July 19, 2007

4 More Reasons Why... Jay Asher is very cool

I don't have know him well enough to list all thirteen ways in which YA author Jay Asher of the threesome blogging team of DiscoMermaids fame is cool, but YA lit aficionado Natalie on the
Children's Writers & Illustrator's Chat board does -- so check out her 13 reasons (and do a little dance that the October release date is COMING! Soon!), and listen to this:

There are four very excellent reasons the Mermaids as a team are rising stars in the YA lit blogosphere. They have done a very fine thing: they have interviewed... fifteen year olds. Four of them. To talk about who they are and what they are and what it is that they want to know and see in young adult literature.

Talking to the people for whom we write is sometimes really funny, really cool, really bewildering and always an experience. More writers for young adults need to find a way into the culture of the classroom, the library and into the world of young adults to keep in touch with why they are writing and the very real people and situations with whom they want to connect. I think this is SO COOL on myriad levels, Jay, and thanks for the heads up on this.

So: LOOK. LISTEN. LEARN.

Tomorrow, the first of what is intended to be a continuing series 'airs' on the DiscoMermaids site, truck on over and check it out!

(Psst! If you look over here, you can also find someone Else - a few someone elseS - doing Very Cool Things. To save the world. And stuff. Check 'em out.)

2 comments:

Little Willow said...

Oh, drat, I thought my Thirteen Reasons Why You Should Read Thirteen Reasons Why was a unique idea - I should have known it was more obvious. ;-) Anyhow, peek at my blog tomorrow for something that MIGHT be related to 13RY.

Sara said...

Thanks for the shoutout. And thanks SO MUCH for sending me to that great post at Disco Mermaids. Who needs MFA's when the teens tell ALL?