I've been lucky enough to work with writing coach extraordinaire Bruce McAllister. But before he became the go-to guy for struggling writers, he was a precocious teen who thought he knew everything. Or at least, more than his English teacher, who kept force-feeding him exercises in finding symbolism in works of Lit-rah-toor. He decided to ask the Great Authors himself …
Picture Book Roundup
Another roundup of fiction picture books for you all. Honestly, this is such a huge category that it's nice to have a bunch of quickie reviews. Today's come from Dawn Mooney at My Thoughts Exactly. This is Dawn's third year with us, all of them on fiction picture books. She's pretty excited to be back and we're just as happy …
NPR gives us a mention
Many thanks to Apps organizer Mary Ann Scheuer for mentioning us during her interview with NPR's "Here & Now." The show also links to us on their site. If you're coming from NPR, welcome! Browse last year's finalists and winners and this year's nominations (listed by genre in the sidebar). Join us Jan. 1st for this year's announcement of finalists. …
Review
“A Tale Dark & Grim” by Adam Gidwitz
How could anyone resist a blog called Good Books and Good Wine? Blogger April Conant writes with verve and atty-tood about the books she loves (and there are a lot of them), so much so that it earned her a berth on our tween Fantasy & Science Fiction panel. April says she's twenty-something and a feminist, is in love with …
No such thing as a free hobby
A disturbing article about William Morrow's not-so-nice letter to bloggers. Basically, they imposed new restrictions on their review copies and initially demanded the books be reviewed within one month. They later retracted the deadline, but the memo still says it's a blogger's "job" to review the books they send. Not hobby, labor of love or avocation. Job. Note our own …
Review
“Why Do Puppies Do That?” by Seymour Simon
Jeff Barger's goal at NC Teacher Stuff is to help other educators like himself find the most helpful resources for their classrooms. He's joined us this year as a judge in book apps, and his reviews help readers assess how friendly the app would be for the littlest user. In reviewing an app by the "king of science books" Seymour …
Review
“Rival” by Sara Bennett Wealer
Stacked blogger Kelly Jensen recently announced she's read her 230th book this year. If that's not enough to make the rest of us feel almost illiterate, then consider this: she also writes some of the meatiest reviews of those books ever committed to pixels. Don't click on her site if you're in a rush, unless you're bookmarking it for later. …
Now that your NaNoWriMo masterpiece is nearly done …
…it's time to send your baby out into the world. Or at least the first 250 words. My own YA manuscript, "The Temple of Doubt" was discovered thanks to a Gotham Writers' Workshop contest that's now become an annual event. I came in fifth, which was enough to nab me a wonderful agent. There's only two more days until the …
The absolute last word on bookmarks
They arrived earlier this week. That's a nearly 3-month delay from when I reordered them. Must be some kind of record. Aargh. And just in time for it to be 2012; making the bookmarks even more dated. Double aargh. Anyway, if you requested 'em, you're getting 'em. I'll stand in line along with the rest of the world at the …
Review
“Wonderstruck” by Brian Selznick
Take a sec to pat yourselves on the back, Cybilians (*pat*pat*), for being one of the first literary awards to go all multi-media while others were still saying "graphic what?" Alysa Stewart joins this forward-looking bunch of judges this year in Graphic Novels. She contributes to everead, just one of five blogs listed in her Blogspot profile (wow … Alysa, …