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Ibi Zoboi is the author of National Book Award finalist AMERICAN STREET for young adults with more YA and middle grade books on the way. Arthur Levine asks: Where does Ibi's life and character's life intersect, and if that's a joyful spot? Ibi says, "My story is about a Haitian immigrant teen, I'm a Haitian immigrant, of course there's going to be an intersection. The joy came when I could include writing about spirituality. I'm not talking about the bastardization/corrupted version of voodoo, I was able to talk about the whole, true, original Haitian practice of spirituality in my book... For me it's reclaiming a narrative that hasn't been truthful at all. Taking back the power, which was empowering for me and for the narrative." What are the talismans of power you have for your writing? The first thing Ibi thought of was a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar: We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt ...

Linda Sue Park, the Newbery Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of so many wonderful books for young readers moderated a panel featuring four extraordinary authors: Elana K. Arnold, Brandy Colbert, Erin Estrada Kelly, and Carolyn Mackler. We normally don't do a special blog post for the moderator, but Linda Sue is such a consistent source of insight and wisdom that we couldn't resist capturing what she said too. The started by listing topics included in the books written by the authors on the panel: Mental health problems. Body shaming. Racism. Bullying. Date rape. Unwanted pregnancy. "These writers boldly go where parents fear to tread," Linda Sue said. She told an anecdote about a librarian who gets many requests for sad books—there is an audience for heartbreak. It's worth keeping in mind as we write. For whatever reason, young readers often crave encountering pain on the page. Linda asked the authors what the sources for the deeply sad scenes in t...