“Crook County School Board Chairman Jeff Landaker said although Moss didn’t follow the proper procedure — because he went straight to the school board and skipped speaking with his son’s teacher and the high school principal — he agreed with Moss’ complaint. “Personally, as a father, I felt it was inappropriate,” Landaker said about the book.”

Personally, as a father, I disagree with a lot of things my children’s teacher do, but that doesn’t mean I should use my power to make knee-jerk decisions. When you join a government body, you represent everyone, and you must act with vision to look beyond your personal feelings as a parent or sibling or child. Most of all, you must follow your own procedures, which the Crook County board did not do.

Three cheers to Principal Jim Golden for voicing his displeasure with this act of censorship:

“I’ve been directed by the school board and the superintendent to pull the book, and I will comply with their directive,” Golden said. “But I respectfully disagree with what they are doing. It’s a slippery slope. … If you take one or two pages out of context, I mean ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is about two teenagers who are having a relationship. … It’s a dangerous precedent. … Part of what you are going to do is discuss ideas not proselytize kids. You want them to come to their own conclusion.”

Although he is forced to remove the book based on the established procedures. It’s too bad that the school board sees fit not to follow its own procedures, as well. How can those in charge of schools expect kids to follow rules when they don’t do it themselves?

Now you don’t have to! AuthorsNow! has officially launched. AN, the brainchild of Cynthea Liu, is a collaboration of children’s book authors and illustrators. Created for parents, teachers, librarians, and booksellers in AuthorsNow! the place to hear about your favorite authors and illustrators. 

But wait! There’s more!

• get up-to-date descriptions of forthcoming books
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• and much, much more.

Order today and get special features: AN! be serving up a fresh cup of content on a regular basis related to children’s literature and what’s happening in the field.

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Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Offer not valid in any country covered by water or on other planets. Caribou Barbie is no longer available due to product recall.Void where prohibited.

A Curse Dark As Gold
by Elizabeth C. Bunce
published by Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic (9780439895767)

This supernatural novel retells the story of Rumpelstiltskin, setting it at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and centering it around the life of Charlotte Miller. When the bank wants to repossess her mortgaged mill, Charlotte strikes a bargain with the mysterious Jack Spinner, (a creature who knows the art of turning straw into gold), but then discovers she must free her loved ones from a generations-old curse.

Graceling
by Kristin Cashore
published by Harcourt/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (9780152063962)

In the Seven Kingdoms, those born with eyes of two different colors are Gracelings who develop intense and powerful skills. Katsa’s Grace is killing, and she serves as King Randa’s enforcer until she and Prince Po join forces to solve the riddle of his grandfather’s kidnapping. The closer they get to the answer and to each other, the more dangerous their quest becomes.

Absolute Brightness
by James Lecesne
published by HarperTeen/ Laura Geringer Books (9780061256288)

When Phoebe’s flamboyant, effeminate cousin, Leonard, moves to her New Jersey town, he brings a confusing mix of beauty and irritation as he inserts himself into the day-to-day running of her mother’s beauty parlor business and Phoebe’s life at school. When Leonard disappears, seemingly without a trace, Phoebe embarks on a mission to uncover the truth, and confronts first-hand the price Leonard paid for being different.

Madapple
by Christina Meldrum
published by Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books (9780375851766).

Fifteen-year-old Aslaug was raised in isolation by a mother who was both strange and ill. Her mother’s death brings an onslaught of new experiences as Aslaug must learn to cope with the unwanted attention of the police, relatives she never knew she had, and multiple charges of murder.

Me, the Missing, and the Dead
by Jenny Valentine
published by HarperTeen (9780060850685)

Sixteen-year-old Londoner Lucas Swain, on a whim, decides to take a cab home and happens upon an urn with the ashes of Violet Park in the taxi office. He feels the spirit of Violet leading him through a maze of layered clues, as he bit by bit solves the puzzle of his father’s disappearance more than five years ago.

Congrats to the finalists! The winner will be announced Jan. 26, 2009 at ALA Midwinter.

The tragedy of being ALAN president is that once you’ve made all the contacts, created the program, arraigned all of the books, the speakers, the AV, the chairs, the awards, the committee, the breakfasts, etc. and analyzed what you could have done better, your job is finished. It’s time to pass the gavel to the next president in line. It has been a good year for me, and I am thankful for it.

As Laurie Halse Anderson whispered to me after she received the ALAN Award, Isn’t this a wonderful life we get to live?

Yes, ma’am, it is.

Gacked from the HarperCollins newsletter:

2009–2010 Texas Bluebonnet Master List:The Gollywhopper Games
Congratulations also to Jody Feldman, whose debut children’s book, The Gollywhopper Games, has been named to the 2009–2010 Texas Bluebonnet Master List! “Nonstop action, appealing pencil illustrations, and increasingly difficult brainteasers will keep readers engaged,” said ALA Booklist of this interactive story of puzzles.

Go Jody!

audio on-sale date
4/7/2009 

Soul Enchilada
by David Macinnis Gill Read by (to be announced)

Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged Lib Ed
978-1-4233-8225-6

7 Compact Discs - 8 hours  (unabridged)

MSRP $87.97
Quantity:

Not yet available for shipment.

The exclusive right to sell anywhere in the world in the English language only

1 MP3-CD - 8 hours  (unabridged)

MSRP $39.97
Quantity:

Not yet available for shipment.

The exclusive right to sell anywhere in the world in the English language only

Publication Date: 4/7/2009

YOUNG ADULT:  Eunice “Bug” Smoot was thirteen years old when her grandfather put her soul up as collateral on his dream car — a classic 1958 Cadillac Biarritz. Now, five years later, Papa C is dead and buried, and Bug is trying to make it on her own by delivering pizzas and staying one step ahead of her landlord. And then the repo man arrives. Only Mr. Beals — stinking to high heaven of rotten eggs and sporting leathery wings — is not just any repo man…just as Pesto, Bug’s longtime unrequited crush, is not just any car wash attendant. Set in El Paso, Texas, this debut novel is peppered with car chases, basketball, a séance, true love, immigrant agents of a totally different sort, and, oh yeah, the Devil himself. Mostly, though, it features an irrepressible, memorable, wisecracking, absolutely fearless main character who will stop at nothing to win her freedom and protect her free will.

From PW: “Aidan Chambers’s Dance Sequence, six novels with shared themes (though not characters) debuted 30 years ago with the publication of Breaktime. This month, Amulet Books is releasing paperback reissues of this young adult novel, as well as the second installment, Dance on My Grave. The publisher will reissue the third and fourth books, Now I Know and The Toll Bridge, in spring 2009.”

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6609797.html?nid=2788

Chambers’ early work was the topic of my dissertation. I’m thrilled to
see those books come back into print in the US. Dance on My Grave and Breaktime remain my favorites.  Get your hands on these, folks. The Dance sequence may be the finest series of novels ever written for young adults.

I love the typography (dig the horns), the flames, and the tagline, the devils is in the details. The way the purple bug is framed by the tridents makes me laugh, and it brings a touch of humor to what could be a scary cover.

I have no problem with readers sharing galleys by passing them around, swapping them, giving them to a dental assistant (which is what I did with Graham Salisbury’s latest). In fact, I hope that has happened with Soul Enchilada because it’s the best way I know for a book to find its audience early on.

Selling ARCs on Ebay is a different story. I tagged the item, but I doubt that Ebay will do anything about it. They seem to look the other way in cases like this.

Da-ta-Da! Da-ta-Da! Da-ta-Da!

I’m proud to share the news that Jody Feldman and fellow Greenwillow author’s The Gollywhopper Games was named honor book for the 2008 Midwest Booksellers Association Choice Awards for Children’s Literature. Congrats to Jody for receiving recognition for this terrific book. She’ll be accepting the award and saying a few words Thursday at the Midwest Booksellers Association meeting. This is a really cool, smart book for MG. Click on the link and find out more. go ahead. I dare ya. I double-dog dare ya.