• Someone give Leila an award for doing this — she tested out all of those digital book recommendation services and tells what works best and what does. What an awesome reference guide (and introduction to some services that maybe you didn’t already know existed). 

• What does J. K. Rowling’s pseudonymous novel say about commercial success? A short but interesting piece. 

• The more I read Roger Sutton, the more I love him. And I feel like he so perfectly nails something I was thinking about certain listicles that keep popping up: do you mean “might like?”

• Jennie talks about why “exclusive editions” of books are bad for libraries. I like this not only because it’s true, but I like it because it raises some good questions about other “exclusive” sorts of books are out there that do put library users at a disadvantage. Digital-only books? Not easy to get for readers who might want them — same with digital shorts. We want to get these things into the hands of our teens but our hands are often tied.

• Rebecca Schinsky busts down the myth that Generation Y or the Millennials or whatever the heck this group is called is only interested in Angry Birds and texting. They want and crave reading because it’s an activity they enjoy. 

• Next week, we’re doing a ton of posts about graphic novels, since it’s the genre of the month (yes, you’ll get a genre guide, an awesome Twitterview, as well as reviews and more). I stumbled upon this great reader’s advisory guide by Tom over at his library’s website worth reading: here’s a list of graphic novels that are adaptations of books, both classic literature and more contemporary works. 

• I feel like everyone has read or shared this one already, but it won’t hurt to do it again. Linda Holmes from NPR’s Monkey See wrote an incredible piece about being an oddball and how those dreams and schemes that seem unachievable or that seem like the kinds of things no one would ever be interested in are worth pursuing. This is super positive and uplifting reading. 

• Beverly Beckham wrote a really sweet piece to one of her first mentors and someone whose insight helped shape her own career: Robert Cormier. 

• A thought-provoking post by Megan at the Book Brats wonders about science fact in YA science fiction. 

• Are you in Chicago? You should check out the exhibit at Galerie F that pays homage to Roald Dahl’s books. Even if you can’t make it to see in person, you can check out some of the art on the Galerie’s website. 

• I stumbled upon a really interesting and thought-provoking piece last week which asks what the Bechdel test could add to YA literature. This topic popped up again over at the Pub Crawl blog, which explores the idea of what womance could add to YA fiction.  

• I get why dust jackets exist, but I am the lady who takes them off hard covers and uses them as page markers until I am done with the book. I put them back on after…usually. Flavorwire has a piece dedicated to the dislike of the dust jacket. 

• Here’s one for those of you who love book covers: four designers show off their concepts throughout the stages of design and what ended up working and not working. After you read that one, go check out this post on Lerner’s blog about the cover design process for Carrie Mesrobian’s forthcoming Sex & Violence. I love these behind-the-scenes, cutting room floor sorts of pieces. 

• Are you watching Orange is the New Black? Curious about what books are getting a little time on screen? Toby at Skokie Public Library rounded them up into an awesome reader’s guide on the library’s website. 

• I have a lot of opinions about Book Trailers, and so I love this piece over at Book Riot about what makes for a worthwhile book trailer

• We’ve talked about young adult, we’ve talked about “new adult,” and now let’s talk about mid-adult and what that emerging genre might be. (Calm yourselves — it’s satire and it’s great satire at that).

• If you’re a writer or you work with teens who want to be writers, I highly encourage spending some time on Courtney Summers’s master post of writing advice from her tumblr question-and-answers about writing. It’s incredibly encouraging and positive, and the response about self-doubt and encouragement is particularly worthwhile. 

Speaking of writing, did you know WriteOnCon is coming up? WriteOnCon is a free conference, all online, all about writing, the weekend of August 13 and 14. It is FREE and easy to take part in. This year, I’m one of the “faculty” members (so weird to say!), and I feel obligated to mention that you should check out the Con if you’re into writing, want to get into writing, or you know others who would benefit from it.

I’ve had two posts over at Book Riot in the last couple of weeks too, and both are book lists: What to read while you’re waiting for the Veronica Mars movie (aka teen girl sleuths in YA fiction) and six YA books worth checking out this year that have published already and six to get on your radar. 

• Someone asked me a few months ago if there was a “So you want to read middle grade?” series that was similar to the “So you want to read YA?” series we run here. Enter Sarah at Green Bean Teen Queen, who is kicking off a middle grade series for those who want to start reading more of it. 

• Here’s an ambitious project that I have been waiting for: Recaptains. Remember when you read book one in a series a long time ago and forgot what happened at the end but you still want to read book two? Here’s where they spoil the books for you so you can carry on with the series and not need to reread the book. 

• A fun post on YA books (and some non-YA books) that celebrate comics and superheroes. 

• So One Teen Story has been on my radar for a while, and after reading this Washington Post story about the magazine/journal and the direction it wants to go, I’m even more interested now. I’m curious if anyone gets this for their teens at their library or plan to get it for their classroom? It’s one I’m seriously considering because it looks really neat and I have an idea who the exact readership would be. 

• This was interesting to me — what happens to debut novelists three years after their first book? 

• Why not make card catalog art? One Greenfield, Massachusetts librarian did just that. 

• June is pride month, and even though we haven’t done anything here, I’ve collected a couple of really worthwhile reads on the topic. First, Anna has a great post over at gay ya about getting queer YA out there (including how to be a good reader AND how to be a  great librarian who knows where to find and how to promote these books) and Rebecca has a guest post over at Housequeer about queer YA fiction and MORE queer YA fiction.

• Are you a YALSA member? Here are the board docs and agenda for their meetings coming up at annual next week. I find reading these fascinating and worth the time. 

• This is fun! Here’s a site with vintage paperback cover images. You can see cover twins! The evolution of covers! And more! Do you like all the exclamation marks? I love this project because covers.

• Linda over at NPR’s Monkey See wrote a really interesting and sad post about how there are no films out there right now which feature women. I have to say more broadly, there’s been nothing of interest to me at the theater in months. I’m picky with movie watching, but there’s usually at least something which I want to see. But this year? I’ve seen nothing and have put nothing on my must-see list. 

• I know I am not the only one excited about the Lizzie Skurnick books that will be coming out. Here’s what’s on deck so far.

I had a post over at Book Riot this week you can check out, too — 15 awesome young adult book cover inspired manicures. Do you have any idea how fun it is to spend hours looking at images of people’s incredible nail art? Meanwhile, I try to paint my nails one color and it is a disaster. 

• Have I talked about my enjoyment of Michael Cart’s pieces covering genre? Here he is talking about “New Adult” books and what might fit the category. I’m really glad to see graphic novels included in his list because I think if “new adult” really is a thing, the graphic novel format — especially graphic memoirs — is where a LOT of books fitting the need are falling. 

• This isn’t super thorough (and one of the comments points out a huge miss), but Teen.com has a nice little piece on authors who got their starts as teenagers. 

• Jennifer Lynn Barnes’s post about gender, the null hypothesis and privilege is out of this world good. I’m not linking to the John Green post that inspired it (you’ve probably read it anyway), but I love Barnes’s examination of what the claims are and her willingness to call out the question she got about her initial post on the topic. 

• Peter Gutierrez talks about how shows like BEA contribute to the celebrity status and culture that surround some authors. This post is really interesting. 

• The Guardian talks about how and why gendered covers may be doing a disservice to young readers. This stems out of a conversation at Australia’s Reading Matters conference. 

• A couple of interesting blog posts recently popped up about the role of friendship in YA fiction. There’s this one and then this one. Both are worthwhile reading. My only comment to really add is that I think there are actually a lot of YA books that tackle friendship head on and do so in really worthwhile ways. But I say this as someone who has been working on a book about contemporary YA and has an entire chapter dedicated to friendship. It’s there. The problem is that it’s not the selling point of many books (which is hit on in those posts) and it’s not as sexy a lead to readers as a romance is. I’m not sure if that’s actual truth or something we’re simply told and led to believe. 

• For fun: 12 classic books that define your summer. 

• Chuck Wendig talks about 25 things that you should know about young adult fiction. I really like this — I think it’s not only an excellent primer to young adult books, but I think it’s a bigger primer to young adulthood more broadly. 

• Author Laura Lam talks about the gray areas of gender and identity.