Austin Teen Book Festival 2013

Just a few decades ago, the young adult genre of literature didn't exist; basically, you could read The Bobbsey Twins or Stephen King, there was no middle ground. After S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders was published, with the teenage demographic specifically in mind, the publishing industry began to shift; now Young Adult is not only a genre, but entire sections of the bookstore are designated just for Teen Paranormal Romance Novels. Also, many literary events are being created for teens, like the Young Adult Book Fest and the Austin Teen Book Festival. I've been to dozens of events for young adult books, with amazing authors like David Levithan, John Flanagan, Rick Riordan, and Christopher Paolini.

This is the second year of the Austin Teen Book Festival, and though I only recognized a few of the authors on the roster, I was excited to hear what they had to say.

I went to the lunch speaking event, with Rob Thomas (creator of Veronica Mars!) and Sarah Dessen, and to two panels: Tales of Tomorrow and Truth and Consequences.

 

Although this panel was interesting, I hadn't read any of the books so it was slightly less thrilling than it could have been. Still, the authors were very inspiring and I'm definitely excited to check out some of these books. It's fascinating to see how books located in settings very different from our own can still have problems that are eerily similar to ours, and how they provide an excellent way to showcase some of the flaws in our own society.
 

I generally prefer realistic fiction to dystopian novels (though The Hunger Games is an exception, of course), so I was excited for this panel. I read Openly Straight and Dear Teen Me a few months ago and loved them both.

One of the highlights of the panel was when Sean Beaudoin (author of Wise Young Fool) played a clip of a song from his high school band, titled "Demonic Lust of the Immortal," which was just as fabulous as you might imagine.

Living with Jackie Chan, by Jo Knowles, has been banned, and most of the other books also tackle controversial subjects. The authors talked about how they didn't necessarily set out to write an "issues book," it just kind of happened - they wrote about what was important to them, which happened to be a sensitive topic. Young adult fiction often focuses on dark, gritty topics, which results in many of the books being banned. Though Banned Books Week just ended, it's never too late to read some good old controversial literature.

After seeing this panel, I bought Out of the Pocket (by Bill Konigsberg) and Rats Saw God (by Rob Thomas), and I plan to read the rest of the books discussed too. I'll definitely be going back to the Book Festival next year, and I suggest you do too!

~Maya

p.s. You can see Markus Zusak (author of The Book Thief, which I reviewed) reading from The Outsiders for Banned Book Week here.