Paula

Chase

Critically Acclaimed Author

Award-Winning Blogger

Travels from: Baltimore, MD

“Chase presents genuine characters whose interactions are authentic…” — Shelf Awareness

Co-founder of the award-winning blog, The Brown Bookshelf, Paula Chase is a longtime Inclusion advocate for diversifying the type of fiction featuring Black characters that’s highlighted among educators, librarians and parents. Chase was the 2021 recipient of the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) Konigsberg Award for her advocacy.

She is the author of ten children’s books. So Done (Greenwillow/HarperCollins), her critically acclaimed middle grade debut, was named a 2018 Kirkus Reviews Best Book, a Chicago Library Best of the Best Book, and a 2020-21 Louisiana Young Readers Choice nominee. So Done and its companions, Dough Boys and Turning Point were Junior Library Guild Gold Selections and blazed the trail for books that tackle tough and sometimes taboo topics for younger readers. Chase’s five Del Rio Bay Clique novels, helped Kensington Books launch its YA imprint in 2007.

Chase holds a B.S. in Communication from James Madison University. She resides in Maryland with her husband. Together, they’ve raised two daughters.

Paula's Featured Titles

Fight The Power - Let Your Words do the Marching

Format: Envisioned as a single classroom workshop/presentation to help students tap into writing as advocacy

At its root, fiction is political. Explore the hidden politics within books for teen readers and learn how to tell stories that both entertain and spotlight issues that matter. This interactive workshop is designed to help young writers explore the causes that matter to them and assist them in building stories around them. Paula Chase, author of nine critically acclaimed young adult and middle grade books, will use her work and other examples to showcase how realistic fiction has always been used as a tool of resistance and to highlight the impact of society’s most pressing issues on young readers.

Background
Facilitator will:
Talk about Artivisim and Art as resistance
Highlight the “politics” hidden in her own books
Provide examples of other books that stand on an issue
Lead workshop attendees through an exercise to
Identify an issue close to them
Create a character to represent or battle the issue
Craft one to two paragraphs of the character in action or a summary of the story you would tell about this character

Pardon my Interruption: Disrupting Their Version of Us**

Format: Assembly

Using one of her books, the author will talk about reading as resistance and how books help to disrupt narratives. This talk is best if the students either have already read the book or will be given the book after the talk.

This is meant to be an interactive presentation that involves 2-3 students selected ahead of the presentation to read the agreed upon book. The author will give a presentation on the points below and then the students will serve as “In Conversation” interviewers of the author asking questions revolved around:

A – Elements of the book without spoilers for those who have not read it -OR-
B- Elements of the book to an audience that has read it -OR-
C – Questions can revolve around creativity, writing journey

However, the author would like those 2-3 students to have read the book before the event. Author would like the students to have at least two questions a piece prepared that will be provided to her ahead of time. On event day, the students may select which question they ask.

Three Presentation Points
1) Why reading is powerful
Windows
Mirrors

2) Why all reading is reading
Audio
Graphic Novels
Reading for pure pleasure

3) Why her books scare some people
Humanizes the teen experience
Places some of us back into the narrative: suburban Black girls, ambitious Black kids, re-centers working class families
Broadens the depth of our stories beyond struggle, issues or history

**The “Us” in the title refers to who the author has centered, but is designed to get the students thinking about how they identify with the the author’s book. It could be “Us as teenagers” “Us as girls” “Us as suburbanites” etc…

Lost in the Middle

Format: This is keynote type address directed to librarians, educators, and/or booksellers

Description:
The author has long advocated for publishing, libraries and booksellers to officially recognize new categories: Upper Middle Grade, Young YA and New Adult. The author will talk about:

*The importance of the two former categories and
*Outline what she sees as the danger of not evolving how books are categorized which includes losing readers
* Outline the distinction between uninterested readers and those labeled “reluctant”
* Share her experience with her publisher from So Done to Turning Point re: cover art and the differences in middle grade vs. upper middle grade

Objective of the talk is galvanize discussion and identify how to jumpstart change

“Chase’s middle grade debut dazzles” — Kirkus Reviews about So Done

“Fans of Jason Reynolds and Angie Thomas will enjoy this rough and relatable read.” — Horn Book about Dough Boys

“Fun and juicy” — New York Times about Keeping It Real

“A timely middle grade” — Booklist about Turning Point

“Genuine dialogue. There is plenty here for readers to ponder about race, class and popularity.” — Publishers Weekly about So Done

The Brown Bookshelf Link

Honors, Awards & Recognition

2019 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award
2021 ALAN Konigsburg Award – Presented annually to an individual who has acted in selfless advocacy of marginalized youth through the creation, teaching, funding or other form of promotion of young adult literature.
4 books recognized as Junior Library Guild Gold Selections

So Done:
Kirkus Best Books
Chicago Public Library Best Book
Louisiana Young Readers Choice Nominee
Starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and School Library Journal

Co-founder of The Brown Bookshelf, An ALSC Best websites for Children Award winner (American Library Association’s Association for Library Service To Children)

Media clips

Nerd Daily | Q&A: Paula Chase, Author of ‘Keeping It Real’

Media Kit

By clicking the link below you will be directed to a Google Docs Folder
where you can download author photos and cover images.