The Stonewall Award is “given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience”, and we’re thrilled that they included Pink on the Honor list. For the complete list of winners, check out the ALA’s press release.

In other news, congrats to Maureen Johnson, whose The Name of the Star was nominated for an Edgar Award for Young Adult. Woot!

And finally, Matthew Cody picked a winner for the signed copy of The Dead Gentleman I’m giving away. And the winner is… @theoriginaledi! Edi, send me an email with your mailing address, and I’ll get Matt to sign a copy for you! Add a comment below if you’d like any specific personalized message.

Congrats to ALL the winners!

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!

Congratulations to Kate Baker, Annie Curtis, Agnes, Penelope Lolohea, Nicky Ball, Jamie Handling, Sandi Jones, Mary Brebner, and Trish. Please email me with your address and I’ll pair you with one of the fabulous donors who’ve come forward since I started this thing last week.

As for MY box of books (contents pictures above), I’m delighted to send them to Stephanie W. Stephanie commented:

I am a librarian in Louisiana and the head of Young Adult Services. In the past year, we won a Great Stories CLUB grant from ALA to start a reading program at our local detention center, Green Oaks. The program was extremely successful but after it ended, we no longer had the funding to continue the same program. We’ve made do and continued to visit but as a result of our work, their reading skills are improving and the school time incorporates free read. We were able to get low level readers but they need real books and a challenge. As another result, the board at the detention center has agreed to let us have a spare room and start their first library. I would love to have the books as a starter collection for these teens. I love them so much and they are wonderful kids who are desperate for someone to care. Thanks!

I love the idea of these books going to start a library. If I do nothing else good with my life, and my love of books, at least I’ve done this. Stephanie, please email me with your address so I can get these books out to you!

I wish I had enough books to send to every single one of you who commented and entered! If you happen to know of any other charities that pair donated books with people who need them, won’t you let us know in the comments? Someone mentioned ARCs Float On, which looks like a great matching system. Are there others?

So, please, if you need a box of books, leave a comment on yesterday’s post. And thanks again to all those who have promised to help out, including:

• Jennifer Laughran
• Barry Goldblatt
• Shana Cohen
• Robin Wasserman
• Mandy Hubbard
• Lisa McMann
• Holly Root
• My kt literary clients
• My subagent, Rebecca Mancini

If I missed anyone who offered another box, send me a note on Twitter or leave a comment on this post. I’ll go through all the comments on Monday and start matching donors with donees. (Donees? That doesn’t look right. What are people who receive donations called?)

And thanks again. To everyone!

So, in an effort to make some space, and save my existing shelves, I’m reorganizing, and hoping to find new homes for some well-loved books.

And that’s where you come in! Are you a teen librarian looking to expand your collection? A teacher hoping to interest her classroom in some popular YA? Let me know! Tell me why you want this box of books, which includes a selection from my own clients as well as some titles from my own personal collection. I’ll pick one winner next week for the whole lot, so feel free to wow me with your entry. Videos, pictures, haiku, limericks — all are welcome!

UPDATE: You guys are killing me with these stories. I want to send boxes of books to ALL of you, but I don’t have enough. Luckily, Jennifer Laughran, Barry Goldblatt and Robin Wasserman are stepping in with contributions as well, so we’ll be awarding FOUR boxes, at least!

EVEN MORE UPDATE: And Mandy Hubbard! And Lisa McMann!

The fine print: the winners, to be picked at my sole discretion, will each receive a single box of books, not to be resold, for private use only. All decisions are final. No bribes will be accepted. All sound reasons for receiving said box will be weighed equally. I like you. You’re nifty.

A clever, scary, little-bit-sexy beginning to a series that takes Louisiana teen Rory to London.

Rory’s parents are teaching for a year at the University of Bristol, so she gets to spend senior year at Wexford, a London boarding school. She recounts her story, from mining her colorful relatives for stories to wow her English classmates, coming to grips with heavier course loads and making a couple of fairly adorable friends. But London is soon caught up in fear, as a copycat killer has begun recreating Jack the Ripper’s bloody murders in gruesome detail. Johnson fearlessly takes readers from what seems like a cool innocent-abroad-with-iPod story to supernatural thriller, when Rory sees a man no one else does on campus the night of one of those murders. Enter a trio of young folks who are ghost hunters of a very specific sort. The tension ramps up exquisitely among cups of tea, library visits and the London Underground. The explosive ending is genuinely terrifying but never loses the wit, verve and humor that Rory carries with her throughout. While this tale does conclude, it does so with a complicated revelation that will have readers madly eager for the next installment.

Nice touches about friendship, kissing, research and the way a boy’s curls might touch his collar fully integrate with a clear-eyed look at a pitiless killer.

And have you seen the official trailer for The Name of the Star? Check it out!

And speaking of MJ’s new book, I promised a galley to one of the many fabulous commenters on my post last week, didn’t I? Let’s see who random.org thinks should win it… Congrats, Rebecca Enzor! Rebecca, email me with your mailing address, and I’ll send you your galley!

Speaking of contests, do stop by Kiki’s site for a chance to win The Faerie Ring as well as two other September releases, including Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Friend of the Blog and all-around fabulous person Laini Taylor. This one is tops on my TBR pile, for certain!

Speaking of contests, I announced another one on Twitter last night, though it’s a slightly more personal one: using this image as your base (also available without the background), have some fun photoshopping Beau. The hashtag is #photoshoppingBeau. The best one, by my and Rexroth’s sole judgment, wins a fabulous prize. Do YOU have mad photoshop skillz? Show ‘em off!

The wonderful thing about cons, though, is how many of them there are! If you love comics, there’s Comic Con, in both New York and San Diego. Leaky Con has you covered if you’re a Harry Potter fan. Love RPGs? Try Gen Con. Video games? E3. All things nerd? You gotta go to PAX. And while those are the ones I can think of off the top of my nerd-head, I have no doubt there’s tons more. Knitting conventions. Spinning conventions. Cooking conventions. Car conventions. Doll collecting conventions. If you’re a nerd for something (and everyone’s a nerd for something), there’s probably a convention for you.

So, in honor of Comic-Con, and my new Twitter followers who brought me up to 5,000 last night, a little contest: you tell me about the nerdiest convention you’ve ever been to (and if you haven’t been to one, make up a story!), and I’ll pick a random commenter to win a copy of Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris AND a kt literary tote bag. Because, if you’ve ever been to a convention, you know some of the best swag are the bags themselves.

Ahoy!

And the AP wrote:

Riggs deftly moves between fantasy and reality, prose and photography — the children of the orphanage were inspired by actual vintage photographs that are sprinkled throughout the book — to create an enchanting and at times positively terrifying story. And while it has a decidedly young adult feel to it, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” will assuredly please readers of all ages, particularly those who enjoy a healthy dose of gothic in their fiction.

Congrats, Ransom! To celebrate, as promised, a copy of the novel to the best question from last week’s Open Thread. While Mike’s question inspired a whole other blog post, I have to give the book to lalibrarylady86, who asked me about the shoes I was wearing when I first met Maureen Johnson. Lady, please email me at daphne.unfeasible@gmail.com with your mailing address, and I’ll send a finished copy of Miss Peregrine to you as soon as I get one!

And if I haven’t already convinced you to watch Ransom’s chilling book trailer, may I interest you in the director’s cut?

Carrie’s running a contest in connection with the release of the trailer, so stop by her blog to get all the gory details!