Marissa Meyer Encourages Teens to Battle the Books

Many libraries around the country participate, in their own way, in a Battle of the Books program. It usually involves teens reading a few selected young adult books and then competing in some way to see who knows them better. There are judges, time keepers, and coaches. The kids really take this seriously (not to mention their parents), and it can be a very intense event.

The Alachua County Library District held it's annual Battle of the Books tournament this past weekend. Seven teams, each representing their home branch library, competed to see who could correctly answer the most questions correctly about:

All of these are excellent books that could be enjoyed by teens and adults alike. The teens in our branches have spent the summer reading these books and studying them, with librarians serving as coaches. They've quizzed each other, created flash cards, done dry runs...there's no doubt these kids are out to win. Oh, and they have fun, too.

A couple of months ago, my boss asked me if I might be able to help bring in a children's or young adult author to speak at ACLD in order to spend out some funding by the end of our fiscal year. I am lucky and grateful to know the adult library marketing folks for the major publishers, and I'd talked to some other librarians at a recent conference about how to make an offer to come speak appealing to your favorite authors. Maybe I could use some of these connections and techniques to convince a youth author to come to Gainesville, at which time our fantastic and incredibly creative children's staff would take over the planning.

I once again have to send virtual flowers to the fine folks at the Macmillan Speaker's Bureau, who responded to my query with a list of  possibilities. Several were intriguing, and I was rather impressed that I might actually have a chance to meet some of these awesome writers. I showed the list to our youth services manager, who immediately pointed to one. "Oh, look," she said casually, "Marissa Meyer. She'd be my choice. You know, with Battle of the Books coming up."

I paused. How did I miss this? Of course! How amazing would that be? To have the author of one of the Battle of the Books actually AT the battle? OMG. But could we actually pull it off? The battle was only about six weeks away. Bringing in an author involves contracts and money and arrangements at the local bed and breakfast during wedding season. I wasn't sure we could do it, but it was definitely worth a try.

And sure enough, it worked. Marissa graciously agreed to come cheer the kids on during the afternoon of August 2. I had the great pleasure of telling the staff member coordinating Battle of the Books that Marissa would be attending, and even better, seeing the lit up face of a teen she was working with at the time, get the news. These kids were going to be SO excited, and it's thrilling to be a part of that. Several of us poured over flight possibilities, as Marissa was coming all the way to Gainesville from Seattle, and she needed to be back the afternoon after the contest. The Macmillan folks were fantastic, turning over paperwork and arrangements immediately. Erin, the youth services manager, agreed to drive an hour and a half to Jacksonville to pick her up from the flight that ended up working best. Contracts were signed, brunch with the teen librarians was had, and Marissa arrived for the battle with a huge smile on her face.

Her smile is truly the first thing you notice about Marissa, as it's big and wide and genuine. It didn't take long at all for the kids to start crowding around her, asking for autographs and pictures (in fact, she signed the back of a couple of the teens' team shirts). Booksamillion sold books, and the rep ended up leaving early because he'd sold everything he brought. Marissa mingled for a while as we talked with a couple of reporters and got everyone signed in. She asked if I'd put her purse away somewhere, to which I readily agreed, only to spin around in a circle trying to decide the safest place to store it. Finally, I decided to take it back down to my office. Walking past the children's desk, I caught the attention of the one chidren's staff member not upstairs and pointed at the purse. "It's Marissa Meyer's purse!" I mouthed, pointing to the bag in question. She nodded, no doubt agreeing that this was exciting, but possibly wondering why a purse was the most important part of this visit.

I made my way back up to the conference room, where Marissa began a presentation to the teens. It can be hard to engage teenagers, but these guys and their families were at full attention. Marissa had prepared a PowerPoint presentation in which she described the process she went through to get to a place where she had a completed novel she was proud of and thought could be successful. It seems that Marissa pretty much always wanted to be a writer, and despite being certain she could be published and making money off her writing by the time she graduated high school, she showed us a long list of novels she started but which, for various reasons, weren't completed or weren't something she wanted to submit to an agent. It was a great message for the teens to hear that, when you really want to do something, it's worth continuing to try and learn to do it better but not let failure stop you from trying again.

And then the competition began! I was serving as one of three judges, and I'm not sure I wasn't at least as nervous as the teens. I found myself wishing I could be sitting with each team, giving them advice, making sure they understood what the question as looking for. Marissa helped us with some pronunciation, and how many people can say the author herself told you how to say letumosis? After each round, we took a break. We had planned that Marissa would make her way to each team's table to chat with them personally, but I don't think she actually made it to any of them because they all came to her first. She was quite generous and animated with the teens, parents, and staff members who were all having fan-reader moments. 

But the end had to come, and when the final numbers came in, our team from Tower Road branch came in first. They, and the second place team, won signed copies of Marissa's newest book in the series, Cress. Truly, all the teams were great, and it was a lot of fun to see them talking so intensely as they agreed on the answer to write down. If there was a favorite, it might have been the team of one, who chose not to join up with another team, but worked diligently through the whole thing, holding her pen over her answer board thoughtfully before finalizing each answer. Her mother told me she was a little shy, but I saw her getting to talk to Marissa, and I can only hope that's a memory she holds on to for a long time.

The end of the day was filled with last bits of signing and picture taking, including this one of all the participants. I had walked around to each table, taking pictures and asking the teens which of the three was their favorite books. And even after I pushed back at them a little disbelievingly, they all said the same thing: Marissa Meyer's Cinder.