Reading Matters 2013 Recap

This year I attended the 10th biennial Reading Matters Conference in Melbourne, hosted by the Centre for Youth Literature. This was no cheap or easy feat as I flew over from Perth for the weekend at the pointy end of my uni semester. But it was well worth it and I wanted to share the experience with you all. Unfortunately this post has been sitting in my 'drafts' folder since June, long forgotten when uni got hectic, much like the blog, which has suffered this year due to my increasing work load. So even though it is six months late, I do still want a record of the amazing time I had so here is a little recap of the 2013 Reading Matters Conference.

Reception

Thursday 30th May 2013

The conference kicked off with a reception at the State Library of Victoria where all the conference guests could mingle with each other and the visiting authors. I ran into some lovely librarians from Perth and various other book industry people. I then spied blogger Danielle of ALPHA Reader and Adele from Persnickety Snark, who also now happens to be the Program Coordinator at the Centre for Youth Literature! Adele then made a point of introducing me to all the lovely authors, which was insanely intimidating (but VERY much appreciated) because, hello, YA royalty! I met Gayle Forman, Libba Bray, Myke Bartlett, Vikki Wakefield (who I met earlier in the year at PWF), Fiona Wood, Emily Gale and Leanne Hall and everyone was so lovely to meet and chat to, and many knew me via my blog which was so flattering!

You can check out Danielle's recap of the reception here.

L-R: Danica (Pages and Pages), Tim Sinclair, me, Gayle, Danielle, Adele and Fiona.

With Gayle, Libba, Danielle and Adele

With Myke and Vikki

Conference Day 1

Friday 31st May 2013

The first panel of the day was chaired by Adele and titled Action! with Gayle Forman, Tim Sinclair and Raina Telgemeier discussing writing about teen experiences. When asked why they choose to write about teens, Tim said because grown ups are boring (agreed!) and Gayle said it's about reliving the teen years and making them better. Raina commented that kids are the same no matter where they are from, they all have hopes and dreams and when Adele asked if YA is a genre or a readership, Tim replied, "it's awesome", much to the agreement of everyone in the room!

Some other snippets from the session:

• Gayle compared librarians to crack dealers in that they distribute things that are addictive. This got lots of laughs from the audience which was largely made up of librarians.

• Gayle's idea for Just One Day came from a dream about a warehouse in Paris.

• Gayle didn't think If I Stay would 'go' anywhere when she was writing it (It became a best-seller seller and the film adaptation is currently filming).

• The lovable Dee from Just One Day actually came from another novel idea which she had 'shelved'

• Tim said, his novel Run, which is written in verse and about parkour, is about tricking people into reading poetry

• Tim got huge laughs when he commented that the poetry section in bookstores is where books go to die (as a poet, he is allowed to say this so poetry lovers, don't go hating!) and that he would be upset if his books were put there.

With Gayle

At question time, the authors were asked what their next projects were. Gayle is working on a suicide/mystery/love story tentatively titled A Code Unknown (now recently announced as I Was Here). Tim is working on "an actual book" as opposed to a verse novel and Raina has a companion to Smile, (which sold out at the conference bookstore within the first half hour of the 2 day conference!) called Sisters, which will be released in 2014. Gayle also told us that the If I Stay film was starting to come together with a new director (RJ Cuter) and that they were in the final discussions as to who would play Mia. As we all now know, If I Stay is currently filming with the amazing Chloe Grace Moretz cast as Mia and will be released sometime in 2014.

Next was a segment called Graphics Alive in which illustrator Sarah Howell did an exercise on drawing emotions. She wrote different emotions on  a piece of paper and then asked us what our facial features did and then drew them. She also showed us how Grimace works, a blending emotions simulator.

The second panel of the day was chaired by Jordi Kerr from the Centre for Youth Literature and was titled Is there an app for that? It featured Fiona Wood, John Flanagan and Paul Callaghan and discussed "stories and communities in a brave new world". I was busy listening and forgot to take notes but I did scribble down a couple of things Fiona said, such as "I write a book I'd love to read". When talking about her new novel Wildlife (a companion to her debut Six Impossible Things), Fiona said she felt Lou and Fred didn't have enough page time in Six Impossible Things and her Wildlife protagonist, Sibylla, needed a friend like Lou. I also took this picture of John checking out photos of the LARP (Live Action Role Play) of his series Ranger's Apprentice...

John checking out LARP of Ranger's Apprentice

The big surprise of the day, possibly the whole conference, was a talk by UK author Keith Gray called Gatekeepers - the good, the bad and my mother. Keith was a fantastic speaker and really hit the nail on the head when it came to discussing people stopping kids and young adults from reading certain books. 

A few golden nuggets from Keith:

• "Reading is about opening your mind, learning to look at the world from a strangers point of view"
• "I am yet to hear of a convicted criminal being influenced by James and the Giant Peach" - in regards to banned and challenged books in the US.
• "The best gatekeepers are the readers themselves"
• "Fiction is a safety net"
• "Trust the reader"

Keith's speech in full can be found on the Centre for Youth Literature's website and I highly recommend it.

Me with Keith

By this point I had pretty much given up trying to take notes as I was too busy listening to each of the speakers. The afternoon featured the Everyone's a critic session with Myke Bartlett, Alison Croggon and Morris Gleitzman, and Challenge accepted with Ambelin Kwaymullina, Andrew McGahan and Garth Nix.

"I never dreamed of writing epic anything cos I get sore wrists" - Morris Gleitzman

"I was writing for the kids who didn't have the perfect life" - Ambelin Kwaymullina

The final session of the day, You can't say that! was with Libba Bray, Vikki Wakefield and Gabrielle Williams. I managed to scribble down that Libba said in the US, censorship is more about language than sex or violence. And Gabrielle told us how her US publishers wanted to replace the character of Jesus in her novel The Reluctant Hallelujah, with Elvis.

Libba, Vikki, Gabrielle and Kim Kane

And what's next for Vikki, Libba and Gabrielle? Vikki is working on a love story with a dual point of view. Libba is working on the sequel to The Diviners with all new evil and 1920's avengers. And Gabrielle is writing a novel set in 1986 with four characters, two who are 17 and two who are 23. There is crime, intrigue and romance.

There were many more amazing quotes but I just couldn't get them down fast enough and listen at the same time! Danielle was far more efficient than me and has written a tremendous recap of all the Day One talks in full detail, making you feel like you were sitting there next to us. Check out Danielle's post over at ALPHA Reader.

Conference Day 2
Saturday 1st June 2013

Day Two started with Raina Telgemeier discussing My life in comics. Raina retold how her comic career began and evolved and shared with us the long process it takes to create her comics. She talked about what inspired her to create Smile and Drama and then did a little illustration for us on the projector. As well as creating Sisters, the sequel to Smile, Raina continues to turn the classic Babysitters Club stories into graphic novels.

Raina

Zac over at My Best Friends are Books has done a great recap of this session here.

What's yours is mine was second on the bill for the day with Alison Croggon, Andrew McGahan and Gabrielle Williams exploring "creation through adaptation". Gabrielle discussed how the structure of The Reluctant Hallelujah was influenced by The Wizard of Oz, with each of her characters with resembling characteristics. For those who have read it, Dodie - Dorothy, Coco - Toto, Enron - Scarecrow, Jones - Tinman, and Taxi - Lion.

"Sometime you can go on an adventure that isn't about you, it's bigger than yourself" - Gabrielle Williams

See Danielle's post for further info on this session.

Alison, Andrew and Gabrielle

Myke Bartlett, Fiona Wood and Libba Bray were up next to discuss gender and identity in YA with Jordi Kerr. This was quite a highly-charged session with panel members and the audience getting riled up about the constant 'distinction' between girl books and boy books, who will read them, who won't, and the marketing ploys of publishing houses to appeal to who they think will be the most likely readers. 

Libba, Myke, Fiona and Jordi

I'm sure you have all noticed the increase in the number of YA novels with headless girls wearing beautiful dresses (here is a post I recently found that places a bunch of these side-by-side) on covers and I am reminded of a talk I saw last year with Melina Marchetta who said she was very opinionated as to how the cover of Quintana of Charyn was to look. The character is not some pretty, magical looking girl and she didn't want the cover to resemble another 'made-up girl' floating through a forest or beach or whatever (ok, I'm paraphrasing here, but that is essentially what she said) and not reflect the character in any way. When I worked in the book store, it would make me so mad when parents wouldn't buy a excellent book I recommended just because they didn't think their son would read the book because it had a female protagonist, or a girl on the cover, or god-forbid, the author was female! It was/is so utterly frustrating. The Maureen Johnson Coverflip Experiment was brought up during the session and if you haven't heard of it, check it out.

"Books are about understanding the 'other'" - Libba Bray
"Read Books, become better humans" -Jordi Kerr

For a play-by-play recap of this session, check out Danielle's detailed post here.

With Fiona

Next up was I sing the body electric with Paul Callaghan, and then Outsider, outside with Garth Nix, Tim Sinclair and Vikki Wakefield. By this stage I had completely given up taking notes so please stop by Zac's post or Danielle's post to see what these fantastic people had to say.

With Vikki

The Inky long list was announced in the afternoon which is an annual teen literature award run by Inside A Dog, the Centre for Youth Literature's website, and winners are voted for online by the readers of the website. The nominees are listed below, with the winner for each highlighted in green as they were announced a couple of weeks ago.

Gold Inky
Australian Award
Fire in the Sea by Myke Bartlett
Girl Defective by Simmone Howell
My Life as an Alphabet by Barry Jonsberg
Cry Blue Murder by Kim Kane and Marion Roberts
Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina
A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix
City by James Roy
Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield
Wildlife by Fiona Wood

Silver Inky
International Award
The Diviners by Libba Bray
This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles
Hostage Three by Nick Lake
Every Day by David Levithan
The Originals by Cat Patrick
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

To finish the conference, Gayle Forman, Morris Gleitzman and Keith Gray where guests for the Unleashing YA panel. Zac has a great recap of this session over at My Best Friends are Books which I recommend checking out and Danielle once again has this session covered in her Day Two post.

Gayle, Morris, Keith and Adele

This was my first Reading Matters Conference and I had such a wonderful time and met so many great people. It was definitly a highlight of my year and I look forward to the 2015 conference. Big shout out to the Centre for Youth Literature crew for putting together such a terrific program and for all their hard work leading up to and over the conference weekend. You guys rock! x

With Libba Bray

Bumped into Emily Gale and cornered her to sign
her debut novel, Steal My Sunshine

The swag of signed books I had to fit into my suitcase...

My beautiful signed books <3 span="">

Other recaps of Reading Matters 2013
Danielle at ALPHA Reader
Zac at My Best Friends are Books
Adele at Persnickety Snark
Vikki Wakefield's blog

I was lucky enough to also be invited by Gayle to hangout with her, Annette and Rachel, fellow bloggers who run Looking on the Side of Wonder. The day after the conference finished, we met Gayle at her hotel and then walked through Carlton Gardens to Brunswick Street where we did some window shopping and grabbed lunch.

I hope everyone checked out the #yamatters tag on Twitter because there were some truly awesome quotes put up over the weekend (in particular on the 31st May and 1st June) and the hashtag is ongoing so keep an eye out.

Have you heard the news?

There have been quite a few announcements in the last couple of weeks so I thought I would sum them all up for you.

The cover for the final book in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy has been revealed. Isn't it stunning?! Dreams of Gods and Monsters will be released April 2014. You can also read a "brief tantalizing excerpt" here. 

  

Maggie Stiefvater has shared the news that she has written a companion novel to Shiver. The standalone story, titled Sinner, will feature Cole and Isabel in Los Angeles and will be released July 2014. You can read more about it here.

The co-authors of the Caster Chronicles series have announced they are writing a new series featuring the characters Link and Ridley who readers first met in Beautiful Creatures. Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl will first release an e-novella, Dangerous Dream, on December 17th 2013, and then  follow it with the first novel, Dangerous Creatures, on May 6th 2014. Read more about it here.

 

And unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that Jamie Blackley has been cast as Adam alongside Chloe Moretz's Mia in the adaptation of Gayle Forman's best-selling novel, If I Stay.

 

J.K. Rowling is writing a script for a Harry Potter spin-off focused around the fictional author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film will feature Newt Scamander in New York and will be set about 70 years before Harry Potter. Read more about it here.

 

Filming of City of Ashes, the follow up to the film adaptation of Cassandra Clare's City of Bones, has been delayed with no set date as to when it will start and the possibility of it being cancelled all together. Find out why, here. 

John Green with Ansel Elgort (Augustus), 

Nat Wolff (Issac) and Shailene Woodley (Hazel).

(Source)

And finally, if you are a fan of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (and if you're not, why not?!) then you will surely be interested in following all the news from the film set. John Green has been visiting regularly and keeping us up to date with what is going and sharing plenty of happy snaps from the set. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.

So, what are your thoughts on all these bits of gossip? Are you excited for Sinner and Dangerous Dream or are you sick of spin-off/companion novels?  Should the filming go ahead for City of Ashes or did you dislike what they did with City of Bones? Are you happy with the casting of Jamie Blackley as Adam or was there someone else you thought would be perfect? Post in the comments below :) 

Happy Saturday to all xx

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Day

Author: Gayle Forman

Release Date: 8th January 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

In A Nutshell:
I loved Just One Day. A lot can happen in one day. It can change your life and it does just that for eighteen-year-old Allyson. It was absolutely amazing to see the transformation she goes through over the course of a year, following her one day. How Allyson deals with depression, love, loss, friendships, family, college and parental expectations is nothing short of a pleasure to read.

My Review:
The basis of Just One Day is the idea that anything can happen in one day. While I started the book thinking it was about how you can fall in love in a day, I now believe that is just an undercurrent and that more so, in a day, your whole life can be set on a different course.

After a random, whirlwind meeting and adventure with Dutch amateur theatre actor Willem, eighteen-year-old Allyson is devastated by the way their day in Paris turns out. Returning to the US in a depressed funk, Allyson can’t seem to get her life back on track; her best friend Melanie can’t understand why she can’t just get over it, her uninformed parents can’t understand the changes in her personality, and her new college roommates don’t know what to think of her. It’s always difficult for people to understand what someone is going through unless they have experienced something similar as they can’t comprehend the need for closure. But for Allyson, it’s far more than some smooth guy using and ditching her. While she was with him, she got a taste of who the real Allyson is; the Allyson she hasn’t allowed herself to discover in order to keep everyone around her happy. Now that she has ‘met’ her, she can’t just go back to the life her parents’ mapped-out for her.

I loved Just One Day. It was absolutely amazing to see the transformation that Allyson goes through and how she deals with depression, love, loss, friendships, family, college and expectations. Now don’t get me wrong, I was intrigued by Willem’s character and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though my ‘spidey-sense’ was telling me he was a player, just as Allyson’s self-doubt made her think he couldn’t actually like her. But like Allyson, I pushed it away, choosing to focus on the positive signs rather than the negative ones. And hey, their time in the artist squat was hot as. But their story went in a different direction. No matter how short their time together was, and no matter how it ended, Allyson made a profound connection in that time, whether with Willem or herself, it doesn’t matter, because the pain is real and the loss is felt.

Back in the US, Allyson wallows in a self-pitying depression. She feels empty as though something, or someone, is missing from her life. The realisation comes slowly, that it is not just the beautiful boy she is mourning, but her identity. To rediscover the person she was in Paris means Allyson has to change the way her life is now. She knows she will be disappointing her parents but if the medical school route they planned for her means forgoing her own happiness, then what is the point of living if only to be miserable the entire time?

As she slowly begins to rediscover herself, she branches out: taking chances, changing the course her life has been put on and, much to her bewilderment, makes some unlikely new friends. Her search for the answers about what really happened with Willem leads her to a Shakespeare class, a café job, French lessons, and then once again, Europe, where the new Allyson takes challenges in her stride.

The people Allyson meets along her journey are so completely endearing. Her Shakespeare study buddy Dee, the enthusiastic and genuine bartender Modou, her fellow travellers, and the zesty but somewhat wounded Wren, who was probably my favourite supporting character of them all. And I really liked the way Forman portrayed the friendship between Allyson and her childhood friend Melanie. It’s good to recognise that people change and that through no fault of either party, they grow apart. They can be going through different things in their lives and while some friendships will last, others will just naturally fizzle out. But with relinquishing old friendships also comes new and amazing ones and Allyson’s happiness and enthusiasm coincides with these.

I’d like to do a quick shout-out to some of the locations featured in the book. Excluding Mexico and Florida, it is set in Boston, Paris, London and Amsterdam, and since I have been to all of them, I know that Forman really captured the essence of the cities. I think that any reader, either well-travelled or not, can absolutely connect with the feelings and anticipations that Allyson has while travelling to each place. Her travels brought back my memories of visiting these cities for the first time, and then the jolt of familiarity I had upon returning and recognising places, just as Allyson has when she returns to Paris.

It will be very interesting to see how our assumptions of Willem play out in Just One Year, as Forman presents us with Willem’s story starting from the fateful morning in Paris when everything goes wrong. At the ending of Just One Day, I am not the biggest fan of Willem’s, whereas I am so proud of Allyson and all that she experienced and challenged herself with in the year following her meeting with Willem. I am a massive fan of Where She Went, Adam’s story and the male point of view from Forman’s amazing If I Stay/Where She Went companion novels so I’m interested to see how I take to reading the year from Willem’s point of view.

Massive amounts of love and respect for this book. Love your work Gayle!

New Gayle Forman Titles Announced

So in case you missed the big news in the YA world this week, Gayle Forman announced she will be releasing two new books in 2013 and 2014. They are not a series, but companion novels, and will not have anything to do with fan favourites Adam and Mia.

From Gayle's website:

"Can you fall in love in just one day? Can you become a new person? How about in just one year? In JUST ONE DAY and its companion novel JUST ONE YEAR, sheltered American good girl Allyson “LuLu” Healey and easygoing actor Willem De Ruiter are about to find out against a guidebook-worthy array of foreign backdrops. Equal parts romance, coming-of-age-tale, mystery and travel romp (with settings that span from England’s Stratford upon Avon to Paris to Amsterdam to India’s Bollywood) JUST ONE DAY and JUST ONE YEAR show how in looking for someone else, you just might wind up finding yourself."

Head over to Gayle's blog to read her answers to some FAQ about the future of Mia and Adam and more details about her new books.

Are you excited for Just One Day and Just One Year?
I am!

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Title: Where She Went
Series: If I Stay Book 2
Author: Gayle Forman

Release Date: 1st April 2011

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

It's been three years since Mia walked out of Adam's life. And there years he's spent wondering why.

When their paths cross again in New York City, Adam and Mia are brought back together for one life-changing night.

Adam finally has the opportunity to ask Mia the questions that have been haunting him. But will a few hours in this magical city be enough to lay their past to rest, for good - or can you really have a second chance at first love?

What I thought of If I Stay:
"This is a beautiful and heart-wrenching story that is not only about love, but also about what makes a family, the meaning of friendship and the magic of music."

My Review:
I'm warning you now, this is going to be a long review because I absolutely loved everything about Where She Went. It picks up three years after Mia awoke from her coma in If I Stay and, unlike If I Stay, Where She Went is entirely from Adam's perspective.

Adam is in pain. After his band became the biggest thing in the music biz, thanks to the songs he wrote about the hurt and confusion he suffered after Mia left, Adam is hounded day and night by reporters and the paparazzi. Everyone wants to know the story behind the music, but Adam and the band aren't talking. Adam just wants to be left in peace. His love of music has dwindled and he floats through life with the aid of prescription drugs and cigarettes to calm his nerves and anxiety. He's lost all connection to everyone around him, including the band and always feels alone, even when he is surrounded by people.

I can't help but think about how, when I was younger, I'd read about the legions of artists who imploded - Morrison, Joplin, Cobain, Hendrix. They disgusted me. They got what they wanted and then what did they do? Drugged themselves to oblivion. Or shot their heads off. What a bunch of assholes.

Well, take a look at yourself now. You're no junkie but you're not much better.

Adam is heartbroken and I found it really interesting to experience this from a male's point of view, as most YA's I read where someone is suffering, is from a female perspective. Throughout the book, we are given the opportunity to see back before Mia's accident and see some of Adam's memories, but also what has been happening with him, and how Mia's accident changed his life, up until the point where we meet up with him in New York. I was really pleased to see Forman explore the effect the accident had on Adam because while what happened to Mia was terrible, people often forget or don't even notice the effect an accident can have on those around the victim.

Where She Went is an emotional roller-coaster ride for Adam and I really wanted him to burst out with his feelings of pain and abandonment to Mia as soon as he saw her, but of course then we wouldn't have a story or the anticipation of waiting to find out what was going through Mia's mind when she left. When she does finally relinquish her reasons, everything comes crashing down around Adam and he has to face some truths he has tried to forget. Quite often I found I had a lump in my throat and towards the end I really had to stop myself from letting some tears leak out.

Mia's words rattle something loose in me and suddenly there are tears all over my damn face again. I haven't cried in three years and now this is like the second time in as many days.

"It's my turn to see you through," she whispers, coming back to me and wrapping me in her blanket as I lose my shit all over again. She holds me until I recover my Y chromosome.

I am totally and completely in love. Not only with this masterpiece of a sequel that Gayle Forman has written but also with Adam; oh how I fall for musicians! And yay for young adult novels with older protagonists (Adam and Mia are now twenty-one). Forman has also spoiled us by including lyrics from Adam's songs at the beginning of each chapter. Where She Went surpasses the brilliance of If I Stay, has a place on my all-time favourites list, and is my current favourite contemporary book of the year.

On a personal note, I love that now, having visited America, I get so much more out of a book as my own experiences help enrich the story. When Adam and Mia wander through New York and different places are mentioned, my own memories of those places come flowing back. I love reading books that are set in cities I have visited. I had the same gushy feelings when I read Anna and the French Kiss.

****SPOILER ALERT****
What I say next basically tells you what happens at the end of Where She Went so do not read any further if you don't want the ending spoiled!
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I would love to read another book in the life of Adam and Mia and have it called 'What We Did' but I have a feeling Gayle Forman has finished writing Adam and Mia's story. *sigh*