Soul Enchilada, The Early Reviews

Two early reviews have come in for Soul Enchi­lada, from Book­list and Teensreadtoo.com. Book­list said that “Bug is a refresh­ingly gutsy female pro­tag­o­nist with an atti­tude that will win over read­ers.” And Teensreadtoo.com, which added SE to its Hall of Fame, said that “Soul Enchi­lada is a bril­liant debut novel from David Macin­nis Gill and


First Amendment Friday: Bend Banners Break Bylaws

In an all too pre­dictable pat­tern, the Crook County School near Bend, Ore­gon, has banned Sher­man Alexie’s National Book Award win­ning novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. This, after a sin­gle par­ent read a few pages of the book out of con­text and then com­plained to the school board, skip­ping the required


How Now, Authors Now

Tired of surf­ing from place to place look­ing for news about your favorite authors?


Bill Morris Award Finalists Announced

ALA has released the titles for the inau­gural William C. Mor­ris Award, which hon­ors a book writ­ten for young adults by a first-time, pre­vi­ously unpub­lished author. Bill Mor­ris was a ter­rific per­son and advo­cate for teens and their books. He was also the first pub­lisher I met when I joined ALAN and the first to


A Year in the Presidency of an ALAN Life

 Thanks to every­one for the many emails, notes, and phone calls about the ALAN work­shop. You are very kind, and I appre­ci­ate all of the com­pli­ments. The truth is, I didn’t do it alone. The work­shop is the cumu­la­tive effect of dozens of peo­ple work­ing together: The ALAN Board, a group of con­sul­tants, pre­sen­ters, authors,


Things Read Better with Bluebonnet on It

  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