
and I got hugs, HUGS I TELL YOU from Alex London!!!
Karen had a moment… I had mine later with Rae Carson, Alex London,
and Laini Taylor, to name a few….

Well, Benny and his friends have finally done it. They found the jet, found civilization, found a place every survivor of the zom apocalypse dreams of: Sanctuary.
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Last week Heather, Christie and I went to ALA in Chicago. It was epic!
TLT Meet Up!
First, this is the first time that Christie and I have actually met Heather in person. She feels like part of the family. In fact, Heather and I just wrote an entire book together – The Whole Teen Library Handbook – but this is the first time we have met, in person, face to face. In fact, I stayed at her house and it was totally fun. So here we be, three of the TLT team.
Cory Doctorow Talks, We Should All Listen
At one point, I went and listened to Cory Doctorow talk about intellectual freedom, patent craziness, and more. He made an interesting statement about how our outdoors playgrouds are often empty because parents are afraid to let their children play because we live in such a dangerous world, and yet we let our children play freely on the most dangerous playground of all – the Internet. He made a great case for how we must do better in helping others understand this information rich world we live in while protecting their privacy and learning to evaluate the information we see.
New Adult? Or is it “New Adult”?
I also attended a session on New Adult Literature which made me very happy because I was glad to hear others saying what I thought about the issue. 1) The genre has always existed. 2) The name is troublesome because when I hear new adult, I think “oh look, here is some NEW Adult Fiction.” What do we call new titles in this genre, New New Adult? If it were a perfect world, which it is not, we would call it Young Adult (because that’s what they are, young adults in the 19-24 age group) and call Young Adult fiction Teen Fiction, especially since the teens refer to themselves as teens. In fact, walk into a Barnes and Noble store and they even have it labelled Teen Fiction. 3) Yes, teens are and will read New Adult (just as they do Stephen King and Mary Higgins Clark and more) but it should be in the Adult area, not YA (or Teen Area as I like to call it). 4) New Adult has a lot of the same diversity issues as Young Adult. You can find an overview of the session here and a link to their NA RA blog.
Karen Geeks Out Over the 3D Printer
To have a totally geeky moment: I FINALLY SAW A 3D PRINTER. I have been truly fascinated by the 3d printer concept in part because I couldn’t figure out how it worked and what the final product looked like. There was one in the Exhibits Hall as well as some finished products, including a model of a bridge and a working whistle. I really want one.
Meeting the Authors – and You!
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From Left to Right: Christa Desir author of Faultline, Sharon Biggs Waller author of A Mad, Wicked Folly and Mindy McGinnis author of Not a Drop to Drink |
Another great part of ALA is seeing people you know and love, meeting new people, and meeting some of the authors that write the books you love. I spent a lot of time with fellow TLTers, my mentor and adopted mom, and met some amazing authors, publishers, and Erinn Batkyefer from The Library is Incubator Project for the first time. Even though we have been working together for 2 years now on the It Came from a Book project, this is the first time we have met in person. She stood in line with me while I waited to get a signed copy of Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry. Speaking of Maberry, I got the very first signed ARC of Fire and Ash, the final book in the Rot & Ruin series. I also was willing to stand in line to meet Sean Beaudoin, because I like not only his books, but a lot of his online writing.
I had dinner with debut author Mindy McGinniss and an author you may have heard of, Veronica Roth. I had the most fascinating conversation with Roth about Divergent and a scene in it, which she said if she was writing it now she might leave out. I also got to talk to Michael Grant about the BZRK series, which is a great series and should probably be marketed as awesome Sci Fi instead of awesome YA, because I think it has just as much adult appeal (and adult voice) as the works of Michael Crichton and Phillip K. Dick. Having now met author Mindy McGinnis in person, it looks like we may be presenting together in April at TLA (I’ll tell you more when I can make an official announcement).
I am not going to lie, I had the best time ever at ALA. I feel like I learned a lot, met a lot of great fellow librarians and authors, and really just felt invigorated and full of new ideas that I wanted to take back and try. And yes, I discovered a lot of new books that I want to investigate further. In fact, I used my phone to take pictures of the covers. I will write about the books in a separate post.
Did you go to ALA? Share your highlights with us in the comments.
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The Mr. will make this shocked face! |
This is the true story of how the following post came to be. Earlier this year, Lois Lowry did a guest post here at TLT and I went home exploding in excitement to my husband. “Who’s Lois Lowry?”, he asked. So, after realizing that I had failed him as a librarian, I mentioned that she was a 2-time Newbery winning author. You know, the author of The Giver (it turns out, he has never read it.) So, he looked at me and said, “If you can get Jonathan Maberry to do a guest post, then I will be impressed.” He obviously is a huge fan of Jonathan Maberry. And Mr. Maberry was kind enough to help me impress my husband by doing this interview here at TLT. So thank you! I promise, I will gloat.
So, to my zombie loving husband, I present you with an interview with Jonathan Maberry. Be impressed!
TLT: What have you learned from your books about surviving the zombie apocalypse? What should we do and what should we not do?
My first move would be to make some protective gear out of carpet and duct tape. You can’t bite through it –I checked with forensic ondontologists (bite experts). Then I’d grab my wife and my katana, a weapon I’ve been training with and teaching for nearly fifty years, and head out to the nearest food distribution center. Those buildings are huge, they have few windows, they have trucks, they have their own back-up generators and they have enough food and supplies to outwait anything. Using that as a base, I’d round up survivors, a tanker truck of gasoline, more weapons, and we’d start making plans.
TLT: What books have made you afraid to turn off the light?
TLT: Everyone at TLT is a huge fan of the Rot & Ruin series, I am very excited that it has been optioned and should soon be coming to the movie screen. What is the optioning process? And what role will you be playing in the movie development?
TLT: As a teen librarian, it seems like we are often asking ourselves “how do we get teen guys to read?” What type of a reader were you as a teen? What really moved or entertained you? How do you incorporate who you were as a teen reader into writing for teens today?
TLT: What do you wish teen guys knew about reading?
TLT: Will Rot & Ruin be getting the graphic novel treatment?
TLT: I would love to sit down and talk with you about the characters and situations in Rot & Ruin, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with questions or get to spoilery. But I know you have done school and bookstore visits, what does an author get from doing these type of visits and interacting with readers? And do you have a school or library visit that you would like to share?
Usually at least one kid in the audience will ask a challenging question in hopes of putting me on the spot. But I always respect the question and the questioner. And often that’s the point at which we dive deep into a real conversation.
JONATHAN MABERRY: Dude…you didn’t think your wife could snag an interview with me. But, hey…check it out. (Haven’t you learned that wives have super powers?)
Jonathan Maberry is the New York Times bestselling and multiple Bram Stoker Award winning author of multiple novels for teens and adults, including the Rot & Ruin series and Joe Ledger series. If you haven’t read them, check them out. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanMaberry. You can also “like” him on Facebook.
All the places Jonathan Maberry is mentioned on TLT:
Book Review: Rot & Ruin
Book Review: Flesh & Bone
Reading the Zombie Apocalypse
What’s the Deal with Zombies Anyway?
Top 10 Tips for Surviving the Apocalypse
Please feel free to leave a comment telling Jonathan Maberry how much you love his books. Or to leave The Mr. a “neener neener” in the comments.
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Releases September 12, 2012 from Simon & Schuster ISBN 9781442439894 |
Throughout this book, the gang makes some really shocking discoveries. The reader is given a lot of information on the origin of the outbreak and what’s left of the country. Unfortunately, we lose one and possibly two members of our group, while making a very powerful and resourceful friend (who will be familiar to any of you who have read some of Jonathan’s other series).
It doesn’t matter how many zombie/post-apocalyptic books I read, there is just something about the way Jonathan Maberry writes them that makes me grateful zombies haven’t eaten my brains and left me incapable of reading. This is probably one of the most “grown-up” YA series I’ve read, and with the inclusion of the deep, religious fanaticism and the desperation of the group after losing so much, this is certainly the most adult book of the series. The only thing that wore on me was the dialogue between Nix and Benny and the feeling that every conversation was going to turn into an argument, but I looked past it because they’re trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic, zombie, wasteland…so I’m sure tensions are high. For me at least, it had the right amount of “feeling”, with relationships forming and relationships being torn apart without becoming melodramatic. (The zombies may have left my brain, but they certainly took my heart…in more ways than one.)
Overall, a great addition to a great series and I recommend it whole-heartedly. I can’t wait to finish off the series with Fire & Ash next year. – Chris
Karen’s Take: I too am a HUGE Rot & Ruin series fan and was waiting anxiously to read book 3, Flesh and Bone. As Chris said, there is just something about Maberry and his ZA books that speak to the heart – erm – the brains of us. Book 3 introduces a lot of new characters and twists, explores our weary gang of survivors a little more deeply, and brings in some fun crossover from another popular Maberry series. As someone who has studied religion (in my case, the Christian faith), I always find it interesting how survivors in a post apocalyptic world twist the nuances of faith to fit their ever change needs and knowledge, it seems to come up in almost every ZA book I read. Meeting the new players slows down the front matter of the book a little, but rest assured that there is plenty of action and insight to keep series readers invested and hanging on for the final book, Fire & Ash. Flesh & Bone is also, interestingly enough, a great book that looks at dealing with grief. I thought this aspect of the story was handled incredibly well and rang true, especially in light of the fact that fans of the series are grieving just as much as the main characters.
If you read the Ledger novels (written for adults), you know that Maberry does action really well. But if you read the Rot & Ruin novels you know that he also does character development really well and somehow finds the perfect balance between the two. Also, the Rot & Ruin series will fit nicely into your multicultural book displays as well as your dystopian and zombie book displays. I, personally, am hoping they are made into movies.
I give Flesh & Bone 4.5 out of 5 stars. The Rot & Ruin series is one of my go to series for readers of all ages when doing one on one reader’s advisory, and it is a great read for guys.
Looking for more zombie books? Here are some of our favorite zombie books. Tell us yours in the comments.
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