Highlights of Session 14: Meeting with Maberry

Despite a slight wardrobe malfunction, Jonathan Maberry was totally comfortable in the Bookhenge and impressed us all with his strong moral compass and passion for social justice.  That the poor are our world’s “zoms” is such a powerful statement.  One that surprisingly connects well to our Change Project and our effort to teach for social justice and positive social change with YA literature and dystopia novels in particular.

Feedback shows that we were also incredibly impressed by Jonathan’s serious advice for young writers, really writers of any age.  It is a craft that requires the devotion of time, effort, and imagination.

I think we’re all impressed now by how meeting with an author can enhance our experience of reading his work.  There’s much interest in learning the rest of Jessie and Tom’s love story and predicting who we’ll lose in Flesh and Bone.

You never know what you’ll learn in an interview with an author and a diversity of teachers, librarians, parents in the audience.  Linda aka Camera Eye participated in the open ECI 521 last spring and is a middle school librarian.  Her question, inspired both as a librarian and parent of an eleven-year-old boy, about horror writing for young readers prompted Maberry to talk of this as a real area of need recognized by the publishing companies and his plans to work with others to fill this void.  He mentioned Rick Riordan’s 39 Clues and Percy Jackson series as great books for middle grades boys though not horror stories.  btw Rick Riordan visited ECI 521 a few years ago — see the hilarious results here.

Books suggested that might work for younger readers, as a “launchpad” as Linda suggested include:

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Last Apprentice Series by Joseph Delaney  (first title is Revenge of the Witch)

So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane — “spans YA and Adult,” says Blakely.  Surprisingly, there’s a girl protagonist!

Thanks to all who participated and contributed with questions via the Question Wall and the backchannel.  Jonathan was impressed by your “smart questions.”

We’ll certainly let you know when he returns to the Bookhenge!

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