Girls of Summer 2012: One Night, Three Authors and One Amazing Book List

Gigi Amateau and Meg Medina

If you were not downtown at Library Park on Tuesday, June 19th, you missed a real treat! Oh and ice cream too. Local authors, Gigi Amateau and Meg Medina, presented their second annual Girls of Summer book list. Books about amazing, strong girls for amazing, strong girls! The list is made up of 18 titles for girls of all ages; and includes fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels. The complete list is posted to their Girls of Summer website.

Each book was introduced at random with a short review. We were even treated to a few readings, which were all done by three wonderful young ladies.

Each Friday, their website will feature and interview with a different author who wrote one of the books on the list. Short reviews of each of the books on the list are also posted.

We were also treated to a conversation with a conversation with Wendy Shang, author of The Great Wall of Lucy Wu.

Wendy used to be a lawyer, and a few years ago she found herself wondering what was the one thing she hadn't done that she still really wanted to do? The answer was write a children's book!

It is hard to grow up and have one foot in two different cultures and no one is every completely comfortable with it. You are always told, to write about what you know, so she did. Which was also the reason why Lucy is twelve.Wendy remembers being twelve better then most other times in her life.

But she also wanted to make Lucy different, so she made Lucy a short, basketball player. (Gigi will tell you that is great basketball in the book!)

Wendy's advice to aspiring writers is this: read! Read a lot, read everything. Write a lot, write a little every day, and learn to edit your own work. 

We are looking forward to next year's event at Library Park!

a crowd of all ages