John Green Reads Paper Towns Prologue

I couldn't resist. I had to post this clip of John Green reading the prologue from Paper Towns. Hope he's this funny when he visits next week. Do you have a favorite chapter you hope he reads on his visit?

New Twilight Trailer

I had to post this. I just had to. Who plans to go opening night?

Twilight

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E Lockhart

I can't wait to tell you about this book. I've just finished it and absolutely loved it. Frankie is a sophomore at a private east coast boarding school. She’s blossomed over the summer and catches the eye of the most popular boy in the school. She’s thrilled — of course she’s thrilled — but it seems this is not enough. She wants to be seen as pretty and desirable, the girl Matthew wants her to be, but also as a force to be reckoned with, an equal. She’s always been “bunny rabbit” to her family -- sweet, adorable, harmless -- and she is tired of this.

Frankie knows about the school’s secret society because her father was a member. She knows it is for males only, she knows her boyfriend is in the society, she knows he’s lying to her about it, and this just drives her crazy. Just because it’s always been done a certain way does not make it right. The question is, what is she willing to do about it?

She takes on a secret email address and leads the society to pranks far beyond their imaginations. They are wonderful, hilarious, devious, unpredictable, and thought-provoking. And along the way we learn about the panopticon, P.G. Wodehouse, neglected positives, and girl power.

Why did I wait so long to read this book? I read it in a gulp, cheered for Frankie, and want to thank E Lockhart for giving us such a strong, gutsy, endearing feminist as a heroine. Oh, this has my vote for the National Book Award. It is wonderful.

Competition winner

Thanks to all of you who entered our competition to win a Gallagher Girl t-shirt. We had two outstanding contestants and really I want to reward both of you. So I will.

Aribobari--congratultions, the t-shirt is yours. Email me at AngelaM@keplers.com for a time to come in to collect your prize.

DarlingDiva--congratulations, I've decided to give you something I think you'll love--my arc of The Forest of Hands and Teeth (I know you'll enjoy it and otherwise you have to wait until March!) Also email me at AngelaM@Keplers.com to arrange a time for you to come and collect the book.

Congratulations to both of you.

National Book Award Finalists

The National Book Foundation just announced the finalists for the 2008 National Book award. The nominees are:

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

Have you read any of them? I'm reading The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks at the moment and love it so far. Which would you choose?

Skinned by Robin Wasserman

If you were as rich, popular, and gorgeous as Lia Kahn, you too would believe you set fashion not followed it, that it’s all about you, that you could have any boy you wanted, and you would succeed no matter what. Then the unthinkable happens, a car accident almost kills her, and life will never be the same again. Lia’s parents turn to the best doctors and technology there is and download her brain into a new body. She awakens to find herself still alive, with her own memories and thoughts, but in another body--a man-made body. So is she still Lia Kahn? Was the process unethical like the faithers believe? Can she go back to her old life? Will her friends accept her? Will she ever accept herself?

This is an extraordinary story that underneath it all asks what makes us human. It kept me reading late into the night. I loved it.

Let me know what you think.

Cybils Nominations

Ever wondered about literary awards and why the books you love don't always get nominated? Well, the nominations for the third annual Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards (the Cybils) opened Wednesday, October 1st and run through Wednesday, October 15th. The goal of the Cybils team (some 100 bloggers) is to highlight books that are high in both literary quality and youth appeal.

Anyone can nominate books in nine categories (one nomination per person per category). Nominated titles must be published between January 1st and October 15th of this year, and the books must be in English (or bilingual, where one of the languages is English). To nominate titles, visit the Cybils blog (http://www.cybils.com/) between October 1st and 15th. Vote for your favorites--I have!

Then between October 16th and January 1st, Cybils panelists will winnow the nominations down to a 5-7 book short list for each category. A second set of panelists will then select the winning titles for the different categories. The winners will be announced on February 14th, 2009.

Who did you vote for?

Neil Gaiman

On Saturday, Neil Gaiman read chapter 5 from The Graveyard Book to about 600 people. He's reading a chapter on every stop of his tour. If you missed it--and it was fabulous--he's had every reading videotaped and posted on mousecircus.com. He sat on a leather chair, surrounded by headstones, with a crow perched next to him. It was amazing. You should have seen the huge white spider that dropped from the rafters! Oh, and you can see what Neil thought of the reading in his own journal.



Gaiman says that The Graveyard Book is a reworking of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book about a young boy who escapes into a graveyard and is raised by ghosts (rather than into a jungle and is raised by animals). Here's the rather scary first lines:

"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.

The knife had a handle of polished black bone, and a blade finer and sharper than any razor. If it sliced you, you might not even know you had been cut, not immediately."

So, have you read it? What did you like best about it? Can you believe how many books he signed for us despite his broken finger? And if you're interested in things like what graveyard skill Neil would choose if he could have one, or whether he'll write more about Nobody Owens, please check the web site later this week when I'll post my interview with him.