Author Talk – A.S. King

PaLA’s Annual Conference is happening this week at the beautiful Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  Although I was only able to stay for just one day, I learned a lot of great new ideas and am excited for the new possibilities these ideas represent.  I was also able to go to the Carolyn W. Field Award luncheon.  This year’s recipient was A.S. King for her young adult novel, Ask the Passengers.

A.S. King was born in Reading, PA, lived in Ireland for many years and is now back in our great state.  Her speech was not necessarily about the book, but more as she stated, “a love letter to librarians.”  She truly understands what it takes to be a librarian, how the general populace views this profession, and she has some very clear ideas of how (if she had more time) would meet with every library board in the state to prove what libraries and librarians can do for the community – especially children and young adults.  A speech peppered with links to Maurice Sendak’s great work, Where the Wild Things Are, A.S. King is another author that thoroughly supports the possibilities that libraries offer to voracious young readers, to pre-teen outsiders, and to teens who have no interest in reading “assigned books” from school.

Years ago, she wrote on a notebook – “I want to write books so teenagers can understand adults more and adults can understand teenagers more.”  And I think she’s accomplished it!

For more information about A.S. King, check out her website.