Last weekend in the Twin Cities was seriously hot with off-the-hook humidity, but we Lerners still had plenty of fun!

On Sunday, July 26, St. Paul Saints pitcher Kramer Sneed read John Coy’s Hoop Genius to a group of about 50 young fans. What a perfect book for ball game lovers! (Okay, baseball and basketball aren’t the same thing, but we’re guessing there’s a fair amount of overlap in fan base.)

Who’s holding the book? Author John Coy, of course!

For more information on the Saints’ Reading Tree literacy program, check out this Publishers Weekly article.

The evening before, on July 26, three Lab rats (Carrie Mesrobian, E. K. Johnston, and Steve Brezenoff) joined former Carolrhoda Lab editor Andrew Karre and author Bryan Bliss (No Parking at the End Times, Greenwillow Books) for a panel on young adult books.

The discussion ranged from the statistical abundance of boarding schools and orphans in YA lit to why all of the panelists loved writing, editing, and reading YA. As Carrie Mesrobian, author of Lab novels Sex & Violence and Perfectly Good White Boy, said, “I just don’t find the concerns of my [adult] life that interesting.” 

Also discussed: the facility of taking potshots at YA (one example cited was this P. J. O’Rourke review in the New York Times).

Johnston signs while Brezenoff looks quizzical. Also pictured: some of Mesrobian’s hair.

All in all, it was a great weekend! We hope yours was smashing as well.