I attended the virtual Young Adult Services Symposium. I’ve always wanted to attend a YALSA Symposium, so I was very excited to have the opportunity with it going virtual. Some of the sessions were recorded ahead of time and some were live, and they’re all available to watch after the conference ended.
I attended many panels with YA authors that got me very excited about many of the great YA books that have come out this year and gave me lots of great collection development (and personal reading!) ideas. A few of my favorites were the Edwards Award program with Steve Sheinken; Pride of Space: LGBTQ+ Representation in YA with George M. Johnson, Dahlia Adler, TJ Klune, and Aiden Thomas and moderated by Malinda Lo; and Inner Spaces: Creating Compelling Characters Dealing with Tough Topics with Romina Garber, Adib Khorram, Mark Oshiro, and Courtney Summers.
Steve Sheinken talked about how he got his start in writing textbooks and being inspired by all the interesting anecdotes that never make it into textbooks, even though they may have been more effective at getting kids excited about history. He also talked about the importance of providing context, even if it complicates our understanding of historical events.
I also attended several panels with librarians talking about programming and YA lit including Reaching Marginalized Teens through Novels in Verse, Our Teens Have a Voice: Methods in Planning and Executing a Youth Conference on Social Justice, and Expanding Our Minds: Mental Illness and Recovery in YA Literature. The one about the Youth Social Justice Conference was great because it really reinforced the Connected Learning training I did this summer through the state library services.
