A Geek is Born
by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 7/25/1997
Just what do teenagers like to read? Sharyn November, a children's/young adult editor at Penguin's Puffin imprint (she's edited four Newbery honor books and two NBA finalists), found out by using the Web. Despite starting out a virulent Luddite ("I still use a typewriter"), she taught herself HTML and "became a geek." Her homepage (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4135/index.html) has "changed everything about how I work, from the books I acquire to the way I write jacket copy." Over the last six months, she's collected responses from more than 1200 kids aged nine to 17 through a publishing poll announced through her Web site. More than 75 librarians contacted her by e-mail and distributed the poll to kids, who "tell me what they read, what they like and what they don't like," November said. The site also offers a bonanza of links (updated daily) to children's and YA literature online -- not to mention up-to--the-minute info about her band (November plays bass), Tinderbox.
