Blog
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The Search Is On to Find the Nation’s Best High School Writers: Introducing Spark a Story
BOSTON, MA – Heading into national short story month, global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced a new competition to find and encourage the nation’s best high school …
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2016 Teen Choice Book Awards Finalists on Their Favorite YA!
Teen Book of the Year and Teen Choice Debut Author finalists Victoria Aveyard, Kelly Loy Gilbert, Jenny Han, Marissa Meyer, and Tommy Wallach continue to draw inspiration from their favorite YA. Check out their recommendations …
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Q&A with National Ambassador Gene Luen Yang
A former teacher, Yang continues to connect with young readers through his graphic novels and mission as National Ambassador, inspiring students to “Read Without Walls” across cultures and forms. I’ve heard from …
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Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, KidLit.TV has shared ideas for celebrating the teachers who inspire us each and every day. Check out KidLit.TV’s Pinterest board for fabulous gift ideas! Teachers …
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2016 Hopkins Poetry Award Winner Announced
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State University Libraries and the Pennsylvania Center for the Book are pleased to announce the winner of the 2016 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award. This …
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ALA and The Harry Potter Alliance Launch ‘Spark’ Advocacy Video Series
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Library Association (ALA) joined the Harry Potter Alliance in launching “Spark,” an eight-part video series developed to support and guide first-time advocates who are interested …
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Children’s Book Week Comics Blog Tour: Gene Luen Yang
In the first post, Green chats with fellow graphic novelist Yang about his favorite books and the appeal of the comics medium for young readers: When it comes to education, the …
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#DrawingDiversity: ‘In a Village by the Sea’ by Muon Van, illustrated by April Chu
In a Village by the Sea by Muon Van, illustrated by April Chu (Creston Books, May 2015). All rights reserved.
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Scholastic Brings Summer Reading to Communities Nationwide with First-Ever, 10,000-Mile “Summer Reading Road Trip”
25+ city tour brings free, “pop-up” reading festivals to kids and families with books, authors, giveaways and more to make summer reading fun NEW YORK – May 2, 2016 – …
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New Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book Title and Cover Revealed Today!
NEW YORK, NY — Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS, revealed the cover, title, and color of the biggest book of 2016 today. Jeff Kinney’s eleventh original book in the Diary …
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Happy 97th Annual Children’s Book Week (May 2-8)!
Tell your friends! Help spread the joy of children’s books and reading all week long! Find sample posts and more in our digital toolkit: Join …
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2016 Edgar Allen Poe Awards Announced
This year’s winners for juvenile and young adult fiction are: BEST JUVENILE Footer Davis Probably is Crazy by Susan Vaught (Simon & Schuster – Paula Wiseman Books) BEST YOUNG ADULT …
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Children’s Book Week Celebrates Graphic Novels
See below for the blog tour schedule: Tuesday, May 3 – Sharp Read featuring Ryan North Tuesday, May 3 – Teen Lit Rocks featuring MK Reed Wednesday, May 4 – Love is Not a Triangle featuring Chris Schweizer Wednesday, May …
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CBC Diversity Panel: “Recruiting Diversity”
The publishing industry has come under fire for its lack of diversity, with recent surveys by Publishers Weekly and Lee & Low Books revealing a mostly homogeneous workforce. Led by moderator Andrea …
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National Ambassador Gene Luen Yang Engages Non-Readers
A former computer science teacher, Yang believes that technology has the potential to expand literacy. Through his platform, “Reading Without Walls,” he hopes to break down the conventional barriers between genres …
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J.K Rowling’s ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ Screenplay to be Published
London, England — Pottermore, the global digital publisher of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World announced today, as part of their new publishing programme, that the screenplay of Warner Bros. Pictures’ feature film …
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How I Got into Publishing: Jennifer Ung, Associate Editor, Simon Pulse
Like many children of Asian immigrants, I grew up believing there are only two paths you can take in life: pursue medicine, or pursue law. It never occurred to me as a kid that I could follow anything other than the path my parents so carefully laid out for me: college close to home, stable job, Asian husband, a litter of babies. “Dream jobs” are for white people, I was always told, not for you.
Despite knowing that, I had a deep, deep love for reading. At any given point in my childhood, I’d be buried in a story, accompanied by the likes of Pooh, of Harry Potter, of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. My parents would encourage my love of books because they knew it would help me in my studies. But little did they know that this early reinforcement would lead to my wanting to make a career out of it, to rebel against the blueprint they’d made for my life since before I was born.
As a teenager, I felt caught between two worlds. In one, I was a dutiful daughter, who wanted to honor my Cambodian heritage and make my parents proud on their terms. And in the other, I was an American, who wanted a career as a book editor, wanted to pursue this very Western ideal of “doing what you love.” It seemed impossible to reconcile my worlds, to find common ground among such disparate identities. So when college application season rolled around, I had some of the most difficult conversations with my parents I’ve ever had. Immigrant family or not, it’s never easy being a teenager having to articulate why you want to do something when your parents just don’t see the world the same way you do. Especially when said thing involves a cross-country move, gargantuan student-loan debt, and a college degree that practically reeks of unemployment.
But in spite of these difficult conversations, I was still privileged to have parents who were open-minded enough to allow me down this unconventional path, even if they didn’t believe in it themselves. (I swear, my mom still occasionally mentions that it’s not too late for pharmacy school…) I was given a privilege many of my peers were not—to be able to take a risk with my future. There were no expectations for me to send money home, to do anything beyond support myself. I am aware of this privilege I carry, and the guilt stemming from that is something I think about all the time.
As soon as I moved to New York for college, it was a whirlwind from there. I had a wealth of opportunities I wouldn’t have had where I grew up in Southern California. I did a slew of unpaid internships at literary agencies and publishing houses, worked at a few bookstores, and curated connections that eventually led to my first job in publishing, as an editorial assistant at Scholastic.
I am constantly thinking about why there are so few people from traditionally marginalized backgrounds in the industry, and I always come up with the same sense of discomfort. I worked hard to get that first job in publishing, certainly, but a lot of the systemic barriers that keep the industry the way it is—being predominantly New York-based, surviving on unpaid internships, low starting salary, to name a few—I was able to overcome through sheer luck, some very generous people, and again that word, privilege. Until we as an industry think more critically about these barriers and come up with concrete solutions, we’ll never change. Thankfully, the tides seem to be turning. Survey results are being shared, think-pieces written, uncomfortable conversations happening, all over the industry.
In the meantime, I’m doing everything I can in my current role to elevate marginalized voices, to bring into the world new perspectives that haven’t yet been featured, so maybe teenagers today (and tomorrow and for the next bajillion years) don’t have to struggle as much as I did to imagine a future full of infinite possibilities.
Jennifer Ung is an associate editor at Simon Pulse, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Books. Her previous experience includes editing books for teens and tweens at Scholastic and hand-selling books and moderating events at Books of Wonder. When she’s not reading or talking about books, you can find her waxing poetic about food, playing uselessly complicated board games, and thinking of new ways to incorporate Mean Girls quotes into everyday conversation. Follow her on Twitter @jenpanda.
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National Ambassador Gene Luen Yang’s Creativity in Progress Series: Part 2
In his second post, Yang discusses some of the different approaches to the creative process. Yang considers himself a “planner” or “outliner,” creating a preliminary outline for his projects while allowing …
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Kate DiCamillo Looks Back on Her Ambassadorship
DiCamillo traveled the country as National Ambassador (2014-15), spreading the message that “Stories Connect Us,” and that reading together helps forge community. She in turn discovered that kids everywhere are still …
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Launches HMH Marketplace, Connecting Educator and Developer Communities
BOSTON, MA — Global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced the Beta launch of HMH Marketplace, a new online destination that offers teachers, edtech developers and technology companies …
