Galley received week of 10/8/08

We received a copy of:
The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King (Est. pub. date: February 2009)
Blurb: In the late 17th century, famed pirate Emer Morrisey was on the cusp of sailing into early retirement with unfathomable wealth and her one true love when she was fatally cursed with the dust of 100 dogs. Three hundred years later, after 100 lives as a dog, she finally reincarnates into a human body again—with all her memories intact. Now she’s a contemporary American teenager, and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica. (Young Adult - language, swashbuckling, and elusive pirate nookie.)

Sneak Peek Program!

Hey -- NovelTeens, our high school book club, is changing it's format.

Starting this month, club members will get the chance to read preview copies of new teen/young adult books! Our club is one of only 15 across the country who receive these special galley copies of new books from publishers. After reading, just fill out a short feedback form to let the publisher know if you loved it, hated it, or felt something in between. Plus, talk with other teens in the group about the best books you’ve read this year, and them nominate them for an exclusive Teens Top Ten list! This book club is open to students in grades 9-12. Interested? Come to a meeting at the Main Library or contact Kelly at 577-3957, or kkeefer@ci.san-leandro.ca.us

Summer Reads

You would think from all of my references to it, the Twilight Saga are the only books I read. Not true, BUT, here is the first chapter of Breaking Dawn: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20203238,00.html?iid=top25-20080530-Stephenie+Meyer%3A+Exclusive+book+preview

If you are looking for a good read to start your summer vacation, you could try one of these:

• My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick - When Tomas and his son, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know.But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson - Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?
• The Declaration by Gemma Malley - It’s the year 2140 and Longevity drugs have all but eradicated old age. A never-aging society can’t sustain population growth, however…which means Anna should never have been born. Nor should any of the children she lives with at Grange Hall. The facility is full of boys and girls whose parents chose to have kids—called surpluses—despite a law forbidding them from doing so. These children are raised as servants, and brought up to believe they must atone for their very existence. Then one day a boy named Peter appears at the Hall, bringing with him news of the world outside, a place where people are starting to say that Longevity is bad, and that maybe people shouldn’t live forever.
  

Twilight videos

MTV's got behind-the-scenes videos from the filming of Twilight:
http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1585900&vid=224215
I am so excited for the movie!

Twilight movie cast!

OK, so this came out a couple of days ago and everyone may have seen it already. But if not, here is the full cast for Twilight (release date: December 2008), with links to their pictures on imdb.com:
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight_movie.html

http://wetellstories.co.uk/

One of the listserv's I belong to just posted this cool site:

http://wetellstories.co.uk/

Penguin books is taking six books by six authors and putting them on
the web. One is told in a blog and the parents' blog is part of it
too, one is told using Google Maps, and one is a fairy tale where you
make decisions as it progresses, such as naming the characters. There
are three more to come.

Simon Pulse Blogfest: March 14-27

One of our novelteens club members sent me an email about this blogfest:


Basicially, Pulse Blogfest will bring together more than 110 of Simon & Schuster's teen authors to a single blog where they’ll take turns posting answers to questions sent in by fans. Authors will include Scott Westerfeld (Uglies), Holly Black (Tithe), Judy Blume, Ellen Hopkins (Crank), and many more. Seems like it might be interesting! Thanks Judy for sending this.

Printz Awards & National Book Award for Young People

The winner of the Michael Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature was announced last month, along with the honor books. The winner was The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean. I admit I was surprised, as I was pulling for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. That book, by the way, won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. It is excellent.

Check out the winners: http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/printzaward/Printz.cfm and http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2007.html (scroll all the way down to see Young People's Literature category)

Here is School Library Journal's review of The White Darkness. Personally, I didn't finish as it was not my kind of book, but many people loved it.

• McCaughrean weaves a tale of obsession and personal growth against the backdrop of nature's unrelenting power. Fourteen-year-old Sym Wates is fascinated with the Antarctic and the men who explored it, even to the point of creating an internal confidante in the form of Captain Lawrence "Titus" Oates, who was part of the doomed Scott expedition 90 years earlier. So when her "Uncle" Victor whisks the painfully shy, hearing-impaired teen away on a surprise trip to the South Pole, it seems like a dream come true. But Victor has his own agenda, seeking the legendary Symmes's Hole, portal to the interior of a hollow Earth. The lengths to which the madman pursues this quest provide the book with a dramatic drive and powerful revelations. Sym makes for an engaging (if occasionally melodramatic) narrator, although aspects of her character, such as her hearing loss, are not fully developed. An afterword on Scott's expedition in 1911 is included