This week, Scholastic authors talk romance; Don Tate celebrates a significant historical figure; Angie Thomas, Nic Stone, Kimberly Jones, and Christina Hammonds Reed have a heart-to-heart; and Alice McGinty and Alan Havis take a coastal journey.
Love on the Brain
On August 15, independent bookshops across the country celebrated the second annual Bookstore Romance Day. To celebrate, Scholastic hosted a virtual romance panel on its I Read YA YouTube channel, featuring authors Mason Deaver (I Wish You All The Best), Leah Johnson (You Should See Me in a Crown), Debbie Rigaud (Truly Madly Royally), and Lucas Rocha (Where We Go from Here), moderated by editorial director David Levithan. Guests could purchase books with signed bookplates from various independent bookstores and were able to enter to win an I Read YA prize pack.
Still Celebrating
Earlier this month, author-illustrator Don Tate participated in the 150th Dr. James Still Family Community Day virtual event, discussing and reading from his forthcoming picture book William Still and His Freedom Stories: The Father of the Underground Railroad (Peachtree). Dr. James Still, the “Black Doctor of the Pines,” was a self-taught physician and herbalist, the older brother of William Still, abolitionist and Father of the Underground Railroad.
Speak Up
In the beginning of the month, North Texas Teen Book Festival kicked off its first online program in the new NTTBF Presents virtual author program series, co-hosted by the Irving Public Library. “Raise Your Voice,” the first YA panel, moderated by Booktuber Nai’a Perkins, featured Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose, HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray), Nic Stone (Dear Justyce, Crown), Kimberly Jones (I’m Not Dying with You Tonight, co-authored with Gilly Segal, Sourcebooks Fire), and Christina Hammonds Reed (The Black Kids, Simon & Schuster) in conversation.
Going Up the Coast
Last month, Alice McGinty and Alan Havis, co-authors of the picture book The Sea Knows, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis (S&S/Wiseman), embarked on a 23-day July tour, road-tripping to 51 independent bookstores along the East Coast. Here, McGinty and Havis pose with gifts in the Little Boho Bookshop in Bayonne, N.J. The picture book imparts facts about the marine world.
