The annual Book Buzz was held in the library after school on Tuesday, April 30 for students interested in reading and hearing about newly released books. The Book Buzz was held to raise awareness for upcoming authors and to present new books to avid readers. Students came to listen to a presentation about the books, and to win them through a raffle. The books represented a wide variety of different views, characters, and genres such as fantasy, realistic fiction, non-fiction, and others. Some of the raffled books were copies of the novels discussed, others were of different novels yet to be released.

The presentation began with Mr. Robert Haddock, an Educational Field Manager from Penguin Random House, introducing and explaining the background of Book Buzz to the students. He also introduced four different websites for the students to check out for more information on the new books. There was one for adults, one for kids, one for teens, and a fourth devoted to more exclusive content for teens, such as quizzes and crafts. After debriefing the websites, Mr. Haddock touched on the most anticipated Penguin Random House books to be released in the summer and fall of 2019.

“[Book Buzz] helps authors because we get to promote the author’s titles and builds awareness of what they’re publishing so it gets the word out about the authors and new books they are writing,” Mr. Haddock said. “Word of mouth spreads the word and you guys go out and tell your friends about it.”

Romance lovers can look forward to reading (and watching) The Sun is also a Star, a 2016 novel by Nicola Yoon, the author of Everything Everything, the movie adaptation of which comes out on May 27, 2019, and Hot Dog Girl, a queer romance novel. Readers who enjoy historical fiction can look forward to exploring The Downstairs Girl, set in Louisiana, and The Fountains of Silence, set in fascist Madrid, Spain. Patron Saints of Nothing, and The Virtue of Sin both tackle more contemporary social issues within their pages, and Frankly in Love depicts the struggles between conforming to family and cultural values while developing as an individual.

“I learned about a lot of new books that are coming out and I’m really interested in reading them now,” Grace Li ‘22 said.

Fans of mystery, horror, and thrillers can dig into The Things She’s Seen, about a dead girl who helps her detective father unravel a mystery, When the Ground is Hard, which stars a pair of unlikely boarding school roommates turned detectives, The Haunted, a ghost novel similar to those of Stephen King, and The Liar’s Daughter, about a girl who grew up in a cult.  

“I love books, I’ve always loved books and wanted to see what new books I can read and review and think about and experience,” Violet Burns ‘21 said. “I like reading because it gives my brain something to do.”

Fans of Shakespeare will enjoy William Shakespeare’s Get thee Back to the Future!  and Much Ado About Mean Girls, retellings of Back to the Future and Mean Girls written in Shakespearean English. Mr. Haddock also introduced several non-fiction books, such as Warhead, the true story of a boy whose final wish was to negotiate for peace with Mikhail Gorbachev, and The Far Away Brothers, a young adult adaptation of a story of twins who escape from El Salvador and make a life in California as undocumented immigrants.

“I just love books, I love sharing them with people, I love to read and so whenever I read I love just talking about the books that I love and just sharing them with other people,” Mr. Haddock said.

Penguin Random House will also be releasing two handbooks, Girlish, an interactive journal which profiles the stories of inspirational women and discusses being a girl in the 21st century, and Brave the Page, a guide to National Novel Writing Month and how to write a story aimed towards teens. Fantasy readers seemed to have the best luck with upcoming novels, and can look forward to reading Wicked Fox, a fantasy story heavily influenced by Korean culture.

“I learned about a lot of new books that are coming out and I’m really interested in reading them now,” Li said. “I like the world that reading builds, and how you can just immerse yourself and imagine what the characters are feeling.”