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One of the dangers of having sometimes-access to advance reader copies of books is that it makes it extra-difficult to wait for anything that’s not out yet. And have you noticed there are some incredible books on the way for Fall 2010 and Spring 2011?  Here’s my current can’t-wait list:

Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger (Amulet)
Angleberger’s Strange Case of the Origami Yoda made me a fan.

The Popularity Papers Book Two: A Record of the Continued Transatlantic Discoveries of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang by Amy Ignatow (Amulet)
The first Popularity Papers book is so perfect for my girls who are Wimpy Kid fans I can hardly stand it. And so, so funny.

Sean Griswald’s Head by Lindsey Leavitt (Bloomsbury)
Reading Lindsey’s blog, I know how funny she is, and this book sounds like a perfect mix of humor and heart.

Entice by Carrie Jones (Bloomsbury)
Third book in the NEED series. Need I say more?

Drought by Pam Bachorz (Egmont)
I loved her debut novel CANDOR, and this one sounds great, too.

Carmen by Walter Dean Myers (Egmont)
A YA retelling of the Bizet opera, set in Spanish Harlem. I’m sold.

The Summer of the Gypsy Moths by Sara Penypacker (Hyperion)
Anything by the author of Clementine is automatically on my radar.

Invisible Inkling by Emily Jenkins (Hyperion)
New series about a 4th grader and his invisible friend – love this idea!

Kick by Walter Dean Myers & Ross Workman (Harper Collins)
Really, you should just add anything that Myers writes to my wish-list.

Divergent by Veronica Roth (Harper Collins)
Dystopian romance. Sigh…. 

The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander (Walden Pond Press)
Any book that promises to explore the “seedy underbelly of middle school” has me at hello.

Razorland by Ann Aguirre (Feiwel & Friends)
Even though I’m a cheerful, optimistic human being, I love my dystopian novels. This one’s set in postapocalyptic NYC.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman (Dutton)
Long-awaited sequel to If I Stay, which I loved.

Archie Comics: Betty and Veronica  (Grosset & Dunlap)
A chapter book with Betty and Veronica? Be still my heart!  Archie comics were my favorite when I was a kid.

Stickman Odyssey by Christopher Ford (Philomel)
Homer’s epic,,,with a stickman. Just try to resist that idea.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis (Razorbill)
More dystopian – this time, a cryogenically frozen teenager on a spaceship wakes up 50 years before scheduled landing

XVI by Julie Karr (Penguin)
Again, dystopian awesomeness.

Squish #1 Super Amoeba by Matthew Holm & Jennifer Holm (Random House)
Graphic novel about an amoeba. I love it already.

Flip by Martyn Bedford (Random House)
Psychological thriller from Wendy Lamb Books.

A Million Miles from Boston by Karen Day (Random House)
The Maine Coast setting has me longing for this book and the smell of salt water.

Words in the Dust by Trent Reidy (Arthur Levine Books)
A girl from Afghanistan must deal with change when American soldiers arrive in her village.

Strings Attached by Judy Blundell (Scholastic)
Murder mystery set in 1950s NYC, from the author of What i Saw and How I Lied.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (Harper Collins)
Dystopian romance. Again, sigh.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney (Little, Brown)
High school girl turns to her school’s underground justice system after a date rape.

The Revenant by Sonia Gensler (Knopf)
Historical ghost story set at boarding school that sounds amazing.

Grace by Elizabeth Scott (Dutton)
Dystopian character trained as a suicide bomber rebels and is on the run.

Starcrossed by Elizabeth Bunce (Arthur Levine Books)
From the Morris Award winning author of A Curse Dark as Gold

What am I missing? What upcoming titles are making you impatient?

1. I’m thinking the leaves must be turning higher up in the mountains by now, right?  We’re hoping to climb Mt. Jo in the Adirondacks tomorrow  & then collapse at a picnic table here for some barbecued chicken and ribs. Good plan, no?

2. The official schedule is out for ALAN in Orlando this November, and I keep checking to make sure that’s really my name on there, in such amazing company.  I’m giving a breakout session with Jo Knowles, David Macinnis Gill, and Chris Crowe – can’t wait!

3. Plans are coming together for a SUGAR AND ICE launch party in a most fitting location — The Bookstore Plus in Lake Placid, right up the street from the Olympic Center where much of the story takes place. I’ll post more details later on, but for now, if you’re nearby and would like to save the date, mark the afternoon of December 11th on your calendar!

4. Daughter and I had our own private "best first pages" contest to choose our next read-aloud. We read the first two pages of three books tonight to decide which one felt best for right now. Here’s what she chose:

I read THE AMARANTH ENCHANTMENT a long time ago in manuscript form, but I’m excited to return to it. I know it’s changed,and reading the words of a talented writer like Julie Berry out loud always teaches me a thing or two about craft.
 
5. What else are we reading right now? 

Me: ELI THE GOOD by Silas House

The girl (9) THE RED PYRAMID by Rick Riordan

The boy (14) BLACK HOLE SUN by David Macinnis Gill…

The husband: My dystopian storm book, as a pdf on the iPad.  He’s promised to double-check all the weather details. It’s good to have a meteorologist in the house.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I had an experience as a reader this week that got my teacher-brain thinking about books and kids, and why the right book at the right time is such a very important concept for us to keep in mind.

I’ve been reading this book…

…and loving it.  ELI THE GOOD by Silas House is a beautifully written story about a ten-year-old boy whose family is facing the challenges of change in 1976 — a father haunted by memories of Vietnam, a crazy aunt who’s appeared with a mysterious problem, and a teenage sister who’s pulling away from her parents.  This book captures 1976 — the year I remember the bicentennial parade marching down Pine Street, past the Fisher Price toy factory in the town where I grew up.  It’s full of those perfect details that make me want to put the book down for a second and just savor the words.

So this book surprised me yesterday when I suddenly didn’t like it any more. Not one bit.  I was at my desk at school, reading along with my students during our daily silent reading time after lunch, flipping pages and thinking about how annoyed I was with all the descriptions. These were the same sorts of descriptions I’d savored the day before. Something had changed.

But it wasn’t the book. It was me.  Yesterday was one of those particularly stressful days. Just about every free second I had, I’d spent on the phone or writing emails trying to resolve a problem with my son’s class schedule, and I was frustrated.  I was not in the mood for rich language or contemplative thoughts.  I was in the mood for a fast run around the track or a few good shots at a punching bag.  And I just didn’t like my book.

I know this has happened to my students before, and I know I’ve looked at them, bewildered, when they came to tell me they didn’t like their books any more. I remember saying, "But you were loving that book yesterday!"  And not thinking that maybe it was just something happening with that reader, that day, that had changed his or her outlook. Next time this happens, I might dig a little deeper to see what’s up, and perhaps offer up a second book for the kid to try out while keeping the first one, just in case he or she wants to give it another shot.

As for me?  The schedule issue is resolved, today was much more relaxed, the sun was out, and… I’m back to enjoying ELI THE GOOD. (It really is a great read, my bad attitude notwithstanding, and I’ll post more thoughts when I’m done.)

A few friends & teachers have also sent notes letting me know they’ve spotted (and ordered!) Gianna Z. in the September Scholastic ARROW book club flyer, but until one of my 6th grade colleagues stopped by my room with one this week, I hadn’t seen the actual flyer. Then my sister-in-law Linda, who teaches in Rochester, NY posted this photo to her Facebook page yesterday… 

I love that it’s in the "Real Kids Like You" section.  So often, kids who write to  me about Gianna tell me that’s why they like it – because she isn’t super-smart or super-eccentric like a lot of middle grade narrators… she just seems like a regular kid, like them.

And check out that magic marker circle!  Made my whole day…

Well, I think that subject line should just about cover it.

Yes, this is one of those mix-of-everything blog posts, mostly because I’m  back to teaching, and so half my brain is at any given moment occupied by thinking about which kid is going to love which book and making stacks next to my lunch bag.  But I do have some newsy, linky things…

This brings me great joy… There will soon be a Scrivener 2.0 release with nifty updates. Scrivener is right up there with chocolate on my list of things a writer needs.

Alexis O’Neill is sharing a great post on Skype author visits at her School Visit Experts site. It includes a link to "An Author in Every Classroom," my latest SLJ Skype feature that includes quotes from a bunch of LJ friends like  ,  , and  .

Banned Books Week begins September 25, and Emily Kristin Anderson is running a great series of guest posts from educators on her blog. I’m there today, talking about how I try to be proactive in heading off book challenges by educating parents of my middle school students.

Emily was nice enough to write a little note about my books at the bottom of the blog post and mentioned that the paperback of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. comes out tomorrow. My reaction, I’m a little embarrassed to say, was "Really??? Tomorrow?! Wowza!"  I don’t know why, but in my mind, the release date was later in September.

But look!  If IndieBound says it, it must be so. I plan to run through some falling leaves in the morning to celebrate. Anyone care to join me?

THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. is also in the September Arrow flyer for Scholastic Book Clubs (It’s listed as a back-to-school special on the back cover for $3!)  And if you’re a Kindle or Nook sort of person, you can download Gianna Z. on your e-readers starting tomorrow, too.  That is a whole lot of Gianna.

But just in case it’s not enough… A while ago, I taped an interview for Mountain Lake PBS Author Spotlight, and it’s airing this week.  Here’s a link to producer Paul Larson’s blog post on the feature.  In the interview, I talk about the stories behind the story of Gianna Z. and my December figure skating book, SUGAR AND ICE, as well as how my teaching-authoring roles have come to complement one another.If you get Mountain Lake PBS, you’ll be able to see it on Mountain Lake Journal Extra Thursday night at 8:30 – then again Friday at 6am and 12:30, Saturday at 7:30, and Sunday at 10:30.

One last thing…I’m reading ELI THE GOOD by Silas House right now & really enjoying it. I’m fascinated by the point of view – since the main character is a young boy (10, if I’m remembering right) but it’s clear that he’s looking back as an adult telling the story with that older, wiser perspective. It’s something I’ve seen more often in adult novels than in YA or MG, but it works, at least for me.  Beautiful writing, and a fascinating story so far – I’ll post more thoughts when I’m done.

Never get into bed thinking you’ll read "just another page or two" of a psychological thriller, especially when you’re within a hundred pages of the end.  Here is the reason I’m a bit bleary-eyed this morning…

…and I’m not sorry. Not one bit.  Lucy Christopher’s YA novel STOLEN is just magnificent.

16-year-old Gemma is kidnapped from the Bangkok airport when a handsome stranger (but he looks familiar…he is a stranger, right?) buys her coffee, drugs it, and hurries her away from the gate where her parents are waiting for her for a family trip to Vietnam. She finds herself waking up hours later in a landscape so harsh and stark it might as well be the moon.  Her captor, Ty, is a young man with a haunted past of his own. He promises he doesn’t intend to hurt her physically but says that he needs her, that he always has, and holds her captive in a complex of buildings in the Australian outback that seem to have been built for the purpose of keeping her here.

The desert and the animals and plants that have adapted to survive its rugged conditions mirror the antagonist in the way they both hold Gemma captive and eventually enthrall her. Like Ty himself, the desert fascinates Gemma, and she finds herself acclimating and becoming drawn to its mix of danger and beauty. So how, in the midst of those hopeless conditions and her own psychological changes, can she ever hope to find her way home to London again?

STOLEN is written in second person, as a letter from Gemma to her captor in a voice that is believable and raw without ever feeling forced. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that was so beautiful and so creepy all at once. Even though the kidnapper in this book had done something I’d consider unforgivable, even though he drugged a teenager and stole her away from her parents, I couldn’t hate him or even think of him as evil.  And perhaps that’s what made the book the most chilling of all. It’s a great, great read.

Here’s my teacher-note – This book will have wide appeal to older middle school and high school students, and it’ll be a great literature circles choice – so much to talk about. While I’m dying to share it, I’m going to wait just a bit before I put it out for my 7th graders, since some of the language & situations are intense and it’s a book I’ll feel more comfortable recommending to individual kids after I’ve had longer to get to know them and their reading tastes.  And one more teaching thought…for a high school English class, this would be amazing paired with Ann Patchett’s BEL CANTO.

1. This was back-to-school week, for me as a 7th grade English teacher and for my two kids. It kicked off with a bang, as I realized Wednesday night that I was supposed to be at a cross country meet and two parent orientation meetings simultaneously.  Have we mastered that cloning technology yet?  Thankfully, my daughter’s teacher served these amazing peppermint patty brownies at her meeting – hello, dinner.

2. Today, we’ll start our first read-aloud of the year in my classroom.  It’s Sharon Draper’s OUT OF MY MIND. I have my Kleenex ready…

3. I’m reading Lucy Christopher’s STOLEN, which is written by a kidnapped teen as a letter to her captor. It’s delightfully creepy so far, with a beautifully drawn sparse setting that’s almost a character in itself.

4. I gave my students a quick technology survey yesterday so that I can try to do a better job integrating the kinds of technology that they actually use at home and like. It was interesting. I teach in a district where about a third of the students get free or reduced price lunch, but of 64 students, all but two have computer/Internet at home, and those two have access at a community center nearby. Twenty have uploaded videos to YouTube, and more than half are on Facebook.  We’re going to try edmodo this year — it’s an educational version of social networking with forums and such — to see if it’s a good way to continue our classroom conversations and booktalk after the bell rings.  I’m also wondering if it might make sense to set up a class Facebook Group for our kids who are there, so they can help one another with assignments & book suggestions, but I’m still noodling on that one.

5. I handed out books from my classroom library hand-over-fist yesterday but came up short on one request. Hockey books for middle school kids.  Any thoughts on that one?  Chris Lynch has ICEMAN, but I’ve heard that’s more older YA, as it WAITING TO SCORE. 

Hope those of you who are teachers and parents and back-to-school kids are having a great start to the year, too. Enjoy the weekend!

Two quick things today…

First, I’m guest-blogging over at   today on the topic of making time to write. Whenever I give workshops for writers or teachers, the number one question I get is, "You teach full time and have a family? How do you find time to write?"  This blog post answers that question in detail with some thoughts on making time for some things and letting other things go.

Second, there’s a SUGAR AND ICE giveaway going on over at GoodReads.  If you’re a member of GoodReads (and I hope you are because it’s great fun to share book suggestions!) you can click here and scroll down to enter the drawing, which runs now through September 30th.

That’s all for tonight because today was the first day of school for teachers where I live, and I have lots to do to get ready for the kids. But first, here’s a photograph of my classroom library, just because I love it.

It’s still missing big piles of titles my kids from last year took home over the summer, including everything Carrie Jones & Lisa Schroeder have ever written, but this is still the most complete it will be all year. On Thursday, I get to start putting books in hands again, and I can’t wait.

Hope those of you who are starting classes along with me have a great beginning to your school year!