Giveaway! The Magnificent 12: The Call

Twelve-year-old Mack MacAvoy suffers from a serious case of mediumness. Medium looks. Medium grades. Medium parents who barely notice him. With a list of phobias that could make anyone crazy, Mack never would have guessed that he is destined for a more-than-medium life.

And then, one day, something incredibly strange happens to Mack. A three-thousand-year-old man named Grimluk appears in the boys’ bathroom to deliver some startling news: Mack is one of the Magnificent Twelve, called the Magnifica in ancient times, whatever that means. An evil force is on its way, and it’s up to Mack to track down eleven other twelve-year-olds in order to stop it. He must travel across the world to battle the wicked Pale Queen’s dangerous daughter, Ereskigal—also known as Risky. But Risky sounds a little scary, and Mack doesn’t want to be a hero. Will he answer the call? (Summary from publisher.) 

Want to win a SIGNED COPY of The Magnificent 12: The Call by Michael Grant?  Well, you're in luck because I have one copy to give away! 

Check out the book's website, Mag12.com, and this awesome book trailer: 

And fill out the form below to enter.  The giveaway is open to US residents with non-PO box addresses only and each person may enter once.  The giveaway will be open through October 5 and on October 6, I will randomly draw one name to win a signed copy of The Magnificent 12: The Call by Michael Grant.

The giveaway is now closed.  Thanks to all who entered!

Giveaway provided by publisher.  Good luck!

A Cybils Announcement for Nonfiction Monday!

Very fitting that on this Nonfiction Monday (now that I am back in town after my lovely weekend in Chicago), I get to announce to you that I'm serving as a nominating panelist for the Non-Fiction Picture Book category of the 2010 Cybils Awards!!  I'm working with a fabulous group of bloggers, as you can see: 

Panel Organizer: Jone MacCulloch, Check It Out

Panelists (Round I Judges):

Doret Canton, Happy Nappy Bookseller
Shirley Duke, Simply Science
Amanda Goldfuss, ACPL Mock Sibert
Abby Johnson, Abby (the) Librarian
Jone MacCulloch (see category organizer)
Karen Terlecky, Literate Lives
Carol Wilcox, Carol's Corner

Judges (Round II):

Kara Dean, Not Just for Kids
Roberta Gibson, Wrapped in Foil
Deb Nance, Readerbuzz
Carol Rasco, Rasco from RIF
Franki Sibberson, A Year of Reading

I am super excited about participating in the Cybils again this year!  Don't forget that nominations for the 2010 Cybils Awards will open on October 1.  Anyone can nominate one title per category (titles must have been published October 16, 2009 - October 15, 2010).  Yes, anyone!  You don't have to be a blogger or a certain age or a resident of the United States!  (Books must be published in English, though.) 

So start thinking about your favorite books of the year and get those nominations ready to go! 

Nonfiction Monday: Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel.  (Grades 8+)  Amulet Books, October 2010.  120 pages.  Reviewed from ARC snagged at BEA.

During a remarkable professional career spanning hardly more than three years, Janis Joplin soared to the heights of rock-and-roll fame with a blues-inflected voice and an electric stage presence that could set a stadium on its feet.  Then suddenly, at age 27, she was dead.  (Quoted from ARC flap copy.)

With frizzy hair and bad skin, Janis Joplin didn't fit in with the polished girls in her Texas high school.  While they wore circle pins and listened to Pat Boone, Janis preferred blues and longed to get out of her small Texas town.  After high school and a few stints at college, she ended up in San Francisco and started her singing career - a career that would lead to packed venues, tours in Europe, and appearances on TV.  In 1995, almost 25 years after her tragic death, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

With a straightforward, conversational tone and tons of pictures that bring the psychedelic '60s to life, Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing will introduce teen readers to the tragically short life of this iconic singer.  The book's layout, with pages edged with trippy designs, adds to the overall feel of the book.  Obviously, this is going to appeal to teen fans of Joplin's music, but the story of an idealistic outsider finding a place for herself and succeeding beyond her wildest dreams will appeal to a wide audience.

Biographer Ann Angel doesn't shy away from the more scandalous events in Joplin's life - her copious drug use and an abortion in Mexico - but she doesn't glorify them either.  She includes a time line, source notes, a bibliography, and an index.

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing will be on shelves October 28, just after the 40th anniversary of Joplin's death.

It's Nonfiction Monday and you can check out this week's roundup at Wrapped in Foil!

In My Mailbox #47

What was in the mail this week?  

Lesse...

Four books from the new Inside series by Sterling Children's Books (all out in October 2010):
Inside Dinosaurs
Inside Human Body
Inside Hurricanes
Inside Tornadoes


Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (Dutton, December 2010).  I was so excited to find this one in the mail because I've been hearing some really positive buzz about this debut novel (plus, it's been blurbed by some of my favorite YA authors - Maureen Johnson, Robin Benway, Lisa McMann, etc!).  From GoodReads:

Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris — until she meets Étienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Étienne has it all . . . including a serious girlfriend. 

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss? Stephanie Perkins keeps the romantic tension crackling and the attraction high in a debut guaranteed to make toes tingle and hearts melt. 


Personal Demons by Lisa Desroches (Tor Teen, September 2010).  This one, also, has gotten some good reviews and it's another debut, so I'm excited about this one as well!  From GoodReads: 


Frannie Cavanaugh is a good Catholic girl with a bit of a wicked streak. She's spent years keeping everyone at a distance—even her closest friends—and it seems her senior year will be more of the same...until Luc Cain enrolls in her class. No one knows where he came from, but Frannie can't seem to stay away from him. What she doesn't know is that Luc works in Acquisitions—for Hell—and she possesses a unique skill set that has the King of Hell tingling with anticipation. All Luc has to do is get her to sin, and he’s as tempting as they come. Frannie doesn’t stand a chance.

Unfortunately for Luc, Heaven has other plans, and the angel, Gabe, is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that Luc doesn’t get what he came for. And it isn't long before they find themselves fighting for more than just her soul.

But if Luc fails, there will be Hell to pay…for all of them.


I don't know if the subject matter is going to jibe with me, but it does sound intriguing! 


And that was my mailbox this week!  How about you?  What's the title you're most excited about that you received, bought, or checked out this week???


ETA (9/20/10): Whoops, I forgot to tell you that In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren!  Head on over there for the roundup! 

Around the Interwebs

Take a look at some of the things that have caught my attention around the interwebs this week:

My library has a Diversity Committee and I'm on it.  The purpose is to spread awareness and understanding of the cultural differences in our library and our community and the world.  We met this week and we watched some clips from the Anderson Cooper 360 piece on a CNN pilot study about children and race. Think we're post-racial?  Think that kids as young as four or five don't pick up on white bias?  Holy cats, you'd better think again.  Take a look:



For more clips, click the link above.  What do you think about this?  What can we do about it?  Definitely something to ponder...

On a lighter note, I discovered a new-to-me blog this week and I'm loving it, so you should check it out.  Mel's Desk is the blog of a public children's librarian and what I love, love, love is that she posts what she does for her baby storytimes.  We do baby storytimes, too, and I'm always looking for new ideas to spice things up a little bit.  Plus, she does awesome things like make her own big books, which is something I never would have thought to do but now I really want to try.

Sarah of GreenBean TeenQueen posted her amazingly awesome Fall Picks: Need to Know YA Releases and I immediately printed it out for our teen librarian and reference department.  She obviously puts a lot of work into these and they are very useful.

Lee Wind has a post over at Hunger Mountain that is very interesting: GLBTQ Teen Coming Out Stories: Move Beyond Them, Or Keep 'Em Coming?  He debates (with himself) whether or not the YA shelves have hit their limit of GLBTQ coming out stories and we should be moving on to books with GLBTQ content where coming out is not the main focus.  I have to agree with both of his minds on this one.  I think there's a real need for stories about GLBTQ teens where their sexuality is not the main problem or conflict of the book, just as I think there's a real need for stories about teens of different ethnicities and races where race/ethnicity is not the main issue in the book.  However, coming out is still a major event in a GLBTQ person's life and teens need relevant stories that reflect that.  There's room on our shelves for both kinds of stories.  Thanks to Maureen at Confessions of a Bibliovore for the link.

Speaking of books about different cultures, manuscripts are being accepted through September 30 for Lee & Low's NEW VOICES AWARD for a children's picture book story by a writer of color.  Click on through for the info.  Thanks to The Brown Bookshelf for the link.

Adrienne of What Adrienne Thinks About That talks about booktalking.  I used to be in the really-prepared, ready-to-do-formal-booktalks-at-a-moment's-notice camp because at my last library we did them on a regular basis.  At my current library, not so much, so I'm drifting into the read-this-book-because-it's-totally-awesome! camp.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Whatever gets kids reading!

And that's all I have to say about that.  Have an awesome weekend, folks!

Nevermore

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh.  (Grades 9+)  Atheneum, August 2010.  544 pages.  Reviewed from purchased copy.

Once upon a high school cheery, Isobel faced English, leery
of the boy with pierce-ed lip and green eyes ringed with smudge-ed kohl.
When her teacher did assign her, then the fates they did align her
with the boy with eyes so clear they stared right down into her soul.
Varen was a tortured boy, finding escape for his soul.
Isobel would play a role.

As they started work together, Isobel decided whether
she condoned the actions of her jealous, football-playing beau.
Hearing strange things calling to her, unsure whether goth would woo her,
Isobel's caught up in Varen's spooky dreamland built on Poe.
As weird things begin to happen, as they study Edgar Poe
Isobel must stay or go...

Nevermore is Kelly Creagh's debut novel and I really liked it!*  Cheerleader Isobel gets paired up with scary goth kid Varen for an English project.  From the moment he writes his phone number down on her hand in purple ink, Isobel feels a spark, and as they work together on their Edgar Allan Poe project, she discovers that he's much more than eyeliner and silver chains.  Unfortunately, Isobel's jock boyfriend Brad is jealous and decides to make life hard for Varen.  And strange things start happening to Isobel - hearing voices, seeing things that aren't there...  Isobel thought she knew what she wanted - a decent grade on her English paper so she could compete with the cheerleaders at Nationals - but now she finds herself questioning her so-called friends and wanting to know what's behind Varen's mysterious facade.  Isobel will find out... but will she survive to tell about it?

What drew me in to the novel right off the bat were the characters of Varen and Isobel.  Varen!  I love him!  And Isobel is pretty darn sassy.  She could have easily been a flat character, a stereotypical cheerleader, but Isobel stands up for what she believes in and she's passionate about defending the people she cares about.  So, I liked both the main characters right off.  And then there's the chemistry between them.

Adele of Persnickety Snark was just ranting about unrealistic love-at-first-sight in YA novels, but I feel like Nevermore gets it right.  Isobel's attraction to Varen builds slowly and believably.  Kelly doesn't just tell us that Isobel has feelings for him, she shows us.  And that, my friends, makes all the difference.  Isobel and Varen are steamy without being steamy.  It's not a graphic love affair, but a spark that turns into a kind of smoldering thing, which is so much hotter than Isobel instantly falling "in love" and then beating the readers over the head with it.

Also, there's the creepiness.  Kelly does a great job with that, too.  For me, it's the off-screen stuff that really has the potential to be scary - the noises you hear but can't identify, the things you see out of the corner of your eye.  Kelly gets it right, with enough creepiness to please teens who like the scarier side of paranormal romance, and some unexpected funny bits to lighten the mood a bit.

Now, 544 pages is a lot of pages.  I generally feel that books should be 250-300 pages max (with very few exceptions).  And I'm not convinced that Nevermore really needed to be 500+ pages.  BUT.  I honestly enjoyed my time reading it.  It was a book that I looked forward to picking up and I didn't want to put it down to go to sleep at night.  Short chapters and engaging characters make the pages go by pretty quickly.

I'd definitely recommend Nevermore to fans of paranormal romance, but I'd try it on fans of straight-up romance, too.  The fantastic aspects to the story sort of trickle in at the beginning and really pick up at the end, so teens who don't think they like paranormal stuff might be drawn in by the characters.

Know that there is a sequel slated for 2011 and things are not going to be wrapped up with a big, shiny bow. I do feel like Kelly does a good job of completing the first part of the story while still building some momentum to lead us into the next book.

Read more reviews at Presenting Lenore, The Book Smugglers, Steph Su Reads, and Stiletto Storytime.  Also, check out an interview with Kelly at The Book Butterfly. 

Nevermore is on shelves now!

* which is a relief because I went to high school with Kelly and I had a great fear that I would not like her novel and then I would feel terrible.  Whew!

Giveaway! Guardians of Ga'Hoole!

The giveaway is now closed.  Thanks!

If your kids are as crazy about the Guardians of Ga'Hoole as the kids at my library, this is the post for you.  Two lucky winners will receive a copy of Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky AND a copy of Lone Wolf, the first book in Kathryn's newest series, Wolves of the Beyond.

Here's a little info about Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture:

When Soren, a young owlet, mysteriously falls from his nest one evening, he’s plucked up and taken to the sinister St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls. Once there, he must use his wits and bravery to escape his captors. If Soren can learn to fly, he might just be able to take refuge with a group of brave owls he’d thought only to be a legend—the Guardians of Ga’Hoole! (Summary from publisher.) 

As you may or may not know, the Guardians of Ga'Hoole movie, Legend of the Guardians, comes out September 24 (so you may want to stock up and fill in any holes in the series that you have!).  Check out the trailer:



Lone Wolf was flying off the shelves at my library all summer, so here's a bit about that one, too:

In the harsh wilderness beyond Ga’Hoole, a wolf mother hides in fear. Her newborn pup, otherwise healthy, has a twisted leg. The mother knows the rigid rules of her kind. The pack cannot have weakness. Her pup must be abandoned on a desolate hill—condemned to die. But alone in the forest, the pup, Faolan, does the unthinkable. He survives. This is his story—the story of the wolf pup who rises up to change forever the Wolves of the Beyond. Find out more at http://www.scholastic.com/wolvesofthebeyond/. (Summary from publisher.) 


So, what are you waiting for?  Just fill out the form below to enter the giveaway.  Giveaway is open to residents of the US only and each person may enter one time.  The giveaway will be open for entrants through September 29 and on September 30, I'll randomly draw two names to each win a copy of Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture and Lone Wolf. 

Remember that Messy Craft?

My piñata program was super fun and I insist you all go do a piñata program at your library.

Wanna know how?  Check out my post on the ALSC Blog - Let's Make a Piñata!  (Please tell me if I missed an enye!)

A Day in the Life of a Children's Librarian

8:35am - Arrive at work, set up program room for the first Mother Goose on the Loose of the fall!  To set up the room, I arrange tables and chairs, get my books and props ready, pull books for a book display, get the music ready, go over the rhymes to make sure I know them, print out the words to a new rhyme we're doing so the parents can follow along, and set out brochures for the Imagination Library.

9:20a - Check email.  I respond to an email about setting up library programs at our local YMCA after school programs.

9:43a - Print out flyers about upcoming parent workshops to hand out at the program.

10:00a - Mother Goose on the Loose!  This is our program for under-2's.  We took a break from the program for August and it's great to see my babies again!  I see lots of familiar faces and a few new ones - one of my moms has brought along her new baby that she had while we were on break!

10:45a - The program's over but I leave the room set up because we'll be doing it again tomorrow.  I head upstairs to administration to have a few meetings with various managers.

11:30a - I talk to the director of our local Head Start preschool about setting up regular visits to their classes.

11:45a - Our evening shift worker comes in and I chat with her a little bit.

12:00p - I work on August's monthly report (which is over a week late - whoops!).

12:20p - Email report to my boss and start a file for my September monthly report.  In library school, our children's services professor assigned us a monthly report with the idea of teaching us to keep up our reports as we went along instead of sitting down at the end of the month and remembering everything that happened.  I guess it didn't quite stick, but I'm working on it!

12:30p - Lunch time!  I go out and grab a sandwich and read Kelly Creagh's Nevermore while I eat.

1:30p - I'm back from lunch and I show my staff what I've been working on for our fall storytime handouts.  This fall we're going to try giving patrons a take-home craft instead of doing one at the library and we'll be including handouts that go along with the storytime theme each week.  The handouts are half-pages, and one side has a list of related preschool-appropriate books and the other side has early literacy activities, rhymes, and crafts that they can do at home.

1:50p - I attempt to clean off my desk.  I tend to let things pile up, but I try to clean off my desk at least once a week.

2:06p - One of the things on my desk is an invoice for some shelving units we ordered, so I open the boxes to make sure we got what I ordered.  We ordered new bins for the board books and my looking at the bins somehow turns into me weeding the board book collection (for condition) and moving all of the board books into the bins and putting them out.

3:30p - Done with the board books, I put in an order for some craft supplies.

4:00p - I head up to the business office to turn in the invoice for the shelving units and complete the order for craft supplies.

4:30p - On my way back down, I stop by computer services to ask a couple of questions and our tech guy shows me the stuff he's been working on for our website updates.

5:05p - Back in my department, I talk with staff and make a sign to indicate where the board books have moved.

5:15p - I get things squared away and then head home... to make millions of piñatas for the program that's coming up on Friday...!

Nonfiction Monday: Frozen Secrets

Frozen Secrets: Antarctica Revealed by Sally M. Walker.  (Grades 6-10.)  Carolrhoda Books, October 2010.  104 pages.  Review copy provided by publisher.

Antarctica: our vast, icy southernmost continent.  Winds can blow at 200 miles per hour and the temperature can plummet well below zero.  But it wasn't always this way.  What did Antarctica look like millions of years ago?  How is our changing climate affecting this frozen continent?  What hidden things may lie in the depths below miles of ice?

And just how is a scientist supposed to do research down there when it's so frickin' cold?!

There's no doubt about it: the miles of ice that cover Antarctica hold secrets about the past.  Air bubbles, dust, and volcanic ash trapped in the ice for hundreds of thousands of years may hold clues to what the continent was like long ago and how it's changed (and continuing to change).  How do scientists get this information?  Carefully and with lots of hard work!

In Frozen Secrets, Sally M. Walker brings readers along on a trip to Antarctica.  Scientists have to undergo special survival training and wear special gear to study there.  They also use special tools.  Scientists can use certain radar waves to measure the thickness of the ice (the ice in Antarctica is almost 3 miles thick in some places!).  They also use powerful drills to collect samples of ice from thousands of feet down and underwater robots to study the lakes and oceans.

Young adventurers interested in this extreme continent will get their fill of interesting Antarctic facts.  For instance, did you know:

• Antarctica gets an average snowfall of only 2 inches per year!
• Scuba divers in Antarctica wear "dry suits" instead of wet suits.  They are special suits that go on over whatever clothes they're already wearing, keeping them dry and warm with a layer of air for insulation!
• There are educational outreach programs that send school teachers to Antarctica with scientists so that they can share their experiences with their students!
• There are liquid lakes found under miles of ice in Antarctica!
• There have been dinosaur fossils found in Antarctica! 

And, of course, the book is plenty detailed and has excellent source notes, making it great for report-writing.  I'd expect nothing less from Ms. Walker. 

Frozen Secrets is an information-packed trek through the mysterious frozen continent of Antarctica.  There's a little something here for everyone: robots, dinosaurs, survival skills, environmental issues... All complete with color photos and a neat layout that puts the text on top of a background of ice, making a visually pleasing and informative book.   

Frozen Secrets will be on shelves October 1.

Happy Nonfiction Monday!  Check out the roundup at Rasco from RIF!