[ Music ]
>> Hey everybody, this is Jason
Reynolds, and I'm so happy
to be here today hosting a
special presentation for teens
for the 20th Library of
Congress National Book Festival.
Now, most of you know or
most of you should know
that I'm the National Ambassador
for Young People's Literature.
But what does it mean?
To put it simply, it just
means that I love to read,
and I love to write, and I
will do everything and anything
in my power to make
sure that you all love
to read and write as well.
But I didn't always
like to read.
No, when I was younger,
there was an author that sort
of changed my life, a favorite
author from way, way back then.
But fortunately for you, there
are some favorite authors
that are living and
working right now.
I'm going to introduce you
to them, get to know them,
learn to love them and
read all their books.
[ Music ]
First up we have my
pal M.T. Anderson
and illustrator Jo Rioux on the
book called The Daughters of Ys,
an Atlantis-like city from
Celtic legend is the setting
of The Daughters of Ys,
a graphic novel fantasy
from the National Book
Award Winner M.T. Anderson
and artist Jo Rioux.
>> Hi, my name is Jo Rioux, and
I'm an author and illustrator.
I love to work on
children's books most of all
and especially graphic novels.
I'm beaming in from my home in
Carp, Ontario, which is just
on the outskirts of Ottawa,
which is my hometown.
>> I am M.T. Anderson.
I am a writer of
books for children
and for teens and for adults.
And I am coming to
you from rural Vermont
in a creepy old haunted
house I live in.
So this project is, you
now, The Daughters of Ys,
which is with a script by me and
then Jo did the illustrations.
It is a graphic novel for
older teens and adults.
>> I knew your books
before I was approached
by First Second to
do this project.
I had read Octavia Nothing,
and I really loved it.
And I'm wondering
what's different
about writing graphic novels
in comparison to prose.
>> The thing that I
really loved about it was
in fact the idea that,
you know, for me,
what I do when I'm
writing a graphic novel,
and this is only the
second one that I've done,
but I write something that
looks like a Hollywood script,
you know, instead
of lines of dialogue
and just pretty basic
descriptions of what's going on.
And so to me, the magic
of working on this,
especially with someone as
talented as Jo, is that I get
to sort of see what
their imagination leads
out of my words.
They take it and make it
into their own thing then.
So to me, that was really kind
of an incredible part of working
on this, which is, you
know, this is based
on a Breton folktale, so a tale,
I got a couple of Celtic tale
from the coast of France.
And so taking this
material that's very old,
turning it into one thing,
handing it over to you
and then seeing what
you made of it.
It was really, really fun with
Jo to do this game of like
when someone says something to
you, you open yourself up to it.
You're like wait, think about
it in terms of a project not
in terms of what I
originally envisioned
but what it will
look like again.
So Jo had all sorts
of suggestions
for little ways the plot could
be adjusted and improved.
And it was super, because
it made the project better.
There needs to be a person who
has this range between sort
of the beauty on the one hand
but also this almost
absurd story,
this kind of like fairytale
type violence at other times.
And I thought that that was one
thing that was really wonderful
about what you did, which
you were able to capture both
of those things very credibly.
>> Thank you.
Spookiness and things
that are, you know,
kind of on the darker side,
they've always been
something that captivate me.
But then my drawings tend to
always turn out very cute.
So the two kind of
them merging together,
and I have to say some years
ago, it used to drive me crazy
because I wanted to do
like really dark stuff.
And then I would show
people and, you know,
I would show people and
like look at my ghost
and like, he's adorable.
And it's like no, he's spooky.
He's scary.
But now I've completely
embraced it and, you know,
the spooky scary is
just my combination now.
And I'm rolling with it.
And I think it didn't
come out --
>> But that's perfect for this.
>> Yeah, and in Daughters of Ys,
I think it came out
really nicely.
It's exactly the type
of story that is for me.
>> So I mean, I do feel
like even though the story is
ancient, I mean it's a story
that is older than
Christianity probably.
At the same time, it has a
kind of a weird relevance now.
Partially coming from like that
stuff you were just talking
about with the combination of
the grotesque and the beautiful.
Not just that the
world is a place
that is once both grotesque and
beautiful but also because it's
about a civilization that
in a sense doesn't want
to confront the costs of
living the way that they do.
And eventually, those
costs catch up to you.
And then the city falls
beneath the waves.
The whole thing comes
crashing down.
I just want to finally
say because the,
[inaudible] festival is American
ingenuity that, you know,
books like this one and I
hope in others that I've done,
that really the focus is both
on the peril that America is in,
but also on the fact that
we can find a way forward,
and we must find a way forward.
And I'm so glad that you
as young readers are going
to be picking up that banner
and marching alongside
of us and in the future.
>> For me, the message of the
book was to have the courage
to stand up for your
responsibilities, not just as,
you know, a member of
whatever country you're
for but as a human being.
And I hope that you'll enjoy
the book when you pick it up.
[ Music ]
>> Next up, we have Mike
Curato with his book Flamer.
Award winning author and
artist Mike Curato draws
on his own experiences in
Flamer, his debut graphic novel,
telling a difficult story with
humor, compassion and love
as he navigates friendships,
dealing with bullies
and spends time with Elias,
a boy he can't stop
thinking about.
>> Hi, I'm Mike Curato,
and I'm coming to you today
from my work studio here in
Northampton, Massachusetts.
So I'm going to be talking about
my new graphic novel, Flamer.
It is a young adult story
about a boy named Aiden who is
at scout camp the summer
before his first year
of high school, and
the year is 1995.
Aiden is a little bit of a shy
kid who's dealing with a lot
of stuff at the same time.
He is navigating friendships,
dealing with bullies,
dealing with racism,
struggling with his religion
and body image, all while
confronting his sexual identity.
And all of this culminates
in a really difficult
and hard decision for him.
So, it's a story that's
very close to my heart.
I can relate with a lot that
Aiden dealt with myself.
And it's my hope that kids
like me can read this book
and see themselves in it.
I didn't have a story like
that when I was a teenager,
and I hope that other teens
can read it who don't have
that experience, and they can
better understand what someone
like Aiden or myself
could be going through.
There were several things that
inspired me to write this story.
Like I said, I didn't see
myself in a lot of books
or any books really
when I was growing up.
And a few years ago, there was a
new movement called the We Need
Diverse Books Movement which
has been a call to publishers
and authors alike to be more
inclusive of different types
of people in children's books
and to support authors
speaking their own voices,
supporting different
minority authors
who don't always
make it to the shelf.
And I think it's
really important
for many different
stories to be told.
And I think that if we
knew everyone's story,
there would be a lot more
compassion in the world.
I know that for myself
as a teenager growing up
and not seeing myself anywhere
in the world, I started to feel
like I wasn't supposed
to be in this world.
LGBTQ youth are at
higher risk for suicide
and self-harm and homelessness.
And that is a pandemic
in itself.
And the data that we have for
that is only based on the youth
that have come forward
and shared that.
And I'm sure the
numbers are much higher
if we included questioning
youth who haven't come forward.
So I hope that this book
can lend some strength
and send some love to
the people that need it.
I wouldn't be the person I am
today if I didn't have libraries
when I was growing up.
The library was the
safe haven for me,
not only because I could access
books, but the librarians
that I knew were kind and
let me just hang out there.
It was a quiet place to think
and explore new ideas,
do my homework.
And honestly, I didn't feel
very safe in other parts
of my school because
of who I was.
And so I felt like I was
going to be okay sitting
in the library with a book.
And sometimes, there
was one librarian
that would let me sneak
my lunch in there.
But she's retired
now, so she can't get
in trouble for me sharing that.
I just want to send all the
love I can to all the librarians
around America right now.
I know some personally who are
working so hard to make sure
that even during these times,
these COVID-stricken times
that their communities
still have access to books.
I know librarians that are
personally delivering books
to people's homes and just
keeping those resources
and that community going.
So thank you so much for
everything that you do.
[ Music ]
>> The next author is a
friend of mine and one
of my personal heroes, the great
Tonya Bolden with her book,
Changing the Equation, 50
plus US black women in STEM.
Award-winning author Tonya
Bolden explores black women
who have changed the world
of STEM, science, technology,
engineering and mathematics,
in America,
including groundbreaking
computer scientists, doctors,
inventors, physicists,
pharmacists, mathematicians,
aviators and many more.
This book celebrates
more than 50 women
who have shattered
the glass ceiling,
defied racial discrimination
and pioneered in their feats.
>> Hello, hello, hello.
This is Tonya Bolden, author,
coauthor and editor of more
than 40 books, most of them
for children and teens.
And I'm joining you today from
my hometown of New York City.
For the most part when
the subject is STEM,
very often the names and faces
of black women are
not top of mind.
And I also hope that the
book would inspired readers
to consider charting
courses for careers in STEM.
When I think of the
festival them,
especially American Ingenuity,
I think about current
COVID crisis.
I think of all the men and
women across the country
who are using science,
technology, engineering
and mathematics to develop
treatments and vaccines,
to rethink medical
supplies and equipment
and to reimagine spaces from
schools to offices to get us
through to make things better.
I live in history, and
libraries are my lifeline,
especially the Library
of Congress.
I mean it was at the
Library of Congress
that a few years ago I
stumbled upon a journal
of remarkable what unknown,
relatively unknown black man
from the 19th century,
Michael Shiner.
That discovery led to
my book Capital Days.
Michael Shiner's journal and the
growth of our nation's capital.
Another recent book of
mine is Facing Frederick
about the very well-known
Frederick Douglass.
And that book was enriched
because I had access
to materials in the
Frederick Douglass papers
at Library of Congress.
And it was at the Library
of Congress on a blog
that I learned about
one of the amazing women
that changed the equation,
Josephine Silone Yates.
And it's thanks to the
Library of Congress
that I have a wonderful
photograph of her in the book.
And so for me, for my
reader, libraries are portals.
They are gateways to a world
of knowledge, to discoveries,
to adventures and so much more.
As Dr. King said, we
are made by history.
If you don't know what
has happened before,
you don't have context
for your present era.
You don't understand
what has shaped you
and what has gotten
you to this point.
You know, it's like you want
to understand debates bout big
government, small government,
or you need to know about the
New Deal of the great society.
You want to understand race
relations in this country,
then you need to know
about slavery, all of it.
And good storytelling, using
the same techniques people use
in fiction and in poetry,
whether that's alliteration,
whether that's intrigue
and drama, conflict,
treating it as though
I was writing fiction.
Thank you so much for being a
part of this fantastic festival.
Keep hope alive, keep reading,
keep learning, keep questioning,
keep growing, keep
increasing the peace.
Thank you so much.
[ Music ]
>> Next up, we have a
young poet who is going
to grace us, pun intended.
Her name is Grace Ruo, and
she is one of the champions
from the St. Louis Slam Team,
and she's here to recite
about her Kikuyu grandmother.
Give it up for Grace Ruo.
>> Manifestations, a
letter to my grandmother.
[ Foreign Language Spoken ]
Every time I try to tell
you how much I love you,
the words get lost in my refusal
to condemn the colonizers.
You see, I do love
you, grandmother.
So much so that I'm willing
to admit that you were right.
That I did in fact cut the chain
that links me to my culture,
but I didn't realize it until
I went to a friend's house
for dinner last night.
His walls were white as the
lies his grandfather taught him
to hide behind, and his parents
thought themselves saviors.
Preached about appropriation
but called it discovery.
Grandmother, they told
me of manifest destiny.
Of how their forefathers taught
themselves to pull themselves
up by the bootstraps,
how they could teach me.
They must not have known
that I am granddaughter
of a culture they couldn't cage.
Of a woman with skin the color
of land she fought
tooth and nail for.
But how could they?
When every day, I watch
as they make my last name
more palatable.
Pretzel it around their
tongues as if Ruo cannot go
down without being regurgitated.
As if it bitters the backs of
their throats, and his parents,
they told me in order to make
it to the top, I'm to let go
of everything keeping
me on the ground.
Like Kikuyu.
It's like English is the only
key into this land of the free,
and they said I can't
afford to be locked out.
That I am to speak this language
as if it were the one
that I was born into.
See, they must not have
known that I am daughter
of the mother tongue unmuted.
But how could they?
When each day, I indulge in
this sin that is this language.
Douse my tongue in English
before I leave the house.
And when I come back
home, I scrub it off,
try to find scattered
bits of Kikuyu,
place them on the
tip of my tongue.
I call it my act of repentance.
Try not to think about how if
you could hear me, you'd tell me
that my tongue is
no longer pure.
That because I've
decided to carry myself
as if my culture has nothing
to do with my identity,
then maybe I've given what's
left of my sense to pay
for my American dream.
And you're right, because this
country has everything there is
to offer.
And I'd be damned if I
didn't take advantage.
Because this family could
teach me to be American
as the apple pie
we had for dessert.
See his father cut into with
it with a hunting knife.
Told me it's been in his
family for generations,
and I wondered how many
of people breathed their
last by this blade.
And your voice beckoned
me to run
but in a language I've
been taught to forget
because this country has
everything there is to offer.
But it feels like the only thing
it wants to give me is amnesia.
It does not want me to
realize that my destiny is
to manifest everything their
grandfathers taught them
to forget.
I with the skin the color of
land you fought tooth and nail
for am nothing but a
testament to your victory.
So, may they look
at me and see you.
May I never again disregard
their desecration of my culture.
May my tongue tell of all the
wickedness they failed to omit.
I am a manifestation of
everything they dare disregard,
and I will make it so
that they never forget.
[ Music ]
>> Next up, we have Rebecca
Boggs Roberts and Lucinda Robb
with their book, the
Suffragist Playbook.
Take a few tips from some of the
most incredible women leaders
who led the longest and
least known movements
in American history.
>> We're very excited to be
here today to talk a little bit
about our book, The
Suffragist Playbook,
your guide to changing
the world.
We first got the idea for
this book several years ago
as we were preparing for
the 100th anniversary
of the 19th Amendment that
gave women the right to vote.
I was talking to a friend
of mine, and she was saying
that she didn't know a lot
of the history behind
the suffrage movement.
Usually it gets, maybe a couple
of paragraphs in
the history book.
Maye you've heard
of one of the names.
But usually, most
people don't have an idea
of how this happened, one the
greatest expansions of the vote
in United States history.
And Becca and I both
come from a background
where we have very strong
mothers and grandmothers,
and we know about
the important role
that women played in politics.
And we wanted to really shine a
light of their accomplishments,
especially because one
of the great things
about studying the suffrage
movement is that they had a lot
of smart tactics that activists
today can use for almost any way
that you want to make
the world a better place.
>> A few years ago I read a book
about the suffrage movement here
in Washington, D.C., and Lucinda
came to me and said you know,
I really think we need
a young reader's version
of suffrage history.
There needs to be some way
for people to get access
to these stories earlier.
And we talked about maybe
writing a graphic novel,
but neither of us
could draw in any way.
And we sort of went back
and forth on different ways
to make this history relevant
to a younger audience.
And we realized that the things
the suffrage has pioneered,
the tactics that they
used to make sure
that women were enfranchised
when they were are things any
activist can use at any time.
And in fact, they were things
the suffragists invented
in order to get their
cause through.
And so whether you're fighting
for something enormous,
like climate change, or
something really small, like,
you know, changing the
traffic patterns on your block,
you could do a lot worse than
to learn from the suffragists
and they way they succeeded.
So tactics like making sure
everything looks exactly right
and gets picked up virally
because of the imagery.
We think of that as an artifact
of the Instagram age,
and it's super not.
You know, 100 years ago, the
suffragists were really smart
about making sure things
looked fantastic in pictures
so that newspapers would pick
them up all over the country.
They made messages go viral
in 1917 by sewing words
onto a banner and standing
in front of the White House,
which seems crazy now.
But just think what those
women would have done
with social media.
I mean those banners the
suffragists held were tweets.
They cultivated allies, which is
so vital to any social movement.
They, by definition, could
not introduce legislation.
They could not vote for it.
They could not affect the
change they needed to make
because they weren't men.
And so they needed male allies
from the very beginning.
And there are just so many
lessons reverberating throughout
the 20th and 21st century
with almost any social
cause you can think
of that the suffragists
did first and best.
There is no way to
study suffrage history
without the Library of Congress.
It is just an extraordinary
resource.
And one of the amazing
things about being able
to study 20th century
history and my focus
of the suffrage movement
is more 20th century,
and Lucinda covered
the 19th century.
That's sort of how
we divided things up.
But in the 20th century,
of course,
there's amazing photographs, and
they are striking and beautiful,
and there's tons of them.
And the Library of Congress
has them all available for free
to download at any
resolution you want.
And the fact that you can almost
participate in this movement
from the comfort of your own
bedroom on your laptop is
such an extraordinary resource.
But then the Library of Congress
also has the National Women's
Party papers.
And I think they've even
discovered more things
that they didn't know they
had when the Library put
on the exhibit for the
centennial last year.
They discovered all
kinds of artifacts
that really tell the
story of this movement.
And so the Library
of Congress is unique
and extraordinary
and local to me.
I'm so lucky to live in the town
where I can just sort of swan
on down there and
use the resources.
But so many of the
resources are digital
that almost anybody does
have access to them.
>> But these were women who
were trying to participate
and to have an active
say in what was happening
in our democracy before
they actually had a vote.
And what really surprised
me is I'd never heard
of a lot of these women.
I'd never known anything
about this engagement and all
of the lobbying and the
politicking and the ways
that they were trying
to influence things behind the
scenes before they actually had
the right to vote themselves.
And when we talk about the
suffrage movement, we're talking
about three generations, and
in fact, most of the first wave
of suffragists lived
very long lives,
some of the most
well-known leaders.
And all of them died before they
actually had the opportunity
to vote.
It was a 72-year struggle.
But at the same time, they
would look back and say,
it's not always easy to see
how many things have changed,
but in this process,
so much happened
for women's political activism.
When they first started
speaking out,
it was literally
controversial for women
to speak in public period.
In fact, women weren't even
supposed to applaud in public.
You weren't supposed
to make any noise.
So you'll often read in sort
of 19th century accounts.
They talk about women
waving their handkerchiefs,
because that's how you're
supposed to applaud.
And when Lucy Stone and Susan
B. Anthony got to the end
of their lives, they did,
they said we're not there.
We haven't gotten it yet,
but so much has changed.
The fact that women had the
right to their own property.
The fact that women
could speak in public,
because it became more
common for women to go
on to higher education, in fact,
even enter the professions.
And women were even doctors
and lawyers and journalists.
All of the activity that
they'd gotten involved
in really made a difference.
So looking at something
only from the sort
of has everything
changed movement,
sometimes it's helpful
to step back and see.
You may not have gotten
all of your goals,
but you probably changed the
landscape a lot in that time.
I do think social change happens
a great deal more faster,
more quickly, than it did back
in the time of the suffragists.
But making legislative
change is still hard,
and it will still take time.
But a way to think of
it in my mind is a lot
of times what you're doing
is you're planting the seeds.
And for a long time, you don't
actually see the results.
Nothing appears to
be above ground.
But at some point, they've been
watered enough that you do start
to see they take
root, they grow.
You start making massive
changes in public opinion.
And that's why I always like
to point out that as tough
as it was to get the 19th
Amendment passed, now today,
you can't imagine finding anyone
who would be against the idea
that women should have
the right to vote.
It became so much part
of our understanding
of what American
democracy is all about.
>> That even if you're too young
to vote, even if you're fighting
for a cause that feels like
it's a real longshot right now,
everyone in all of our flaws
and all of our weirdness and all
of the mistakes we all make, can
change the world for the better.
We really can.
And Susan B. Anthony said
failure is impossible.
We absolutely agree.
And we can't wait to see
what you all do next.
[ Music ]
>> Next, we have two
of my dear buddies.
I'm so happy they're here.
Becky Albertalli and Aisha
Saeed, Yes, No, Maybe So.
Two teens of varying backgrounds
come together and fall in love
through political canvassing.
Can't get no better than that.
>> I am Becky Albertalli,
one of the authors
of Yes, No, Maybe So.
And I am coming to you
from Russell, Georgia,
which is a suburb of Atlanta.
>> Hi, my name is Aisha Saeed,
and I am the coauthor with Becky
for Yes, No, Maybe So.
And I am also in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Yes, No, Maybe So is a young
adult book about two teens,
Jamie and Maya, and
about their summer
as they're canvassing their
local special election.
And it follows both
of them as they go
from being unwilling canvassers
to really realizing just
how much is at stake.
And at its heart, it's
also a love story.
>> And the love story
in the romcom aspect was
actually really important to us.
Kind of funny to be
describing our book as a romcom
about a really horrific cultural
moment in the United States.
Everything in the last couple
of years has felt really
fra [phonetic] especially
for anybody who belongs
to any marginalized group,
and both Jamie and Maya do.
It's so important for
marginalized kids and adults
and people to always be
reminded that, you know,
they deserve moments of joy.
They deserve happiness and
crushes and just, you know,
like weird, awkward
kind of analyses of kind
of the other person's feelings
and all of these things
that are hallmarked the romcom
that we love and
were inspired by.
>> Maya is Muslim,
and Jamie is Jewish.
And so the book tackles issues
that have specifically
affected Jewish
and Muslim communities even more
so than they were previously
after this 2016 election.
And so the book explores
Islamophobia.
It explores anti-Semitism,
which are unfortunately,
they grow more and more
pressing with every passing day.
So, and so yeah,
those are two issues
that are also covered
in the book.
And yet, as Becky said,
joy is so important even
in the hardest of times.
And so despite the
fact that we're taking
on all these different
topics, there is a lightness,
because that is how we continue
to keep on keeping on is
by finding those moments of
joy and holding on to them.
And so we have a lot
going on in this book.
So I think because the
heavy themes are also,
there's also a lot of
laughter that it kind
of all balances each other out.
For anybody out there who's
thinking about writing
with their friend, I will have
to say, it is genuinely one
of the best experiences
of my writing career.
I tell Becky this all the time.
I feel like I've been spoiled.
I want to write every
book with her.
I'm like this is boring.
I have to sit here and
write it myself now?
I want to share with
you immediately just
like we used to.
I want to bounce ideas off.
Those are the joys of being
able to cowrite with somebody
and somebody that you're
very close to that you feel
that comfort level
with is such a gift.
And really, especially
if you're a new writer,
if there's a writer that
you, another fellow friend
that is a writer that you trust,
perhaps writing together can
give you that motivation to keep
on going because you have
somebody there to give you
that feedback right away and
that you can keep on going.
But yeah, so those are,
there's definitely a lot
of great positives of working
with somebody to write a story.
>> Yeah. So I have actually
done two collaborations so far
in addition to Yes, No,
Maybe so with Aisha.
I also did a book
called What if it's Us
with my friend Adam Silvera.
And for me, both experiences
have been fantastic.
Like it is the hardest part has
definitely been reacclimating
to writing solo books.
I think for any young people
who may be watching this,
first of all, I just want
you to know, like we see you.
And this is such a tough moment.
This is a thing like I never
had to go through as a teen.
The pandemic, a lot of the just,
you know, the racism that is,
you know, not at all subtle.
That is coming from,
directly from, you know,
people in positions of
power in this country.
You know, the racism
and the Islamophobia
and anti-Semitism and,
you know, homophobia,
all that has been there.
None of this is new.
But the rock kind
of got turned over.
We can't unsee what's
underneath it.
So I just, I want to start
by kind of validating kind
of any feelings you might
have in this moment.
>> If you're old enough
and you're eligible
to vote, please vote.
It's coming up very soon.
Every vote is going to matter.
And also, as difficult
as things are, I really,
really encourage you
to hold on to hope
and to find small
moments of joy each day.
Because this is a long haul.
This is not a sprint.
We are going to be going
through this for some time,
and so we have to take care
of ourselves and find moments
that are going to keep us going.
We'll get through this.
[ Music ]
>> Next up, we are going to have
an incredible musical exhibition
from teens from Chicago
and Detroit and Miami
who came together to
make music using archives
from the Library of Congress.
Give it up for Citizen DJ.
>> All right now I have some
Citizen DJ things pulled up.
I used this one just now,
but I didn't really
make anything out of it.
So I'll throw some fat swing.
[ Music ]
Some drums.
[ Music ]
Got some keys lined up.
[ Music ]
So, I like the Citizen
DJ stuff because along
with like some instrumental
stuff, I can throw in some
like skits and stuff whatnot.
So --
>> Good morning Henry.
>> Good morning Professor.
>> You came early today
for your music lesson, huh?
But it's all right You get
your horn, and I will call Lena
to play the piano for you.
Lena, Lena, Lena.
>> All right Papa.
All right Papa.
>> Lena.
>> Cool thing too, that
same track, I grabbed Lena,
that sample, and made
[inaudible] out of it.
[ Music ]
They kind of work together.
[ Music ]
Then pull out and grab just
like a new sample or something.
[ Music ]
And then you just keep going.
[ Music ]
Yeah. I hope I gave a
little, I was just messing
around for hours grabbing new
things, just different stuff.
>> I just want to point
out to the audience
that this was completely
improvised.
>> Next up we're going to have
some words my pal, my buddy,
my little sister, the
incomparable Nic Stone
with a sequel to the number
one New York Times bestseller,
Dear Martin which is
called Dear Justyce.
Incarcerated teen Quan
writes letters to Justyce
about his experiences
in the American juvenile
justice system,
which we all know will
make for a wonderful novel.
>> Hello. I am Nic Stone,
the author of a bunch
of books including Dear
Martin, Odd One Out and Jackpot.
And today, I am very
excited to be talking to you
about the follow up
novel to Dear Martin.
It's kind of a sequel,
kind of a companion.
It's a sequel timewise but a
companion in the sense that it's
about a different character.
And it is called Dear Justyce.
So I currently am
in Atlanta, Georgia.
It's hot and muggy here.
Atlanta is also the city
where Dear Martin is set,
and it's where Dear
Justyce is set.
So it's almost like
I'm in the land
of my story, which is exciting.
And I am sitting on the floor
in my best friend's bedroom
because I can't really
do anything at my house
with my two small
children at home.
But I have two sons.
One is four.
The other one is eight.
And they have been
cooped up in the house
for a really long
time, so at this point,
they basically are
just elephants running
around everyone.
And it can be kind of hard to
get any kind of work done there.
So I typically leave during
the day and go work elsewhere,
and I do appreciate my friend
for allowing me to come
and sit and do things here.
So, let's rewind a little bit.
In November of 2012, there was
an incident in Jacksonville,
Florida that it's
safe to say kind
of turned my head upside down.
A young man named Jordan Davis
went to a convenience store
with his friend one night.
I'm guessing they went to
get like Doritos and Gatorade
because what else do you
get from a convenience store
when you're 17 on
a Friday night?
While they were there they
were sitting in their car,
and they had the
music turned up loud.
And another patron pulled into
the parking lot, was bothered
by the sound of the music,
the volume of the music,
and he started an argument with
these young men, or these boys.
They're definitely boys.
And within three and a half
minutes this man had pulled
out a firearm and
started shooting,
and Jordan Davis was
killed during this incident.
I at that time was
living abroad.
I lived in Jerusalem,
Israel at that point.
And I had just had a baby.
So I had, my son, my older son
was five months old at the time.
And coming to realize that I
had birthed this little boy
who looked, you know,
he was brown skinned.
Eventually, he will occupy a
body similar to Jordan Davis's.
Realized that I had birthed
him into a world where a boy
like him lost his life over loud
music shook me up really good.
So we'll fast forward
a little bit more.
There was an incident involving
a man named Michael Brown.
Michael Brown was killed in
Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
And in response to Michael
Brown's death, protests
and marches broke out
all over the country,
not unlike the ones we saw
recently after the death
of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
So, all of these
things are going on,
and I kept hearing
people quote Dr. King,
the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and say things
like Dr. King would never
do some of the things
that you protestors
are doing, etcetera.
When the mayor of Atlanta, which
is where I am, like I said,
my home, got on the news
ahead of a march here one day
and said, all I ask is that
you don't take the freeways.
Dr. King would never
take a freeway.
That was a little bit like,
which Dr. King is
he talking about?
The Dr. King that I knew
of took a lot of freeways.
Thus was born Dear Martin.
So Dear Martin involves a
17-year-old black boy named
Justyce who experiences racial
profiling, and as a result,
he decides to start
a journal of letters
to the late Dr. Martin
Luther King,
Jr. to see if Dr.
King's teaching will hold
up now basically.
So that book is set
in like 2017, I think.
In that book, we meet
another young man.
So where Justyce
is this character,
this black boy who's
doing everything right.
He's got the great grades.
He's the captain
of the debate team.
He's headed to an Ivy
League university.
Like he is doing the thing.
There's another character
that we meet
in Dear Martin named Quan.
Now Quan we meet in
juvenile detention.
So second chapter of
Dear Martin we find
out that the police
officer who profiled Justyce
in the opening chapter
has been killed.
And the person who confessed
to this killing is the
young man named Quan.
Justyce and Quan grew up
together like a block apart.
And so Justyce is very shaken by
the idea that Quan is the person
who killed this police officer
who like basically sends
Justyce on his journey.
So he goes to visit Quan in
the second half of Dear Martin,
which is when we meet
him for the first time.
Well once I closed the pages
of Dear Martin, I
thought I was done.
Like I thought I was
done with that world,
those characters, etcetera.
But then I got a set of
text messages from a couple
of my mentees one day.
These are black boys who just
graduated from high school
in Columbia, Missouri.
And something that they said was
that while they loved
Justyce's story,
it didn't really
reflect their lives.
And they asked me to
tell another story
that would reflect their lives.
At the same time, I got
a message from my editor,
the woman who edited
Dear Martin,
who also edited The
Magic School Bus,
which is like the
coolest thing ever to me.
Like my editor edited The
Magic School Bus, come on.
But anyway, her name is Phoebe.
And Phoebe told me
that she would
like to see a story about Quan.
So I had these two incidents
happen very close together,
and I decided that I was
going to tell the story
of a black boy who's
not like Justyce,
who is not super high achieving.
Who was not headed
to the Ivy League.
Who was not the captain
of a debate team.
Who doesn't even, half the time
he barely makes it to school.
And whose life circumstances,
his home circumstances,
are very different
from Justyce's.
And I really wanted
to examine the ways,
the ways that our
circumstances affect us.
But also, the fact that a
lot of people don't consider
that when they interact with us.
A lot of people don't consider
what an African American kid
might be going through at home
when they're disciplining
them at school, you know.
So I really, my goal
with Dear Justyce is
to highlight the humanity
of what is an all forgotten
population and that's
like incarcerated youth,
especially incarcerated
black and brown youths.
So my hope is that with Dear
Justyce, people just start
to open their eyes a bit
wider and pay more attention
and ask more questions
and care a little bit more
about the people around them.
[ Music ]
>> And our anchoring
author for today is my buddy
and someone I greatly admire,
Sabaa Tahir, who is here to talk
about her blockbuster
series An Ember
and the Ashes including a
standalone graphic novel
which happens to be the prequel
that takes place
years before the Ember
and the Ashes series entitled
A Thief Among the Trees.
>> My name is Sabaa Tahir, and
I am the author of An Ember
in the Ashes, the series
and co-collaborator
on the Ember graphic novel
which is called A
Thief Among the Trees.
I live in the San
Francisco Bay area.
Today I'm going to talk
about A Sky Beyond the Storm,
which is the fourth book
in the Ember quartet.
But I'm also going to talk
about the series as a whole.
So if you haven't read
the series, I'm not going
to spoil the earlier
books, so hopefully,
you'll still be able
to enjoy the talk.
The Ember series takes place
in a Roman-inspired empire.
And it's about a
girl named Laia.
She's a lower class
citizen who is fighting
to rescue her brother,
Darin, from imprisonment.
It is also about
an empire soldier.
His name is Elias, and he's
training in a military academy,
and he wants to be free of
everything that the empire
and this academy is
forcing him to do.
When I was in my early
20s, I was writing a book,
and it was a book,
it was like a memoir.
And I called my mom up because I
was like this is not going well.
I'm having such a hard time.
And she was like well,
you know, you're like 21.
You probably don't have
that much to write about.
So she suggested I
write a fantasy novel.
So that was one part of my
inspiration for writing Ember.
So there is the work that I
did at the Washington Post.
There's my mom saying hey,
go write a fantasy novel.
But my favorite part of the
inspiration story for Ember is
that I was working late at
the Washington Post one night.
I always used to work, you know,
get home between like 11:30
and 2:00 a.m. So this was one
night where I finished work.
I got home very late.
And there was a huge storm
in D.C. It was thundering
and raining.
It was sort of one of those
classic D.C. summer storms.
And I got into my home,
which was a walkout
basement at the time.
And as I looked out the windows,
I saw two red eyes staring
at me through the storm.
And I was like that's a jinn,
and I ran and hid in my room
because it was a jinn.
I didn't know, it might get me.
So, I had been raised with
sort of this mythology
and these stories that,
you know, jinn love storms.
And, you know, they
like to walk near trees.
And so that night I
kind o got this idea
of a jinn walking in a storm.
And that's, those three elements
are really what inspired An
Ember in the Ashes.
The concept of American
ingenuity
to me means a few
different things.
First, I have to ask myself what
does it mean to be American?
To me, to be American is to
hold many things inside you
at one time.
To understand that the
principles this country was
founded on, you know, life,
liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, are noble
and beautiful things.
But the implementation
and the execution
of those principles has not
always been noble and beautiful.
And as a result, America is
very much a work in progress.
It is a story that's
still being told.
And so, you know, we're
all part of that story.
America is sort of only
as ingenious as we are.
We're the heroes of
this country's story.
And the thing about stories and
the thing about being a hero
in the story is that it's
not always wonderful.
It's not always easy.
The hero of a story
gets frustrated.
They get hopeless.
They are lost sometimes.
They don't know what to do.
And when that happens, you look
to the other heroes around you,
the people who are
also part of your story
and of the American story, and
you find inspiration from them
and you tell yourself I am going
to fight with these heroes,
and I'm going to stand up with
these heroes, and I am going
to contribute my own tiny story
to the vast story
that is America.
Telling your own story
is very intimidating.
Telling any story
is intimidating.
But I would say as
somebody who has tried
to tell multiple stories and
then ended up telling this one,
telling this story of
Ember, you have to start.
You have to decide that
you're going to do it.
So that's thing number one.
And then to me, I think
it's just really important
to ask the what if question.
Start with just a
single concept.
So, you know, an example
that I have is let's
start in a nursery.
It's a plant nursery.
Okay, what if the plant nursery
is owned by a single dad?
And what if the single
dad is deep in debt?
And what if being deep in
debt he decides to take
out a loan from the loan shark?
But what if the loan shark
is like you owe me money,
and now I'm going to
break your kneecaps
because you haven't
paid it back?
But then what if our single
dad, our business owner,
realizes that he has
something on the loan shark
that he can hold over his head,
and now we have a
little war between them.
Really, all I'm doing is
asking what if questions.
So if you have a story
that you want to write,
take a simple concept and start
asking those what if questions.
And it can be about your
own life, which can sort of,
you can ask these questions
and take it into fiction.
Or it can be, you know,
it can be nonfiction.
You're writing about someone
else or about yourself.
And you can still
be asking those what
if questions of yourself.
You know, what if I had
done this instead of that?
I think starting from
that place allows you
to really find the
story in anything.
So recently, I collaborated with
Boom Studios, Nicole Andelfinger
and Sonia Liao to create an
Ember graphic novel prequel.
So this takes place
before the events
of the Ember and the Ashes.
It's called A Thief
Among the Trees.
And I created the story, and
Nicole created the script
for the story, and then Sonia
created the art for the story.
There was also a colorist.
There was a letterist.
And it was an incredible
experience,
because I had never worked
with a team in that way before
where I was sort of, you
know, looking at the script
and also looking at the art.
And, you know, we were talking
about how to make, you know,
a certain feeling rise
up from the art or how
to get the script exactly right.
So I learned so much
from the process,
and it really made me
realize two things.
One, I really actually
enjoy working in a team.
I didn't know that.
And two, that sometimes
telling a story
through a different format
allows you to focus on things
that you don't get
a chance to do
in the prose version
of the story.
So in the case of A
Thief Among the Trees,
I really learned a lot about
dialogue and scripting and sort
of how to let dialogue
tell the story as opposed
to having all the exposition
that you often have in a prose,
you know, a regular
fiction book.
The library was a safe haven.
It was a sanctuary for me.
And I think it is a sanctuary
for so many children.
I think that librarians are,
you know, they are confidants
and they are friends
to so many children,
because sometimes you don't feel
like you can go to your teachers
and you don't feel like you
can go to your principle,
but there's something about
a library that's magical
and has all this possibility and
this sort of feeling that, well,
you can go on adventures
in a library.
No one's necessarily
going to come get you
and harm you in a library.
Like you're safe there.
So those two things
combined kind of make
for the perfect place to
me, so, I love libraries.
I think they're amazing.
[ Music ]
>> In closing this
out today, back again,
we have Citizen DJ bringing
forth another wonderful
musical exhibition.
It's important to note, this
music was made from archives
from the Library of Congress.
Take us home.
[ Music ]
>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C.
[ Music ]
>> Ladies and gentlemen,
I hope you all have had
as much fun as I've had.
I hope it's been as inspiring
and encouraging to you to hear
such wonderful authors,
musicians,
poets, all come together.
This has been a treat
as we close
out this 20th National
Book Festival.
This is the beginning of it,
though, so please stick around
and see some other cool things
and cool panels and
presentations.
And more importantly, we'll
see you back here next year
for the 21st.
I'm Jason Reynolds,
your National Ambassador
for Young People's Literature.
Be safe. Be kind.
And I'll see you all soon.
Peace.
[ Music ]