Fast Five Interview: Aaron Starmer
Author Aaron Starmer joins us to talk about his new book, YOU ARE NOW OLD ENOUGH TO HEAR THIS.
teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2026/04/21/f... @tltkaren.bsky.social @aaronstarmer.bsky.social
When did a writing career become audience members yelling suggestions to an improv comedy troupe?
Join me and other finalists for the Vermont Book Award at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont this Saturday at 6pm. We'll be dropping knowledge and crumbs (which we will dutifully sweep up).
If you want your child to read books that they’ll forget in a month’s time, hand them pablum. If you want them to think, rethink, and return to a book for the rest of their life? This is what you give. I review @aaronstarmer.bsky.social #kidlit 📚👍 afuse8production.slj.com/2026/04/12/r...
My two besties.
It's basically the Super Bowl, the Oscars and the Tunbridge World's Fair all rolled into one. I'm talking, of course, about the Vermont Book Awards! Join the Green Mountain Glitterati on Saturday, May 2nd in Montpelier for food, drinks and bookishness. Tickets here www.eventbrite.com/e/the-vermon...
I am, and it is, and no, they don't
I have this fantasy/mystery hitting the world next week!
I made a podcast episode! This one is with @aaronstarmer.bsky.social talking about how the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s freaked us out. We also talk up his latest novels NIGHT SWIMMING and (the newly released) YOU ARE NOW OLD ENOUGH TO HEAR THIS. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...
Get it for the readers in your life that love to be immersed in beautiful and bewildering worlds. And get it early! www.harpercollins.com/products/ria...
When I found out RIALTO is a family adventure set in and around an enchanted forest and an abandoned amusement park, I knew she was firmly in her element. This is an expertly-crafted, deeply felt story of sisterhood and strange beasts, of anxiety and discovery, of new friends and long lost legends.
For more than a decade, Kate has been creating an alternate world called Nagspeake, which is like a version of our world, but sprinkled with magic, and erudite children, and intricate objects imbued with mysteries. Reading one of her books is like stepping into a vast mall full of curiosity shops.
There's wonderful writing going on in the middle grade sphere right now, but opportunities to promote these books are dwindling. Case in point: @katemilford.bsky.social's brilliant RIALTO, which comes out in exactly two weeks. An advance copy visited me in snowy Vermont and asked for a photo shoot!
I'd have to lose some of my muscle mass first to get down as small as him.
The cover story for the latest issue of Vermont's favorite newspaper Seven Days is about good ol' Ben trying to buy back Ben & Jerry's from Unilever, but the biggest jump-scare is the appearance of my big old face! Thankfully, there's also a review to go with it.
www.sevendaysvt.com/arts-culture...
Might want to wait a few more years to be sure.
Today is the day! YOU ARE NOW OLD ENOUGH TO HEAR THIS is here!
Ask your local indie to order a copy...or ten. Give it to a kid. Or keep it for yourself. Spread the word but don't spoil it. And thank you for enduring my onslaught of promotion. It's part of this job I'm so lucky to have.
Enter to win a copy of YOU ARE NOW OLD ENOUGH TO HEAR THIS and read a short piece I wrote about AI and "The Middle" over at Literary Rambles: www.literaryrambles.com/2026/03/the-...
I never fully understood the huge success of the book (and now movie!) THE POUT-POUT FISH, but I have to admit that "kaleidoscope of mope" is one of the great turns of phrases in all of children's literature.
The lack of editorial oversight this book went through is disheartening. Traditional publishing needs to speed up its processes if it wants to compete with self publishing, but not the editorial part. That's where traditional should have the distinct advantage.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...
"Hot, sexy, dangerous boys—central to virtually all young adult romance novels—cannot be copyrighted."—Judge Colleen McMahon
Glad we've got that settled, at least.
lunch.publishersmarketplace.com/wp-content/u...
Am I the only one who thinks that 4 MILLION BOOKS per year is perhaps too many books? www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
ONE MORE WEEK...
Hey! I just saw this somewhere else. Congrats!
Thank you, Bart! Vermont is absolutely lousy with authors but I'm always surprised when I discover ones that I didn't know lived here.
Thank you!
Thank you! I do too. Jaime Zollars is so damn talented.
