Reviews+

PW‘s Elizabeth Bluemle (who, by the way, has a wonderful article coming up in the March/April Horn Book Magazine) visits our own Liza Woodruff, who unaccountably  left work as a circulation assistant at the Horn Book to live in Vermont with her lovely husband and children and dogs while she pursues a full-time career as [...]

The post OUR Liza with a Z appeared first on The Horn Book.

The Brides of Rollrock Island, Margo Lanagan Knopf, September 2012 Reviewed from ARC My first draft for this post, which sat in WordPress for two weeks, taunting me, read as follows: “So much to say! And none of it coherent!” You know how I delayed and delayed writing about The Raven Boys? And then was [...]

New Year, new category. Today I am weighing in on New Adult books. This post could be considered a response or addition to Liz Burns’s excellent work over on the Tea Cozy blog. She published three posts on this topic over the weekend, and I recommend that you read at least the first before continuing [...]

Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2012. Review copy from publisher. Morris Finalist. The Plot: Portia Remini has not run away from home to join the circus. First, its’s a carnival, not a circus, and it’s called Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show. Second, it was not home, not a home with parents or family. Parents [...]

With nonfiction and informational text at the forefront of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), there are new demands and opportunities for reading, writing, speaking and listening for students.Hear directly from some of today’s leading children’s and young adult nonfiction authors as they speak about their work and the specific ways nonfiction and informational texts can be used by librarians and teachers to help their students become better readers. This panel will also explore the ways in which the following focus points connect to the Common Core State Standards for Reading and Writing. Archive now available!

Another guest post from Joy Piedmont, who is saving our bacon at this crunch time, as we realize just how many books we haven’t read yet! My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, Annabel Pitcher Little, Brown, August 2012 Reviewed from an ARC Annabel Pitcher’s debut novel has earned four starred reviews landed on Kirkus’ Best [...]

I guess we’re going make this an annual thing. Last January, SLJTeen ran my top choices for 2011, and here I am again with my 2012 picks. As you may remember, Coe Booth’s Bronxwood and Simone Elkeles’s Chain Reaction were on last year’s list. In a blog post, Booth wrote that she purposefully deleted the new novel she was working on. That takes courage and commitment. Her novels show her dedication to excellence, and teens respond. Elkeles is working on a new four-book series about football entitled Wild Cards. When I asked if there were also girls and guns in it, she replied, “There are always girls and romance and guys with lots of testosterone! No guns in the first book, but it gets gritty in the second when one of the boys gets caught up in gang activity.”