Authors & Illustrators

Gene Luen Yang’s two-volume set Boxers & Saints is one of the most talked-about books of the year—the internet is dotted with reviews of the book and interviews with Yang—and when we started talking among ourselves, we quickly realized that we all had plenty to say—and we didn’t always agree. So we decided to put [...]

Awards season is finally upon us and, as the SLJ Book Review team puts the finishing touches on its Best Books of 2013 list, we’ve been comparing notes and keeping tabs on other reviewers’ top picks. Fan favorite and SLJ starred book, Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park has even made Amazon’s top 10 books of the year.

For those who can’t wait two more weeks to see Catching Fire, relief is at hand. The taut How I Live Now offers a slimmed down dystopian world at its most bucolic—a survival tale meets hot-and-heavy first love with a punkish swagger. The screenwriters have tweaked the snarky-but-soft-hearted narration of Meg Rosoff’s absorbing novel (Random, 2004), but given the heroine a still-defiant voice.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. Book II of the Raven Cycle. Sequel to Book I – The Raven Boys. Scholastic. 2013. Reviewed from ARC. The Plot: In Book I, Blue Sargent became friends with the “Raven Boys” — Richard Campbell Gansey III, Ronan Lynch, Adam Parrish, and Noah Czarny. All had become involved in [...]

An ordinary Texan teen. A dragon with devastating power. Together they can save the future… or destroy it. Only Mari Mancusi could put this all together, and she does in her latest, Scorched. Six lucky SLJTeen readers can win a signed copy of Scorched, and a limited edition T-shirt!

Like most people who have grown up in southern California, author Matt de la Peña has always feared the arrival of the “Big One”—a massive earthquake that would decimate the US West Coast. In his latest young adult novel, The Living, de la Peña explores issues of race, class, and identity, set against the backdrop of a cataclysmic event that hurls humanity into a fight for survival.

Floral Park Memorial High School's Reads program continues to bring readers of all ages together. Earlier this month, the school library was packed with students and their parents, all who came to meet Luis Carlos Montalvan, author of Until Tuesday: a Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him, and his service dog Tuesday.

Little, Brown celebrated the art of Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney at a special event on October 29. The Powerhouse Arena, home to art book publisher powerHouse Books, recently launched its brand-new children's imprint, POW! on October 25.

Teens interested in Ender's Game—both the acclaimed science fiction novel and its big budget film adaptation opening this weekend—may be curious about the recent controversy surrounding author Orson Scott Card’s outspoken views. Fortunately, the library offers an ideal safe intellectual harbor for teaching the media literacy skills that allow them to explore critical thinking questions about the role of social politics and media, and to examine ways in which we might begin to separate art from the artist.