Authors to share dreams and schemes with teens and tweens at CCHS festival

The first author Rebecca Caprara ever met taught her that stories don’t just appear on library shelves but instead spring forth from the creative minds of real people.

Now, years after that childhood encounter with Marc Brown — who created the Arthur series — sparked her imagination, Caprara will pay it forward to a new generation, speaking to teens and other community members about finding their own voices at the Young Adult Author Symposium.

“My hope is always that maybe an interaction with a young person will lead them down the path of storytelling or creativity, for their own futures,” she told The Acton Bridge in a phone interview.

The YAAS festival will take place tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Acton-Carlisle High School and will feature multiple sessions on writing, as well as a new addition this year: visual storytellers. 

“Last year we had 12 authors, and this year we have 20 authors and illustrators,” CCHS librarian Kip Wilson said. “Some of them are only illustrators, some are only authors, and some are both. We have a couple who are actual author-illustrators who do everything for their books, so it’s a nice addition to have this extra artistic component.”

Try it out

Caprara, who wrote the book “Spin,” a retelling of the myth of Arachne, will help lead sessions on generating book ideas and on how to get published. Other sessions that day include lessons on scene drawing, creating compelling characters, dialogue drafting, and a chance to ask authors questions about themselves and their books.

Wilson says many of those sessions will be hands-on.

“People will get the chance to not just learn about how to do things, but instead they will be like, ‘Oh, I’m actually trying this out,’” she said.

Wilson added that this is an event for everyone, not just teenagers: “This is open to the community. We would love mostly to see teenagers and tweens, middle school and high schoolers, because these are books that are written for their demographic. … But adults who are, for instance, thinking about writing a book for teenagers or who just love to read YA are totally welcome to come.”​

For Caprara, the YAAS festival is a perfect opportunity to encourage young people to look past their screens to a larger world of creativity.

“I think any way that we can inspire a child or a teen to pick up a book, as opposed to maybe their phone or some other device, is important, right?” she said. “It’s an event that shifts conversation and community around literacy, which is always needed.”