How to use this Page

The kidlitosphere was hopping this weekend with news, reviews, and commentary.  Here are some of the gems we uncovered while reading through our blogroll:

• Lee Wind at I’m Here, I’m Queer.  What the Hell Do I Read? went to the SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles and shared some of his favorite quotes.  I loved this one from Donna Jo Napoli: “Any civilization is built on empathy. If dreadful things happen to you, you learn empathy. …And for the protected child …the safest way for them to develop empathy is through a book.”  Yes.
• Oh, Roger.  We adore you.  Thanks so much for sharing your criticisms thoughts on the strike-through trend.
• Sarah’s YA Movie News posts on her blog GreenBeanTeenQueen are some of my favorites!  She mentions the Hunger Games movie stills many of us have seen – I’m not a fan, I have to admit.  Katniss and Peeta are fighting for their lives so why do they look so pretty and stagnant?  And what do you make of the upcoming Snow White movies?
• Chicken Spaghetti shares a great list of picture books about New York.  I’d also love to add SUBWAY by Christoph Niemann, which is one of my recent favorites that captures the energy and vitality of New York’s iconic subway system.
• Kiersten White’s blog is one of my favorite things – she is just completely charming and hilarious and silly.  Sure, her book PARANORMALCY just got a director…but what Kiersten is really excited about is Saved by the Bell’s Mr. Belding tweeting about it!  I would be too.  I mean, it’s Saved by the Bell!
• It’s been all over the web but, just in case you haven’t seen it, these minimalist posters of children’s stories from Flavorwire are a must-see.  Do you have a favorite?  This is mine:

We hope you have all had a chance to read KICK, the outstanding YA novel co-written by debut teen author Ross Workman and New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers.

When Ross Workman, then 13, emailed his favorite author, he hardly knew that he would have the opportunity to write a story collaboratively with him, in alternating chapters.  What’s so wonderful about the story of these two authors is that it has broadened the conversation about the writing process, not to mention that it’s inspiring for teens considering writing to their favorite author.

Below, Ross Workman poses 5 questions about their writing process to Walter Dean Myers:

1. We did a lot of thinking about the story before we even started writing. You had all these techniques you’d developed to help you figure out your characters and plot—using photographs of the characters to help you think of them as real people and keep them consistent, doing character timelines, and creating a detailed outline. How did you come up with these? Did you ever try to write without them? How did that turn out?

Ross, I started writing without the outlines and without time-lines, etc.   My understanding of literature was that the writers were all geniuses and the words just flowed from their pens or typewriters.   I kept getting stuck in the middle of a manuscript. Developing the prewriting techniques help me to understand if I really have a book in mind or just the germ of an idea.  Now, having said that, I still occasionally jump into a book too quickly.   When I do, there’s usually a price to pay in starting over or replotting.

2. At times, I got discouraged, especially when I was worried that my writing wouldn’t be good enough.  Did you ever get discouraged when you were writing or revising KICK? Did you ever get discouraged while working on another project?  What do you do when you get stuck?

I enjoyed working on the book so much that I didn’t get discouraged.   In fact, I’m rarely discouraged.   If I do get stuck, I simply revisit my outline to see what I’ve overlooked.

3. Was it easier to edit my chapters or your chapters?

It was easier to edit your chapters because I can’t always see what mine are missing.   My wife reads my chapters and reminded me to put in descriptions.   Then you would point out my inconsistencies and, finally, our editor Phoebe made suggestions.   I get the core feelings right most of the time but I often fall down when it comes to details.

4. You introduced me to the poem “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats. What made you think of that poem and its relevance to KICK?

As I understood the character you created, he seemed always eager to do the right thing.  He wanted to help his friend, Christy, when she was troubled.   He was very sympathetic and concerned with Dolores, who worked for McNamara.  He was even hoping that Mr. McNamara wouldn’t get into too much trouble.   I liked Kevin’s character and his willingness to get involved.  In “The Second Coming” Yeats describes the end of the world, made easy by the lack of conviction of good people:

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity

I believe that the end of the world as we know it ca

Our popular feature is back!  Blank-Meets-Blank was actually started first by Betsy Bird at Fuse #8 – she ranks the best “Blank-Meets-Blank” when she attends publishers’ librarian previews.  This is an awesome way to booktalk to kids and teens in your library or classroom!

Today, we’re sharing the best Blank-Meets-Blanks for our upcoming Fall 2011 titles:

EVERYTHING GOES: ON LAND by Brian Biggs
On-sale 9.13.11

LIESL & PO by Lauren Oliver
On-sale 10.4.11

MO WREN, LOST AND FOUND by Tricia Springstubb
On-sale 8.23.11

VARIANT by Robison Wells
On-sale 10.4.11

THE BERLIN BOXING CLUB, by award-winning author Robert Sharenow (My Mother the Cheerleader), has been given THREE STARRED REVIEWS!  Here is what everyone is raving about:

“Sharenow delivers a masterful historical novel that examines racism through the eyes of both children and real historical figures.” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A story with well-drawn, complex characters, gripping history, and intense emotion.” ~ School Library Journal (starred review)

“Readers will be drawn by the sports detail and by the close-up narrative of the daily oppression.” ~ Kirkus (starred review)

Robert Sharenow’s editor, the fabulous Kristin Rens, recently shared with us what it is about the story and Robert’s writing that drew her to the story when she first read it:

It’s hard to talk about just one thing that struck me about BERLIN BOXING CLUB, because when I read the first draft I was struck by something new on almost every page: there’s Rob’s writing, which is eloquent and moving; there’s the way he beautifully marries the political and social upheaval happening around Karl with the life-altering events that take place in his own family; and there’s Karl’s quest to find his own unique talents through boxing and art—a quest to which any teen can relate. Most of all, though, I was struck by the fact that Rob was writing about this place and time from a point of view that I hadn’t seen before: that of a teen boy whose heritage is Jewish, but because his parents haven’t raised him in the Jewish faith, he doesn’t consider himself Jewish. In fact, at the beginning of the story he identifies more with boys in the Hitler Youth than he does with his Jewish classmates. And his struggle to understand why he’s being bullied for a faith that he doesn’t really embrace as his own is absolutely heartrending.

Pick up THE BERLIN BOXING CLUB to see what the buzz is all about!  And check out the following links for more info:

• Robert Sharenow’s website, which includes a discussion guide, tips for writing historical fiction, and more.
• Ms. Yingling Reads’ review
• A wonderful review from Huntington News
• THE BERLIN BOXING CLUB is a Junior Library Guild pick!

It’s Vacation Time around the office lately, especially now that ALA is over.  But one of the delights of being offline is getting to catch up once you’re back online: it’s always fun to see that the electronic world has continued to spin even in your absence.  Here are some of the posts I’ve read and loved since being back in the office:

• From Abby the Librarian: first, I loved her discussion of summer reading clubs – she’s had a phenomenal turn-out for hers…further evidence that libraries and librarians provide vital and popular services.  I also enjoyed her post on ALA’s Emerging Leaders program.  I was an ALA Emerging Leader (Class of 2008) and agree with everything Abby had to say – it really is a great program and I encourage librarians who meet the qualifications to apply (you still have a little time left – the deadline is August 1st!).
• Jenny Brown (of Shelf Awareness fame) over at twentybyjenny wrote a lovely reflection of Kevin Henkes’ JUNONIA: “For a child, sometimes the small shifts can feel like tectonic plates realigning their world. That’s certainly the case for Alice. And with Alice as a companion, children know that if she can survive all these changes, they can, too.“
• The Reclusive Bibliophile created a booklist “if you like cooking, baking, and candy making…”  Some of my favorite foodie books are on there, and I’d love to add THE KING’S TASTER by Kenneth Oppel, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, and just wait until you read our upcoming BLISS by Kathryn Littlewood (February 2012)!
• Jennifer Hubert Swan over at Reading Rants reviews Candace Bushnell’s SUMMER AND THE CITY, the sequel to THE CARRIE DIARIES.  It’s the perfect summer beach read (both Jen’s blog and SUMMER AND THE CITY)!
• Melissa Rabey at librarian by day has a fun cover comparison post that involves Chris Crutcher’s DEADLINE, and she also posted a review of P.J. Converse’s SUBWAY GIRL.
• A lovely review of
  Add a Comment

“My brother teaches an undergraduate writing course at a university in New York, and he recently shared with me a thesis statement from one of his students’ papers: “Words are very important in A Passage to India.”  It was, perhaps fittingly, a poor choice of words on the student’s part—it’s a novel, after all—but I think I see the point about word choice that the student was trying to make.  Words, after all, are not simply bricks in the path upon which an author is leading a reader, identical and interchangeable and valuable more for their sequence than for their individual qualities.  They are much more than that.  They have shades and contours.  They catch light in different ways.  They are meant to illuminate a pathway that already exists, and when enough of the right ones are strung together in a great novel, they are just as tangible as the things they represent.

One of the reasons I love working with Anne Ursu, and especially on her latest middle grade novel Breadcrumbs, which releases this September, is because she knows how important words are.  Anne is one of the most talented wordsmiths I know – her ability to turn a phrase is boundless, fluctuating so smoothly between humorous and heartfelt that the two almost seem to form one quantum state (“It was not the greatest insult ever, but one thing Hazel had learned at her new school was when it comes to insults it’s the thought that counts”).  But Anne takes things much further than that in Breadcrumbs.  It’s a contemporary fairy tale set in present-day Minneapolis which draws its structure and inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen’s classic story “The Snow Queen.”  In Anne’s book, a young girl named Hazel and a young boy named Jack are best friends, and they’re both dealing with hardship, but it’s their friendship that holds them together.  They spend their days talking about Joe Mauer’s batting average and Batman’s utility belt and the Chronicles of Narnia, but what they’re saying with all of it is “I know you, and I am here.”  They’re just saying it with different words, and it’s the words that make the difference.

If you’re familiar with “The Snow Queen”, you know what happens next.  Jack’s heart is frozen by a broken piece of an evil mirror, and he decides to leave everything in his life behind – including his friendship with Hazel.  Jack is still there, he is still speaking English, but the language they had created is gone.  Now, baseball and comic books and talking lions are just baseball and comic books and talking lions.  As in the original story, Jack eventually leaves, taking off into an enchanted forest with a woman made of ice.  Hazel, of course, follows him, and under normal circumstances, this would be fine.  She has read Alice In Wonderland, The Hobbit, A Wrinkle In Time.  If she has to kill a sinister queen, slay giant spiders, or tesser, she’ll be good to go.  But how do you save someone you can’t talk to anymore?  How do you convince someone to come back home when no one there speaks the same language?  How do you connect when words have lost their meaning?

Part of the brilliance of Breadcrumbs is that it is so deeply concerned with the shades and contours and light-catching that make words much more than interchangeable bricks.  Hazel navigates the fantasy world in the book the same way the reader will – with the stories she’s brought in with her.  It’s finding the right words that will save Jack or lose him forever at the end, but Hazel thankfully has enough words and stories to light the pathway to him.  And we hope that readers will find a similar path lit for

Don’t listen to us gab about the newest picture book from Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace…check out the three starred reviews for THIS PLUS THAT!

“Teachers could use the book, perhaps paired with Betsy Franco’s picture book Mathematickles! (2003), to introduce math equations or to inspire students to create their own verbal equations. But first, just read this unusual book aloud and let it work its magic.” ~ Booklist (starred review)

“Clever premise + artful execution = sure winner.” ~ Kirkus (starred review)

“Corace’s tidy figures echo with prim grace the gentle theme of the book, that life can be parsed into the simplest terms that recombine to create something joyous.” ~ Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

Check out the adorable book trailer:

And check out these other great reviews:
A Year of Reading
Literacy and Laughter (look how she used it in the classroom!)
The BK Club (the Children’s Room at Memorial Hall Library)

In HOW LAMAR’S BAD PRANK WON A BUBBA-SIZED TROPHY, 13-year-old Lamar is the maddest, baddest, most spectacular bowler at Striker’s Bowling Paradise but he seems to keep striking out with the ladies.  When an older kid talks Lamar into hustling at the bowling alley, he thinks it just may be his chance to get ahead.  Finding himself in trouble, Lamar realizes that sometimes the long way to success is better than the short cut.

In its starred review, Publishers Weekly said that “from the first sentence Lamar will have readers hooked.”

Speaking of gems, debut novelist Crystal Allen is one of them herself.  She recently joined us at the Texas Library Association conference, and we all adored her.  She is laugh-out-loud funny (much like Lamar) and her enthusiasm is contagious.  Want to know more about her?  Check out her website where you can get added to her mailing list and read fun trivia about her.  You can also friend Crystal on Facebook and read this great interview with Crystal at The Brown Bookshelf.

Who knew that a perfect square could be transformed into so many things?  In his stunning follow-up to last year’s MY HEART IS LIKE A ZOO, Michael Hall creates rivers, mountains, and parks out of a single square of paper.  The storytime possibilities are limitless: give kids a square of paper and scissors and see what they can create.  So often as a librarian, I would create elaborate artwork for the kids to do during storytime but, sometimes, all you need is a single piece of paper.

What’s buzzy about PERFECT SQUARE?  It has received FOUR STARRED REVIEWS!  Here’s what they’re saying:

“A smart lesson in thinking outside the box (or the square).” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Memorable for reading aloud and terrific for inspiring creative play with the simplest materials.”  ~ Booklist (starred review)

“As its week progresses, the narrative turn of events in the square’s world encourages page-turning to discover the results. What will the square do next? This is a not-to-be-missed adventure for all young readers.” ~ School Library Journal (starred review)

“Young readers will absorb the visual lessons effortlessly and with delight.”  ~ Kirkus (starred review)

Here are some more wonderful links for you:

• Betsy Bird’s review of PERFECT SQUARE at Fuse #8
• Michael Hall visits the Greenwillow offices
• Michael Hall shares an amusing story about the creative process
• It was chosen as one of “Richie’s Picks“

PERFECT SQUARE (ISBN 9780061915130) is available now.

You know Dan Gutman’s books, of course.  He’s the author of the wildly popular My Weird School series and its offshoots, as well as The Baseball Card Adventures series as well.  When I was a librarian, we couldn’t keep these series on the shelves so I was thrilled when I heard about…

It’s Dan’s new series and the first book is THE GENIUS FILES: MISSION UNSTOPPABLE, which is available now.  The second book in the series, THE GENIUS FILES: NEVER SAY GENIUS is on-sale in January 2012.  Check out the book trailer:

Booklist says that “thrill seekers and Gutman fans alike will welcome the opening installment of the Genius Files series.”  Here are some other links to check out:

• Washington Post interview with Dan Gutman
• Pink Me’s awesome review where she says, “I love books like this – a funny mystery appeals to just about everyone, and when that funny mystery is written with this kind of ease and confidence you feel like you’re putting those kids into good hands.”
• Librarian Pirate says in her review that you’ll want this for your libraries.
• Monica Edinger (Educating Alice) has her students doing blog reviews and this review says the book is “fun, weird, and original”.

Working in the booth at conferences, we often get questions about the latest GLBTQ books.  I am thrilled to recommend PINK by Lili Wilkinson to them.  And the first thing I tell people in the booth is that I hesitate to attach the GLBTQ label to PINK because it’s a book about identity and figuring out who you are – not only as it relates to sexual orientation but also as it concerns coming-of-age.  It’s about exploration and experimentation in a safe home environment.  And it’s about friendship, belonging, and first love.  So throw out that GLBTQ label – this is a story for most teens.  (Can you tell I’m a fan?)

Lili Wilkinson is an Aussie writer who hasn’t quite broken out stateside yet but, I assure you, that’s going to change with PINK.  Get to know Lili better at her website, her blog, and her Twitter (@twitofalili).

Want to know what your fellow librarians and teachers are saying?  Here are some awesome reviews:

• Kirkus Reviews
• Reading Rants!
• Persnickety Snark
• Book Blather (LOVED getting this into Drea’s hands at Midwinter!)
• Queer YA

Check out the buzz, read PINK and let us know what you think!  On-sale now.

The school and library world is a-buzzing with accolades for Thanhha Lai’s debut novel INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN!  Check out these reviews…and the shiny stars that accompany them:

“In her not-too-be-missed debut, Lai evokes a distinct time and place and presents a complex, realistic heroine whom readers will recognize, even if they haven’t found themselves in a strange new country.” ~ Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“An incisive portrait of human resilience.” ~ Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Based on Lai’s personal experience, this first novel captures a child-refugee’s struggle with rare honesty.” ~ Booklist (starred review)

“[...] the immediacy of the narrative will appeal to those who do not usually enjoy historical fiction.” ~ School Library Journal (starred review)

“Lai’s spare language captures the sensory disorientation of changing cultures as well as a refugee’s complex emotions and kaleidoscopic loyalties.” ~ The Horn Book

And here is what our teacher and librarian friends are saying:

• Monica Edinger at Educating Alice called this “a very moving verse novel.”
• Jonathan Hunt suggested INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN as 2012 Newbery Reading at Heavy Medal!

INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN (ISBN 9780061962783) is on-sale now.

In a future where love is considered a disease to be eradicated, Lena wonders if she’s missing anything by not feeling affection and emotional connection.  Then she meets Alex and Lena finds herself a victim of the illness.  Suspenseful, fast-moving, and soaring, DELIRIUM is 1984 meets ROMEO AND JULIET.

In its starred review, Kirkus says that Lauren Oliver’s prose is “artfully detailed” and – I love this part – “Lena’s gradual awakening is set against a convincing backdrop of totalitarian horror. Chilling epigraphs from the government’s rewritten histories begin each chapter, providing contextual propaganda so thorough that they’ve even reinterpreted the Bible to suit their message.  The abrupt ending leaves enough unanswered questions to set breathless readers up for volume two of this trilogy.”

Here are some reviews from teachers and librarians:

Kate’s Book Blog
Karin’s Book Nook
Confessions of a Bibiliovore
Miss Remmers’ Review

Lastly, check out this video where Lauren Oliver talks about the inspiration for the story:

I just discovered the blog Storytime Katie and, I’ve gotta tell you guys, it’s phenomenal.  Anything and everything you want to know about storytime is here: Flannelboards! Theme ideas! Fingerplays! Books! Songs!  The Penguin storytime package is particularly sweet.

And be sure to check out her helpful Resources section and follow her on Twitter (katietweetsya)!

Yep, I have definitely developed a new blog crush.