YA Panel
Saturday, June 6 at 7 p.m.
Featuring Becky Albertalli, Jasmine Warga, and Aisha Saeed. Dealing with a range of issues from hidden sexuality, to suicide, to arranged marriage, these ladies offer fresh voices to the YA pantheon.
Of Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Andrew Smith (Grasshopper Jungle) says, “Delightfully funny and at times heart-wrenching.”
My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga is “Subtle and impressive…reminiscent of Judy Blume novels,” according to NPR.
Aisha Saeed’s novel Written in the Stars was called “a powerfully emotional book with a hard-earned, satisfying ending” by MTV.
Alan Gratz Book Launch
Tuesday, June 9 at 7 p.m.
Dragon Lantern, the new League of Seven book, is here. That means more alternate history, more steampunk adventure, and more monsters! Gratz is also the author of Samurai Shortstop and Prisoner B-3087.
Dangerous Ladies: YA Authors
Friday, June 12 at 7 p.m.
Megan Shepherd, Carrie Ryan, Renee Ahdieh, and Gwenda Bond talk about their new books.
Shepherd is the author of the The Madman’s Daughter trilogy. Her latest is The Cage, the beginning of a new sci-fi series where humans are the exhibits in another world.
Carrie Ryan is the author of The Forest of Hands and Teeth series. According to Ally Condie, author of Matched, Daughter of Deep Silence boasts “heart-stopping suspense, fine writing, and a heroine who finds and owns her true strength.”
Renee Ahdieh’s The Wrath & the Dawn was inspired by A Thousand and One Nights and is “lushly imagined and powerfully characterized… a potent page-turner of intrigue and romance” according to Publisher’s Weekly.
Gwenda Bond’s novel, Lois Lane: Fallout ,garnered this starred review from Kirkus: “A lighthearted and playful tone permeates the novel, making for a nifty investigative mystery akin to Veronica Mars or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Laurie Mckay Reading & Signing
Sunday, June 14 at 3 p.m.
Laurie McKay’s new middle grade series, The Last Dragon Charmer, is set in Asheville, only not the Asheville you and I see. On a quest to slay a dragon, Prince Caden goes through a magic hole and winds up in foster care and middle school. What seems like a magicless environment soon proves otherwise and the real adventure begins.
Sarah Dessen Reading & Signing
Saturday, June 20 at 7 p.m.
Saint Anything is “quintessential Sarah Dessen” according to Entertainment Weekly. To join the signing line after the reading, purchase Saint Anything or any of Sarah Dessen’s books from Malaprop’s.
Southeast Summer YA Book Bash
Sunday, June 21 at 3 p.m.
Featuring Lynne Matson, Lindsay Cummings, Anne Blankman, Paula Stokes, and Tonya Kuper.
Matson follows up her debut novel Nil, of which VOYA said, “a unique twist to a survival story… a strongly written fantasy,” with Nil Unlocked.
Cummings, the author of several YA and middle grade novels, will discuss The Death Code, the second in her Murder Complex series.
School Library Journal calls Anne Blankman’s A Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke “a powerful story full of mystery, intrigue, romance, and edge-of-your-seat terror and suspense.” She is also the author of The Prisoner of Night and Fog.
The author of The Art of Lainey, Paula Stokes’s new novel is Liars, Inc., which Kirkus Reviews calls “captivating to the very end.”
Tonya Kuper shares her debut novel, Anomaly. Kirkus says, “Kuper’s sleek prose – saturated with pop-culture references – invites both nerds and the uninitiated into the world of the Oculi.”
Joanne O’Sullivan Presentation & Signing
Saturday, June 27 at 3 p.m.
Local writer Joanne O’Sullivan is the author of several books for kids and adults. Her latest is Migration Nation: Animals on the Go from Coast to Coast from the National Wildlife Federation. Recommended for grades 4 to 8, the book discusses the migratory trips made by creatures of land, sea, and sky from whales to antelopes to monarch butterflies. O’Sullivan is also the author of A Dog Walks into a Bar…: Howlingly Funny Canine Comedy.
