What does Carolyn Mackler’s bookshelf look like? Well, you’re about to find out! This is our series where we’re asking YA authors to take a selfie in front of their bookshelf, hence, a bookshelfie! Keep scrolling to see the pics and learn a little more about Carolyn’s bookshelf!
WHO
Carolyn Mackler—author of the upcoming young adult book INFINITE IN BETWEEN and award winning novels The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, a Printz Honor Book; The Future of Us, coauthored with Jay Asher; Tangled; and many, many more! She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.
WHERE
New York City!
WHAT
Tell us about your bookshelfie, Carolyn!
When my husband and I bought our apartment ten years ago, there was one long, indented wall in the living room. We looked at each other and immediately said, “Built-in bookshelf!” We hired a carpenter and went about designing our dream built-in bookshelf: tons of shelves of course, shelves of varied heights for picture books and other large books, a cabinet with a front that closes for the television, toy cabinets for our children (well, we just had one baby then), a shelf for the wedding vase my grandmother made us when we got married, even a small desk for my husband. To us, this bookshelf is the centerpiece of the room.
That said, we have a very chill system for organizing the books. My ten-year old’s books occupy two shelves at the bottom (actually, his books are trickling up and over and throughout). There I am in front of his designated shelves – you’ve got some Wendy Mass, some Gordon Korman, Shel Silverstein, Christopher Paul Curtis. My five-year–old has a wide shelf of his favorite picture books. We have a shelf of cookbooks (Mollie Katzen for me and meat and grilling cookbooks for my husband) but the occasional travel book is sprinkled in. The novels I’ve written or anthologies I’ve appeared in are on one shelf, but for some reason the Webster’s Dictionary that I got when I graduated high school is on the same shelf as well as the Hebrew edition of The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (most foreign editions are up top). Since we all love children’s books and YA, we’re fine with a mashup; E.B. White is up against Judy Blume and Sarah Dessen and Percy Jackson and then there may be a few Gabrielle Zevins in the mix.
When the carpenter built our shelves he made this big display of climbing on them to show us how strong they were. My husband and I thought it was hilarious to imagine climbing the shelves. But climb we do! Who needs a stool when you can scale right up the front? I regularly discover my ten-year-old clinging to the way top trying to locate a sequel or a new book to start that night. And recently I got a picture of my five-year-old on a coffee table getting down Ramona the Brave from the Beverly Cleary area. Which is also the Roald Dahl area. Which is what I love so much about our bookshelves. It’s come as you are. Everyone is welcome.
Check out more author bookshelfies here!
