I want to talk about two new novels, both historicals with fantastical elements, from new novelists. One is released as a YA, Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix, and the other is C.C. Finlay's The Patriot Witch. (AMENDED: Finlay has been around for a while writing award-winning short fiction, and wrote one other novel, but this is his first novel as C.C. ( Read more... )

I need to hit the road for ConDor (one day visits being all we can afford right now) but I was so surprised yesterday I wanted to find out what others think ( Read more... )

This year’s ballot is being circulated around--which includes the jury selections for the Andre Norton Award.

2008 was my toughest year ever for jury reading. Ever ( Read more... )

This will be somewhat incoherent--am still a tad tired. Last week was not good, but ended really well, with a school visit to Chadwick Academy in Rancho Palos Verdes.. The school is just as beautiful as it looks--it was first established as a posh boarding school many years ago. I went up there once as a fifth grader, when a friend and I (going ( Read more... )

is here

Of those, the panel that interests me most is: YA Matters More ( Read more... )

The brain, she does not like hot weather, so thinking is done with the finesse of a one-handed clock with chewing gum for gears. But as I sweated through yestereve's chores I was thinking about mimetic fiction, and placeholders ( Read more... )

So I'm on the Andre Norton jury this year, and I've been reading like a reading thing this past couple of months. Not only books from the big publishers who sent us boxes, but from small press and *gasp* even self-pubbed. If it made it into book form and it was published somewhere in English last year, it's eligible ( Read more... )

I read the Atlantic Monthly article with the graph that resonated with me, but put off others ( Read more... )

Savvy writers are discussing the New Yorker article about teen reading ( Read more... )

metteharrison makes what I thought good observations on being teen, adult, power, what makes an adult--and how this translates out into literature for YAs as opposed to lit for adults.