From all the girls who’ve loved Jenny

THE BEST-SELLING author is front and center at ICA with her high school senior fans and (front row) moderator Chris Lacdao, Town & Country editor Yvette Fernandez, NBS purchasing director Xandra Ramos-Padilla, Sr. Dina Ang, NBS marketing director Miguel Ramos and Simon & Schuster’s Rino Balatbat.

Jenny Han is pretty much a household name around the all-girls Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA) where many of the students have read and love her books.

ICA SCHOOL directress Sr. Dina Ang welcomes Han to the ICA stage.

So when it was announced that the New York Times best-selling author would be coming, everyone treated the news as if a rock star would be visiting. The ICAns were more than a little excited.

For the uninitiated, Jenny Han is the Korean-American author of the young adult (YA) summer trilogy (“The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “It’s Not Summer Without You” and “We’ll Always Have Summer”) and the “Fire with Fire,” “Burn for Burn” and “Ashes to Ashes” series.

The seniors of ICA were fortunate enough to have been invited to attend Han’s talk and they definitely took advantage of the rare opportunity by listening attentively to the interview and asking their fill of questions.

As Han was being introduced, you could literally feel the excitement in the air, the sense of anticipation and giddiness not only among the students but among the teachers as well.

After a roaring applause, the interview began.

When asked why she decided to write YA contemporary novels that particularly catered to teenage girls, Han said it was because she felt that a lot of firsts were normally experienced at that stage by and girls, and even boys—first love, first kiss, first heartbreak among other experiences.

Han was also asked what inspired her to start writing in the first place. She said she had always wanted to be a writer, even when she was young and she knew that writing was going to be her passion.

After a few more questions from the moderator about a rumored movie deal for one of her books, the floor was opened to questions from the audience.

Since most of the girls in the audience were fans, they wondered whether Han had any new books in the offing.

She said she was planning a new series that would deviate from her normal contemporary genre because of its more historical setting.

FANS who camped overnight at Glorietta 1 NBS to be first in line at Han’s book signing won advance copies of “Ashes to Ashes.”

She also talked about how much she adored love triangles (go figure), how she wrote with her coauthor and best friend, Siobhan Vivian, and how she wished she could write either darker, edgier books just like Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl” or more fantastical books like J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series.

Han not only managed to captivate the audience with her humor and charm but she also gave the students an insight into what she was like as a person.

Her talk at ICA was the first stop in her Philippine book tour organized by National Book Store and Powerbooks to promote the first in her latest YA duology, “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” which is published by Simon & Schuster.

All books by Jenny Han are available at National Book Store and Powerbooks. Shop online for e-Books at nationalbookstore.com.

Louisse Ang is a book blogger (the-soul-sisters.blogspot.com) and a high school senior at ICA.