FAMILY OUTING
Blue Willow Bookshop uses teens to recommend titles.
Members of Blue Willow Bookshop’s new teen advisory board get to read new books before they are released to the public, helping choose which titles the independent book store will carry.
About 65 passionate readers, who heard about the board through the west Houston shop or from their librarian, applied for the opportunity, submitting three book reviews as their submission. The staff culled through the entries to select 20 members, age 14 to 17, from across Houston.
“We really wanted to make sure they were serious about this,” says store owner Valerie Koehler of the application process. “We were blown away. They are just excellent writers.”
After the board reads and discusses manuscripts the store gets through its publisher relationships, the boys and girls help the staff understand which titles will resonate with their peers.
They write reviews so customers and parents can select books based on what a real teen thinks — “not us as booksellers and old people saying, ‘You’ll like this,’ ” Koehler laughs.
The store just launched its YA First Editions Club, featuring titles selected by the board.
Each month, subscription holders receive a new-release, firstedition young-adult book with a bookplate signed by the author. The box includes a review written by a teen, book swag and access to a virtual event.
Three-, six- and 12-month subscriptions are $75, $150, and $275, inclusive of tax and shipping (bluewillowbookshop.com/YASubscription).
A new generation of readers
Olivia Hill, 15, is one of the board’s founding members. When she saw the call for applications on Instagram, she says, “I ran to my mom and said, ‘Oh, my gosh! This is totally me. I love books, and I love telling other people about the books that I read.’”
After meeting virtually to review several “hot new titles,” Koehler says the board made a unanimous decision on the subscription’s first title.
Set in the 1990s, “The Black Kids” by Christina Hammonds Reed follows an African-American girl in a predominately white Los Angeles high school.
“I just thought it was so relevant with what is going on right now,” Olivia says, referencing protests about the killing of George Floyd and in support of Black Lives Matter.
“(The book) really helped me learn more about my white privilege and how I can help be a better ally to my Black brothers and sisters,” she says.
Through the board, Hill says she has met like-minded voracious readers, and she enjoys having “a voice in choosing books that other teens get to read.”
“To have an advanced copy of a book in my hands, it is so thrilling, and it makes me feel so special,” she says. “I’m so honored to review these works months before they come out.”
More opportunities for teens
This month, locally owned Brazos Bookstore launched a new Instagram page, @brazostreehouse, as a hub “for all things #kidlit.”
The feed features Instagram Live chats with YA authors, virtual story times and title releases for its monthly Middle Grade Book Club, which currently meets on Zoom.
And while the Houston Public Library works on the launch of online book clubs, it has extended its summer contest for teens. Submissions for the Get Graphic! comic-book contest can be mailed by Aug. 15 (houstonlibrary.org/ learn-explore/teens/just-teens).
The contest invites sixth through 12th graders to work individually or in groups to create the first few panels of a comic book or graphic novel. Entries will be judged on artwork, plot, dialogue and originality.
Rebecca Denham, the library’s teen-services coordinator, says the contest inspires storytelling by youths who find it easier to express themselves through visuals alongside the written word.
“Writing and art and journaling is one of the ways that we process emotions,” she says.
Graphics is a story structure that works well for kids who are not native English speakers, those with learning differences or kids who struggle with grammar and sentence structure, Denham adds.
Mary Wagoner, youth advocate at the library, says this style of storyboarding is an alternative for kids who find traditional forms of writing to be intimidating.
“It’s that creative outlet for those who lean more towards the visual side of storytelling,” says Wagoner, calling graphic books “a new genre.”
BLUE WILLOW BOOKSHOP LAUNCHED ITS YA FIRST EDITIONS CLUB.