarian Association, over 11,000 books have been challenged since 1982. Over 200 of them happened in 2013! You can learn more about Banned Book Week on the ALA website.



Along with each year’s display, I include Banned Book lists and pamphlets as well as bookmarks and buttons for library customers to take home. We’ve had essay contests where readers write about their favorite challenged or banned books and win copies of banned books. When I visit the middle schools to talk about books in the fall I often bring along books that have been challenged from other parts of the country and have the students guess why they might be banned or challenged.


“If people read the books before they banned them, they might have a better understanding of why the book is important. If you ban a book, it only makes me want to read it more.”- Jessica, Grade 11

Any Banned Books you would like to highlight?
Some of my favorite banned and challenged books include Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Shine and TTYL by Lauren Myracle, and 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher.  And my absolute favorite banned/ challenged book is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Most teens are amazed to hear that it has been taken out of some schools and libraries!


About Danielle Dreger-Babbitt
I’ve been a teen librarian for over 10 years and have worked in libraries in Massachusetts and Washington. I’ve been an Adult/ Teen Librarian at the Mill Creek Library for over 5 ½ years. I’ve been active in ALA’s YALSA  (Young Adult Library Services Association) for the last decade and have served on committees including Outreach to Teens With Special Needs, The Schneider Family Book Award, and most recently The Alex Awards, for which I was the 2014 committee chair.

In my spare time I write for children and teens. I love to read YA and MG fiction and cooking memoirs/ cookbooks. I own two cats and two badly behaved (but adorable) dogs. I also love to travel and recently visited Uruguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

Add a Comment

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this month's blog series at readergirlz! I had a lot of fun gathering candid and heartfelt responses from authors. Lorie Ann asked me to post my own list, so here goes nothing:

7 Things You Don't Know About Me

1) I've been writing stories and songs since birth, practically.

2) I am capable of charming squirrels out of trees.

3) There is no television show I have loved more completely from start to finish than Leverage.

4) I love word play.

5) Synchronicity and causality are recurring themes in my life.

6) Chances are, I'm shorter than you.

7) I project. In more ways than one.

So there you have it! I hope March has been lovely for all of you. Don't forget to mark your calendars for Operation Teen Book Drop 2014, which will be happening in just a few weeks on April 17th. Stay tuned to the readergirlz blog, Facebook, and Twitter to learn how you can participate and #rockthedrop!

Add a Comment

Happy anniversary, readergirlz!

In honor of our seven-year anniversary, we're catching up with rgz divas and featured authors over at the readergirlz blog. Some folks are posting lists of 7 Things You Don't Know About Me, revealing both silly and serious personal traits and anecdotes. Kicking off our anniversary series (or shall we say, anniver-series?) of posts is none other than our own Melissa Walker.

Others are contributing to our Quote Call: See It, Say It. As rgz diva Lorie Ann Grover explained, "Authors, draw from your own works and others; readers share the best bits from the books you heart; and librarians, teachers, and booksellers, jump on in." Click here to answer the Quote Call.

Check out the guest blogs and novel ideas all month long at the readergirlz blog.

readergirlz is a literacy and social media project for teens, awarded the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize. The rgz blog serves as a depot for news and YA reviews from industry professionals and teens. As volunteers return full force to their own YA writing, the organization continues to hold one initiative a year to impact teen literacy. All are welcome to "like" us on Facebook!

Add a Comment

Hey rgz,

Can you believe our 7 year birthday is coming? Seriously, March 1, we are 7 years old! Watch for posts throughout the month of authors we featured in the past. They will be sharing 7 Things We Don't Know or giving a speedy update on their writing.

But now, I'm posting to make a quote call. Let's See It, Say It. Take your favorite quote from YA lit, snap a pic of the page, or write the quote out and take a pic, or design something awesome over at Polyvore. However you like, get it visual and post it on our Facebook page. Authors, draw from your own works and others; readers share the best bits from the books you heart; and librarians, teachers, and booksellers, jump on in.

Our beloved Ellen Hopkins has done this for awhile:



Here's one from co-founder Dia Calhoun:

And here's another from co-founder Justina Chen:




















Here's one from me which I put together on Polyvore:



So you get the idea right? Okay! Find those quotes and get them onto our Facebook page. We'll make an album and cull some for the blog as well. Thanks for celebrating with us! Happy early birthday, rgz! xox

Add a Comment

As we look back over the day, you all rocked the drop from Glasgow to Georgia, from zoos to restaurants, from one reader to the next, and we thank you! What a celebration for Support Teen Lit Day. You all posted, tweeted, tumbled, and pinned. The photos are awesome on #rockthedrop and the readergirlz facebook page. Be sure to scroll through and enjoy what we did together. It's AMAZING!

Crissa, rgz HOST, always rocks the drop with style! Take a look at her video drop. Thank you, Crissa!

And here are just a few pics to remember the day:

Thank you, publishers, such as Team Egmont!

Thank you, libraries, such as San Diego County!

Thank you, authors, such as Sara Zarr in Salt Lake City to...

Liz Gallagher in Seattle.
Thank you, schools:
Courtney Craig Merritt
I am a Spanish and English teacher at Del Norte High School and a bunch of my Education In Action club kids will be dropping off books in the 4S Ranch community. Keep your eye out! We're so excited to be a part of this wonderful, literary cause.
and thank you, readergirlz!



Bravo, everyone! Bravo!

Add a Comment

If you were not able to rock the drop yesterday due to time, weather, or other such uncontrollable things, don't fret - you can totally drop a book today, this weekend, whenever time allows! When you do, leave us a comment here at the readergirlz blog or on Facebook, and tweet @readergirlz with the hashtag #rockthedrop - and include a picture if you took one!

You can also participate on a larger scale, if you'd like, by donating a bunch of books to the place or cause of your choice. Visit a local shelter, a school, a library, a children's hospital, and ask if they take donations. Once you've gotten the okay, gather up new or gently used books from your friends, family, classmates, and co-workers, add the bookplates, tuck in some bookmarks, then drop the books off!

For example, you could send Ballou High books from their wish list via Powells books! That would be a cool way to tie-in both readergirlz and GuysLitWire. Here's how you can help out Ballou High: It's Time for the Annual Spring Book Fair for Ballou High School Library!

You can also donate books to 826NYC, a non-profit organization that assists young writers between the ages of 6 and 18 as well as the awesome folks who teach them. If you'd like to send them books, here's the address:

826NYC
Attn: Joan Kim
c/o: readergirlz Rock the Drop
372 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

During yesterday's tweets and texts, we heard about World Book Night, which is happening on April 23rd.  Learn more about that, and see if an event is happening in your neck of the woods.

Is this the first time you've heard of Operation Teen Book Drop? Anyone anywhere in the world may participate. It's free, it's fun, and it's global. Want to learn more about it? Click here!

Add a Comment

It's time to ROCK THE DROP! Today is the day for Operation Teen Book Drop 2013!

Love books? Share them! In honor of Support Teen Lit Day, readergirlz has teamed up with Figment, I Heart Daily, Soho Teen, and 826NYC to celebrate the sixth annual Teen Book Drop. Anyone anywhere in the world may participate simply by leaving the book of their choice in a public place (a coffeehouse, a school, a skateboard park) for someone else to find. It's just that easy! Plus, there's the bonus fun when someone contacts readergirlz to tell them they found the book that you dropped.

If you want to chronicle your drop, share it on social media like this:

* Follow @readergirlz on Twitter and tweet #rockthedrop
* Print a copy of the bookplate and insert it into a book (or 10!) Drop a book in a public spot (park bench, bus seat, restaurant counter?) with a note or Post-It on the front saying something like, "THIS BOOK IS FREE!" or "READ ME!" Lucky finders will see that the book is part of ROCK THE DROP!
* Post the banner at your blog and social networks. Proclaim that you will ROCK THE DROP!
* Snap a photo of your drop and post it at the readergirlz Facebook page. Then tweet the drop with the hashtag #rockthedrop to share the news with other readers.

This year's bookplate was designed by the super-talented Lindsay Frantz. Thank you, Lindsay!

You can also participate on a larger scale, if you'd like, by donating a bunch of books to the place or cause of your choice. Visit a local shelter, a school, a library, a children's hospital, and ask if they take donations. Once you've gotten the okay, gather up new or gently used books from your friends, family, classmates, and co-workers, add the bookplates, tuck in some bookmarks, then drop the books off!

This year, readergirlz is encouraging folks to donate books to 826NYC. If you're interested, here's the address:

826NYC
Attn: Joan Kim
c/o: readergirlz Rock the Drop
372 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

If you're in New York, drop by Figment today - they are giving away TWO books (one to keep, one to drop) to all participants while supplies last! Click here for details.

Visit the readergirlz blog, Facebook page, and Twitter for more news and pictures before, during, and after the event!

Earlier TBDs

Our previous book drops: TBD 2008, TBD 2009, TBD 2010, TBD 2011, TBD 2012

 

Add a Comment

Are you ready for this year's Operation Teen Book Drop? Not only is Figment ready to rock the drop, but they're going to help you rock the drop, too! Figment is giving away two free books to everyone who stops by our Upper East Side office on Thursday, April 18th. Here's what they have planned:

You keep one. Then drop the other in a public place for some lucky new New York reader to find!

We'll be outside from 12pm to 1:30pm and then again from 3pm to 4:30pm...or until our supplies run out!

Want to come at a different time? Tweet us at @figment and ask!

Figment's address:
118 E 64th Street
(between Park and Lexington)
New York, NY 10065

Thank you so much to Figment for doing this doubly-good drop!

Not in New York? No problem! Anyone anywhere may participate. This Thursday, April 18th, Operation Teen Book Drop is happening all over the country - and all over the world! Operation TBD was created by readergirlz in 2008 in honor of Support Teen Literature Day. Every year, the movement grows stronger and stronger. It's free to participate, and it's always fun to share a good book. Learn more about Operation Teen Book Drop.

Drop books. Donate books. Find books. Use the hashtag #rockthedrop and follow the happenings this Thursday!

Add a Comment

We're just three days away from Operation Teen Book Drop 2013! Are you ready to Rock the Drop?

Readergirlz are happy to announce Operation Teen Book Drop 2013! On April 18th, readergirlz will be teaming with Figment, I Heart Daily, Soho Teen, and 826NYC to celebrate YA lit in honor of Support Teen Lit Day on Thursday, April 18th. We can't wait!

This year, in addition to rocking out and dropping our favorite YA titles in public spaces for lucky readers to discover, we're also directing supporters of teen fiction everywhere to consider a book donation to 826NYC to help grow their library.

Here's how you can get involved:

* Follow @readergirlz on Twitter and tweet #rockthedrop
* Print a copy of the bookplate and insert it into a book (or 10!) On April 18th, drop a book in a public spot (park bench, bus seat, restaurant counter?) Lucky finders will see that the book is part of ROCK THE DROP!
* Post the banner at your blog and social networks. Proclaim that you will ROCK THE DROP!
* Snap a photo of your drop and post it at the readergirlz Facebook page. Then tweet the drop at #rockthedrop with all the other lovers of YA books.

This year's bookplate was designed by the super-talented Lindsay Frantz. Thank you, Lindsay!

If you'd like to donate books to 826NYC, here's the address:

826NYC
Attn: Joan Kim
c/o: readergirlz Rock the Drop
372 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Visit the readergirlz blog, Facebook page, and Twitter for more news and pictures before, during, and after the event!

Earlier TBDs

Our previous book drops: TBD 2008, TBD 2009, TBD 2010, TBD 2011, TBD 2012

Add a Comment

It's Teen Lit Day! 

Add a Comment

Readergirlz and Figment are planning a Rock the Drop event on April 12, 2012.  It works like this.  Get a book.  Put the bookplate, below, in the book.  Drop the book somewhere that someone might find it.  It's like International Book Giving Day but more subversive.

So do it.  Easy enough to share a good read with an unknown "friend".

Battle of the Books:  Daughter of Smoke and Bone won its first round - as I predicted.  I am buffing my chipped nails on my lapel as you read this.  Don't forget to read the commentaries after Sara Zarr's thoughtful judging. 
One of the comments to BoB's post mentioned the artwork for today.  I like the little bomb shelter sign that Dead End in Norvelt so ineffectively uses as a shield.  Thanks to RB for drawing attention to these graphics.  So read EVERYTHING on the Battle's page; the decision, the commentaries and the comments.  All fun, all worthwhile.

Monday's match.  Hmmm.  I haven't read The Grand Plan to Fix Everything.   It's hard to imagine that it is better than Allen Say's Drawing from Memory.  So I'm going with Drawing as Monday's winner.  HOWEVER, I might change my mind.

So what happens next?  Come on March 31st to see!

I still have two passes to the Elizabeth Ellis performance on March 31st at Northampton Community College.  Listen to the interview and story at the link above.  Honestly, she is so good we should charge TWICE as much as we are charging.  Try something new. 

Display Comments Add a Comment

* Snag the bookplate - download it HERE - created by the uber-talented David Ostow (who blogs hilarious cartoons here), and add it to your blog and social networks, linking back to this post to share the love. Proclaim that you will ROCK THE DROP!

* Plan to snap a photo and post it at the readergirlz facebook page. Then tweet the drop at #rockthedrop with all the other lovers of YA books. 

Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Readers of this blog know that a You Are My Only treasure hunt is under way.  The hunt goes something like this:  I've written five guest posts about the making of this book.  Those posts have now begun to pop up in the blogosphere.  Your job (should you choose to accept it) is to find those five entries and then post them collectively on your own blog.  Send the link to me, in a comment box on my blog, and your name will be entered into a drawing. 

Two winners will be selected. Each will win these two things: A signed copy of You Are My Only AND a critique (by yours truly) of the first 2,000 words of a work-in-progress. As many of you know, I teach memoir at the University of Pennsylvania and served as the inaugural readergirlz author in residence. I have written in multiple genres and critique adult fiction for major U.S. newspapers. Your manuscript can, I am hinting, be in any genre, save for a screenplay, about which I have absolutely zero expertise.

To make this contest a little easier, I am reprinting here the first paragraphs of the two entries that are now floating out there in the virtual world.

The first, titled "The (furious) metamorphosis of Sophie," is hosted on a blog that has the clever subtitle "Looking better in black since 1234."  It appeared on September 9th, and it begins like this:

Several years ago I began to write a novel for adults that had a certain Sophie as its focus.  She was in her late thirties and her boyfriend, Vin, had recently left her.  She was alone, a writer, and trying to piece together the unresolved oddments of her past.  Strange things were being left on Sophie’s doorstep—signs, masks, even a pot of soup—and the only thing that Sophie knew for sure that she was being lured to an abandoned asylum on the other side of the woods by people she wasn’t certain she could trust.

I’ll be honest.  Cloris and Helen are two characters who have been living with me for more than a decade.  That’s right.  I carried these two dear souls, these more-than-best-friends ladies, through a variety of novels I’d been writing.  They were bird-obsessed in one book (not so strange, since all of my books have at least one character who is obsessed with birds).  They were digging a huge hole beneath their house in another.  In an early version of the book that became You Are My Only, it was Cloris who had been committed to the asylum.