The authors, who flew in from as far away as Los Angeles, Calif., discussed their latest "tween" novels to an assembly of 150 fifth-, sixth- and seventh-grade girls at the middle school in Old Tappan.

Some students were already familiar with Aladdin Mix, the Simon & Schuster series these authors were promoting.

"The books are clean," said Kenny Sarfin, owner of Books & Greetings in Northvale who organized the event with the publisher. "No sex, no drugs, no bad words. They’re contemporary stories but appropriate."

Students were given a chance to ask questions, such as why they decided to begin writing and what some of the more cryptic book titles mean.

"This is a great chance to give you [students] some perspective on the writing process," said Cathy Tufano, the Charles DeWolf Middle School librarian.

The authors, Melissa de la Cruz, P.G. Kain, Rachel Cohn, Taylor Morris and Jenny Han, entertained students with anecdotes that inspired parts of their stories.

"Most schools only get one author for an event like this," Sarfin said. "We got five."

While males are not the target audience for the Aladdin Mix books, the boys at the Harrington Park School assembly with 75 coed fifth graders listened attentively and asked questions.

"The boys were very engaged and asked really good questions," Sarfin said. "They treated them like authors, not like authors of books for ‘tween’ girls."

After the authors toured the local schools, Sarfin hosted a reading and book signing with the authors at his Books & Greetings store.

"This was our first event we organized at the schools," Sarfin said. "We want to get kids excited about reading."

Dennis Rossi, the Charles DeWolf Middle School principal, was enthusiastic about the opportunity to bring a group of seasoned authors to address his students and hopes to organize a similar event that caters to the male students in the future.

"Any time we can expose our kids to literature or drama, we like to do that," he said.