Crosspost: New to Me--The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

This month at The Hub, I talk about Paula Danziger's first book: The Cat Ate My Gymsuit.  Hope you enjoy this New to Me pick!

Crosspost: New to Me--Alanna: The First Adventure

I missed posting this sooner, but my New to Me post for March is up at the YALSA Hub.  I talk about reading Alanna: The First Adventure, and whether older fantasy novels suffer from the same issues as realistic fiction. 

Crosspost: New to Me--Seventeenth Summer

Now that the work on the Printz Award is done, my New to Me posts have returned!  They're now featured on The Hub, YALSA's new home for teen reading.  Visit the site to see my latest column on Seventeenth Summer.

Crosspost: 50 Years of To Kill a Mockingbird

Over at the YALSA Blog, I talk about the fiftieth anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird. Take a look!

Crosspost: Serving on the Printz Committee

I wrote a post for the YALSA Blog talking about what it's like serving on the Printz Committee. If you're curious about the process of serving on an awards committee, take a look!

Crosspost: New to Me: Gentlehands

So what would you do if you found out your grandfather had been a Nazi officer? That's the dilemma faced by Buddy Boyle in M.E. Kerr's Gentlehands: this month on the YALSA blog!

Crosspost: New to Me: A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich

Another month, another New to Me at the YALSA blog! This month, I read A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich.

Crosspost: New to Me: A Summer to Die

It's time for a (belated) New to Me post at the YALSA blog! Check out my thoughts on A Summer to Die.

Although I'm a big fan of the original cover of this novel . . .



I have to admit that I love the paperback reissue's cover.

Crosspost: New to Me: Flowers in the Attic

January's New to Me is Flowers in the Attic. Head over to the YALSA Blog to see my take on this "classic".

As a side note . . . many of us are familiar with the traditional V.C. Andrews cover style. But check out these two new covers!

This one gets what I've called "The Twilight Treatment".



And this one . . . is it just me, or does it look like a standard romance novel?

Crosspost: Nonfiction Award Interview

For the YALSA blog, I'm interviewing some of the authors who have been shortlisted for the Nonfiction Award. First up is Sally Walker, the author of Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland. Find out what it was like visiting archeological digs, the five words Sally would use to describe her book, and what she thought about being shortlisted for this new award!

Read my earlier review of Written in Bone.

Crosspost: New to Me: Beauty

Another month, another New to Me post at the YALSA blog! Find out what I thought about Robin McKinley's Beauty.

All my posts at the YALSA blog

Crosspost: New to Me: Annie on My Mind

Another month, another New to Me feature at the YALSA blog! October's book is Annie on My Mind.

Crosspost: New to Me: I Am the Cheese

In retrospect, this is a really creepy cover. But it's suitable for a really creepy book.

My latest post at the YALSA blog is up: a discussion of I Am the Cheese.

Crosspost: New to Me: Summer of My German Soldier

I'm getting back to writing for the YALSA blog, so I'm happy to link to my latest offering: a post on Summer of My German Soldier. Hope you enjoy!

Crosspost: New to Me: Johnny Tremain

At the YALSA blog, the latest post in my "New to Me" series is up. In this review, I talk about that historical fiction classic Johnny Tremain.

Crosspost: New to Me: Forever . . .

I'm very excited about becoming a YALSA blogger, since the YALSA blog is full of great information for teen librarians or anyone interested in working with teens. Why not amble over to the YALSA blog and check out my first post?

New to Me: Forever . . .

Hope you enjoy it!

Thoughts: The National Book Awards

This post also appeared at A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy.

I'm a bit late to the party in talking about the nominees for the National Book Award, but here's some thoughts I had in looking over the 2008 nominees for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

Does buzz work against a book?

There's been a lot of discussion around The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks when awards are talked about, and I think few people were surprised when it was one of the five nominees. But will that work against it? I can remember several cases where there was pre-award buzz around a book that ended up not winning the big prize. Just when it comes to the Printz Award, for example, I had heard mention of Saving Francesca, Octavian Nothing Vol. 1 The Pox Party, The Book Thief, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian as a winner. None of these books won the Printz; two were shut out entirely, not even meriting an honor award. Yet in the same breath, it's not that these books went completely unrecognized. Both The Book Thief and Octavian Nothing merited Printz Honor Awards; Octavian Nothing and Absolutely True Diary were the National Book Award winners in their respective years. It's perhaps too soon to tell if buzz will hurt Frankie Landau-Banks, but I think just getting recognized as a nominee is a validation of the importance of this book.

The esteemed members of the panel

I didn't realize this, but the National Book Award is determined by a panel of authors from the same field. Not just any authors, either--these are major players in the field. The 2008 panel is headed by Daniel Handler, with Holly Black, Angela Johnson, Carolyn Mackler, and Cynthia Voigt. That's some panel! In the past few years, the National Book Award panels have included such authors as Elizabeth Partridge, Pete Hautman, Scott Westerfeld, Linda Sue Park and Patricia McKissack. It's very gratifying to know that not only is this award granted by an author's peers, but that authors are giving back by serving on panels such as these.

Interesting facts

--Apparently, publishers have to submit books for consideration for the National Book Award. While my friends and I have jokingly called the ALA Youth Awards press conference "the Oscars", it could be that the National Book Award's announcement deserves that nickname more.
--In 2008, submissions for Young's People Literature just edged out Fiction as the second-most submitted work. Nonfiction is the big winner in this category.
--I'm very envious of those who live close to New York City and can attend the National Book Award Teen Press Conference. What a wonderful way to publicize and celebrate the National Book Award--not to mention the fact that this event is just for teens!

Crosspost: Watching TV Without the TV

Watching TV without the TV
This post originally appeared on Pop Goes the Library.

I was on vacation for part of last week, and once I got home and started to get back in the swing of things, I thought to myself, "I missed seeing Countdown a few days . . . thank God for the Internet." Because MSNBC has the last few aired shows available to watch--in easy-to-watch clips rather than the whole show--on their website. Thus, I was easily able to get my Keith Olbermann fix.

And that made me start thinking: are we at a point now where you don't even really need a physical TV anymore? Sure, there's still events that you're not willing to wait for the show to be available online, and Internet watching removes some of the community feel of TV watching. Yet for the most part, I think we're getting close to a tipping point. Between sites like Hulu and individual network websites, I think a large portion of the mainstream TV audience could let their TV sets gather dust while their broadband Internet connection gets a real workout.

However, there's a few caveats to this, and if you read that last sentence, you should be able to see the big two: "mainstream TV audience" and "broadband Internet". If you live in part of the US that doesn't have broadband access, and there's still a lot of places like that, you'll probably going to be using your TV still. And for those people who don't just watch CSI and Lost and 24, the restricted access to more unusual shows would probably be a deal-breaker.

Since I fall into the latter group, while I don't think I'm ready to give up my TV set quite yet, I have to say that I'm using the Internet more and more to watch TV. And in tough economic times, if I can find a way to live with waiting to see shows once they're online, I'd definitely dump my cable TV and use my TV to watch DVDs.

How about you? Do you think TV on the Internet is only going to keep growing, or will this be a flash in the pan? And what does this mean for our library services?

Crosspost: All Kinds of Time-Spenders

Friday Fun: All Kinds of Time-Spenders
This post originally appeared at Pop Goes the Library.

Note how I don't call any of these sites "time-wasters". All of us here at PGTL would never advocate that you spend some time on this Friday looking at frivolous websites!

[removes her tongue from her cheek]

Woot!: This site is for all of you who don't want the tension of eBay, who'd rather have a relative bird in the hand. Each day, Woot posts a new product, one that is available at typically substantially reduced prices. And once they're gone, they're gone! Although most items are electronics or appliances, there's certainly some whimsical choices. How about a toilet paper dispenser with a built-in FM radio?

Fine Lines: Reminiscing about those books you read when you were a teen? So is Jezebel, in their weekly feature where, in their own words, they "give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wizened look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth." I particularly liked the recent look at Cheaper by the Dozen/Belles on Their Toes, by noted mystery author Laura Lippman.

Firefox News: No, this has nothing to do with the browser--although they'd certainly recommend it to you. Firefox News is a site for tv discussion, articles about fandom topics, and even info about technology and the paranormal. It's a nice little niche site, and is mostly free from the frenzied politics of fandom at large. I really like their coverage of Supernatural.

Crosspost: What Are They Reading for Fun?

What Are They Reading for Fun?
This post previously appeared in School Library Journal's Extra Helping.

Melissa Rabey, Frederick County Public Libraries, Frederick, MD:
It was all about Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” this summer, with many requests for the first three books in the series, thanks to the August release of Breaking Dawn (Little, Brown, 2008). The upcoming movie is also stoking the fire. Just as eagerly anticipated is Brisingr (Knopf, 2008), the third book in Christopher Paolini’s “Inheritance” cycle. Manga moves swiftly, with demand very high for Tite Kubo’s “Bleach” and Masashi Kishimoto’s “Naruto” series (both Viz Media). Plenty of teens are rereading or discovering series such as J. K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter" (Scholastic), Cecily von Ziegesar’s “It Girl” (Little, Brown), Meg Cabot’s “The Princess Diaries” (HarperCollins), and Mary Hoffman’s “Stravaganza” (Bloomsbury). Finally, the forthcoming movie adaptation of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Knopf, 2006), by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, has led both teens and adults to this edgy novel.