The Great YA Quote Board: A new way to celebrate the YA fiction we love

Dear lover of YA fiction,

Here’s what I’d do for us, if I had the cash.

(pick the red velvet. trust me.)

I’d build a great stone YA library-slash-bookstore out in the middle of nowhere. You’d have to drive a little to get to it, but I’d make sure you’d have plenty of meadows and picturesque barns to look at on the way. I would greet you at the door with a hug and a sandwich, and possibly a cupcake if I liked your face.

Inside, there’d be shelves and stacks and piles of books like in that drool-inspiring library the Beast gives Belle, except I wouldn’t be holding you prisoner until you showed me how to dance on two legs and eat soup with a spoon. We’d spend the whole day sitting in a bookpile, sharing our favorite quotes and smelling pages and giggling at the cover of Brace Yourself, P.J. and finding undiscovered gems under that stack of dogeared Trixie Belden mysteries. We’d talk about the time that screed on why adults shouldn’t read YA shot from Slate’s Contrarian Headline Cannon and we were all so mad because the article used quotes from exactly two books to back up its claims, which is kind of like going on a college tour and crossing the school off your list because the campus guide wore socks with sandals. We’d pontificate and throw some beanbag chairs around and drink way too much Earl Grey, Hot. And when it was time for you to go, I would wrap an extra cupcake up in a napkin and press a first edition of Weetzie Bat into your hands, because everyone should have one and I always carry a spare.
I probably won’t have the funds for this until 2035, so in the meantime I set up a smaller (and cheaper) way for us to celebrate our favorite YA fiction. The Great YA Quote Board went live today on Pinterest and Tumblr. It’s a place to pin quotes we love from YA books new and old (lines from New Adult books are more than welcome, too). And if you’re a YA author, it’s another little chance to promote your book–send me the buy link and I’ll post it along with your quote. (INDIE FRIENDS: I so want you in on this! I’ll be contacting you soon, if I haven’t already.)

Want to join in? Here’s a graphic that lays it all out:

If you love YA or know someone who does, please help spread the word! Take the graphic above and tweet it, pin it, throw it on your Tumblr, post it on Facebook, tack it to a tree–whatever you can do to help would be AWESOME. And if you want to be part of it, just send me your favorite quotes (or hop on Picmonkey and make your own graphic, because you’re kind of a badass).

In the meantime, follow the Great YA Quote Board on Pinterest or Tumblr, ’cause I’ve already posted the first 30 quote graphics and damn, they were a lot of work. I tried to steer clear of YA that already gets tons of play in social media; I’d love to make this a showcase for under-the-radar books and quotes waiting to be discovered (or rediscovered!). You have to see the one about the giant pumpkins.

Yours in the spirit of #PromoteYAInstead,

J.C. Lillis