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Author Spotlight: Beth Ann Bauman, ROSIE AND SKATE (Giveaway Alert Now – 11/03/09)

October 27th, 2009 by Beth · Email post Email post · Print Print

This week, we’re celebrating Beth Ann Bauman’s debut! Beth Ann Bauman is the author of a short story collection for adults, Beautiful Girls, and a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Beth teaches fiction writing at NYU, The West Side YMCA’s Writer’s Voice, and online at UCLA. Growing up, she spent summers on the Jersey shore, and she now lives in New York City. Here’s a little bit about ROSIE AND SKATE (Wendy Lamb Books, Random House). It's off-season at the Jersey shore, when the boardwalk belongs to the locals. Rosie is 15 and her sister Skate is… Continue reading

Categories: Author Spotlight · Contests

RUNNING FOR MY LIFE by Ann Gonzalez

October 2nd, 2009 by Ann Gonzalez · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Spring, 2009
  • Publisher: WestSide Books
  • Release Date: March 25, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-934813-00-3
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
RUNNING FOR MY LIFE is the powerful story of Andrea McKane, a fourteen-year-old who struggles to cope with her mother's schizophrenia. The book accurately portrays the difficulties a teen faces when dealing with the illness, the abuse and the absence of a psychotic parent. RUNNING FOR MY LIFE shows the effects of mental illness on a family, and a teenager's attempts to manage the… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Spring · Contemporary · Events · Friendship · Gonzalez, Ann · Mental Illness · Rated PG · WestSide Books · Young Adult

ROSIE AND SKATE by Beth Ann Bauman

September 4th, 2009 by Beth · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Fall 2009
  • Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books, Random House
  • Release Date: August 11,  2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-385-73735-7
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD                           
ROSIE AND SKATE is about two sisters, ages 15 and 16, in a New Jersey shore town.  When their dad, a “nice drunk,” lands himself in jail, they cope in different ways.  Skate and her boyfriend Perry are inseparable, until he goes off to Rutgers leaving her behind.  Rosie is drawn to a boy in her support group.  Within the embrace of their warmhearted community, the girls find hope for the future.   The Author: Beth Ann Bauman Location: New York, NY Beth Ann Bauman is… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Fall · Author Spotlight · Bauman, Beth Ann · Contemporary · Events · Family · Interviews · Local · National · New York · Random House · Rated PG-13 · Romance · Young Adult

TELL ME A SECRET by Holly Cupala

August 7th, 2009 by Holly Cupala · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
  • Publisher: HarperTeen
  • Release Date: June 22, 2010
  • ISBN (hardcover): 978-0061766664
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl… In the five years since her bad-girl sister Xanda’s death, Miranda Mathison has wondered about the secret her sister took to the grave, and what really happened the night she died. Now, just as Miranda is on the cusp of her dreams—a best friend to unlock her sister’s world, a ticket to art school, and a boyfriend to fly her away from it all—Miranda has a secret all her own. Then two lines on a pregnancy test confirm her worst… Continue reading

Categories: 2010 Spring · Connect · Contemporary · Cupala, Holly · Death · Drama · Events · Family · First Love/First Crush · Grief · HarperTeen · Literature · Local · Love · National · Peer Pressure · Rated PG-13 · Romance · Secrecy · Suicide · Washington · Young Adult

Freaked by J. T. Dutton

June 24th, 2009 by J. T. Dutton · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Winter 2009
  • Publisher: HarperCollins
  • Release Date: March 17, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover):  ISBN-13: 978-0061370793
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD                         
FREAKED is about 15 year old prep school student Scotty Loveletter, ardent fan of the Grateful Dead. Facing a difficult meeting with his mother who is America’s best known sex self-help expert, Scotty road trips to a Dead show. The Author: J. T. Dutton Location: Cleveland, Ohio J. T. Dutton was raised on a horse farm in Northwest Connecticut until attending Skidmore College. After receiving a BA in English and spending a little time not knowing what she wanted to do with her life… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Winter · Contemporary · Drugs · Dutton, J. T. · Events · Family · HarperCollins Children's Books · Humor · Local · National · Ohio · Rated PG-13 · Young Adult

WATERSMEET by Ellen Jensen Abbott

March 4th, 2009 by Ellen Jensen Abbott · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: April 1, 2009
  • Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children's Books
  • Release Date: April 1, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-7614-5536-3
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
From her birth, Abisina has been an outcast-for the color of her eyes and skin, and for her lack of a father. Only her mother's status as the village healer has kept her safe. But when a mythic leader arrives, Abisina's life is ripped apart. She escapes alone to try to find the father and the home she has never known. In a world of extremes, from the deepest prejudice to the greatest bonds of duty and loyalty, Abisina must find her own… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Spring · Abbott, Ellen Jensen · Action/Adventure · Events · Fantasy · Friendship · Local · Marshall Cavendish · Mythology · National · Pennsylvania · Rated PG · Young Adult

THE HOLLOW by Jessica Verday

February 7th, 2009 by Jessica Verday · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Fall 2009
  • Publisher: Simon Pulse
  • Release Date: October 6, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-4169-7893-0
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
When Abbey's best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead...and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey has never felt so desperately alone. Then she meets Caspian, a gorgeous and mysterious stranger who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral and keeps reappearing in Abbey's life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again...but also special. Just when Abbey… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Fall · Death · Events · Fantasy · Friendship · Local · Mystery · National · Rated PG · Romance · Simon Pulse · Tennessee · Verday, Jessica · Young Adult

THE MONSTER VARIATIONS by Daniel Kraus

February 7th, 2009 by Daniel Kraus · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Summer, 2009
  • Publisher: Delacorte Press
  • Release Date: August 11, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 9780385737333
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
Someone is killing boys in a small town. The murder weapon is a truck, and the only protection is a curfew enacted to keep kids off the streets. But it's summer-and that alone is worth the risk of staying out late for James, Willie, and Reggie. Willie, who lost his arm in the first hit-and-run attack, finds it hard to keep up with his two best friends as they leave childhood behind. All of them are changing, hounded by their parents, hunted by the killer, and haunted… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Summer · Book Trailer · Contemporary · Crime · Delacorte · Events · Friendship · Horror · Illinois · Kraus, Daniel · Local · National · Thriller · Young Adult

BULL RIDER by Suzanne Morgan Williams

January 26th, 2009 by Suzanne Morgan Williams · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Winter 2009
  • Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
  • Release Date: February 24, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-4169-6130-7
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
Fourteen year old Cam O'Mara is a ranch kid from the sage brush country of central Nevada. He is a skateboarder, not a champion bull rider like his brother Ben, but when Ben joins the Marines and is seriously injured in Iraq, Cam turns to his family traditions and in particular bull riding to overcome his grief and to give his brother hope for a new life. Ellen Fockler, library coordinator for Washoe County School District says: Suzanne Morgan Williams' novel, BULL RIDER, vividly captures life… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Winter · Action/Adventure · Events · Family · Local · Margaret K. McElderry · Middle Grade · National · Nevada · Williams, Suzanne Morgan

FAIREST OF THEM ALL by Jan Blazanin

January 26th, 2009 by Jan Blazanin · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Spring 2009
  • Publisher: MTV Books
  • Release Date: April 21, 2009
  • ISBN (paperback): 978-1-4165-7993-9
Fifteen-year-old Oribella Bettencourt has a perfect life. She's a dancer, a model, and star of the beauty queen circuit. With her mother guiding her career, she's on the fast track to stardom when a Hollywood producer comes to Des Moines looking for a beautiful girl with lustrous golden hair to play a major role in his new movie. And Oribella fits that description perfectly. So what if she doesn't have any friends or anyone to talk to except her mother? She's on the brink of having all her… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Spring · Blazanin, Jan · Contemporary · Events · Family · Friendship · Grief · Iowa · Local · MTV Books · National · Rated PG · Young Adult

INITIATION by Susan Fine

January 26th, 2009 by Susan Fine · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Spring 2009
  • Publisher: Flux
  • Release Date: May 1, 2009
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
What comes from stuffing eight hundred blue-blazered boys into one school, where fifteen floors filled with classrooms and libraries and lunchrooms and science labs stack and bury desperate boys right on top of each other? That's what freshman Mauricio Londoño discovers, along with a few things about Macbeth and geometry, during his first long year at the St. Stephen's School for Boys in New York City. The Author: Susan Fine Location: Chicago After many years in New York City, Susan Fine said goodbye to Zabar's and Gray's Papaya in search of an… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Spring · Contemporary · Events · Fine, Susan · Flux · Friendship · Illinois · Local · National · Rated R · Young Adult

HAVEN by Beverly Patt

January 8th, 2009 by Beverly Patt · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Fall 2009
  • Publisher: Blooming Tree Press
  • Release Date:  TBD
  • ISBN (paperback): 978-1-933831-24-4
With his Christmas wish for an ATV dashed, Rudy Morris isn't sure how he fits into his family anymore. Latonya Dennis just wants a family to fit into. Their paths cross on Christmas Day, when Latonya ends up as the annual orphan at the Morris household. But Latonya doesn't disappear from their lives the day after Christmas like the other orphans have. She pulls Rudy and his best friend, Stark, into a scheme to fix up a rusty, old ATV and use it to help her run away from… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Fall · Blooming Tree Press · Contemporary · Foster Care · Friendship · Humor · Illinois · Local · Middle Grade · National · Patt, Beverly · Rated G

YOU ARE SO UNDEAD TO ME by Stacey Jay

January 7th, 2009 by Stacey Jay · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Winter 2009
  • Publisher: Razorbill
  • Release Date: January 22nd, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): N/A
  • ISBN (paperback): 978-1595142252                               
Q: HOW MANY ZOMBIES DOES IT TAKE TO RUIN A SOCIAL LIFE? A: NOT MANY. Megan Berry is a Zombie Settler by birth, which means she's part-time shrink to a whole bunch of semi-dead people with killer issues. All Megan really wants is to go to homecoming, but when you're trailed by a bunch of slobbering corpses whenever you leave the house, it's kinda hard to score a date. Let's just say Megan's love life could use some major resuscitation. Megan's convinced her life can't get any worse -… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Winter · Arkansas · Contemporary · Events · Family · Friendship · Horror · Humor · Jay, Stacey · Local · National · Rated PG-13 · Razorbill · Romance · Young Adult

PRADA & PREJUDICE by Mandy Hubbard

January 5th, 2009 by Mandy Hubbard · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Summer 2009
  • Publisher: Razorbill
  • Release Date: June 11, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 1595142606
  • ISBN (paperback): 978-1595142603
Fifteen-year-old Callie buys a pair of real Prada pumps to impress the cool crowd on a school trip to London. Goodbye, Callie the clumsy geek-girl, hello popularity! But before she knows what's hit her, Callie wobbles, trips, conks her head... and wakes up in the year 1815! She stumbles about until she meets the kind-hearted Emily, who takes Callie in, mistaking her for a long-lost friend. Sparks soon fly between Callie and Emily's cousin, Alex, the maddeningly handsome-though totally arrogant-Duke of Harksbury. Too… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Summer · Contemporary · Friendship · Historical Fiction · Hubbard, Mandy · Local · Love · National · Razorbill · Romance · Washington · Young Adult

PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE by Cynthea Liu

October 14th, 2008 by Cynthea Liu · Email post Email post · Print Print

  • Publication Season/Year: Summer 2009
  • Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
  • Release Date: June 11, 2009
  • ISBN (hardcover): 978-0399250439
  • ISBN (paperback): TBD
Twelve-year-old Paris Pan’s life is a mess. She’s just moved to a tiny town in Nowheresville, Oklahoma; her family life is a comical disaster; her new friends are more like frenemies; and the boy she has a crush on is a dork. Things couldn’t possibly get worse, until she discovers that a girl mysteriously died years ago while taking a seventh-grade rite of passage–the Dare– right near Paris’s new house. So when Paris starts hearing strange noises coming from the creepy run-down shed in her backyard… Continue reading

Categories: 2009 Summer · Contemporary · Events · Family · Friendship · G.P. Putnam's Sons · Humor · Illinois · Liu, Cynthea · Local · Middle Grade · Multicultural · Mystery · National · Paranormal · Quiz/Discussion Guide/Activity · Rated PG