YAL Book Conference

Can I please have a moment for my love of YAL (Young Adult Literature)?  I don't know if it's because I work with young adults, or because I've tried my hand at adult books and just don't like them, or because my maturity level just sort of camps here, but I love them.  LOVE them.

I went to my favorite book conference this week.  I don't know how she does it, but this woman reads a book a day.  AND she still has a job in the schools - high school librarian.  The companion book for the conference is more than 200 pages long.  It contains more than 300 titles all published in 2013.  The companion book was due to BER from her in October.  And THEN, she gave us a supplementary sheet with titles she's read SINCE October, kicking the total number up to 355.  That is crazy-sauce.  But also, WAY awesome-sauce.

I think I wanted to read every book on her list, but I settled for these 20:

• Cinder by Marissa Meyer (the sequel is actually the one that came out this year, but I thought I'd start with this one)
• Vote by Gary Paulsen
• The Compound by S.A. Bodeen (another book with a sequel that came out this year)
• Just One Day by Gayle Forman - this one has a companion novel that also came out in 2013 called Just One Year. The premise is a girl meets a guy while she's in Europe, has a whirlwind romance for 24 hours, and then he disappears, leaving her heartbroken.  Just one Year is the boy's side of the story, because (apparently) what caused him to disappear was more than just a whim.  I really want to read this one. I tried to get this at B&N the other day, but I only had $10 and this was $18 :(

•  Ettiquitte and Espionage by Gail Carriger
• Island of Thieves by Josh Lacey
• The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau - THIS one looks awesome.  I book talked it to some students Thursday and one of them went home, bought it at B&N, and was already into it when she came to school yesterday.  She said it's awesome.  Check out the book trailer here.  (Another cool thing I learned - publishing companies are making book trailers for books because they are so effective with young people - cool!)
• Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
• The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey - also a book with a trailer
• Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein - a Hollocaust book, so I am interested already.

• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
• Imprisoned by Martin W. Sandler - this is a non-fiction text (or should I say, "explanatory") about Japanese internment...yikes!
• The President Has Been Shot by James Swanson - also an explanatory, this time about the assassination of JFK
• March by John Lewis - I'm particularly excited about this explanatory book because it's about Civil Rights.  Since we are picking new resources at school and we think? we are going to be able to keep this unit next year, I'm eager to check this one out.  In fact, I took a break from typing this to put it in my Amazon cart. :)

•  The Vine Basket by Josanne La Valley - I'm particularly interested in this one because it's a multicultural title from China
• The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell - the speaker said about this author, "If there's anyone who can corner the John Green market, it's this lady."
• If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
• Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
• This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith - this one looked like an adorable love story.  I looked for it at B&N too, but couldn't find it, so I settled for another one by the same author, which I started Thursday night :)

I would say this is my reading list for the next few months, but at the rate I've been reading lately, it would really have to be more like the next year.  It also may be difficult to get ahold of many of these titles.  Because they are so new, most of them are only in hardback, making them expensive to purchase, and there aren't many used copies available.  I will start with the library and go from there.