YA

Alex Aster grips a tall Starbucks hot chocolate in her right hand as she guides me through the second floor of the world's largest Barnes & Noble bookstore.

"I come here several times a week," she says, pointing to a corner of the Young Adult section that often acts as a background for her many viral TikToks. "I usually stack two or three books to create a sort of stand."  Read more

Despite the fact young adult books are "for" teenagers, it's rarely teens who are shouting the loudest about those books. They're reading them, but they're not necessarily the ones making the most noise about books in the YA "community" on social media.  Read more

When Leigh Bardugo first came face to face with her characters, she wept. In a video that was uploaded everywhere from YouTube to TikTok, the author stepped on to the Budapest set of Netflix's Shadow and Bone and embraced her heroine, Alina - or rather, the actor Jessie Mei Li in costume. "You guys look amazing," Bardugo repeats in the video, between hugs and tears. "You look so incredible.  Read more

The author talks about terrible Hollywood adaptations, writing LGBTQ characters for his passionate fans, and saying goodbye to Percy Jackson  Read more

The formats varied, but children's and YA authors and editors cut through any anxiety about digital sessions with candid and powerful discussions about identity, race, mental illness, immigration, history, and art at the combined New Voices New Rooms conference for the New Atlantic and Southern Independent booksellers this week.