Cliques, dating, and the school social scene are the focus of this Australian import. Midge, 16, is embarrassed to be lagging behind her friend Tahni in the boyfriend department, so she invents one on the spot. Her imaginary guy is an Englishman named Ben and before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s created a whole backstory for him. By complete chance, a transfer student matching this description arrives at school. The real Ben agrees to play along, blackmailing Midge in exchange for homework help. Midge is lovably nerdy—each chapter opens with a dictionary definition, and she obsesses about proper grammar. Über-geek George might seem to be a better match for her, but even she can’t lower her standards enough to date a live-action role-player. Her parents’ possible divorce amps up the stress before everything is pleasantly resolved. This is a surprisingly lighthearted, funny book, peppered with Australian slang. Teen drinking (legal in Australia) is handled as routine. Fans of Louise Rennison’s “Confessions of Georgia Nicolson” series (HarperTeen) or Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (Candlewick, 2003) will find a lot to like in this frothy offering.

Note: The NY Office is not actually located in the Flatiron Building (pictured above), it’s just my favorite building in NYC.

We are pleased to announce that the Amelia Bloomer Project selected Pink as one of the titles to be honored this year on the Amelia Bloomer List. Each year the Amelia Bloomer List selects the best books with significant feminist content that will appeal to young readers from birth to 18 years old, published in the previous 18 months.

The Amelia Bloomer Project is part of the American Library Association, Social Responsibilities Round Table’s (SRRT) Feminist Task Force (FTF). You can find out more about the Amelia Bloomer Project at http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/ and view the complete list of recommended titles at http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/2012-bloomer-list/.

Thank you for writing Pink. We found it to be a story of evolving self-awareness and personal transformation.

Pink was also selected for the 2012 Rainbow List, selected by a joint task force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table and the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Queer Round Table of the American Library Association.

Hooray for Lili, and for Pink!

Julia’s colleague on the League of Extraordinary Writers and author of Ashfall, Mike Mullin writes:

Julia’s accomplished the nigh-impossible—writing a sequel that’s even better than her excellent debut. [...] Julia achieves this feat by deepening and complicating Nina’s story. In XVI, sex is a threat that looms with Nina’s sixteenth birthday—when her dystopian society will literally brand her a sex-teen. In Truth, sex is something to be both feared and enjoyed, making Nina’s inner struggle more complex and relatable. Similarly, the world-building deepens in Truth—we learn how the Governing Council formed—and as a consequence the book feels even more plausible than XVI.

I couldn’t agree more!

If you can’t make it to Bloomington tonight, you can check out Julia’s virtual online launch, complete with question and answer session!

I look forward to hearing more good news about Truth soon!

Two young New Yorkers from different eras unite to save the world from an invasion of zombies led by an elegant, corpse-wearing darkling. Shuttling among worlds, times, and points of view, Cody chronicles the recruitment of Tommy, a street urchin from 1901, into a wormhole-traveling Explorer’s Society menaced by the powerful and mysterious Dead Gentleman. Guided by a device that can peer through time, Tommy contacts 12-year-old Jezebel a century into his future and tasks her with protecting an enigmatic clockwork bird that holds the key to the Gentleman’s ability to conquer our planet. Despite all the quick changes and fortuitous coincidences, readers will enjoy watching the two quarreling protagonists take on zombies and other creepy-crawlies on the way to a fiery, if inconclusive, air battle over the Hudson River. Chucking in elements of steampunk, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs along with vampires, three-armed aliens, inscrutable monks, closet monsters, and even dinosaurs, Cody pays tribute to classic adventure authors and genres here as he dishes up an exciting time-travel tale.

I’d love to share a personally autographed copy of The Dead Gentleman with one of you. For a chance to win, just leave a comment below with a brief description of where you would go if you could travel anywhere in time (past, present, or future) or space (alternate worlds, ahoy!). I’ll pick one winner on Monday after I return from ALA Midwinter.

EDITED TO ADD: As per his comment below, Matt’s upped the stakes and offered to sign the winner’s copy!

Hooray for new books!

Whatever you do, don’t call them fairies. They are Small Persons with Wings, and Mellie’s family has the dubious distinction of an ancestral legacy (or curse) of obligation to the Small Persons. As long as the Turpin family holds the Gemmaluna, a magical moonstone that uncovers deception, they must provide a home to the Small Persons. What this means for Mellie is that when she and her parents move from Boston to her deceased grandfather’s dumpy inn in a coastal village, they inherit an infestation of artifice-loving Small Persons—and that tribe is rife with discord. Take cranky, squabbling Small Persons, bohemian, sweetly ineffectual parents, a nosy neighbor who happens to be the chief of police and his scrawny, likable son, and Mellie’s got her hands full. Booraem’s debut, The Unnameables (2008), presented readers with an utterly original American fantasy, and this follow-up, though unrelated except in its examination of creativity, is equally fresh and distinctive. Frequently hysterical dialogue, a hugely sympathetic protagonist and a baroque concatenation of magics and counter-magics will keep readers glued to this smart, earthy and thoughtful tale.

Yay, Ellen!

Maureen’s The Name of the Star is #8 on the Top Ten list, with this great blurb:

Louisiana teen Rory Deveaux arrives in London to attend Wexford Academy just as a series of Jack the Ripper copycat murders grips the city. Rory may hold the key to finding the murderer. A ghost story with a twist, this is sophisticated and sassy, with more than enough suspense to keep you madly turning pages. I can’t wait for the next book!

Thanks, Joanne R. Fritz of Chester County Book & Music Company, West Chester, PA!

Matt’s The Dead Gentleman is a pick on the Ages 9-12 list, with this write-up from Ellen Klein of Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, VA:

This fantastic time-travel tale with a scary twist is great for reading with a flashlight under your bedcovers! While exploring the mysterious basement of a New York City hotel, 12-year-old Jezebel Lemon encounters the ‘ghost’ of Tommy Learner, a time-traveler from the 19th century. Together, they must thwart the evil Dead Gentleman, who wants to kill every living thing on Earth. Their desperate mission takes them to places you can only begin to imagine!

And last, but certainly not least, more love on the Teen list for Steph’s Lola and the Boy Next Door, with this fun blurb from Jenny Cohen of Waucoma Bookstore in Hood River, OR:

Familiar characters Anna and St. Clair appear in this companion novel to Anna and the French Kiss. Lola, who wears outrageous, fun outfits, thinks she has the perfect life with her family and hot rocker boyfriend. But then her old next door neighbors, the Bell twins, move back into their house. Cricket Bell, ‘the boy next door,’ was one of her good friends growing up, and Lola finally has to deal with her feelings for him. As in her previous novel, Perkins accurately describes what it is like to be a teenager and the angst of figuring out a relationship.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m using this list as a great source of ideas for Christmas presents!

Call them Parvi Pennati, call them Small Persons with Wings, just don’t call them fairies. Booraem’s middle-grade novel, in which an outcast girl comes into her own, is frequently sad, but those moments are perfectly balanced with humor and hope. The result is a deeply believable and human story—one that also has room for vainglorious fairies, talking mannequins, and other wonders.

Congrats to Ellen, and may many more accolades come your way!