Today’s bibliophiles can correspond much more easily with their favorite authors than those growing up decades ago. Authors not only have web sites, but also use MySpace and Facebook pages to publicize their books and stay in touch with their fans.
Those working with teenagers today should acquaint themselves with the sites of the most popular YA authors and share them with their students/patrons.
You could spend DAYS browsing through all the YA author sites out there! Here are just a few examples of YA authors’ web presence:
Author Sites
Highlights: See the Twilight movie trailer, listen to playlists she created for writing and reading the Twilight series books, read the partial draft of Midnight Sun (the book that was illegally posted on the Internet and is now on hold).
Highlights: Homicide Meets Mr. Gold Medal – the script to a short play written by Korman published in Scope magazine, Top Ten Questions where Korman answers fans’ questions, and a Message Board.
Highlights: links to book trailers, Teacher’s Guides to accompany some of her books, FAQ’s.
Highlights: Wow! Too much to pick from. This is a must-visit site.
Highlights: Book Club information, Reader’s Guide for The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, and the author’s blog (she admits she’s a bad blogger).
Highlights: Copper Sun resources, Study Guides for many of her books, For New Teachers (Draper was an award winning teacher and offers great advice), Homework Helper which answers a plethora of questions about Draper to help with student research, and The Paper Draper Project – Draper is offering the few remaining Author Visit in a Box kits free (you pay the $35.00 shipping) to schools, libraries, and classroom teachers.
Highlights: Bio and Reviews.
Highlights: Play the Artemis Fowl Inner Circle game, discuss books on the Message Board, and hear an audio announcement from the author about a new book.
Highlights: Video clips of the author discussing the books and characters, Study Guides for two of her books, link to the author’s blog.
Highlights: Meg’s Diary, Message Board, pages on each of her books with reviews and book excerpts.
Highlights: Anagrams, Blog, Famous Last Words.
Character Sites
Some popular characters also have official sites:
Georgia Nicolson (Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging heroine)
Series Sites
Some popular series have official sites:
Gemma Doyle Trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and A Sweet, Far Thing)
The sky’s the limit on finding all the YA author, book, and character sites on the ‘net. What are some of your favorite ones?
Image attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/71651012@N00/127194972
October 25, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Sarah Dessen Pages:
http://theunquietlibrary.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/sarah-dessen-20/
Christopher Paolini: http://www.alagaesia.com/
Ally Carter: http://allycarter.com/index.html
Ellen Schreiber : http://www.ellenschreiber.com/home.htm
Ellen Hopkins: http://www.ellenhopkins.com/
Laurie Halse Anderson: http://www.writerlady.com/
I also love http://www.readergirlz.com !
October 25, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Here are a few author/series that are popular at my high school:
Melissa Marr – author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange. Both are popular with my students. She has a blog and an online forum where she answers reader questions.
http://www.melissa-marr.com/index.php
Holly Black – author or Tithe, Valiant, Ironside, and The Good Neighbors for YA. Similar to Melissa Marr in that they both wright urban fantasy for YA. Also popular with my teens. http://blackholly.com/
Anthony Horowits – Alex Rider series – sorta a junior James Bond type series. Extremely popular with my guys. Love the website for all of the extras, such as exclusive extra chapter of Snakehead, the booktrailer for Scorpia, etc. http://www.alexrider.com/
Sarah Dessen – Her books are extremely popular with my girls. http://www.sarahdessen.com/
Darren Shan – Cirque Du Freak series – Extremely popular with the guys. Interesting website. http://www.darrenshan.com/
October 25, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Fran,
This is a great resource. I would recommend James Patterson’s Maximum Ride site (http://www.maximumride.com/); Erin Hunter’s Warriors website (http://www.warriorcats.com/); Laurie Halse Anderson’s Writer Lady (http://www.writerlady.com/); Nikki Grimes–Bronx Masquerade (http://www.nikkigrimes.com/); Lois Lowry (http://www.loislowry.com/); and Sharon Creech.
Thanks for compiling this!
Julie Esanu
October 26, 2008 at 12:07 am
Thanks, Julie! I will check these out.
October 27, 2008 at 7:18 pm
I like Katerine Patterson’s site.
http://www.terabithia.com/