At this year’s Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association trade show, held September 29–October 2 at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma, Wash., books for younger readers held their own against big-name adult draws. With a blend of realism – high school dramas and coming-of-age stories remain popular – and the more fantastic, or even dystopian, end of the spectrum, with dragons and other mythical creatures abounding, there was something for everyone. Two young adult titles generating a lot of in-show buzz from publishing reps and booksellers alike were Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland (Putnam), which booksellers and publishing reps agreed stood out because it features a love story from a boy’s point of view; and Sharon Cameron’s The Forgetting (Scholastic Press), a dystopian novel in which everyone forgets everything every 12 years, except for the young female protagonist. Scholastic rep Milena Giunco called the Irish YA thriller The Call by Peadar O’Guilin “one of the creepiest things” she’s read all year, with its Hunger Games-like culling of young people for brutal competitions.

For those high schoolers who’ve tackled Jane Austen and but don’t want to leave the world of Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, there’s Scholastic’s The Secret Diary of Lydia Bennet, a Pride and Prejudice retelling from the point of view of one of the other Bennet sisters (in case anyone needs a refresher, Lydia ran off with the rakish Mr. Wickham). In keeping with the tradition of female protagonists, in the latest installment of Scholastic’s popular I Survived series (I Survived the Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980), a female lead will be featured for the first time. This came as a result of fans – “both boys and girls writing in,” according to the Scholastic rep – asking for a change.

For younger readers, Portland author-illustrator Kate Berube, who drew long lines at Saturday evening’s Sweet and Greet autographing party, returns with a new picture book, Hannah and Sugar (Abrams), about a girl who falls in love with a dog, despite her fear. Berube personalized every copy she signed with a quick sketch of the titular dog, Sugar. With the illustrator being as key to many children’s tales as the writer, it’s no surprise that the Beatrix Potter reissue of The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, is being touted for its new illustrations by Quentin Blake, perhaps best known for his art for Roald Dahl’s novels. Penguin, which is also publishing A Celebration of Beatrix Potter: Art and Letters By More Than 30 of Today’s Favorite Children’s Book Illustrators in November, was keen to point out that celebrated British actress Helen Mirren reads the audio version of Kitty.

Another more recent favorite returns this season with a new installment: Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers’s Crayons series is back with The Crayons’ Book of Numbers, where the sentient doodling implements tackle counting, among other life lessons. One picture book that’s bucking the trend of the shrinking page count is Blue’s Clues co-creator Todd Kessler’s The Good Dog and The Bad Cat (Coralstone Press), the second in his Good Dog series. David Hemphill of Coralstone describes Kessler’s 107-page effort as a “long-form narrative picture book,” something that gives booksellers and parents a “different option” in the picture book category.

Dinner at the Kids Table, held on Friday evening, featured four authors; first up was Jay Asher, who presented what he calls his “perfect Christmas love story,” What Light (Razorbill), a YA novel set on a Christmas tree farm, inspired by one near where he lives. Author-illustrator/Author Carson Ellis described how her picture book Du Iz Tak? (Candlewick), starring bugs speaking a made-up language, was inspired by her hippie childhood in upstate New York where she wondered about the interior lives of the insects she played with. Brandon Mull, author of the Fablehaven series, had something different from his usual books to present: a new activity book, Fablehaven Book of Imagination (Shadow Mountain) to accompany his popular series. The crowd was in stitches as the last author of the evening, David Shannon, presented his latest picture book, Duck on a Tractor (Scholastic/Blue Sky), which featured exactly that: a duck on a tractor, riding through town causing a flurry of activity.