Losers (explores the nerdy life of Jewish outsider Jupiter Glazer, a cross between the two important characters of Phillip Roth: Alexander Portnoy and "Swede" Levov. More importantly, this reviewer concludes, it illustrates how "Judaism has gone mainstream.") (The Jewish Daily Forward)

- Judgeby.com (like a Hot-or-Not for book covers!)

- Really cool interview of Kelly Link (author of Pretty Monsters. I'm checking her out this weekend for sure.) (LA Times)

- Google suit settled (The agreement states that Google will pay the Authors Guild and five major publishers $125 million.) (Silicon Alley Insider)

- Librarian and Libraries get cooler and cooler (as they create space and programs to build community and provide services that are all totally free. I wonder if libraries will see a surge in activity as our impending economic doom becomes more of reality?) (Arizona Republic)

- Free Book Fridays (It's easy. Every Friday they give books away...and they just launched a teen site.)

- DK rocks! (Don't you agree? Soon their Crime Scene Detectives series will be a kids' show for television. Produced by Beyond Productions.) (Cynopsis)

- Amanda Craig recommends (some good and scary books for the Halloween Holiday.) (NY Times, reg. required)

- OMG! (The Jonas Brothers and Walter the Farting Dog...coming to the big screen?! Not to mention The Electric Kool Aid Test, but that's in a different category all together (Powell's)

- Librarian reviews 'Crank' (And assures us this book definitely doesn't glorify drug use.) (Wassau Daily Herrald)

- Oui! (YA book sales up in France.) (Bookseller)

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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Great review and I've heard the same sentiment-- it's most appropriate for an older young reader.) (SF Gate)

- Page to Screen (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the incredible YA book about two boys in Nazi Germany: one a concentration camp prisoner and the other, the son of the camp's director has been made into a film and will be released November 4th.) (Cynposis)

- Some interesting commentary on author David Almond (Part 1) (Here's Part 2. I looooved Skellig.) (Guys Lit Wire)

- Mitali Perkins asks ("Should authors describe a character's race?" Make sure to read the comments and responses. Great discussion.)

- More bad news on the reading front ("Study: Most fourth graders can't read at grade level") (SLJ)

- Getting ARCS and galleys (into the hands of kids. I love it. I wonder if they'll ever use kids to make publishing choices. Why not?) (Publishers Weekly)

- '35 going on 13' (Adults who like YA, and some follow up at the Christian Science Monitor. What I liked about Benedetti's piece at LJ, is that she juxtaposes her taste for YA with her singular desire to read adult literature when she was a teen. I bet that's true for a lot of us, even those of us who DON'T drive mini-vans.) (Library Journal) (Canada.com)

- More talk of the adult-novel-that's-good-for-young-adults (The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti and why can't it just be a good book for everyone? I think we should officially start a new category...Plus check out the Alex Awards.) (Galley Cat)

- Bible Illuminated (Same ol' story, new cool look and feel.) (Cool Hunting)

- Valerie Tripp (Author of over 50 American Girl books, interviewed.) (Washington Post, reg. required)

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National Book Awards for Young People finalists (Nice selection. Among them:
Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains, Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied and E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.) (Publishers Weekly)

- Vive le Bilioburro indeed! (The story of the "people's librarian" of Columbia.) (New York Times, reg. required)

- Have tea with JK Rowling (Enter an essay contest and win an invite to a tea party in Scotland with the author. Of course this is all to celebrate the December 4th launch of The Tale of Beetle Bard.) (The Scotsman)

- You may have missed the broadcast (but check out the transcript and comments to Monday's OnPoint discussion which asked: "Are you raising a pre-teen or teen daughter in the era of Gossip Girl? Is she reading and watching all this stuff? Is it harmless fantasy? Innoculation? Or setting girls up for trouble?") (WBUR/NPR)

- Top Ten Teen Choices (from YALSA)

- Cybils nominees are up (I saw some of my faves. I'm more than a little excited!)

- The comic book biz (doing well? That's a ray of sunshine through the otherwise dismal reports on the publishing industry.) (CNN Money)

- Balancing act with books (to encourage reading among teens requires both classics and contemporary titles.) (Chicago Tribune)

- Angry parent won't return Bunny Suicide book (to the local library) (Seattlepi.com)

- Random House and First Book (will give away 300K books nationally to schools, libraries and literacy organizations.) (Literacy News)

- Tim McGraw (throws his hat into the children's book celeb author ring with My Little Girl.) (KansasCity.com)

- 'Iron Man Visits Your Library' contest (Tell your fave K-8 student to write an essay about your favorite superhero and win your library a visit.) (SLJ)

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High praise For Lynda Barry's What It Is (I'm a big fan too.) (Omnivoracious)

- A vampire book a guy can appreciate (Guys Lit Wire reviews Nite Runner by Max Turner)

- Booktalking tips (From the ladies at The Ya Ya Ya's. This is super helpful, thanks!)

- More shining-star awesomeness for The Hunger Games (You know I don't usually tell people what to read but honestly...) (Powell's)

- Read Roger (doesn't buy the Beacon Street Girls weight loss story reported in the New York Times, reg. required)

- Brian at the ALSC (suggests that librarians try to imagine life as a patron. We could improve services and sensitivity. Imagine that.)

- 'First Lady Laura Bush recognizes top five libraries' (With the National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Yay for Damriscotta, Maine. We were there this summer!) (School Library Journal)

- 5 million books to be put into cereal boxes (the Spoonful of Stories program along with Cheerios will be giving books away to hungry breakfast-cereal-eating families starting this fall.) (press release)

- Nikki Giovanni talks to NPR (about hip-hop and how children's literature is like folk art.)

- Wicked is wicked good. (I just started reading it and that's what we say in Maine when we like something. Gregory Maguire discusses Wicked, his latest, A Lion Among Men and his involvement with Children's Literature New England.) (Seacoast Online)

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Page to screen (Mixed reviews of "City of Ember" in the Salt Lake Tribune, Washington Post and on MSNBC.) (Entertainment Weekly)

- More on Beacon Street Girls books (promoting wellness through its tween series) (The New York Times, reg. required)

- Ooops, I think I missed this (and it's really good..."The big questions -- science fiction and young adult fiction share themes and, hopefully, readers.") (Baltimore City Paper)

- I love this post about trading [and finding] books while you travel (I discovered Marion Zimmer Bradley when I was traveling alone in Greece -- A happy day indeed.) (popmatters)

- Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice (Maureen McCormick's new tell all.) (Jossip)

- 'How reader girl got her groove back' (Author Shannon Hale describes how she came to love books and reading... again.) (SLJ)

- 'Bedtime Stories' (In this hilarious piece, one dad asks about the prudence of politics in children's books?) (Weekly Standard)

- Goth is in (To one authors' chagrin...hey, that rhymes.) (The Globe and Mail)

- BooksofSoul (offers African-American writers a place to promote their books, including children's and young adult authors.) (PR News)

- Jezebel's Fine Lines remembers (The Long Winter)

- More on the struggling book industry (tough times ahead, esp. for new authors) (The New York Observer)

- Diane von Furstenberg (publishes her own Wonder Woman comic) (Racked)

Posted by alli

Laurence Yep's The Tiger's Apprentice (To be made into a live/action/CGI movie version by Cartoon Network.) (Broadcasting & Cable)

- Teen Read Week (through October 18th. This year's theme, Books with Bite.) (YALSA)

- Slate's booklist for tight times ("Great kids' books about financial ruin.")

- Coraline's website and movie trailer (This looks so good. I can not wait!)

- Children's Librarian a CNN's hero of the year one nominee (This brought tears to my eyes. Wow. How inspiring.) (SLJ)

- Tim Burton to make Alice in Wonderland (Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter already cast.) (Powell's)

- More doubt and insight about the book industry (stemming from the demise of Minx?) (Publishers Weekly)

- A new social site for writers (BookRix allows writers to publish and promote their work online.)

P.S. Happy Birthday RL Stine (Washington Post, reg. required)

Posted by alli

Love for Graceling (And the 'first novel' phenomenon.) (Shelftalker)

- My boss gave me this article yesterday (I agree with a lot of it, but it was so fun to recall many of the Newbery titles that did and do continue to work. I believe the Newbery can get back on track through more discussion like this.) (SLJ)

- Aw. Free to Be You and Me (Thirty-Five years old? And that makes me, how old? Ugh.) (USA Today)

- 'Pretty Monsters' at Bookslut (Very October, very goth-y. Cool.)

- 'Why are there still so few attractive reading books featuring black and Asian children?' (Asks Kate Agnew at the Guardian)

- The Literature of Comics (And if you're in San Francisco: The Kick-Ass All Girl Graphic Novel Panel.) (SF Examiner)

- University of Texas Austin (Will be one of the first to try e-text books. Cool.) (ars technica)

- Props to Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell named best selling children's author in the UK.) (AHN)

- Prepare to get depressed (The new book The Porning of America asks what the mainstreaming of porn in America means for children.) (Newsweek)

- Neil Gaiman's Graveyard (which you can watch him read for free, and yes, he was country before country was cool.) (CNN) (Wired)

- The new Twilight poster! (critiqued by Entertainment Weekly)

P.S. Check out the comment on Monday's Ypulse Book Essentials for more info on the fan-created Ning behind Sabrina Bryan's [with help from Julia DeVillers] book.

Posted by alli

Picture Book People for Obama (Download this poster, made from contributions from famous children's book illustrators to support Obama. Plus there is now a YA for McCain Ning, too) (School Library Journal)

- Page to small screen (Tish Cohen's book,The Invisible Rules of The Zoe Lama is going to be made into a TV series by 9 Stories.) (Cynopsis)

- Really scary books at Guys Lit Wire (Great for October...)

- Beacon Street Girls books (actually helping in the fight against childhood obesity, according to a new study)

- Using video games (to hook new readers or "from book to game") (New York Times, reg. required)

- It's all going to be okay... (Some positive words from both Dave Eggers and Lorie Ann Grover on the state of literature and those who love it.) (GalleyCat)

- Library card registration is at an all time high (According to a new poll reported the ALA. See. Proof.) (SLJ)

- News on Inkheart (Apparently a new release date! January 23rd.) (educating alice)

- Ring of Endless Light, Remember Me and Hanging Out with Cici (at Jezebel's Fine Lines.)

- Sony (plans to give schools 15 million ebooks... classic titles.)

- 'Minx' authors and developers weigh in (on cancellation, talk of the cancellation, and the state of graphic novels in general.) (CBR)

- A twentysomething blogger (on the fashion of the Babysitter's Club books) (what claudia wore)

- Princess of Gossip (written [with help from Julia DeVillers] by Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryna has a Ning)

- 'A new era of gothic horror' (Don't be afraid.) (SLJ)

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