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Month: June 2013


  • James Patterson to Launch a New Middle Grade Series

    In an interview with USA Today, Patterson revealed that writing middle grade books is his “passion, much more than the adult books now…It’s an interesting direction now, books that are …

  • Latinas for Latino Literature Launches the Latino Children’s Summer Reading Program

    Adults are challenged to encourage the children in their life (offspring, nieces, nephews, etc.) to read a minimum of eight books between June 1st and August 12th. Those who register …

  • Too Much Focus on Gender for YA Book Covers?

    “The reason is, of course, that books exist in a society where femininity is still considered to be a second-class characteristic, and masculinity defined most strongly as an absence of …

  • This Week on Girls Scouts’ The Studio: Laura Golden

    “The most important thing you may do in your lifetime is to discover your voice. Not your speaking voice, but your voice as a human being. What matters to you? …

  • Victoria Law Endorses Two Anthologies in the “Girls of Color in Dystopia” Blog Series

    Within the After anthology, Law offers particularly high praise for Malinda Lo’s contribution “Good Girl.” For Law, it doesn’t “matter how terrible and oppressive these futuristic fiction worlds are, readers …

  • Gayle Forman Has Penned Just One Year

    The first book followed the story of protagonist Allyson “LuLu” Healey. With this new work, readers will get inside the mind of LuLu’s love interest Willem because the story will …

  • Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing to Partner with Shindig for “Hot YA Summer Chat Series”

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New York, NY, June 11, 2013– Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing has partnered with Shindig to offer YA readers and fans an exciting new program to regularly …

  • Paramount Pictures Picks Up the Film Rights for ‘The Testing’

    “In the rebuilding of the United States after natural disasters and biological war, the best and brightest high school graduates are put through a series of tests, both physical and …

  • The World’s A Stage, Or Is It?

    Originally posted on the Diversity in YA blog by Sarah Rees Brennan.

    The Demon’s Lexicon series is all about roles.

    I started the first book, The Demon’s Lexicon, thinking about the role of Mr. Tall, Dark, Handsome and Morally Really Freaking Dodgy, and how we almost never get that guy’s point of view, and what he’d be like from the inside. Almost unforgivably awful, maybe, because you know how bad he is from the start, and you aren’t distracted by his good looks and dashing ways. What’s it like to look into the abyss? And what makes an abyss, anyway?

    That was the role that started the ball, ahem, rolling. (Everybody groans and tosses rotten fruit.) From there I thought about roles, and the different ways I could play with them, like genderswitching: what if the hero of an epic fantasy — you know the type, rash and brave and honest and initially clueless — was a girl, what if the Mother Who Would Give Up/Do Anything For Her Kid was a boy?

    Some of my ideas were just about going beyond a role, because some roles are true as far as they go, but people are so complex they never go far enough. Such as the gay guy who presents as weaker than other guys — what if he was physically weaker and smaller, and also quite deliberately presenting himself in a certain way, and also a huge magical badass?
    Read more »

  • Ringo Starr to Publish Children’s Picture Book with Simon & Schuster

    LONDON and NEW YORK—Simon and Schuster Children’s Books today announced a worldwide publication agreement with Ringo Starr for a picture book edition of his famous Beatles hit, Octopus’s Garden, 45 …

  • The Weinstein Company Announces ‘Vampire Academy’ Sweepstakes

    New York, NY (June 11, 2013) – The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today their special VAMPIRE ACADEMY contest, which will give one lucky fan an exclusive, once in a lifetime trip …

  • JetBlue Airways Announces Soar with Reading Initiative in Partnership with Random House Children’s Books

    NEW YORK, New York (June 11, 2013)—JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq: JBLU), New York’s Hometown Airline™, today announces its third-annual Soar with Reading program, an award-winning summer literacy initiative that places age-appropriate books in the …

  • The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, June 21, 2013 through Sunday, March 23, 2014 Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Gottesman Exhibition Hall (Map and directions) New York Public Library The ABC of It is …

  • 15 Public Libraries Will Win a Harry Potter Celebration to Commemorate 15 Years of Harry Potter

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Calling All Librarians: How Would You Throw a Party to Celebrate the 15th Anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? Share your Plans with Scholastic for a Chance …

  • Kenn Nesbitt Announced as Next Children’s Poet Laureate

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE The Poetry Foundation recognizes the best contemporary children’s poetry at its annual Pegasus Awards. CHICAGO — The Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce that poet Kenn Nesbitt …

  • This Week on Girls Scouts’ The Studio: Illustrator Laurie Allen Klein

    “Don’t be afraid to experiment or make mistakes”—this kind of goes hand in hand with not getting discouraged. If you don’t like how a piece turned out, go ahead and …

  • Penguin Young Readers Group Launches Leveled Reading Program App

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Interactive App featured as ‘New and Noteworthy’ in the app store during WWDC ’13 New York, NY (June 11, 2013) Building on the successful launch of the “Penguin …

  • Twitter Debate Ignited From a Picture Book About Islam

    School Media Specialist Lauren Strohecker offered her thoughts to School Library Journal: “We have the choices every day. How do we respond to hate? More hate? Or hope and stories …

  • Marie Lu to Write ‘The Young Elites’ Trilogy

    This fantasy story is set in a “Renaissance-like world where young children who survive the blood fever are often gifted with god-like powers.” Lu describes the series as “X-Men meets …

  • The Neighborhood School Hosts the Save the Library Fundraising Marathon

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE As you may know, thanks to a perfect storm of budget crises on both the federal and local levels, our library is on the chopping block. The …


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