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Sunday, October 20 • 2:00pm - 3:00pm
YA: The Best-Laid Plans

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Part of growing up is figuring out what to do when life throws you a curveball--or even a wild pitch. Do you duck? Try to catch it? Or just let it go and see what happens next? In this session, four YA authors present stories about situations that don’t quite follow the playbook. Even non–sports fans will find something to enjoy in Eric Kester’s YA debut, Gut Check; Wyatt knows he’s not going to be able to follow the path forged by super-athletic older brother. Instead, Wyatt needs to figure out what role he’s meant to play in his economically challenged, football-obsessed hometown. In Nandini Bajpai’s lighthearted US debut, A Match Made in Mehendi, called “a sweet and quirky romance” by Kirkus Reviews, a Punjabi American girl decides to capitalize on her family’s matchmaking credentials by creating a new dating app for teens--but things start to backfire when a mean girl gets an unwanted match. BBF favorite Tami Charles is back with a companion to last year’s Like Vanessa; in Becoming Beatriz, a teenage Puerto Rican gang leader in Newark starts to imagine her life as a dancer after tragedy strikes and she becomes disillusioned with gang life. Finally, in National Book Award winner Thanhha Lai’s YA debut, Butterfly Yellow, a young Vietnamese refugee in search of her brother crosses paths with an aspiring Texas cowboy, and the odd couple team up on a surprising journey. Did writing these four exciting new novels go exactly according to plan, we wonder? Come hear from the authors themselves in a conversation and Q&A led by Akunna Eneh, BPL Dudley Branch programs and community outreach librarian.
Moderators
avatar for Akunna Eneh

Akunna Eneh

Akunna Eneh began her librarian career with the Boston Public Library almost ten years ago as a teen librarian for the Dudley Branch. Currently, she is the programs and community outreach librarian for the Dudley Branch. Eneh has also been a part of an outreach program to teens in... Read More →

Presenters
avatar for Nandini Bajpai

Nandini Bajpai

Nandini Bajpai grew up in New Delhi, India in a big family full of readers. She is the author of Red Turban White Horse, Starcursed, and Rishi and the Karmic Cat. Her American debut, the young adult contemporary, A Match Made in Mehendi, is a “winning romance” (Publishers Weekly... Read More →
avatar for Tami Charles

Tami Charles

Tami Charles is a writer of picture books, nonfiction, young adult and middle grade books including the lauded Fearless Mary and the Definitely Daphne series. Her debut middle grade novel, Like Vanessa, earned Top 10 spots on the Indies Introduce and Spring Kids' Next lists, three... Read More →
avatar for Eric Kester

Eric Kester

Eric Kester is the bestselling author of That Book About Harvard, a comedic memoir about Kester’s years as an undergraduate. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Huffington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Harvard Crimson, where as a student he wrote a column. Kester’s... Read More →
avatar for Thanhha Lai

Thanhha Lai

Thanhha Lai is a National Book Award–winning children’s author. With an MFA from New York University, she began her writing career as a reporter for the Orange County Register before shifting to fiction, publishing short stories in magazines and literary journals. In 2005, she... Read More →

Sunday October 20, 2019 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Dewitt Center Classroom 122 Dewitt Dr, Boston, MA, 02120
  Young Adult

Attendees (43)