I love middle grade! Boy, do I love middle grade! This is one of the reasons I am so crazy about Walden Pond Press – they are an amazing middle grade imprint full of all sorts of interesting stuff written for the 8-14 year old range. I was super-excited for the chance to work with…
When I think about Malinda Lo, shivers of delight run up my spine. And why’s that? It’s because whenever I read something by her I know that piece is going to be quintessential YA – a story about a teenager figuring out their place in their world and finding their own voice. And, even more…
“I read books about schools that have gay/straight alliance clubs. These are fictional books. And so I believe gay/straight alliance clubs must also be fictional. ” -A.S. King, Ask the Passengers A few months after starting my new position, I culled Deal With It! A Whole New Approach to Your Body, Brain, and Life as a…
What, exactly, is the ever-elusive “middle-grade” novel? Oh sure, that seems like an easy question, doesn’t it? It’s a novel written for middle-school audiences. But middle-school isn’t even the same everywhere. In my community, middle-school is seventh and eighth grade only. This is a great example of the larger question: where does “middle grade” fiction begin anyhow? …
“The best part of Kentucky Fried Chicken is the mashed potatoes and gravy. And the best part of the mashed potatoes and gravy is, of course, the spork.” I explain this to Richard, my boss at the library, with great relish. He peers at me through his dirty glasses with a look I know all too well….
Monday morning, I got up before the sun rose to sit in a room with thousands of other librarians to listen to the live announcement of the 2012 Youth Media Awards. While I will have more in-depth thoughts about the winners (and those that didn’t win…) I wanted to do both a quick recap and overview of…
Welcome to 2012!! The blog lives! Sorry for the absence – I just went through one of those periods when I couldn’t quite get a blog to come out the way I wanted. I was still reading and tweeting away, but blog just wasn’t happening. One of the things I love the most about my…
Lush. If I had to pick just one word to describe Laini Taylor’s startlingly original new novel Daughter of Smoke and Bone that word would be: lush. Lush in every definition of the word – full of sensory detail, a world that you can sink right into and be totally immersed. If you follow YA…
There comes a moment when you’re reading Harry Potter when you stop thinking about Quidditch, about quaffles and beaters and chasers and bludgers, and you just know it. Which is not to say that, suddenly, you have every single rule figured out and know exactly what’s happening in every second. It’s that you just accept…
As librarians we bend over backwards for our reluctant readers. We salivate at the idea that a book is perfect for reluctant readers, that it’s so appealing that kids who don’t like books will LOVE it. We preen with delight when non-readers tell us “I loved this book and I never read books.” We feel…
