125 Books We Love for Teens: A YA Librarian’s Tales of Censorship, Meeting Authors, Working with Teens and Falling in Love with Books
When I started working at The New York Public Library 22 years ago, I had no idea the adventures I would have. I had moved to the East Coast for my MLS degree but I had no real plans to stay here. On a whim, I applied for a job at a NYPL job fair and here I still am. I remember I was asked if I wanted to be a children’s librarian or YA librarian and I said, “uh either?” and the woman interviewing me said, “Great! We need YA librarians!, “ and again, here I am. About a year later, I remember walking down 34th St, after a school visit, with the traffic noise and people all around me and having a deep-seated feeling that I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing in exactly the place I was supposed to be doing it.
The biggest joy of being a YA librarian is working with teens and getting to know them. I’ve had more than my fair share of memorable moments. I remember being at a middle school that I went to once or twice a year and a teen shyly tapping me on the shoulder to thank me because a book I had booktalked a year before to her class, had become her all-time favorite book (a vampire romance) and it had changed her life. You just never know what book will connect with a teen and make a difference in their life— even a supernatural romance. On another occasion, Angel, a teen boy who’d been coming to my programs for years and hanging out at the library after school, was on the phone with his new girlfriend and telling her that he couldn’t talk to her because he was doing something with his best friend instead. When he got off the phone, I told him he shouldn’t lie to her, he said, “I’m not lying Anne. I am with my best friend,” and then he smiled at me and I realized that he meant me. I mean...career made.
Another great joy has been the books and meeting their creators. I’ve always loved books and reading. Growing up in a small town in Idaho, I pretty much read whatever I could and dreamed of one day meeting all the authors that had written books that made a difference in my life. I still do. In fact, I rarely leave my apartment without two books just in case I finish the book I’m reading and I need to start a new one. Falling in love with a book is a gift that keeps on giving. You never know where a book will take you.
Here are just a few of my stories about the books on the 125 Books We Love for Teens list.
Foreverby Judy Blume
When I was in the 8th grade my copy of Foreverwas confiscated by my shop teacher. Before class started, I’d been reading aloud from it to the rapt attention of my classmates. My teacher grabbed the book from my hands and said I was reading “filth” and asked where I'd gotten it. When I told him my parents, he looked at me dubiously and said if I wanted the book back my parents would have to come get it for me and verify I had permission to read it. When I told my mom she went straight to the school and angrily told my teacher that she and my father never censored my reading and to give me the book back immediately. I don’t think i’d ever seen her so angry at a teacher before. She did tell me, “uh...maybe you shouldn’t read it aloud anymore." Probably sound advice. I did meet Judy Blume once at a NYC book fair. I told her the story and she laughed. She said, “thank your mother for me”. I think she’d heard many similar tales over the years.
Katherine Paterson, Lois Lowry, Paula Danziger
Growing up in the '70s and '80s, these 3 authors were some of my favorites. I dreamed of meeting them one day and telling them how much I loved their books and how they’d helped me get through my teen years and then miraculously, I did. Shortly after I started at NYPL, Lois Lowry was invited to speak to youth librarians and afterwards she met and signed books for us. I met Katharine Paterson at a United Nations event when she was given a Jane Addams Peace Association Book Award in 2003. And, randomly, I met Paula Danziger through a colleague who was her neighbor and who had invited her to speak at a local branch. Imagine being Paula Danziger’s neighbor?! All were as nice and as gracious as you would hope them to be. All I can say is that if you want to meet your favorite authors, it helps being a librarian in New York City.
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Back in March 2005, six months before Twilight was released, a YA colleague of mine handed me an advanced copy of the book he’d gotten from the publisher. He’d liked it ok but knowing my love for supernatural romance thought that it was more for me than him. I read it in one night. I loved it so much. It had all the romance tropes and feels that I adored. When my colleague had dinner with Stephenie a few weeks later he had her sign my arc. When the book came out six months later the whole world found out what I already knew—that a publishing phenomenon had been born. I would meet Stephenie myself a few years later when she visited my branch at the time, Tompkins Square, to promote Eclipse —her only author appearance in the Northeast. A mom drove her daughter and a friend all the way from Maine and a man on a business trip from Sweden came to get a book signed for his daughter and all my local teens made her this huge welcome sign and had a private audience with her. An truly unforgettable experience.
If You Come Softlyby Jaqueline Woodson
Imagine being a librarian, going about your day when one of your favorite authors randomly calls you—you’ve never met before—and asks you for a favor. That’s what happened when Jacqueline Woodson called my branch, Tompkins Square, and asked if she could use the branch to do class visits in. I said,"yes of course!" I got to see her do numerous class visits that day to different ages and grades from schools all over the city. A really special experience.
Perks of Being a Wallflowerby Stephen Chobsky
I hesitate to tell this story...it’s a little embarrassing. Howeve, back in 2000, the night before the big, annual NYPL YA librarian reception to celebrate the release of the “Books for the Teen Age” list, I finished Perks of Being a Wallflower. The next day, at the reception, I met Stephen Chobsky, who came to the event with his new wife and in-laws, and I had absolutely no chill. I was one of the greeters and held myself together as I met him and he went up to mingle. I found him about ten minutes later and we talked and he answered my questions and then he left to mingle some more. Then 10-15 minutes later I found him again and he graciously chatted some more with me. This went on all afternoon until an older librarian finally pulled me aside and said, “maybe you should give the man some time to talk to other people.” Eeeerrr right. My friends nicknamed me “author stalker” after that. In my defence, I had just read and been blown away by a book that is, without a doubt, one of the best books for teens ever written and the author was right there to answer all my questions. What would you have done?
The Princess Diariesby Meg Cabot
There was a time when The Princess Diaries was all the rage that I went to every Meg Cabot event there was. She was so nice and funny. Through that I became friendly with her editor at HarperCollins. At one event, the editor asked me what I was reading and I sheepishly told her about a YA series about teen witches called Circle of Three that I was obsessed with. She looked at me in astonishment and said that Circle of Three was one of the series that she edited and we had a good laugh as she gave me all the inside scoop. Months later, I saw her at another Meg Cabot event and she told me that she had a surprise for me in the last volume of the series. She’d had the author name a new, walk-on character after me and had them make her look like me too. My literary debut! Not exactly what I had in mind but I’ll take it! So if you ever find volume 15 of the Circle of Three series, “The Initiation”, go to pages 127 & 128 and there I am!
Monsterby Walter Dean Myers
I’ve been lucky enough to say that I met Walter Dean Myers many times before his death in 2014. Early on in my career when I was working in Harlem, I shyly went up to him at an event to tell him how much I loved his books and so did the teens at my branch. He was so gracious and kind and congratulated me on working for NYPL and said how wonderful it was that I worked in Harlem. I think he felt in partnership with urban librarians—after all, we were serving the very teens he was writing for and about. On another occasion, I visited a school right before he did, and the school librarian apologized for the chaos but Walter Dean Myers was visiting that afternoon. A student nearby overheard this and goes, “What? Again?” I remember laughing at this jaded NYC teen for being so bored at getting to see an award winning author “again.” She explained that she’d met him when he’d visited her middle school in the Bronx and again at her youth center in Upper Manhattan. I asked her if she’d liked his talks before. “Yeah,” she said, ”He’s totally cool and all but you know, I want to meet other authors too.” It’s clear that when he had the time, Walter pretty much went anywhere he was asked because he knew teens needed to be heard and listened to; that their stories were important.
I’ll Give You the Sunby Jandy Nelson and Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
People often ask me what my current all time favorite YA books are—ACK! It’s so hard to choose just one! In fact, if you ask I’m apt to ball up in a corner from the stress of it all. However, if I had to choose a few books over the last few years that blew me away and reaffirmed my love of reading YA books these two would be near the top.
Reading I'll Give You the Sun was like an out-of-body experience. It felt like i was
floating above everything and then was slammed back into my skin. It’s soothing and jarring all at once. It’s so beautiful, emotional and powerful and the language..I don’t think there are enough adjectives in the English language to describe how much I love this book. It’s about love and forgiveness, connection and art, bio family and found family. It’s everything I wanted in a book and more. God help me if I ever meet the author.
After reading Six of Crows for the first time, I wanted to marry it. Not the author—the book. It was the perfect story for me. It anticipated my every need, gave me exactly what I wanted and loved me like any perfect partner should and all I wanted to do was to carry it around and shove it into people's hands saying, “Read this! You’ll love it!” My attachment to the book is visceral. It has everything I love in an adventure story. It’s set in a Dickensian fantasy world full of outcasts and misfits. There’s an impossible heist. There’s magic and romance and found family. If I ever meet the author all I want to do is hug her and say, “Thank you, Six of Crows completes me,” and walk away. I’m pretty sure there’d be no restraining order involved.
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