Librarian/Reviewer preview: Random House Children's Books, Summer 2008

Many thanks to Tracy Bloom Lerner and Adrienne Weintraub for throwing the best RHCB preview I think I've ever been to. There was Valentine candy (yes, I'm a little behind in blogging)! There were individual tables rather than rows of chairs! There was lots of food! And best of all...THERE WERE SWEET VALLEY HIGH TOTE BAGS! I love mine so very much.

Here's a list of some of the books previewed that I'm dying to read:

• Madapple by Christina Meldrum. I've started this one and I'm not very far in, but what I have read is wonderfully odd and captivating.


• Snakehead by Ann Halam. Despite the unfortunate title (it's the same as one of the Alex Rider books), I think this will be fascinating. Ann Halam is the author of this year's One Book New Jersey selection, Dr. Franklin's Island, which, like Snakehead, is a retelling of an older tale. It looks creepy. I can't wait.


• How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt. I've really enjoyed Reinhardt's two previous books so I'm hoping this one will be as sharp and observant as those.


• The Seance by Iain Lawrence. It involves Houdini exposing 3 fraudulent psychics, which makes me think it might be a nice readalike for my beloved A Drowned Maiden's Hair.


• Lang Lang: Playing With Flying Keys. Because classical pianists can be rock stars, too.


• The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine. An issue book, to be sure, but I like issue books.


• Playing With Matches by Brian Katcher, which is the winner of the Delacorte Press Prize for a first novel. It's a guy romance, and there are simply not enough of those in this world. The editor called it a readalike for Frank Portman's popular King Dork


• Catwalk by Deborah Gregory. It's an uplifting book about high school girls but...no sex, drugs, or rock-n-roll. Don't get me wrong, I like sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll in my YA novels, but it's nice to have fun chick lit without it, too.


• Likely Story (Book 1) by David Van Etten, about a girl who becomes a daytime soap star. Hooray, more boks about famous teens.


• A La Carte by Tanita S. Davis. Combines cooking and romance. Sounds like a recipe for a delightful book.

Say it with me...so many books, so little time!

Librarian/reviewer preview: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

There's nothing like a librarian/reviewer preview, let me tell you. Thank you very much to Michelle Fadlalla (a friend of BCCLS!) and everyone at S&S BYR for a very enjoyable morning and previews of some fabulous-looking titles. The highlights:

• The seventeeth floor of the Simon & Schuster building is a...the best way I can describe it is librarian fairyland. It's white with dark bookcases and accents and is sort of a cross between a S&S museum and Daddy Warbucks's house in the movie Annie. Pictures of their famous authors hang on the walls. The main hallway echoes. And the room where the presentation was held had bookcases built into the walls. I want to live there when I grow up.



• The guest of honor was John Scieszka, who I've never met in person. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales is an all-time favorite of mine, so it was squee-inducing to hear him speak. He introduced the audience to his upcoming picture-book series, Trucktown and...SMASH! CRASH! One of the best things about the series is that it emphasizes having fun and making noise, which so often gets lost in all the "educational" books and videos but are so important to child development.



• I'm not on the 2009 Printz committee, but if I were I'd be saving this book for future reference: You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn. It's a first-person story of two close cousins, one of whom commits suicide despite having a seemingly perfect life. It has a fabulous sense of place and the characterizations are weird but wonderful. It's a departure from what we usually see from Rachel Cohn, and a wonderful departure at that. Not that Rachel Cohn writes bad books, just that this one is quite different.



• Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott is a very well structured, yet sad, addition to the chick-lit genre. Without spoiling it, I will say this: I really admired that Scott put the proverbial gun on the mantel in Acts I and II and fired it in Act III. The ending of the book was difficult to read but very well done.
  
  
• Other books I picked up but haven't had a chance to read because I was so busy reading for ALA Midwinter: City of Ashes: The Mortal Instruments, Book 2 by Cassandra Clare, Secrets of my Suburban Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter, and Me, In-Between, also by Lauren Baratz-Logsted,
  
  
• Books I didn't pick up at the preview, but am expecting in the mail: Wake by Lisa McMann and I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

I could occupy myself for a month just with S&S. I really need to change my "books" tag to "so many books, so little time."

Librarian/reviewer preview: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Many thanks to Victoria Stapleton and the wonderful folks at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the invitation to their Spring 2008 preview on October 31. Little, Brown previews are always plentiful with food, Diet Coke, fun conversation with editors, and books that look interesting. A quick rundown of what I can't wait to read:

• The part of me that wanted to be a goth when I was a kid can't wait to read ghostgirl by Tonya Hurley. From the flap copy: Charlotte Usher feels practically invisible at school, and then one day she really is. Even worse: she's dead. I've been a fan of Roman Dirge's Lenore: The Cute Little Dead Girl for years and am so excited to see another book for those of us who are, for want of better description, pink goths. See the site: ghostgirl.com. And the most exciting thing about this book: THE FINAL COPIES WILL HAVE FOIL ON THE COVER. Yes! I love foil!



• In the Small by Michael Hague. From the flap copy: A blue light flashes. With in seconds, every human being is fewer than six inches tall. Mother Nature begins to exact her revenge on mankind. Dystopian YA novels have been really hot this past year, and this graphic novel looks like it will be an amazing addition to that genre. Although the art in the galley is black and white, the few sample pages in color at the front are absolutely phenomenal, haunting and horrifying.


Sweethearts by Sara Zarr, author of the National Book Award-nominated Story of a Girl. From the flap copy: As children, Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were both social outcasts. They were also each other's only friend. So when Cameron disappeared without warning, Jennifer thought she'd lost the one true friend she'd ever had. Guaranteed to be heartbreaking, insightful, and true, if Story of a Girl is anything to go by.


• Little, Brown's newest project is a manga imprint, Yen Press, headed by Rich Johnson, formerly of DC Comics. I'm personally not much of a manga reader but I'll be checking these out just because the premises of the series sound like wacky fun. Some of the books I picked up are: Black God by Dall-Young Lin, Zombie-Loan by Peach-Pit, and Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning by Kyo Shirodaira and Eita Mizuno.