Teen Read Week was October 14th through 20th, but here at The Hub, we’re celebrating for ten days so we can bring 당신 interviews, guest posts, videos, and 더 많이 with each of the authors whose 책 made this year’s Teens’ 상단, 맨 위로 Ten. Today we feature Veronica Roth, whose book Divergent is #1 on this year’s list.
Divergent is a book about bravery, self-determination, friendship, family, loyalty, and making choices. It is a book that positively captivated (not just) teen readers across the nation, myself included. When given the opportunity, I jumped at the chance to ask Veronica Roth a few 질문 of my own. Here’s the interview:
If some of the 디즈니 Princesses were to 가입하기 factions from Tris’s world, in which factions do 당신 think they might land?
I think most of the older ones would be Amity 또는 Abnegation (Cinderella, hello), but obviously Belle, with her passion for books, is Erudite; 재스민 속, 재 스민 is Candor; and if 뮬란 counts as a “Disney princess” (I mean, she’s not a princess, but she’s my 가장 좋아하는 디즈니 heroine, so I’m going to talk about her anyway), she would be Divergent the same way Tris is: Dauntless, Erudite, Abnegation. I haven’t seen anything after Mulan, sadly. Go out on a high note, I say.
Any urban survival skills that 당신 (or Tris) might recommend for readers going into an uncertain future?
I’m not sure exactly what 당신 mean 의해 “urban survival skills,” because the way I survive in an urban environment is 의해 memorizing the order of the red line 엘 stops, always putting my keys in the same spot in my bag, and wearing lots of layers so I don’t freeze to death during the Chicago winters. Tris would say 당신 have to learn how to run, 불, 화재 a gun, and jump on a train, but she lives in a different world. If you’re talking “how to survive in a zombie apocalypse in an urban environment,” I would run straight to a Wal-Mart 또는 a CostCo and set up 샵 on the roof. They have so many supplies.
Divergent has become so 인기 and has even been picked up for production as a movie. How has your life changed since the book came out?
Before the book sold, I was a senior in college completing a grad school application (not for further study of creative writing) with no job prospects. So I suppose 당신 could say the book changed everything — it made me a self-sufficient human being who didn’t have to live with her parents, it began my career in writing, it gave me a new and different sense of purpose. Before the book came out, so many people had asked me if I was ever going to write for adults, which was sometimes a perfectly normal 질문 and sometimes a condescending one, and I was starting to wonder if I should ignore my natural inclinations and try it. After the book came out and I had done several events and interacted with a lot of teenagers, I realized that I would probably never write for adults because what I truly loved was engaging with the teenage experience, whether it was through my characters 또는 right there with the people who came to see me 또는 on the Internet in my Tumblr ask box, 또는 indirectly through librarians and teachers. So, movie 또는 not, yes, my life is different now than it was before. I now have the distinct sense that I am standing in exactly the spot I should be standing in.
Quick Qs:
a. 가장 좋아하는 vacation destination?
It wasn’t exactly a vacation when I was there, but I have a special place in my 심장 for Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
b. 가장 좋아하는 childhood book?
Like most people, I don’t have one answer to this question. The Giver. A Wrinkle In Time. Harry Potter (though it didn’t actually come out when I was a child, per se). And of course, The Babysitters Club books.
c. 가장 좋아하는 글쓰기 snack food?
Goldfish crackers. Cheddar, preferably.
d. 가장 좋아하는 clothing item?
Right now I 사랑 my black sweater with the white skulls all over it.
We know you’re hard at work on the third book in the Divergent series, due out 다음 년 — any tidbits 당신 can share with us?
Oh, tidbits about book 3. Um… Revelations. Deception. Impossible decisions. Arguing. (Smooching!)
Divergent is a book about bravery, self-determination, friendship, family, loyalty, and making choices. It is a book that positively captivated (not just) teen readers across the nation, myself included. When given the opportunity, I jumped at the chance to ask Veronica Roth a few 질문 of my own. Here’s the interview:
If some of the 디즈니 Princesses were to 가입하기 factions from Tris’s world, in which factions do 당신 think they might land?
I think most of the older ones would be Amity 또는 Abnegation (Cinderella, hello), but obviously Belle, with her passion for books, is Erudite; 재스민 속, 재 스민 is Candor; and if 뮬란 counts as a “Disney princess” (I mean, she’s not a princess, but she’s my 가장 좋아하는 디즈니 heroine, so I’m going to talk about her anyway), she would be Divergent the same way Tris is: Dauntless, Erudite, Abnegation. I haven’t seen anything after Mulan, sadly. Go out on a high note, I say.
Any urban survival skills that 당신 (or Tris) might recommend for readers going into an uncertain future?
I’m not sure exactly what 당신 mean 의해 “urban survival skills,” because the way I survive in an urban environment is 의해 memorizing the order of the red line 엘 stops, always putting my keys in the same spot in my bag, and wearing lots of layers so I don’t freeze to death during the Chicago winters. Tris would say 당신 have to learn how to run, 불, 화재 a gun, and jump on a train, but she lives in a different world. If you’re talking “how to survive in a zombie apocalypse in an urban environment,” I would run straight to a Wal-Mart 또는 a CostCo and set up 샵 on the roof. They have so many supplies.
Divergent has become so 인기 and has even been picked up for production as a movie. How has your life changed since the book came out?
Before the book sold, I was a senior in college completing a grad school application (not for further study of creative writing) with no job prospects. So I suppose 당신 could say the book changed everything — it made me a self-sufficient human being who didn’t have to live with her parents, it began my career in writing, it gave me a new and different sense of purpose. Before the book came out, so many people had asked me if I was ever going to write for adults, which was sometimes a perfectly normal 질문 and sometimes a condescending one, and I was starting to wonder if I should ignore my natural inclinations and try it. After the book came out and I had done several events and interacted with a lot of teenagers, I realized that I would probably never write for adults because what I truly loved was engaging with the teenage experience, whether it was through my characters 또는 right there with the people who came to see me 또는 on the Internet in my Tumblr ask box, 또는 indirectly through librarians and teachers. So, movie 또는 not, yes, my life is different now than it was before. I now have the distinct sense that I am standing in exactly the spot I should be standing in.
Quick Qs:
a. 가장 좋아하는 vacation destination?
It wasn’t exactly a vacation when I was there, but I have a special place in my 심장 for Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
b. 가장 좋아하는 childhood book?
Like most people, I don’t have one answer to this question. The Giver. A Wrinkle In Time. Harry Potter (though it didn’t actually come out when I was a child, per se). And of course, The Babysitters Club books.
c. 가장 좋아하는 글쓰기 snack food?
Goldfish crackers. Cheddar, preferably.
d. 가장 좋아하는 clothing item?
Right now I 사랑 my black sweater with the white skulls all over it.
We know you’re hard at work on the third book in the Divergent series, due out 다음 년 — any tidbits 당신 can share with us?
Oh, tidbits about book 3. Um… Revelations. Deception. Impossible decisions. Arguing. (Smooching!)