New Snicket: 2012
August 26, 2009
Lemony Snicket is reportedly working on a new series that will be released in 2012.
From the Guardian: Reached by telephone, Snicket would only say: “I can neither confirm nor deny that I have begun research into a new case, and I can neither confirm nor deny that the results are as dreadful and unnerving as A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
Coming Soon…
July 30, 2009
A few new titles waiting to be processed on the TSD carts stood out to me this afternoon. The first one, There Was and Old Monster by the Emberleys is just begging to be used in storytime. It’s a new take on the There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly book with this great refrain: “He swallowed the lizard to catch the ants, cuz man those ants had him dancing in his pants. ” This book would be great paired with Emberley’s Go Away, Big Green Monster! for a monster storytime! 
A couple of sequels that will be arriving at the branches soon: Moribito II: Guardian of the Darkness and Bag of Bones. Moribito I: Guardian of the Spirit was the winner of this year’s Batchelder Award for best translated children’s book. It was translated from Japanese and is a fantasy adventure story about a (30 year old!!) female warrior. Bag of Bones is the sequel to Vivian French’s Robe of Skulls, both are fractured fairytale middle grade fantasy books.
I knew rice grew in flooded “rice paddies” and I’ve seen them in Ja
pan, but I still didn’t quite grasp where the rice kernels came from on the plant until I read Cycle of Rice, Cycle of Life: A Story of Sustainable Farming by Jan Reynolds. This book is a great combination of how rice is traditionally grown and harvested in Bali and the potential problems of modern farming practices. Great photos, interesting information!
Gifted Series
July 21, 2009
On its way to the branches is a new series called Gifted. It has the look of a YA series, and many libraries have it in their YA areas, but it was reviewed for middle schoolers and I read the first two in the series and it will definitely appeal more to a tween audience than high schoolers.
The series is about a class of “gifted” students at a middle school who are all gifted in different ways. One girl can become invisible, one can see the future, one boy can make things move with his mind. The teacher of the class tries to teach the kids how to control and appreciate their gifts. The first two books focus on Amanda, the most popular girl in school who also happens to be a body snatcher. When she inhabits the body of one of the students in the gifted class, her secret is out (among the gifted class only,) and she is reassigned to the class, much to her horror.
I think this series would be perfect for the tween who might not be ready for the Twilight series, but wants something paranormal with an edgier cover.
UPDATE: Here’s a good review of this book.
New Lemony Snicket Film?
June 8, 2009
Good news for fans of the Roman Mysteries series!!
June 4, 2009
I get regular requests for the latest Roman Mysteries books, but I have been waiting for them to be published in the US. Well, I finally tracked down the author, Caroline Lawrence, to ask if she had any idea when these would be pubb’d in the US and she informed me that US stopped publication of the 17 book series with #12, The Charioteer of Delphi. I have ordered the remaining five, but since they’ll be coming from overseas, they won’t arrive as promptly as we might like. BUT they are coming! Thanks to those patrons who kept requesting these titles which prompted me to finally get to the bottom of our own mystery!
Hunger Games 2
January 22, 2009
Publishers Weekly announced that the follow-up to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games will be called Catching Fire, (cover above,) and will hit the shelves September 8, 2009. The final book in the trilogy will be pubbed sometime in 2010. Yea, I can’t wait!
RL Stine Interview
October 31, 2008
RL Stine was on Morning Edition this morning (NPR) talking about the continued popularity of Goosebumps and his HorrorLand series. Listen (or read it) here.
Clique Author Interviewed on Nightline
October 17, 2008
Here’s a link to an interview with Lisi Harrison, author of the popular tween/teen series The Clique. What I found so interesting about this interview was that the author is writing satire and is assuming the reader gets that she is not condoning the mean girl/label-driven lifestyles portrayed in the books. What do you think? Have you talked to kids about these books and gotten the impression that they see the underlying message of the series to be “accept yourself for who you are”?
Update: Oh, and since they mentioned an upcoming movie in the interview, I snooped around the Internet and found that The Clique movie will be released on DVD, (it’s going straight to DVD,) on 11/18/08. I’ve added it to the Books to Movies page along with its preview.
Beacon Street Girls
October 14, 2008
There’s a very interesting article in The New York Times about the tween series, Beacon Street Girls, which was created in response to the sex-fashion-popularity books that are marketed at tweens and teens. The article describes the collaborative way the books are written using childhood health experts and a new study that links reading the books with a healthier lifestyle.
“At the annual scientific conference of the Obesity Society this month in Phoenix, researchers from the Duke medical school presented some remarkable findings on “Lake Rescue” (B*tween Productions, 2005), a Beacon Street book that focuses on the struggles of an overweight girl named Chelsea Briggs.” more
