Matt de la Peña at Blue Willow Bookshop

Yesterday I went to see Matt de la Peña at Blue Willow Bookshop.  He read a little from THE LIVING, then a little from THE HUNTED after we asked, and answered some questions from the audience.  If you haven't seen him speak before, he has a lot of upcoming events, including YAK Fest in Fort Worth this Saturday.

And if you haven't read THE LIVING, you should.  It is one of the seven books on the Cybils shortlist for YA Speculative Fiction.

A few highlights:

• Shy, the protagonist of THE LIVING, is the same character in his story "Angels in the Snow" from MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME (my review) and his One Teen Story "Passing Each Other in Halls".  He's been trying to find a good home for the character for ten years, so he kept trying him out in different ones.  THE LIVING and THE HUNTED were the novels that worked.

• THE HUNTED begins with a radio conversation, and part of it takes place at Sony's studios.  It comes out in May.

• When de la Peña wrote THE LIVING, he wanted to stretch himself and write something different from his other books, something more commercial.  He wants to reach as many readers as possible.

• There will be more Shoeshine in THE HUNTED and some of his mysteries will be revealed.

• de la Peña wrote a lot of THE LIVING while running, to make himself as uncomfortable as possible.  That way he could think of more uncomfortable things to happen to the characters. 

ETA: Here's a pic of the crowd!

Review: My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

Edited and with a story by Stephanie Perkins
Stories by Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Peña, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, and Kiersten White
Available now from St. Martin's Griffin
Review copy

For her first anthology, Stephanie Perkins did not play fair.  She gathered up a veritable who's who of YA authors to deliver a nearly perfect anthology with something to offer for everybody.  Some of the stories are speculative fiction; some are contemporary.  All have at least a touch of a romantic edge.  There's also a smattering of diversity.

For me, the weakest link was Jenny Han's "Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me," the story of a human girl adopted by Santa.  There were hints of an interesting elf world and two potential love interests, and it was all a bit much for one of the book's shorter stories.  It felt like the beginning to something longer.  My favorite was Kelly Link's "The Lady and the Fox," a sort of Christmas retelling of Tam Lin with a young girl who loves costumes and an old family with lots of stories.

David Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, Matt de la Peña, and Gayle Forman and more deliver solid contemporary Christmas and New Year's stories.  I liked that Levithan's brought in some Jewish heritage to the proceedings.  Holly Black did what Holly Black does.  So did Laini Taylor to deliver a memorable closing story.  I found Kiersten White's "Welcome to Christmas, CA" took longer to charm me than the others, but by the end I was under its delicious spell.

I appreciated that MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME skewed a little older.  Almost all of the characters are in their first year of college.  It united the anthology in a way, and gave it a bit of a different vibe from similar YA holiday anthologies.

This is a charming collection and an excellent choice for anyone who likes at least one or more of the twelve authors.  It's rare to come across an anthology this solid.  And with so much winter cheer, it's hard for me to be a Grinch.