That's right, she's giving away Catching Fire!

ETA (July 27) - The contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone who entered! Winners were announced here.

Conundrum: You have the book everybody wants. How do you choose which lovely person gets it?

Answer: You let the gods of random numbers decide*.

I read it. I loved it. I laughed, I cried, etc. (And, of course, it made me want the third book, like, yesterday. But we all knew that was going to happen.) So, I'm giving you a chance to win a copy.

THERE IS ONE CONDITION! I would like your promise that if you win this ARC, you will read it and pass it on to someone else. Give it to your sister/brother/best friend/cousin/teen advisory group/local YA librarian or give it away on your own blog, whatever. (Do not put it in your library's collection - that is a big no no.)

ETA (9:09pm): Due to the wonderful generosity of a fellow ALA-going librarian, we will be giving away THREE COPIES!! Woohoo!!!

If you want to win my ARC, leave a comment on this post. Link to the contest on your blog, Twitter, etc. and leave an additional comment for each link. The more you link, the more entries you have. In your comment, include your email address and your assurance that you will pass along the ARC when you're done (seriously, or I will disqualify you!).

Note: leaving additional begging comments will NOT help your chances.

I will accept entries through Sunday, July 26 (mainly because I have next Tuesday morning off and I think that will be the first time I can get to the post office).

Good luck and may the random number gods be with you!!

*If you're anything like me, you're sick of having to jump through hoops for the chance to win this most coveted of fall reads, but I honestly couldn't think of a fairer way to do it. Leaving a comment is not too much hoop-jumping anyway...

Book Review: Days of Little Texas

Days of Little Texas by R.A. Nelson. (Grades 8+)
Full disclosure: review copy provided by Random House.

Summary from publisher:

Welcome, all ye faithful—and otherwise—to a ghost story, a romance, and a reckoning unlike anything you’ve read before. Acclaimed YA author R. A. Nelson delivers a tantalizing tale set in the environs of the evangelical revival circuit and centered around Ronald Earl, who at ten became the electrifying “boy wonder” preacher known as Little Texas. Now sixteen, though the faithful still come and roar with praise and devotion, Ronald Earl is beginning to have doubts that he is worthy of and can continue his calling. Doubts that only intensify when his faith and life are tested by a mysterious girl who he was supposed to have healed, but who is now showing up at the fringe of every stop on the circuit. Is she merely devoted, or is she haunting him?

I have a confession. I didn't really know what this book was about before I picked it up. Honestly, I heard "sixteen-year-old evangelical minister" and knew I had to read it, so I was not at all prepared for the delicious creepiness of the tale. I am not a huge fan of ghost stories. Not because I mind scary things, but because I have trouble suspending my disbelief enough to really get into them. Days of Little Texas had me at the beginning, though, with an interesting mix of characters and a slow, atmospheric building of suspense.

I'm a sucker for beautifully descriptive and poetic lines. And there's no shortage here. Whether describing Ronald Earl's mother as having "skin the color of cracker crumbs and hair that blows in the breeze like feathers" (pg 14) or a woman passing out as "soft as tallow dripping down a candle" (pg 32), there's no question that there's great imagery going on here.

Where it lost me a little bit is in character development. I felt removed from Ronald Earl, like I was looking at him from the outside when I would have rather been inside his head, understanding his motivations. And his bevvy of interesting companions in the Church of the Hand were intriguing at first, but I never felt like I got to know any of them either.

And maybe it was because I didn't go into the book expecting a ghost story, but the ending just wasn't my thing. That said, this'll please fans of ghost stories. I'd try it on teens who liked Lauren Myracle's Bliss. Sarah Miller recommends it to older fans of Lesley M.M. Blume's Tennyson (and I'd have to agree). Check out more reviews at The Compulsive Reader and Readingjunky's Reading Roost.

Book Review: Remember Little Rock

Remember Little Rock: The Time, the People, the Stories by Paul Robert Walker. (Grades 5-8.)

September 1957. Little Rock, Arkansas.

All the "Little Rock Nine" wanted was the same high-quality education provided for white students at Little Rock Central High School. But when Carlotta, Minnijean, Melba, Terrence, Jefferson, Elizabeth, Gloria, Ernest, and Thelma tried to enter Central High School, something the Supreme Court had ruled they could do, they were met with angry mobs. People yelled insults at them, spit on them, and threw rocks at them. They were not able to enter the school that day.

Remember Little Rock is the story of these nine students, their struggle for equality, and their incredible bravery in the face of stunningly violent protests.

The book starts off with a bang, describing Elizabeth Eckford's first attempt at entering Central High School and the incredible scene that met her. Can you imagine facing so many people protesting against you? Can you imagine being at home and watching TV coverage of the riots surrounding your son or daughter?

And it wasn't over after the first day. It took three weeks for the students to actually start their school year, and their battle wasn't over once they entered the doors. The Little Rock Nine still faced insults, prejudice, and abuse from students and teachers every day.

Incredible archival photos accompany a readable text and illustrate this riveting event. The book includes a timeline of the Civil Rights movement, notes about each of the Little Rock Nine, a list of sources, and an extensive index. I'd highly recommend this book for units on civil rights. Pair it with Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges and Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals.

Happy Nonfiction Monday! You'll find the roundup at Write About Now.

Around the interwebs: We Appreciate You!

Didja know that Sept. 14-18, 2009 is the second annual Book Blogger Appreciation Week? I didn't. Until Sarah told me, that is. Go on over there to register and nominate someone for an award. Sounds like it'll be a fun week and I'll certainly be putting it on my calendar.

Tasha at Kids Lit had an epic fail moment with a publisher rep at ALA. Liz adds her two cents.

Liz also gives us the scoop on the YALSA Readers' Choice Award and what went down at the BBYA Board Meeting.

Tricia's back with Part 4 of Programming for Children with Special Needs over at the ALSC blog.

And all you Hoosiers, are you going to the CYPD Conference (link opens PDF) at the end of August? I will be there. So will John Green (be still my heart). It looks to be a good program and I'm really looking forward to hobnobbing with scores of Indiana librarians.

That's all I've got for you today. It's not that things didn't happen in the Kidlitosphere this week, it's just that I'm two weeks away from the end of summer reading and my brain is too fried to think of anything intelligent to say about any of it. :)

Le loot

I promise I'm not trying to be braggy about my ARCs, but since people are living vicariously, here's my loot from ALA:



(That's minus Catching Fire, which I already read and lent to my best friend. It's fabulous!)

Click on the photo to get a much bigger photo than you probably ever wanted to look at.

Plus, I snagged a few e-galleys, too:



The card has a PIN to access the e-galley. I won't lie - I definitely find reading an actual book to be more comfortable. But e-galleys are way, WAY more cost-effective and environmentally friendly. And I can get on board with that.

Front and Center

Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. (Grades 7+)

Ohhhhh DJ Schwenk, how I love thee.

So, in case you weren't aware, the third DJ Schwenk book comes out in October. MARK YOUR CALENDAR. Because if you love DJ like I do, you won't want to miss it.

Front and Center takes up right where The Off Season leaves off. (And, just to warn you, since this is the third book in the trilogy there might be some spoilers for earlier books.)

DJ's returning to school just in time for basketball season and the pressure is ON. She's got college coaches coming to her game, the farm's losing money, and her brother Win is getting extremely involved in her college search. Like, extremely involved. Like, paralyzing-DJ-with-the-thought-of-disappointing-him involved.

And, well, you know how DJ does with pressure.
She tends to freeze up.
Everyone's telling her she's good enough to play Division I college basketball. But can she handle it? Can she even get into college at all?

And don't even mention the boy troubles. DJ's friend Beaner starts to show some interest, but Brian keeps popping back into DJ's head. What's a girl to do?

I'm really glad I went back and reread Dairy Queen and The Off Season, not only to refresh myself on what had happened to DJ and her pals, but because they're fantastic and it reminded me how much I love them. As I previously posted, I listened to the audiobook of Dairy Queen, which is completely fabulous.

DJ Schwenk is one of the most unique and interesting protagonists in YA literature. I love that she's a real girl. She freezes up under pressure. She's not always witty with a quick, sarcastic comeback. She's a little more like the rest of us, thinking of smart responses three days after the argument is over.

I'm not saying that I didn't want to shake her* periodically throughout Front and Center. But that's actually one of the things I love about these books - DJ is so real to me that I actually felt like I could reach into the pages and give her a (much needed) hug.

What can I say? If you haven't read Dairy Queen, I must demand that you do so at once. And if you have read Dairy Queen and The Off Season, I'm sorry to say that you'll have to wait 'til October for this third installment, but mark it down because you won't want to miss it.

Head over to Jen Robinson's Book Page because she shares my DJ love (and because her review is actually, like, a review instead of just a big love letter to DJ Schwenk).

Full disclosure: review copy provided by publisher, Houghton Mifflin.

*Or maybe prescribe her some Xanax

Around the Interwebs: ALA, YA, and more

Didn't get a chance to go to ALA this year? Check out Betsy's posts about the conference!

In case you hadn't heard, there's been some discussion about doing away with BBYA. I'm not sure when the committee is meeting to decide (maybe today?), but that'll definitely be interesting. Link via Liz.

There's a new YA lit award in town, the Elizabeth Walden Award for Young Adult Fiction, given by the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Thanks to Jen Robinson for the link.

Speaking of YA lit, if you read it or know someone who does, take the Teenreads.com survey for a chance to win one of 27 great titles (including Catching Fire)!

Susan Beth Pfeffer posted the cover of her newest novel, This World We Live In, due out in April. I didn't even know it was coming out (bad librarian!), so thanks to Sarah for the link.

If your patrons love sports books like mine do, you'll be interested to know that Capstone Publishers is teaming up (haha) with Sports Illustrated Kids to offer leveled chapter books. From the press release:

The new books will feature high-interest nonfiction and fiction sports
stories in three separate formats: high-low informational, graphic novels, and
illustrated chapter books. They will be created for the elementary and middle
school grades, especially struggling and reluctant readers...

Published under Capstone Publishers’ well-known imprints Capstone Press and
Stone Arch Books, the Sports Illustrated KIDS’ books will debut with three
series in January 2010: Greatest Sports Stars, The Science of Sports, and
Graphic Sports. Both nonfiction and fiction developers will have access to
Sports Illustrated KIDS’ extensive collection of photographs, resulting in
compelling books packed with exciting sports action photos.

Definitely something to look for.

Fans of Alyson Noel's The Immortals series, will want to head over to immortalseries.com for downloads, videos, and more.
Tee hee, check out Hank Green's song, "I'm Not Edward Cullen".

If you've been following posts on the ALSC blog concerning programming for kids with special needs, you'll be glad to know that Part 3 has been posted. Definitely check out the series if you serve kids with special needs in your community.

If you're not reading 100 Scope Notes, this cool, creative review will get you hooked. Guaranteed.

Reading if Fundemental (RIF) and Macy's are pairing up to bring us Book a Brighter Future, a partnership to support children's literacy. From the press release:

From July 1 through August 31, 2009, Macy's customers can give $3 and receive a
coupon for $10 off a $50 in-store purchase at any Macy's nationwide. Macy's will
donate 100 percent of every $3 to RIF.

So, if you shop at Macy's, check this out!

Adrienne posts about quality vs. popularity and how she came to buy her collection's first book by Madonna.

Sarah Miller's got some audiobook recommendations for us as we hit the road for our summer vacations. And by "us", I mean any of you who are lucky enough to actually get a vacation this summer. :)

Whew. And I'm spent. Happy surfing!

Book Review: After

After by Amy Efaw. (Grades 9+)

Summary from ARC:

"Who would leave her own baby in the trash to die? Certainly not someone like Devon - straight-A student, soccer player with Olympic dreams, more mature than her own mother. But desperation and panic drove her to do what most people can't even imagine..."

You guys, I could not put this book down. And that is saying something because I was reading it while I was packing up my entire life and preparing for a out-of-state move.

The premise is ripped from the headlines: teenager Devon gives birth and leaves her baby in the dumpster behind her apartment building. When she's arrested, she claims that she never knew she was pregnant. Is she lying to protect herself? Or has she had some kind of breakdown? Is she guilty of murder?

The book starts right after Devon's given birth and follows her through her subsequent arrest and time in a juvenile detention center while she awaits her trial. It's up to the reader to decide how reliable a narrator Devon is, just as Devon's lawyer and mom are trying to figure out how this could have happened.

One thing I loved about this book is the inside look you get into the jail and Amy Efaw is such a skilled writer that I felt like I was right there beside her. I found the whole process fascinating and the book's unlike anything I'd read before. Did I mention how I couldn't put it down??

Is it an Issue book? I would say it's an Issue book like Speak or Wintergirls is an Issue book. Yes, the premise is ripped from the headlines, but it's more about getting inside Devon's head and examining her motives and her reality. I would highly recommend this title to fans of Laurie Halse Anderson's edgier books and to fans of Jodi Picoult.

(One word of warning: there is placenta within the first twenty pages. This may not be a book for the squeamish.)

After is due out August 11 and I predict that it's gonna be big. Put it on your TBR list right this minute!

Full disclosure: review copy provided by publisher, Viking Juvenile.

Thoughts on my Brief Time at ALA

Oh my gosh, y'all.

The Exhibits at ALA were so awesome... and so exhausting. I don't know how people have the energy for the entire conference (but someday I will find out!). Alas, I forgot my camera, but I'll have some pictures when J gets home and gets hers uploaded.

It was definitely a whirlwind trip and I didn't get to meet up with nearly as many people as I wanted to. I had the pleasure of staying at a good friend's house and the pleasure of attending the exhibits with four lovely ladies. I want to give a shout-out to Wendy of Six Boxes of Books and Sarah of Green Bean Teen Queen, both of whom I had the pleasure of meeting. I spied Susan of Wizards Wireless and Booklights getting her picture taken with some storm troopers, but before I could flag her down, she was off and I was getting my own picture taken. ;) I saw Anastasia Suen at the Sourcebooks booth (she was very excited about Horrid Henry's Christmas) and spotted Roger Sutton a couple of times (both times in conversation with other, important-looking people). I also spotted John Green not once but three separate times. And how many times could I think of anything to say to him? Zero. Yeah. Gonna work on that one, as he'll be at the CYPD conference at the end of August.

Ahem. /name dropping

What can I say about the exhibits? I knew it would be huge, but I guess I didn't expect to be quite so crowded. I also didn't expect publicists to be so very friendly!

My friends and I were at McCormick place by 8:30 or so and we checked in and gathered to wait until they opened the exhibits. We made a beeline for the Scholastic booth first thing to find out if they had ARCs of Catching Fire (they did!) and J ended up being first in line. We waited about half an hour and they started giving out ARCs at 9:30 or so. I don't know how many they gave out, but I was told that they'd be giving out more as the conference went on.

After that, our day was pretty much made already, and everything else was gravy. (If gravy was made of AWESOME, that is!)

I was prepared with a list of the ARCs I wanted to look for, complete with pub info and booth numbers. Yes, laugh at me for I am a huge geek, but that list came in handy and I ended up getting almost everything on my list. Publicists were all extremely friendly and happy to hand over whatever ARCs they had available. I won't title-drop too much (and most of my books are in the process of being mailed to me anyway), but highlights include Stitches by David Small, Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (who was there signing, so I got copies of her other books as well!), and As You Wish by Jackson Pearce.

Before leaving for Chicago, I revisited Susan's tips for BEA, which came in handy. I can't emphasize enough how useful my ARC list was. After awhile, all the booths blend together a little bit and it's really handy to have your reference right there. Plus, they might not be displaying the book that you want and it's easy to forget if it's not right there in front of you.

I also can't emphasize enough how friendly everyone was. I was a little nervous about knowing which books were okay to take and which they were selling. It's generally very clearly marked, and if you're not sure, just ask. If you see a display copy of a book you want, ask if they have one you could have. 90% of the time yesterday, the answer was yes and I walked away with a book.

Next time I go (and there will be a next time, yes there will), I'll hopefully remember to hand out the pretty business cards I had made. It was all too overwhelming for me to think about it yesterday, but now I really wish I had. Also, I'll remember that it's a marathon, not a sprint. You don't have to pick up every single book in the first hour you're there. And sometimes the publishers will put out different books at different times. Or they might have a certain number of ARCs for the first day and then give out more on the following days.

I was really hoping to get down to Anderson's for Laurie Halse Anderson's & Sarah Dessen's book signing, but by the time we got back from the exhibits we were all about ready to drop. After flying in the night before, I left the house at 6:30am and then carried around a freakin' heavy bag of stuff all day. Seriously, we would have driven off the road in our exhaustion, which would not have been a good end to the day. So, apologies for missing that!

I so wish I could have stayed longer. It would have been wonderful to be able to go to some of the programs and to meet up with more library friends and bloggity people. Hopefully next year I will be able to go for longer. But it was wonderful to get to go, even just for one day!

Book Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. (Grades 7-10.)

Every summer since before she was born, Belly's spent at the beach with her family and her mom's best friend's family. And she's always tagged along behind her older brother and Suzanne's boys, Jeremiah and Conrad. This summer will be different, Belly can feel it. She's turning sixteen, she's blossomed into a beautiful young lady, and she's determined to prove that she's not a kid anymore. But Belly's caught between wanting to grow up and wanting to cling to the past, and this will be a summer that transforms her more than she would ever predict.

Okay, let's get one thing straight: this is not a fluffy beach read. I know, the title and the pretty little font on the cover and the half-smiling models might have you thinking that this is going to be a light little romance for the beach. But it's not.

That's not to say The Summer I Turned Pretty doesn't have its light moments. And its romance. It has those things. But this is not a Yay-It's-summer-and-I'm-tanning-poolside kind of book. It's more of an End-of-summer-getting-back-to-reality kind of book. In my opinion, anyway.

One thing I liked about this book is that Belly felt so very real to me. She's fifteen, turning sixteen, and you get the story of her summer interspersed with flashbacks to previous summers at the same beach house. You get the stories of how she fell in love, how she's been in love with the same guy since she was 10 years old. You also get the sense that Belly's always been on the outside looking in.

During the summer, she's at the beach house with her older brother and two older boys. When she was younger, she wanted to join in their fun and they sometimes excluded her. Now that she's older, she just wants to be noticed. And she is noticed, but not always in the way she wants. The boys still seem to see her as the kid that bugged them every summer, tattling when they wouldn't let her play. What she comes to realize is that growing up means dealing with grown-up things. Though she thinks she's so ready to grow up, to drive, to date, to make her own decisions, Belly wavers on the brink of young-adulthood.

Before I read the book, I really disliked the cover. I heard so many compliments about it, but I just didn't get it. After I read the book, the cover makes a lot more sense. I love the position of the sun, like it's late afternoon and you're starting to think about the end of the day. I love that Belly's looking straight ahead, a kind of thoughtful expression on her face, while the boys' faces are both partially cut off or blocked.

It's a quiet kind of book, the kind I needed to sit with for a little bit to figure out exactly how I felt about it. If you're looking for something a little more serious than your usual summer fare, I can highly recommend The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Check out posts at MotherReader, Reading Rants!, The Compulsive Reader, and The Reading Zone (among others). Looking for some more summer reads to add to your pile? Jenny Han shares her top five YA must-reads (and I agree with all of them; I have Along for the Ride on my bookshelf waiting for me!).