Blogs About Reading

Reading Without Walls

Gene Luen Yang

Gene Luen Yang began drawing comic books in the fifth grade. In 2006, his graphic novel, American Born Chinese — a memoir about growing up as an Asian American — became the first graphic novel to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. He is the author of the Secret Coders series and has written for the hit comics Avatar: The Last Airbender and Superman. In 2016, Yang was named the 5th National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and selected as a MacArthur Fellow. Visit Gene Yang's official website.

The National Ambassador for Young People's Literature raises awareness of the importance of young people's literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people. The initiative is sponsored by The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council, and Every Child a Reader.

 

November 10, 2016

Gene sits down with writer Patrick Ness — author of the award-winning middle grade book, A Monster Calls, the popular YA science fiction trilogy Chaos Walking, and the YA book The Rest of Us Just Live Here, a story about finding the extraordinary in your ordinary self.

October 18, 2016

I had the absolute lifetime honor of speaking with the legendary Lois Lowry for this episode of Reading Without Walls. The Newbery Award-winning author of The Giver tells us how her quiet childhood helped her become a writer, about her career as a professional photographer, and how she feels about the movie adaptations of her books. And she has advice for aspiring young writers.

September 22, 2016

Gene and his good friend and creative collaborator, Thien Pham (Level Up), just started a book club, inspired by their newfound love of YA romance novels. In their first book club get-together, they talk about Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, a love story of two young people from different worlds. Are Eleanor and Park are too young for "true love"?

August 12, 2016

In this episode, Gene talks to authors and comic book characters about their favorite children's books. See if any of your childhood favorites are mentioned!   Featured interviews include:

July 15, 2016

Welcome Raina Telgemeier, author and illustrator of the graphic novels Smile, Sisters, and Drama (all New York Times bestsellers). In this episode, Raina discusses discovering her reading super power, keeping a comic diary, the surealism of being the "Real Raina," and how her graphic novels created a whole new book genre.

June 13, 2016

The amazing cartoonist Hope Larson joins me for this episode of Reading Without Walls. She tells us about writing the next run of Batgirl, when Batgirl goes backpacking through Asia. And she talks about her love of adventure comics, like The Adventures of Tintin. Hope you'll take a look!  

Pages

"I'm wondering what to read next." — Matilda, Roald Dahl