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ALA wrap-up #2: On starting new trends sure to take the world by storm

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Bright and early Friday morning (ok, the bright part being a hyperbole for what the sky looks like at 3 am), I made my way to the airport to hop a plane to sunny San Diego. The plans for the day were to get into town early in order to get some fun in before working the exhibition floor. We landed without any issue in San Diego at 9:30 am and I was on my way to the hotel. As usual, I stayed with my partner in crime Abby who always has to take care of me during these things. Fortunately this time I remembered everything I needed so there was no care taking necessary, which I think was a huge relief to Abby. Also, for those who will inevitably ask, the books I read on the flight out were Michael Northrop’s Trapped and Elizabeth Woods’s Choker.

If I were to encapsulate the entire experience in just few words, I would have to say it was cross-platform and multidimensional. It was such a blast to be somewhere in person and be able to talk about it on the web, too. Sharing what was happening with those who weren’t there and hearing their feedback/comments was really exciting.

But on to the fun!

Since I got in so early, I met up with Drea and Katie to check into the conference and then do a little exploring. We hit up a local pizza shop and talked about blogging, books, and the people we love. Drea and I have hung out before (since she lives close by) but it was my first time meeting Katie. Lots of fun was had. I had to rush back to my hotel shortly after, though, because I had another event coming up in the early afternoon.

I made a date with Melissa Wiley weeks ago to take a special trip to celebrate our work on the Cybils YA panel. We’d met previously at KidLitCon but didn’t get to connect much because of other things going on, so we were excited to have some one-on-one bonding time. Now, if you’ve read the synchronicities posts, you’re privy to the fact In-and-Out Burger plays a part in two of our titles. Naturally, that’s where we decided to go. But it was Melissa who pulled out the big surprise — she brought the two books that feature that restaurant.

When we got to the restaurant, we took a photo of our books with our food, then we were able to convince a stranger to get a shot of us together with the books. After Melissa and I tweeted the picture, we heard back from both Tara Kelly and Morgan Matson about our hijinks. It was epic feedback, if you will. As dorky as it sounds, that was definitely one of the highlights of my trip to San Diego. It really brought a whole new level to what we were doing on the panel. We talked our favorite Cybils titles, non-Cybils titles, the importance of good voice in writing, and we talked about the fact she’s just sold not only a middle grade title this year but just got word she sold a YA historical fiction. Melissa is a wonderful person and I am so glad I got to spend time with her.

Also, that was the first hamburger I’ve eaten in about 4 years, too, and it was so worth the wait.

Melissa dropped me back at the hotel, where I had a little time to relax before meeting up with Angie, Liz, Sarah, Abby, Drea, and Katie to hit the exhibit floor. Anyone who has been to a book-related conference knows how these things go — it’s a madhouse. As a group, we’d developed a list of some of the titles we were really hoping to find, and I was beyond thrilled to get everything on my personal list (as well as a ton of new-to-me titles).

Wandering the floor here was such a different experience for me than it has been in the past. Before, I never felt confident enough to actually talk to the vendors, but this year, I did it and it was so worthwhile. At each booth, I learned about in-house favorites, new trends that they’ve seen, and picked up books that were otherwise not lying in piles. I’ve always been afraid to ask weird questions or come off as awkward when striking up conversations, but doing it was so important and really gave me the feel I know what I’m talking about (sometimes). I guess, too, I underestimated how eager they are to engage in conversation with you, especially if they “know” you. Perhaps that was best depiction of this was my incredible interaction with Laura at the HarperCollins booth: when she saw my Twitter name, she JUMPED UP AND DOWN in excitement to chat. We’d talked before on Twitter but missed talking with each other at KidLitCon, so it was great to hear about titles she was excited about. She also did me a huge favor and tracked down Suzanne Young’s forthcoming A Need So Beautiful, which I was then able to snap a photo of and show Suzanne. We got to be giddy about that via Twitter and on the exhibit hall floor (because my partners in crime were getting a huge kick out of this, too).

I ran into another author I’d been real eager to meet, Keren David, who had the most delightful British accent. She came to ALA from England to sign her book When I Was Joe, which I’d read for the Cybils. I was able to get a copy of the companion to it and am so excited to read it. She was even kind enough to come to our party later in the evening.

But perhaps the most fun part of the exhibit all floor the first night — aside from hauling away a lot of great titles — was when Abby and I went to meet Lauren Myracle and I started a trend that’s sure to take the book world by storm. We both made trips to our hotel room when the exhibit hall was open on Friday night to load and unload books, and Abby picked up Myracle’s Shine earlier than me. I waited in a very short line to have Lauren sign my book and Abby waited with me. When we got to her, she signed my book after a nice discussion of how Abby and I looked like sisters (a theme you’ll see in my next post, too).

Abby was ready to leave since the hall was closing, but Lauren really wanted to sign a book for her. Abby insisted that she had one already and she was all set, but I suggested she have Lauren sign her hand. . . or her fingernails. Lauren got this crazy smirk on her face and was totally game on it. Abby plopped her hands down and we were on. The Abrams vendor thought this was hilarious, as did Lauren, so we snapped a photo with Lauren’s phone to remember it forever. What a cool chick!

We closed down the exhibits with that and made our way back to the hotel to check out our books. Between us we had an easy 80 some books. We piled them up, pet them, and drooled for a while. Choosing what to read first was going to be rough.

And ah! Now it was time for our party to begin.

As you know, Abby and I (as well as a few others) brainstormed this idea to have a blogger slumber party at the conference. We’d all known each other from blogging but only a few of us had ever hung out in person. We figured this would be a perfect way to do it. Well, it exploded. There was so much interest, we decided to hold it at a bar and make it an evening. Word got around, and then we found out there would be authors in attendance, then a publisher who was interested in helping pay for the event. And so you have the YA Librarian/Book Blogger Meet Up. I cannot express in words how much fun it was nor how much I want to thank each and every person for coming!

We dressed up and made our way down to the bar, where we met up with Jim of Baen Books and had our little area of the bar reserved. I’d spotted the folks from Flux earlier and brought them over to join us. It was so fun meeting Brent Hartinger, Rebecca Fjelland Davis, and Sarah Stevenson. Brent and I shared an excellent conversation about why YA books matter so much — talk about a wonderfully down to earth person with complete passion for what he’s writing and doing. Rebecca and I bonded over some cured meats and bread later on in the event, and we may or may not have talked about Jersey Shore.

For me, the meat of this was meeting and chatting causally with some of *my* blogging librarian heroes, including Sarah (who may have been the first book blog I ever read), Liz, and Whitney. I also had the chance to meet Julia, who I knew through a girl I went to graduate school with AND through a completely random livejournal fan group. It is weird when your strange fetishes catch up with you so much you bond with people over them in real life. No, I won’t be sharing what this interest is.

At the highest point, I believe there were easily 30 people in attendance. Everyone was good about passing out business cards, too, which means I can direct you to both Jordyn and Anni, who were new to me. It was a wonderful group of attendees, and everyone was able to drink to merriment. Like with all social events, a huge part of the success in something like this is everyone putting themselves out there and being willing to feel awkward. It can be hard to come chat with people you don’t know or haven’t met, but I think everyone felt comfortable enough to do so. Of course, a couple of cocktails help, too. A huge thank you to Baen Books for offering us some cash for this AND for the best comment of the evening — that this was money better spent than an advertisement in a major library publication.

Woah.

Abby and I retreated to our rooms about midnight (note I had been up for something like 40 hours at this point) and were on the hunt for pizza. Unfortunately, there aren’t major pizza distributors in such a ritzy part of San Diego and instead, we crashed in preparation of a full, exciting day on Saturday. That is, after we spent a little more time smelling and touching the books in our room.

ALA wrap-up #1: Simon and Schuster Preview

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I’ve promised a wrap up of the ALA Midwinter events, and I’m going to make up three separate posts about them. First up is my recap of one of the most exciting events I got to attend: the Simon and Schuster Publisher’s Preview lunch on Saturday.

I got to dine with Abby, Drea, and Sarah, as well as this YA author you may have heard of by the name of Lisa McMann. As soon as we got there, Lisa introduced herself and was eager to hear that we would be tweeting part of the event. She asked us to take a photo and mention how great her hair looked. So, not only did we tweet it, but here’s the proof, too. You’ll learn a heck of a lot more about what a hoot she is in a later post, since I had the chance to eat dinner with her that night.

On to the meat and potatoes: the books. Simon and Schuster’s school and library marketing folks were incredibly kind and so eager to load us up with some of their favorite titles for the spring and summer 2011 season. For your enjoyment, here’s a small selection of the ones that stuck out to me. Although the luncheon covered picture books through YA, obviously most of my interest was in the YA titles.

First off, Lisa’s titles. Cryer’s Cross comes out in February, but I was lucky enough to score two signed, finished copies of this book. One will be put into my library for a summer reading prize, and the second I plan on devouring myself (it may be because it’s signed TO me – more later). Lisa talked about how she’s been reading the early reviews of the title and addressed some of the things she’s seen pop up. As Jen alluded to in her review, main character Kendall has OCD — Lisa brought this point up to tell us why she chose to use that as a trademark of Kendall. Her 14-year-old daughter has OCD, and she discussed how she found it fascinating the notion of fixating on routines. In Cryer’s Cross, the disappearance of classmates doesn’t jive with Kendall’s routine and incorporating OCD gave her a flaw that many teens will relate to.

Lisa talked too about how Cryer’s Cross was not the original book she planned on writing. After finishing the Wake trilogy, she was asked by her editor what else she had, so she pitched three of the finished stories she had. None were “right,” and when asked if she had any other ideas, Lisa said she’d had a dream about a desk that was haunted. Her editor wanted that story, despite it not being written yet.

So what’s next for Lisa? It’s one that sounds absolutely awesome to me — it’s a middle grade dystopian trilogy. Borne out of the fact that more and more schools are cutting their arts education because of lack of funding (and the belief that arts education isn’t as important as more “scholarly” pursuits), this series will have children chosen as scholars and given futures and children chosen as artists and . . . well, let’s just say that they don’t have quite the future their scholarly counterparts will. I believe this was a Fall 2011 or early Spring 2012 intended launch.

Time to dig into the rest of the titles. They’re organized by imprint, rather than date.

Simon Pulse

First up are a couple of titles already out: Dia Reeves’s Slice of Cherry and Eileen Cook’s The Education of Hailey Kendrick. The first looks part mystery and part horror, while the second is a modernization of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

Coming in June 2011 is Elana Johnson’s debut, Possession. This dystopian novel features a distinct sarcastic voice and plays on the idea of power and control. And the cover is, without question, knock out.

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma (June 2011) was described by the editor as one of the in-house favorites of the season. This is a love story but it’s not an ordinary love story: it focuses on a brother and sister forced to take care of their younger siblings due to a wayward, drunken mother. You got it — this is a book about incest and forbidden love and is guaranteed to be a tear jerker.

Clean by Amy Reed (August 2011): Another hard, edgy title. Although this wasn’t talked too much at the lunch, I can say as much as it’s about a group of teens in recovery from alcohol/drug abuse and is supposed to have some of the flavorings of The Breakfast Club. I have a bit of a fixation with that whole concept so this is near the top of my list of books I’m looking forward to this year.

Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Wither by Lauren DeStefano (March 2011): This one’s already garnered early buzz around the blogosphere, but what I did not know about this book was that it was written in a mere 25 days. Did you read that? 25 days! For those not familiar with the title, it’s a dystopian title about men and women dying young and therefore having limited and restricted lifestyles to maintain the human species. It’s more along the literary lines, and it’s also a debut. I don’t get caught up on age when it comes to writers, but the editors were excited to share DeStefano is only 25.

We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han (April 2011): This is the last book in the Summer series. I confirmed with the publicists there will not be advanced copies of this one available. They’re very excited about the conclusion to this book and say it’s going to rattle fans of the series. I am really looking forward to it.

Okay, before I get into the next one, let me say that I remember this author talking about this vaguely at the Anderson’s conference and not taking notes. However, when they talked about it at the luncheon, I was ready to knock people over to get it. Okay. I totally knocked people down. But they didn’t have copies yet.

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel (August 2011) is the first in a new series. Get this: it’s a prequel to Frankenstein. Did you read that? A prequel to Frankenstein. This has never been done before, according to S&S, so it’s really exciting, and we’ve been told it is, by far, Oppel’s best work.

Antheum

The Lost Crown is Sarah Miller’s newest title, coming out in June. This is a story set in Romonov Russia during World War 1, a time period and setting that I haven’t seen much in YA lit. It’s a well-researched book and a story of sisters.

Paula Wiseman Books

Small Acts of Amazing Courage is Gloria Whelan’s newest book, set in 1919 in India. Rosalind lives there with her parents, who are British, and when they believe she’s getting herself into trouble with the Indian government, they send her to live in England with her aunts. If you know anything about Indian history, this is a particularly powerful era. Publishes in April.

Carolyn Meyer wanted to write a sexy book for her next title, but instead, she’s taken a bit of a different turn in writing Cleopatra Confesses. This is due out in June and is about the life of the young Cleopatra — there is romance but it’s not sexy. The cover looks pretty cool, too.

Margaret McElderry Books

Although they don’t interest me as much as they do other people, the new Cassandra Clare title — book four in the Mortal Instruments series — will be out in April 2011 and it features two people on the cover (I guess the others in the series only had one … this garnered oohs from the crowd). The second book in Holly Black’s The Curseworkers series, Red Glove, comes out April 2011, as well.

The book I think I may be most excited for and the one that has the coolest story about it is Moira Young’s Blood Red Road (June 2011). It was pitched as The Hunger Games meets Mad Max and the female lead is supposedly ten times more bad ass than Katniss. Sold. But wait! They received the manuscript for this book ONE MONTH AGO. This hasn’t been a year long production like most books are. This book was sent to them a mere 30 days ago and it will be published in June — the manuscript was that tight. Oh, that wasn’t enough to sell you? This is also a book that doesn’t have punctuation. There are periods at the end of sentences but no other punctuation to indicate things like dialog. It’s pretty trippy. I was told to read this one on the plane ride home because it was that engrossing (ahem, I would have if I didn’t end up falling asleep). Easily, this is probably the one that was most “sold” to me and one I am extremely eager to dive into. The story of its coming together is too good. Did I mention this is also a debut author?

. . . and believe it or not, that’s just a small sampling of the titles that will be out by Simon and Schuster in the next few months. OH! And lunch! We were treated to a variety of salads (mine was a spinach salad), sandwiches (I took a turkey on honey wheat bread) and mini desserts (my pick was the strawberry cheesecake). It was delicious and enough energy to make the trek back to the convention center to pick up more forthcoming titles. I’ll highlight some of the other publisher’s titles in upcoming posts, too, no worries!

Thanks to the fabulous people at Simon and Schuster for arranging this and inviting me to attend.

ALA Youth Media Award Reactions

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The inevitable post: our reactions to the Youth Media Awards announced this morning. We won’t recap all awards, but will discuss a smattering of those that interested us in a particular way. If you need a refresher, see a list of all honorees here.
Well…looks like my predictions were way off. However, I am absolutely THRILLED that A Sick Day for Amos McGee won the Caldecott Medal. I read this gorgeous, simple book after our predictions post, and couldn’t be happier at its recognition. And After Ever After winning the Schneider Family Middle School Book Award basically made my day. I am in love with both Steven and Jeffy.
Newbery: Very surprised here, as I have never even heard of Moon over Manifest. Glad to see that One Crazy Summer at least got an honor nod, though. I’m also quite surprised not to see Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind or Kathi Appelt’s Keeper get an honor.
Caldecott: Completely thrilled at the choice of A Sick Day for Amos McGee. (And as I’ve seen a few other bloggers comment, amused that you apparently need the last name Stead to win a major honor!)
Printz: A predictable choice. I was kind of hoping something completely out of left field would win. I was quite excited to see honors go to both Stolen and Please Ignore Vera Dietz, which have garnered rave reviews from many (both of these are in my to-read pile).
Margaret A. Edwards Award: Man, I really need to read some Pratchett. My brother-in-law gave me the entire set of Tiffany Aching books for Christmas, and I’m eager to jump into them. For the love that so many have for Sir Terry Pratchett, I am so pleased with this.
Coretta Scott King: Although One Crazy Summer got a Newbery honor, I was also glad to see it win a top prize here. It was also nice to see Yummy get an honor, both for its story (very well done) and its format (graphic novel).
Alex: I’ve only read Room in this list, but Room was also my favorite book read in 2010. I was definitely not surprised to see The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake on this list. I’m looking forward to reading both Girl in Translation and The Radleys.
Odyssey: Very nice to see the audio of The Knife of Never Letting Go get an honor. Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking series is one of my favorites, and I can really see this book working amazingly in audio format.
Schneider Family: As I mentioned, After Ever After’s win made my day. It, along with Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie hold a special place in my heart, and I am thrilled for Jordan Sonnenblick. While I haven’t read Five Flavors of Dumb, the Teen winner, yet, I know that Kelly was a huge fan.
Pura Belpre: I was very impressed with Pam Munoz Ryan’s The Dreamer, although in some ways it seems more of an awards darling than a book that children will flock to. Regardless, it was beautiful (that’s really the only way to describe the writing) and well-deserved.
Sibert: Pleased that Ballet for Martha got an honor. This book was a fantastic collaboration in so many senses of the word: text, illustration, and storyline. Beautiful.
Theodor Seuss Geisel: Bink and Gollie was so playful and charming—definitely deserving of this honor. But I was even more excited for Grace Lin’s Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same!, which is almost the perfect easy-reader book, in my opinion.
I need to start off by saying how incredibly PSYCHED I am that both The Knife of Never Letting Go and The True Meaning of Smekday got some love. The Odyssey Award was one of the first announced, and it just made me feel all happy and glowy for the rest of the morning. I’ve read both of these books in print and gave both five out of five stars – they’re both so wonderful in very different ways. I think it’s interesting that they were recognized for their audio productions, since both have elements that make them stand out in print form (Knife for its depiction of noise and Smekday for the illustrations). Knife should be fantastic in audio, too, but I’m really curious to see how Smekday stands up sans the pictures.
I was disappointed but not surprised by the nonfiction award winner. It seems to me that it was the nominee with the least appeal (certainly the least appeal to me). I’d be really interested in hearing from teen librarians who can comment on Janis Joplin’s appeal to teenagers of today – maybe I am alone in my opinion that a singer from the 1960s doesn’t appeal to teens in the 2010s (but I doubt it).
The Printz winner was so predictable compared to last year’s winner. I’ve had Ship Breaker since before it was published, in galley form, and still haven’t gotten around to reading it, even though the premise is really right up my alley. Then it was shortlisted for the freaking National Book Award and I didn’t read it then, either. I KNOW. I’ll read it now, I promise.
As far as the Newbery goes, it’s no surprise that I knew pretty much nothing about it going in, but I still expected to have heard of all the honorees. Boy was I wrong. I had purchased the winner, Moon Over Manifest, but didn’t really remember what it was about. I hadn’t even heard of Sidman’s, which is no shocker since I’m not really a fan of poetry (I feel the need to hide from Kelly now). The others weren’t too surprising since I had heard buzz about them for awhile. But how incredibly weird is it that, aside from Sidman’s book, all of the Newbery honorees are historical fiction? All of them. Wow.
Janne Teller’s Nothing didn’t win the Batchelder, but it did garner an honor, so I’m still patting myself on the back for calling that way back in June 2010.
I love Tomie de Paola so much and I’m so glad he won the Laura Ingalls Wilder medal. I’m not a huge picture book lover, but I still love his stories of the Indian Paintbrush and the Bluebonnet from my childhood, and he’s still writing and illustrating such wonderful books today.
Speaking of picture books, I was rather proud of myself for recognizing all of the Caldecott honorees, and for having actually read two of them (Sick Day for Amos McGee and Interrupting Chicken). Both of these not only have wonderful art but excellent stories too. While I know the Caldecott award doesn’t honor the storytelling, I still appreciate seeing how the story and art work together. Some of the Caldecott honorees are a bit lacking in the story arena (such as last year’s honor All the World – great illustrations, mediocre and oh so boring text).
I’m not even sure where to begin on this. I’m delighted at some of the books getting recognized this year and blown away one of my reach titles for the Printz actually got an honor. Let’s start where Kim and Jen didn’t go.
Stonewall Book Award: First, I am incredibly thrilled that ALA has finally designated an award for a book featuring an LGBTQ character and not only that, but one of my 2010 favorite books (and one that I have talked to INCREDIBLE success), Love Drugged, was an honoree. This is a book I talked sort of on a whim and I’ve been told by one of the 9th grade teachers she bought 2 classroom copies that are -never- on shelf. Not only that, but 2 of her most reluctant readers are in love with it. I haven’t read the winner, Almost Perfect, though I’ve ordered it for work (and may I say it is the only one on any of the awards lists I didn’t have).
Morris Award: So I knew the book had been chosen on Saturday since one of the committee members was with us that day but she wouldn’t share what it was (of course). I was rooting for Crossing the Tracks or The Freak Observer, so I was pretty excited on this one. It’s a book that needed a little more love.
Printz Award: Honestly, the winner wasn’t a huge surprise to me. It’s a book that’s been on a lot of Mock Printz lists and one that I tried but completely failed at reading. However, I can say that the fact Stolen got an honor kind of made my world? That was one of my “dream” picks. It was also the first book that Scholastic has ever had earn a Printz honor or award.
Batchelder Award: Kim called Nothing back in June. It didn’t win but the fact it was an honoree wasn’t a surprise to me in the least. What a horrific little book it is, too. And I think I mean that nicely. I’m not quite sure. What I do know is there is nothing like it.
Newbery Award: I haven’t read any of the titles but had been rooting for One Crazy Summer since it seemed like a clear front runner. I hadn’t heard of the winner but when I looked it up, apparently, I had since I did buy it for work.
Caldecott Award: I’m not completely familiar with picture books and how to judge them, but I do know I love and adore Interrupting Chicken. The fact it got any recognition sort of rocked my socks.
Schneider Family Book Award: I am thrilled Antony John’s Five Flavors of Dumb got love here. This is another one of those books I’ve talked to my kids and they’ve found interest in. I had an interest in another title ending up here, too, but it was a dark horse from the start.
I didn’t think there were any real surprises this year nor any titles out of left field. I was mostly excited about a few titles getting the light they so rightly deserved. I was bummed I had to head home before the announcements, but it was nice listening to the streaming audio of the presentation (which was actually quicker than the Twitter stream).

Two watery cover trends

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While I work on an epic post-ALA post, I found two interesting cover trends I thought I’d share. Both are sort of water related.

First up, let’s talk sea glass hearts:

Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell — This one came out in 2008 and this particular cover is not the American, but the original Australian one. I like it much more than the American one, which you can see here.

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler — This 2009 book reminded me a lot of Jenny Han’s Summer I Turned Pretty.

But I Love Him by Amanda Grace — A forthcoming 2011 title from Flux that’s supposed to be quite edgy.

I actually like how the covers work on all of them, but I particularly like the color contrasts on the last one. The yellows against the black really pops.

The second cover trend I picked up on was the girl submerged in water trend. Check this one out:

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma — Penguin was pushing this one hard at the conference and it looks excellent. Not to get all cover lovey, but the title on the advanced copy is even raised so it has a nice feel to it, too. This is a summer 2011 title.

Displacement by Thalia Chaltas — For those of you who don’t remember, this is the author of Because I Am Furniture, which I reviewed back in the day here. I loved the verse and am so eager to read her newest. This is a summer 2011 title.

Would You by Marthe Jocelyn — This 2008 title was the first I can think of with this sort of image to it.

A Blue So Dark by Holly Schindler — This 2010 title has a really fitting cover for a book about depression. *Bonus: She reads and reads points out that this particular cover is a lookalike to two other books. Thanks for the heads up . . . or would that be heads under?

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodgin — This one, admittedly, has a male on it, too.

I was going to add Lurlene McDaniels’s Breathless to this, but when I looked at it again, it was actually a guy submerged. Of these covers, I like the first and second best, but they’re for different reasons. I love the multiple-sensory experience (yes, experience) of Imaginary Girls but I really dig the yellow on Displacement. I know, though, there is another girl under water cover. If anyone shares it in the comments, I’ll post it up.

Thoughts? Other similar covers?

In My Mailbox (19)

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Welcome to the first installment of In My Mailbox for 2011. It’s hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren and is a way to showcase the books received for review, picked up from the library, or purchased. I’ve been in San Diego at the ALA Midwinter conference and have a ton more to share than what’s here, but that’s for later.

For review:

Trapped by Michael Northrop (February release but available now on Amazon): I read this one on the plane ride out and loved it. It’s a story about 7 kids being trapped inside their high school during the worst snow storm ever. It’s got a killer voice, has massive guy appeal, and despite the tragic, horrible circumstances, it manages to be funny.

Will Work for Prom Dress by Aimee Ferris (February release): Prom’s coming up, but it’s costly. This story’s about a girl workin’ hard to make the money for her dream prom. . . but it might not go as planned.

Library:

Beautiful by Amy Reed: A group of bloggers — I think there’s 7 or 11 of us — are starting a reading club amongst ourselves to catch up on some titles we’ve missed. I got to pick the first book, and this was my pick. Edgy and contemporary.

Girl by Blake Nelson: I dig Blake Nelson but I’ve never read his classic Girl. Time to do so!

Purchased:

Flyaway by Lucy Christopher: I loved, loved, loved Stolen so I wanted to check out Lucy’s middle grade novel. I had to get it sent from Britain but I suspect it’s totally worth it.

I Knows It’s Over by C.K. Kelly Martin: I read Lighter Side of Life and Death for the Cybils and had some mixed feelings about it, but the writing was compelling enough to make me want to go back to her earlier works. And it was nice this one was available on nook, too.

Patterns of Paper Monsters by Emma Rathbone: Steph Su did a series of guest “best of” book lists at the end of the year and Forever Young Adult talked about this being one of their favorite gateway books. It sounded really good and one I’d never heard of on their list. I had to get it.

If you’ve made it this far, I have just one quick photo of some of the books I’ve picked up at ALA. I already sent a couple boxes home, so these are just my top-of-the-list wants that I’m taking home with me on the plane to ensure a safe arrival:


All of the links hit GoodReads, and I’ll post more about some of these soon, along with some of the wonderful things that happened over the course of the last week (WAIT – it’s only been 2 days? It feels like we’ve done 2 weeks worth of stuff!!).

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen (5/11)
A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young (7/11)
Chasing Alliecat by Rebecca Fjelland Davis (available now)
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan (no date — this is just a bound manuscript, so also no description)
Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer (2/11)
Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker (7/11)
Blood Red Road by Moira Young (summer 2011 — you’ll hear more about this one soon)
Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal (out this month)
Miles from Ordinary by Carol Lynch Williams (3/11)
Displacement by Thalia Chaltas (6/11)
Playing Hurt by Holly Schindler (3/11)
Bitter End by Jennifer Brown (5/11)