Discussion Post: What I Really Thought of Barnes & Noble's B-Fest

For those of you who live in the United States and visit Barnes & Noble regularly or get their emails will have heard about their weekend for teens. I freaking loved the idea. I work at a Barnes & Noble and there are rarely events for teens, so when one comes up I will definitely be there. Only this time there was a problem...

I know that most schools in most states are done in May, but if you live in New York then school probably hadn't ended yet and if it did you were running into all different kinds of conflicts. Many students told me that this happened right during exams or graduation. I had my senior prom that Friday night. I wasn't the only school who had prom that weekend either. 

I live in an area where not many teens like to show up to events and Barnes & Nobles. There aren't many big name authors like you'd get in New York City, so when I got to work the next day I heard that no one had shown up. My friends and I were a little sad that we couldn't go.

I was in charge of the events on Saturday and still not many people showed up. Kate Karyus Quinn was the guest author (LOVE HER!) and she had a couple of people join her, but other than that most people came for the samplers and didn't stick around for the activities. I had two girls show up for the activities. 

Barnes & Noble had an amazing idea with this "teen festival" but their timing sucked. I know they have Pop Cultured in July and all the whole Back to School thing in August but the timing couldn't have been worse for B-Fest here in New York. 

So from all us book-obsessed teens in New York, please consider moving B-Fest to another time so more of us can join Barnes & Noble in celebrating YA Fiction and the YA community.