Megan Labrise

New York

Host at Fully Booked by Kirkus Reviews

editor at large @kirkusreviews / Fully Booked podcast host: https://t.co/IDHDUINR4f / tonstant weader / phys galleys pls

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Articles

Brian Selznick Breaks New Ground (Yet Again)

2 weeks ago | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

Every time Brian Selznick sets pencil to paper, he breaks the mold. The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) combined children’s historical fiction with picture book, graphic novel, flip book, and cinematic elements; it spent 42 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, won the Caldecott Medal, and was made into the Oscar-winning movie Hugo.
Best of The Century: ‘The Hunger Games’

4 weeks ago | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

Successful children’s television writer Suzanne Collins had already penned a bestselling series of books for young readers before creating The Hunger Games. But who could have anticipated that the new novel would launch one of the most successful series of all time—rivaling the likes of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Baby-Sitters Club?
Best of the Century: ‘The Poet X’

4 weeks ago | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

In 2018, the world learned that Elizabeth Acevedo has the X factor. The Dominican American National Poetry Slam champion was teaching eighth grade English in Prince George’s County, Maryland, when she began writing a novel in verse for young adults. Featuring an Afro-Latina teen protagonist, it was, in part, a loving response to her students’ requests for more books featuring characters that looked and sounded like them.
A Picture Book Brings a Childhood Memory To Life

1 month ago | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

In childhood, a big move can be a big deal. “It’s very hard to adjust to a new place,” says Carmen Agra Deedy, author of The Peanut Man (Margaret Quinlin Books/Peachtree, March 4), a story inspired by her family’s flight from Cuba to the United States in the 1960s. Like Deedy, the book’s protagonist, Coqui, spent her early years in Havana, where the nightly song of the local peanut vendor—“¡Mani! ¡Mani!”—beckoned her to the bedroom window.
Best Middle Grade of 2024: Ruth Chan

Nov 27, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

Ruth Chan’s “earnest, funny, and evocative” graphic memoir Uprooted: A Memoir About What Happens When Your Family Moves Back (Roaring Brook Press, Sept. 10) has the potential to plant a seed, according to young readers’ editor Mahnaz Dar: “It’s the kind of story that will make kids want to draw their own life experiences,” she says. Chan answered questions via email for Kirkus’ coverage of the Best Middle-Grade Books of 2024.
An Author Whets Young Appetites for Food History

Sep 30, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

“We all assume the food we eat has always been here,” says Marc Aronson, co-author of Bite by Bite: American History Through Feasts, Foods, and Side Dishes (Atheneum, May 28), “but much of what we eat, where we eat, how we eat is an incredibly recent development.” Aronson, an editor, author, and publisher of children’s books with a PhD in American history, teamed up with Paul Freedman, a Yale professor who specializes in the history of cuisine, to tell the stories behind some of America’s...
Leah Johnson Gives a Shoutout to Black Girls

Sep 26, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

Young readers’ literature superstar Leah Johnson is committed to using her considerable powers for good.
Fall Preview 2024: George M. Johnson

Aug 12, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

This fall, George M. Johnson, author of the New York Times bestseller All Boys Aren’t Blue and We Are Not Broken, offers a heartfelt paean to queer heroes of the Harlem Renaissance. In Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Sept.
This Fall’s Nonfiction Gets Up Close and Personal

Aug 12, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

Personal narratives headline this fall’s nonfiction—from stellar celebrity memoirs to elegant essays by authors who should be household names. A celebrity book that doesn’t dish is a letdown. Thankfully, Connie Chung’s new memoir is a banquet. Connie (Grand Central, Sept. 17) depicts “the dizzying highs and nauseating lows of a landmark broadcasting career,” Kirkus writes in a starred review.
A Middle-Grade Graphic Novelist Goes to the Dogs

Aug 2, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Megan Labrise

In the case of Sara Varon’s new middle-grade mystery series, the real mystery is how it came to be. “I’m not a mysterious or sneaky person,” she tells Kirkus, “and I don’t usually read mysteries, which makes it even weirder that I wrote one.”Varon is the Chicago-based author/illustrator of Robot Dreams (2007)—which became an Academy Award–nominated film by Pablo Berger—as well as Odd Duck (2013), New Shoes (2018), and many other books for young readers.