Thanhha Lai has written exactly one novel, Inside Out & Back Again, so to fill up this bio space she is retyping her name to include its diacritical marks: Thanhhà Lại.  Such a change has no meaning for English readers but it does thrill her mother because a Lại mustn’t ever be mistaken for a Lai.  These tiny pesky marks, not to be confused with accent marks, will be a main feature in Lại’s next novel, Listen, Slowly.  She just submitted the first draft after typing 80 pages in two weeks, so excuse her if this bio lacks focus.  Lại can often be heard muttering to herself, “la révision est toute.”

Sometimes an awards list comes out and you think, “not too shabby”. Other times an awards list comes out and you think, “absolutely no shabbiness here whatsoever. Indeed, zero shabbiness”. That’s the 2012 Cybils winners. It’s an excellent group of winners. As a member of the Fiction Picture Book committee, I’m thrilled A Home for [...]

From those of us who attend ALA Midwinter in Seattle, here are our top five comics related highlights of the conference! Listening to the roar of approval when Raina Telgemeier’s Drama was announced as a Stonewall honor book!  I believe the title’s selection was a bit of a surprise to everyone, not in that the [...]

Adam Gidwitz’s first novel, A Tale Dark and Grimm, is a New York Times bestseller, and was named one of the best children’s books of the year by School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. His second book, In a Glass Grimmly, also a New York Times bestseller, was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and School Library Journal—which wrote, “Gidwitz is back with a second book that, if possible, outshines A Tale Dark & Grimm.” Last time he was involved in the BoB, his book was getting pulped by Andy Mulligan’s Trash. Which, in case you haven’t read it, is a darn good book.

You know in the movie Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey when Bill and Ted realize that they can, because of time travel, leave things for their past selves to find? This is what I’m doing here. And hey, if time travel doesn’t end up happening, hopefully it’s of some use to folks thinking of starting [...]

Rarely do we have the opportunity to deconstruct images so rigorously that they actually invert themselves in the process… making the celebrities in question less attractive than they really are.