YALLWEST 2016 Day 1!
~ A photo essay and review by J.W. Lynne (California, USA)
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YALLWEST is a book festival, organized by YA authors Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz, for those who love young adult and middle grade books. Want to know what it's like? Here's a photo tour of YALLWEST 2016! |
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| The festival entrance area (AKA: basketball courts) featured food trucks and welcoming chalk messages. |
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| In the science quad and the main quad were popular booths offering tons of freebies. Epic Reads gave away free books. A spin of the wheel determined which one you got. |
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| The Owl Crate booth had a prize wheel too. Everyone was a winner! (Prizes included notepads, lip balm, journals, candles, and books.) |
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| Hey! Another prize wheel! |
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| And if you stood in line at the Disney Publishing booth, you could walk away with any of this swag! |
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| There was an official BookTube (booklovers on YouTube) meet up. Beforehand, festivalgoers posed for photos with their favorite BookTube stars, like Christine Riccio (polandbananasBOOKS), Natasha Polis (Tashapolis) ... |
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| ... Kat
O'Keeffe (Katytastic),
and Jesse George (jessethereader)! (Note: In the above photo, they're getting ready to do a silly pose.) |
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| This lucky girl got Jesse George (jessethereader), Christine Riccio (polandbananasBOOKS), Natasha Polis (Tashapolis), and Kat O'Keeffe (Katytastic) all in the same shot! |
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| Just before the meet up officially began, Christine set up a camera and then invited the audience to participate in a music video for polandbananasBOOKS! |
| Here's that music video! |
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| After the quick video shoot, Jesse, Christine, and Kat took questions from the audience. |
| I asked them about their bucket lists! |
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| Finally, Christine and Kat faced off in a trivia contest against brave volunteers, answering book trivia questions from the audience. I learned that the Hogwarts motto is "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus." The translation: Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon! |
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| As a Harry Potter fan, I had to check out the "Harry Potter is my Lyfe" panel, where authors discussed their love of Harry Potter. |
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| Afterward, the panelists posed for a group photo! |
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| Kristina Horner hosted a book swap, where people could bring a wrapped book to trade for different one. Clues were written on the outside to help with the decision. |
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| A Hamilton sing-along featuring YALLWEST volunteers, audience members, and YA authors was a hit! |
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I attended a bunch of thought-provoking panels throughout
the day, including
this one (featuring authors Alexandra Bracken, Ally Condie,
Kirsten Hubbard, J.R. Johansson, Alyson Noel, and Sonya
Sones) about why authors often choose to kill off the parents in YA books. The
short answer: it forces kids to grow up fast. Day 1 of YALLWEST left me completely exhausted, but extremely excited about Day 2! |
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Check out Jen's coverage of
Sunday (Day 2) at
YALLWEST 2016 here! YALLWEST 2016 was held on April 30th and May 1st at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California, USA. |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jen is also known as J.W. Lynne, a best selling author of eleven novels. Click on any of the titles below to see the book on Amazon! THE UNKNOWN: Eight kids learn the shocking reason why they were kidnapped. ABOVE THE SKY: A girl lives in a world where touching her soulmate is forbidden. THE DARKNESS OUTSIDE: A teen is locked in a bunker to take a simulated trip to the moon. KID DOCS: An experimental program turns kids into doctors. WILD ANIMAL SCHOOL: A girl falls in love with a boy at an exotic animal ranch. WHAT HE DIDN'T TELL ME: A traumatized girl meets a boy with a horrible secret. IF I TELL: A teen wonders if her father is a serial killer. Besides reading books and dreaming up stories to write, Jen's favorite activities are singing along to musical theater soundtracks and hiking in California's beautiful parks. **Jen's books are available on Kindle Unlimited.** |
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Heading to Los Angeles for
YALLWEST? Check out Jen's L.A. Bucket List for great ideas of things to do while you're in town! Jen's reviews and photos of other YALLWEST book festivals: YALLWEST 2016 Day 2 YALLWEST 2017 YALLWEST 2018 YALLWEST 2019 YALLWEST 2022 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, YallWest 2020 and 2021 were not held in-person and were rebranded by the organizers as YALLSTAYHOME (Yall Stay Home), a virtual book gathering that took place largely online. The next YALLWEST will likely be in 2024! Other popular posts you might enjoy: Descriptions of great YA books in ten words or less YA Dystopian Book Bucket List YA Contemporary Book Bucket List Go on a blind date with a YA book |
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YALLWEST 2024 tips: Follow YALLWEST on Facebook and Twitter to be the first to know the details about the 2024 festival, including the complete author lineup and schedule. Before you go, look over the schedule and program and plan out your day. If you want to be among the first people to walk through the gates when the festival opens, arrive early. For YALLWEST 2023, about 30 people were in line at 7:30 AM (the festival was scheduled to open at 9 AM) and the line grew quickly after 8AM. If there's an ARC of a soon-to-be-published book that is on your must-read list, stop by the booth where it will be given away as soon as you arrive at the festival to make sure you know the rules to get that specific ARC. If there's an author who you'd like to have sign your book, review the signing schedule carefully. Lining up to meet certain authors (generally those marked on the schedule with an *) may require a wristband. Check the rules to see when those wristbands will be distributed. If there's a panel that you MUST attend, arrive at the panel early. At YALLWEST 2023, I saw lines for some popular panels beginning more than 20 minutes before the panel was scheduled to start. A few events (generally the "Keynotes" and "Smackdown") require tickets that you purchase online in advance. Be prepared to wait in long lines for almost everything. Pack a refillable water bottle. There are drinking fountains at the school where you can fill your bottle throughout the day. Dress in layers. In Santa Monica, California, the weather tends to be cool early in the day and in the evening, but temperatures can get hot during the day. Wear comfortable closed-toed shoes. The Santa Monica High School campus is not very large, but you will be surprised how much walking you will do, often on crowded walkways. |