This evening, the Early Career Committee of the Children's Book Council (CBC) sponsored the Annual Extreme Trivia Challenge. The event was hosted by bestselling authors Holly Black (Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale; The Spiderwick Chronicles; White Cat) and Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments and the companion series, The Infernal Devices). One hundred publishing people played to win the coveted golden bunny trophies that are awarded to the first place know-it-alls. The trophies are bunnies in recognition of the over-representation of bunnies in children's books. The evening ran beautifully and everyone had a blast. It's safe to say that everyone in attendance learned something new and had a great time doing so. A simple reminder that books and learning can be fun. The categories were challenging and often downright hilarious. One category was entitled WWHPD?(What Would Harry Potter DO). So, if you fancy yourself a fan, try these on for size - name the spells Harry Potter would most likely use to weasel his way out of the following dilemmas.a. A mountain troll is attacking you, fend it off!
b. You know that evil jinx Malfoy came from Malfoy’s wand—even if no one else does. Prove it.
c. A furious grindylow has grabbed hold of your ankle, get it off!
d. Your annoying but well-intentioned friend *cough—Nevil* won’t stop tagging along on your missions to conquer the dark lord, get him out of the way already!
You'll have to look at tomorrow blog post to see if you're right!
Many, many thanks to my amazing CBC staff - kudos, in particular, to Rachel H for this one - for working together and supporting one another, resulting in yet another brilliant CBC event. My takeaway from this evening is admiration for and gratitude to my staff for a job well done and a strong desire to read Holly Black's new book White Cat, about a boy from a family of curse workers — people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands (recommended for ages 14 and up).
My daughter and I had the pleasure of watching Holly Black in action at the Thalia Book Club at Symphony Space. Along with her co-editor Justine Larbalestier, Holly gathered together a group of well-known YA authors for an anthology entitled "Zombies vs Unicorns." Several of these authors joined Holly (Team Unicorn) and Justine (Team Zombie) as they debated the merits of their respective characters. The book is decidely YA (and not middle school), but the stories and the authors' introductions were clever and entertaining.
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