Coming in September- Going Bovine by Libba Bray! You may have read her wonderful Great and Terrible Beauty series- but this one's different as you can see from the following book trailer - by Libba Bray, by the way! She's one crazy-lady (I can say that since I know her- and she really is- in a FUN way): http://shelf-life.ew.com/2009/08/19/libba-bray-going-bovine-trailer/
I have an ARC (advanced reader copy) of the book which I will be finished with soon- let me know if you want to read it!

While in Chicago in July, I attended a meeting of the Best Books for Young Adults Committee (BBYA) and took notes on which books they agreed would make the next BBYA list. These three are MUST reads:
Leviathan is Scott Westerfeld's newest and very different from his Uglies and Midnighters series.
Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson is a horror-thriller.
Broken Soup, the new book by Jenny Valentine, author of Me, the Missing, and the Dead, is a life-affirming story of a young girl who has faced tragedy in her short life.
All three of these books are on my next-reads list!

I once had Ellen Hopkins visit the school were I worked. We prepared the students for weeks before her visit by offering her books (Crank, Glass, Burned, Impulse- Identical wasn't published yet- once word got out we couldn't keep our 10 copies of EACH book in stock!), working with English teachers & classes on writing in verse, and offering speakers on counseling, health and safety issues for young adults. All this because, although I love Ellen's writing style and stories, the subjects are really tough- meth addiction, suicide, abuse, incest and now prostitution. The books are all written in a beautiful, verse-style and are very visual- in Burned she writes of a father's tears in the shapes of the teardrops on the page- it adds an element to the stories (although I hear they are wonderful in audio, I can't imagine reading them without the visual). Her first book and its sequel, Crank & Glass, are written from a very personal perspective- the main character in the story is based on her own daughter and her ongoing battle with meth addiction.
Tricks her newest book- available in stores August 25th-is five different stories in one- all five young people have ended up in the same place- selling themselves on the streets of Las Vegas. How did they all get there? What could have possibly happened in their pasts to lead them to such drastic means of survival? Will they survive? I have an ARC (advanced reader's copy) if anyone is interested in reading this before it publishes- let me know.

Finished Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford last night- parts were so hilarious that I found myself laughing out loud, and some was so profoundly what is must be like to be a 14 year old boy who stutters, has ADD, is adjusting to high school, has an older sister he's scared of and is just trying to find his place and fit in. It has some raunchy language and parts, but overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend it for 8th & 9th grade kids.

Having just finished reading Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga, with its references to Neil Gaiman's graphic novel, I finally decided to pick up the first Sandman- Preludes & Nocturnes. It has been on my list of things-to-read for a while now.
I have recently become an huge Neil Gaiman fan- loved The Graveyard Book which won this year's Newbery, and have enjoyed Stardust, Coraline, American Gods and Neverwhere- since I met him and heard him talk at ALA last month. My daughter has been telling to read Good Omens for several years now, but Lyga's book has led me to this graphic novel- plus I am trying to become more proficient in 'graphic novel' read and speak! Wish me luck...

Carter Finally Gets It by Brent Crawford was recommended recently on my ya-book discussion listserve- and I trust these guys ( a whole lot of YA librarians from around the country and they know their stuff!).

It was on the shelf so I picked it up. I just started reading it last night. It is hilarious and spot-on teenage angst as they transition from middle school to high school. It's a great boy-book- I think many teenage guys will see themselves in the character of Carter. I'll let you know how it end up as this is on my pile of hammock reading for this weekend!

I received an advanced reader copy (ARC) of this book from a friend at Houghton Mifflin Publishing CO. It is the sequel to Barry Lyga's The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl- Goth Girl Rising. I just finished it and I LOVED it!
I liked the first book- it's about a troubled girl named Kyra- her mother died of lung cancer and she's not dealing well- go figure. She becomes friends with a kid who is writing a graphic novel whom she calls Fanboy (Lyga himself is a comic book geek- he actually worked in the industry for 10 years). He seems to understand her, or at least they can be outacasts together.
In the sequel Kyra has been away for a while and she is angry about alot of things- why she went away, her friends, her dad, Fanboy. It's how she comes to terms with her troubles and anger- with the help of Neil Gaiman and his Sandman series and characters, that makes this story great. I simply could not put it down and would highly recommend it. The cover is good, but not what I expected-don't let it set you off the book.