The Boston Book Festival Preview

October 27, 2012 will mark the fourth annual Boston Book Festival (since its re-emergence). Visit here for all the info you need to plan your day. Just click on the session and you'll get info about each speaker/program/presentation. Everything happens in and around Copley Square, it's entirely free, and there's something for everyone in the family.

As a volunteer, I'm producing one of the YA panels entitled: Overcoming Adversity. It is moderated by Amy Pattee, a professor of library science at Simmons College and the three authors who will speak are Barry Lyga (Boy Toy, Fan Boy and Goth Girl, I Hunt Killers), Jo Knowles (Jumping Off Swings, Pearl, See You at Harry's), and Kate Burak (Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things).

All three of these authors take on controversial and compelling issues in their stories. Lyga's most recent book, I Hunt Killers (Little, Brown 2012), is about the son of a serial killer attempting to carve out an identity for himself in his small town where everyone thinks they already know him. I reviewed it here.

Knowles's latest, See You at Harry's (Candlewick 2012), offers a family with four kids that owns a restaurant. When a tragedy befalls them, they each fall apart in different ways and have to figure out how to stitch their family back together.

In Burak's debut novel (Roaring Brook 2012), she writes about Claire, who is spending her second senior year of high school in a new town far away from all the mess she left behind, but trouble seems to follow her.

All three are excellent and I'm interested in what these three talented authors will have to say on October 27. Join us!