This was my fourth time going to Rochester's Teen Book Festival! This amazing event that brings
authors and readers together from all over the country is pretty
unique! First of all it is free, which is amazing. Teens all over
fund raise to keep it that way all year long and it makes it so
incredibly special. Another reason it is so special was Stephanie
Squicciarini, the founder of TBF. She passed away earlier this year
and is truly missed, but I think everyone could feel her there
though. She put so much time and effort into making the festival as
amazing as it is. She put everything she had into it and would do
some really crazy things to raise funds (my favorites were dying her
hair into a rainbow of colors and wearing a prom dress)! This year
during the opening ceremony they did a wonderful 13 second cheer to
honor her and the 13th TBF and I have got to be honest I
was pretty much sobbing while I yelled my heart out. I had met her a
couple times in passing throughout the years. I remember thanking her
once for creating such fantastic event and she was so happy to hear
that I enjoyed it. Stephanie was a truly remarkable woman and I hope
TBF goes on in her memory for many, many years to come.
This year I was incredibly excited to
go with two TBF newbies! I went with my friends, Allison and Katie.
Rochester is a couple hours away from us so we had to leave pretty
much at dawn to get there and had a great ride catching up (we've not
seen each other in a while) and singing to Disney songs!
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| The Authors show off their fan made capes! |
Most of the big events at TBF take
place in the Nazareth College's Gym, including the opening ceremony
with the annual game show hosted by Charles Benoit, most of the
signings, the door prizes, TBF Shop, and the books that BN sells!
This year all the authors had handmade TBF capes and played two facts
and a fiction (which for some reason was really hard for them)! It's
a great way to kick off the day!
One of the other great things that
makes TBF special is that teens are 100% the focus. Teens volunteer
during it, make the designs for the t-shirts and the program, have
their own panel of teen authors, and most importantly they have
priority seating at the panels! Usually every year there is at least
one of my favorite Young Adult authors that I must meet. This year
was different as it was Allison's favorite, Tamora Pierce, that we
were determined to make seeing her panel with Bruce Coville a
priority. So that was our first stop after the game show, but we
couldn't get in as there were so many teens! Which is of course a
great problem to have at a teen festival!
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| Roshani Chokshi and Claire Legrand during their panel in the Chapel! |
We decided that we would try again for
Tammy and Bruce's next panel and went to see Roshani Chokshi and
Claire Legrand! I am so glad we did because the two of them were
hilarious! They were fantastic together and I truly believe that they
should write a book together because it would be the funniest and
creepiest thing I have ever read. Both authors talked about ideas for
books that they have had that are horrible and honestly I think it
made everyone feel better, because not every idea is good. They
chatted about Hogwarts houses and their patronuses (Roshani is pure
Slytherin with a shrew and Claire is a RavenPuff like me with an
ocelot)! At one point, Roshani mentioned that her daemon would be a
crow because she once almost fell off a cliff looking at a shiny
shell! I also loved their advice about writing: finishing a story is
the hardest thing so find the stamina to just see everything to the
end and then decide how you feel about it!
By the end of that first session the
three of us were starving so we headed out to see what food trucks
had come! Katie and I had great poutine and Allison had some pretty
good burgers! Once fed, we made our way back to see if we could get
into the Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville panel and this time we were
lucky enough to be able to sit on the floor on the side of the room!
Tamora and Bruce are best friends and critique partners and you can
tell! They are amazing together! Allison has been telling me for
years that I need to read one of Tammy's books and when I finally did
in preparation for TBF I was so glad I did (I read Alanna, by
the way)! Allison has every right to tell me “I told you so”
because Tamora is beyond words. She is in her 60s and her health
isn't the greatest but oh my gosh does that woman have spirit! She is
hilarious and her friendship with Bruce is fabulous. At one point she
warned a reader, “don't start with him. He will challenge you to a
duel” over the proper color of a unicorn (white, obviously). They
are both such characters themselves that it is no wonder that scores
of people around the Globe absolutely adore them and their books!
They, too, gave brilliant advice, such as always drawing a map of
your setting no matter how big or small, get a partner that is
honestly straight with you, and when you are stuck for an idea go
back to those obsessions you had as a kid because your brain was
obviously doing research when you didn't even realize it!
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| Bruce Coville and Tamora Pierce during their talk! |
After experiencing Tamora and Bruce,
the three of us headed to a different building to hear Jennifer
Castle speak. All day I had been telling Katie and Allison about how
much I enjoyed her book, Together at Midnight! After
hearing her talk about it and how it is about random acts of kindness
they both were sold on reading it which made me so happy! Jennifer
told us about how she has a key word that sums up each of her novels
and how she is always thinking about “What if” to think of plots.
Then
it was the big moment! The time for meeting the authors and getting
autographs. After 4 festivals I have mastered how to maximize the
Authors I am able to meet and the key is having a friend with you.
One of you stands in the longest line while the other goes into
shorter lines and then you switch! I also do not own books for all
the authors I want to meet as I read a lot of books from the library,
but I always have something for them to sign! A little known fact of
TBF is that their website has downloadable posters of the authors
that can be printed! I always do this and all the authors are always
so surprised and excited! Authors I met this year include (asterisk
indicates book signed instead of poster) :
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| Margaret Peterson Haddix signs my copy of The Palace of Mirrors! |
Jennifer
Castle*
Roshani
Chokshi
Bruce
Coville
Margaret
Peterson Haddix*
Rachel
Hartman
Justina
Ireland
Brigid
Kemmerer*
Brendan
Kiely
Alisa
Kwitney
Claire
Legrand*
Taran
Matharu
Dana
Mele
Tamora
Pierce*
A question I often get is what I talk
to the authors about! Well, usually I start off my telling them that
it is an honor to meet them. I never forget how lucky I am to be able
to have such a cool and unique experience. Before they sign or
sometimes during I tell them about bits and pieces of their books
that I loved! I told Claire Legrand how much I loved her ghosts in
The Year of Shadows and
how original they were! I mentioned to Roshani Chokshi that I loved
that she mixed Hindu Mythology with Hades and Persephone legends in
The Star-Touched Queen!
And to Jennifer Castle, I started to cry because of how much I loved
how well she wrote about kindness in her novel, Together
at Midnight!
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| Allison and Katie meeting Tamora Pierce! |
I think my favorite part of the day though was seeing Allison interact with her heroine, Tamora Pierce! I was so excited and happy for her that I almost couldn't contain it! In fact I basically didn't, as I think I talked to Tammy more about how excited about Allison talking to her than I said how much I was glad to meet her!
Teen
Book Festival in Rochester is without a doubt the best book event in
the World. Everyone who has been agrees. I am fortunate that I live
so close and am able to go so often! I completely recommend going!
Keep an eye out on my Signings page for more in depth descriptions of
meeting the authors listed above as well as more photos of me with
them!! They will be posted shortly!
~Laura!
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