It’s Time to Share YOUR Story

In less that a week, it will be time for one of my favorite events of the year–National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). At midnight on November 1, thousands of participants will sit down at their computers, typewriters, notebooks, or whatever their weapon of choice is and will try to write a fifty-thousand-word novel in just thirty days. If it sounds insane, that’s because it is. But it’s also incredibly freeing and it makes you sit down and write whatever story you happen to have in you.

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Gay in YA

Imagine all the books which have opened your eyes to a different world. Imagine if they were never published or didn’t exist or, worse, existed in a censored world where characters were shaped to fit into the tiny box some publishers want to put something as complex and wonderful as the human experience.

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The Sorting Continues…

My Chapter NYDA is helping the New Beginnings Charter School build their Imagine Better Library. We have been there once before to help sort the books generously donated by HPA members and Chapters, but there are so many that a second sorting session was in order. Since our last visit, even more books had arrived. We had our work cut out for us.

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The Sorting Begins!

The NYDA makes its second trip to the New Beginnings Charter School to help sort books! Watch the library grow!

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Imagining Worse to Imagine Better

When you read a book, you can simply imagine the happy ending. You follow the characters along and learn from them. You cheer them on. In the case of imagining better, though, it’s a little different for writers. As a writer creating the story from scratch, there’s a second step in the process. For writers, we have the difficult task of imagining worse before we can imagine better.

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The Importance of a School Library

School libraries are often over-looked, yet have a greater influence on the life of a student (particularly younger ones) than most people believe.

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Hope and Bravery in Number the Stars

Everyone needs a little hope, a reminder of bravery in its purest form, and a bit of history. This is why I plan to donate a copy of Number the Stars to the Bedford-Stuyvesant New Beginnings Charter School for this year’s Accio Books!

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What To Do When You Shout “Accio Books!” and Nothing Happens.

Borders day is over and you can’t part with any more of your own books…Now what?

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Stories that Changed the World

Can a fictional story really change the world? Read more to find out!

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The Hilarity of the Wimpy Kid

Hi. I’m Macky and I’m nine years old and I think Diary of a Wimpy Kid is hilarious. It’s also the first book I stayed up all night reading to myself. I just couldn’t wait until school was over the next day to read it.

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