YA for NJ Auction Starts 11/30!!

I grew up with hurricanes.

Every year, at least six or seven times, my dad would pull out the old trusty piece of styrofoam, upon which he had glued a map of the East Coast, including of course Florida and the water surrounding it. Whenever a hurricane (or tropical storm) was on its way, he’d track the latitude and longitude of its center, marking it with a pin so that we could follow the path. Sometimes the hurricanes veered off in directions we didn’t expect. Sometimes they came straight for us. Sometimes we hid in the closet under the stairs in our house, clutching blankets and the battery-operated radio, the bathtub upstairs filled with in-case water. Once a tree fell next door, and if it had been about five feet taller, it would’ve smashed through our garage. There were occasionally stretches of time without power.

But being a Tallahassee girl, my family and I were always far enough inland to avoid the brunt of any severe hurricane damage. Limbs down, yes. Power lines sometimes. School maybe cancelled for a day. But never the kind of devastation that places like Miami, New Orleans, and now New York and New Jersey have ever had to deal with.

And we never had a Nor’Easter to deal with on top of all that.

Which is why I’m very happy to be a part of YA for NJ, an AMAZING fundraiser for the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, to help out victims of Hurricane Sandy. The organizers of this auction (which begins November 30th) have put together donations from over 150 YA authors including  Holly Black, Coe Booth, Matt de la Pena, Elizabeth Eulberg, Jen Calonita, Jeff Hirsch, Gordon Korman, David Levithan, Lisa McMann, Stephanie Perkins, Jerry Spinelli, Victoria Schwab . . . way way way too many other awesome folks to mention. Oh, and also myself.    Like their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/YaForNj to get a complete list and full updates on the auction.

This is a SUPER opportunity to do some holiday shopping for the teen reader in your life, and also make a difference to families that really need it! Thanks for checking it out!