Comic book fans rejoice – New York Comic Con has arrived! Starting Thursday, October 8 until Sunday, October 11, people from all over the world will decend upon the Javits Center in New York City to get their geek on – and Scholastic will be there to help them!

Below, you'll find Scholastic's full schedule for the convention, including panels, autographing sessions, and loads of other great activities! (And take note: on Saturday, Scholastic is excited to host its own room in Family HQ that will have activities all day for kids of all ages, including a live drawing session with Raina Telgemeier and a Hunger Games Trivia Challenge! You won't want to miss them!)

And as always, be sure to follow Scholastic on Twitter and Instagram for live #NYCC updates all weekend!

Thursday, October 8

11:15am - 12:15pm: We Need More Diverse Comics
Room 1A05

4:15pm - 5:15pm: Assembling Your Nerd Herd: Creating a Safe Space for Students in Your School with Dave Roman
Room 1A05

Friday, October 9

12:30pm - 1:30pm: Cassandra Clare Spotlight
Room 1A10

2pm - 3pm: Cassandra Clare Signing
Hall 1-B, Table 25

6:30pm - 7:30pm: Camp Out with the Lumberjanes!, moderated by Raina Telgemeier
Room 1A24

Saturday, October 10: The Scholastic Room
(Family HQ – 1C05)

10am - 11am: Crafting with KLUTZ

11am - 12pm: Live Drawing with Raina!
Join #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon Raina Telgemeier for a live drawing session in the Scholastic Room in the Family HQ!

12pm -1pm: An Appearance by Captain Underpants

1pm - 2pm: Crafting with KLUTZ

2pm - 3pm: An Appearance by Captain Underpants

3pm - 4pm: The Hunger Games Trivia Challenge
Do you volunteer as Tribute? Join the Hunger Games Trivia Challenge! How well do you know the world of Suzanne Collins? Test your knowledge and enter to win prizes including signed books and FREE tickets to The Hunger Games: The Exhibition at Discovery Times Square. Drop by through-out the day to pick up free books, posters and bookmarks – something for every reader!

Saturday, October 10: Panels and Signings

11am - 12pm: ABC Family's Shadowhunters with Cassandra Clare
Empire Stage 1-E

11am - 12pm: Chicks Kick Ass – The Ongoing Epic with Daniel Jose Older
Room 1A21

12:15pm - 1:15pm: Daniel Jose Older Signing
Hall 1-B, WORD Bookstores Booth

4pm - 5pm: Will Eisner: Champion of the Graphic Novel with Raina Telgemeier
Room 1B03

Sunday, October 11

10:45am - 11:30am: Goosebumps & The Baby-Sitters Club Revisited: A Conversation with R.L. Stine, Ann M. Martin, Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman
Room 1A10

11:45am - 12:45am: R.L. Stine, Ann M. Martin and Raina Telgemeier Signing
Autographing Area, Table 25

12pm - 1pm: Create Your Own Adventure with Children’s Book Illustrators (with Dave Roman)
Family HQ – 1C02

12pm - 1pm: #WeNeedDiverseBooks: I Ain't Your Sidekick – Heroic Counter-Narratives with Daniel Jose Older and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
Room 1A05

1:15pm - 2:15pm: Create Your Own Adventure Autographing with Dave Roman
Hall 1-B, WORD Bookstores Booth

1pm - 2pm: R.L. Stine and the Goosebumps Cast Signing
Autographing Area, Table 24

2:30 pm - 3:30pm: Goosebumps Movie Panel
Main Stage 1-D

2:45pm - 3:45pm: The Future of Comics for Children and Young Adults with Cassandra Pelham and David Saylor
Room 1B03

Truth be told, as a reader it feels like I jumped from Ann M. Martin to Stephen King, but there was a middle ground where I got into series like Sweet Valley High and Point Horror, and I still have a soft spot for Remember Me and I Know What You Did Last Summer. But besides what I found in the paperback spinners at the local library, I don’t think I completely understood that young adult literature is a type until I got a job as a teen librarian. I was hired based on my experience in the high school classroom, and (trained as an English teacher) my idea of teen lit was basically titles such as Romeo & Juliet, 1984, and Things Fall Apart! At the public library, our youth services manager told me, to read whatever I want, there are no must-reads. However, my amazing colleagues (Lori and Vaun) had put together a list of suggestions for me, and, from this list, the first book I intentionally read as a YA title was The Book Thief – which is FANTASTIC; I highly recommend the audiobook.

There were many books I read in that first year that I loved. Here are just ten of them:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
• Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
• I am the Messenger, by Marcus Zusak
• Push, by Sapphire
• The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd
• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares
• Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli
• Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
• Tangerine, by Edward Bloor
• Tyrell, by Coe Booth

Now, it wouldn’t be #IreadYA week if I didn’t address the Twilight (Twi-hard, Twi-mom) phenomenon/saga. Personally, I didn’t avoid it, I didn’t seek it out – it just happened! Working at the library, the book and its sequels were always checked out, and I put these series titles on hold for patrons what seemed like three times a shift. They were not available, and I was busy discovering graphic novels like American Born Chinese and Journey into Mohawk Country. Then one day, I was cornered by three female teenage library employees; I mean this literally, they boxed me into the niche by the circulation desk! One of them presented me with her personal copy of Twilight, held outwards in two hands, and as three they decreed, “You must read this.” So I did, because I try to read what teens tell me to – recommendations are a two-way street. To sum up my experience: loss of sleep, so many questions, choosing sides, traveling to another branch to check out a sequel… and yes, I rooted against Edward the whole time.

I read YA because I am idealistic, hidden behind a layer of cynicism, sarcasm, and the need to quote movies and/or song lyrics all of the time.

Having taught for several years, the default settings (school, summer vacation, dystopian wasteland), plot devices (first job, relationships, fighting for survival), and complex characters (Arnold Spirit, Precious Jones, Katniss Everdeen) reflect the experiences I saw in the lives of my students. Also, taking teen reading ultimatums seriously, as in the case of Twilight, makes me a stronger librarian – better at readers’ advisory and booktalking. Stripping away all of the professional justifications for my behavior, I read YA because I like it. There are only so many hours in the day, as readers we have to make choices, and I choose YA almost every single time.

Tomorrow is Halloween! That means we spent our day today:

A. getting some social media spooks with R.L. Stine

B. eating Halloween-themed cupcakes

C. watching scary book trailers on YouTube

D. all of the above!

It's true -- today we've done all of those things. R.L. Stine took over our social media accounts, which was great fun -- we'll share a recap later this week! I brought in some baked goods, which were pretty yummy, if I do say so myself. And Megan has been sending around links to some of the scariest book trailers on our YouTube channel! Here are some favorites:

• School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari
• Abandon by Meg Cabot
• Clarity by Kim Harrington

Watching scary book trailers led us to talking about our favorite scary movies, of course. I love, love, love scary movies; a few weeks ago I added a ton of scary flicks to my Netflix queue, only I just realized I've only gotten around to watching one of them so far. Yikes. I guess I know what I'll be watching tonight...

How do you get in the Halloween spirit?