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Karyn Silverman, half of the genius behind Some Day My Printz Will Come, joins us to write about the last, lone Alex Award Winner yet to be covered here on AB4T. Take it away, Karyn! Angela and Mark have been covered all of the Alex winners at this point except one. And because Angela saw me [...]

On January 11, a young computer programmer and internet activist named Aaron Swartz was found dead of an apparent suicide.  For those not familiar with him, Swartz, just 26 at his death, was involved in a huge array of groundbreaking information tools, such as RSS (which he helped design), Reddit, the Open Library, and the [...]

For those seeking informational books for reluctant independent readers (boys or girls), the editors at Junior Library Guild have a variety of picks, from sports and pirates, to body parts and dangerous creatures.

Librarians are uniquely positioned to handle the acquisition and management of digital content. But Michelle Luhtala, department chair of the New Canaan (CT) High School Library, sees some troubling trends, reflecting misconceptions about econtent among librarians and administrators alike.

Today we review three thrillingly original works of speculative fiction. Let’s start with a post-apocalyptic, dystopian debut novel. The Office of Mercy is being marketed as a Hunger Games readalike. (I’ve also seen comparisons to recent Alex Award winner, Pure). However, debut author Djanikian is more concerned with ethical questions than fast-paced action. The Alphas had good intentions [...]

You've heard of the Follett Challenge, right? The grand-prize winner will receive $60,000 in Follett products and services. More than 100 educators have applied and sent in their three- to five-minute videos, and voting is now officially open. And here's a shameless plug: the home of our teen reviewers, Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy, is one of the applicants, and it sure would love to have you vote for its video submission. The video with the most votes is up for a $5,000 prize; voting closes on March 18, and you can vote every day.

Have you heard about "The Hub Reading Challenge," sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)? As reported in SLJ’s Good Comics for Kids blog, YALSA is hosting an expanded, new and improved The Hub Reading Challenge for 2013. This is how it works: you have until June 22 to read as many titles as you can from YALSA’s official challenge list. Once you hit the 25 book mark, you're eligible to submit a reader’s response for any of the titles you’ve read. Sure, there’s a prize, and you can earn a badge too!

Whether memoir or realistic fiction, many teens respond to stories of struggle that are told from the heart. Here are three to recommend. Let’s begin with a love story. We haven’t featured many love stories here. At least, not weepy, traditional ones that earn a starred review! Many are couched in historical fiction or the [...]