Brooklyn Book Festival recap

On Sunday, September 22, I attended the Brooklyn Book Festival for the third time. As it was for the last two years, this one was pretty spectacular, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of it (even though I was fighting off a cold!).

panelists Lauren Myracle, Francesca Lia Block, David Levithan, and moderator Betsy Bird

I was a little late to the first panel I'd wanted to go to, which was "Celebrate Banned Books Week!" with authors David Levithan, Francesca Lia Block, and Lauren Myracle and moderated by librarian Betsy Bird. By the time I got there, the panel was taking questions from the audience, which led to some interesting discussion about the pros and cons of having books banned (most were cons, of course!) and the repercussions of banning books on multiple parties. What was even more awesome about this panel was that it was the first ever YA panel on the Main Stage at BBF—hopefully there will be more prominent YA events to come!

Lois Lowry (l) and Katherine Applegate (r)

The next event I went to featured Lois Lowry in conversation with Katherine Applegate—two spectacular women and writers. It was very cool to hear them talk about how they each started writing, their backgrounds in terms of reading and books, their writing processes, and more. Lois even shared some fun facts about the development of The Giver as a movie. I absolutely loved that book when I first read it back in the sixth grade, so I am intrigued to see how the movie will turn out.

For the other events I attended, I headed over to the Youth Stoop, where most of the YA and children's events are hosted.

moderator John J. Krosoczka and panelists Kekla Magoon, Leila Sales, Eric Luper, John M. Cusick

At 2 p.m., I sat in on "Survey Says!", a fun game show themed panel featuring Leila Sales, Kekla Magoon, Eric Luper, and John M. Cusick and moderated by author Jarrett J. Krosoczka. It was Blouses (the ladies) versus Blazers (the guys) as the panelists tried to figure out the top answers supplied by NYC high school students for a variety of questions, such as the scariest book they've ever read or the book they hated most in high school. The Blouses won (as Leila said, she didn't come there to lose!), but the Blazers were good sports, making for a thoroughly entertaining panel.

panelists Meg Cabot, Sharon Draper, Lauren Myracle and moderator Mitali Dave

Then at 3 p.m., I attended "The Secret Lives of Girls," featuring Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle, and Sharon Draper and moderated by publicist Mitali Dave. I've seen Meg Cabot at a handful of events before, so I knew the event was going to be hilarious—and it was! I had a blast listening to these lovely ladies muse over romance, sexy guys, and what it's like to be a teen girl.

I initially meant to stay for some of the later panels at the Youth Stoop, but as I was unfortunately trying to fight off a cold, I had to admit defeat after getting Meg Cabot's newest book signed for my sister and call it a day.