Gemini Bites, by Patrick Ryan, Scholastic
Huntress, by Malinda Lo, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
I am J, by Cris Beam, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
PINK, by Lili Wilkinson, HarperCollins
Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy, by Bil Wright, Simon & Schuster

Congrats again to Lili, and to all the nominees!

And speaking of Lili, look at the lovely poster Allen & Unwin, her fabu Australian publishers, had up in their booth at Bologna for her new novel Love-shy!

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!

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!

But what about since then? A search of my query mailbox shows 2,130 queries received and responded to since July, with another hundred or so that went right to my spam folder. I requested 41 partials, which is a better average than the first half of the year, but does include material from a conference, as well as just emails. And I asked for three full manuscripts.

So who did I say yes to? Well, I signed Erin Danehy in July, with a YA urban fantasy. And I may have more news to share next week, on something I’ve been asking for all year. We’ll see.

But roughly, you’re looking at .04% odds. And… wow. That’s tough. It’s stark, seeing those numbers. But you know what? I’m still looking. Ok, not right now — any queries received after midnight tonight will be deleted unread. But I have no doubt that next spring, when I reopen to queries, I will be starving for something great to read, and I have no doubt you guys can bring it.

What other stats can I share that may be of interest? I closed new domestic deals for Josie Bloss, Matthew Cody, Trish Doller, Stephanie Perkins, and Ransom Riggs, plus several more that I’m excited to officially announce soon. I finalized foreign deals for rights in Chinese (both simplified and complex characters), Croatian, Germany, Hungarian, Indonesian, Portuguese (in Brazil), and Australia and the UK, and closed on a film option for Matthew Cody‘s Powerless.

We got some great reviews, including several stars, and a lot of love from the internets for for our books and our authors — I couldn’t be prouder. Tom Sniegoski‘s Fallen series hit the New York Times bestseller list, and over a million nerdfighters heard John Green praise Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins.

What else? Sara Beitia‘s debut The Last Good Place of Lily Odilon came out to much praise, Kater Cheek‘s weekly webcomic brought chicken-related laughs, S. Terrell French‘s Operation Redwood continued to win awards, Sara Raasch got a tattoo and finished college, Susan Steward went to the Kennedy Space Center as part of NASA’s TweetUp program, Daniel Blau Rogge moved back to NYC, and Amy Spalding rocked the improv stage at LA’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

And what can we look forward to? LOTS!!

January brings the release of XVI by Julia Karr, Small Persons with Wings by Ellen Booraem, and the US release of Pink by Lili Wilkinson. Looking beyond that, Spring sees the long-awaited release of The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson, the sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, while Summer brings us Carrie Harris‘ debut Bad Taste in Boys. Fall takes us to London for The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton and The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson, the first in her new series, and gives us Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins, Faking Faith by Josie Bloss, and The Dead Gentleman by Matthew Cody.

Plus, my own long-expected debut of BabyUn.

I can’t wait to have even more things to celebrate! In the meantime, I hope you all have a very happy, healthy, and book-filled holiday season. I’ll check in here occasionally with more news as I have it to share. Merry merry!!!

PINK was an outstanding novel by Lili Wilkinson. It covered lots of different subjects, while most teen books only touch on one or two, such as sex, your identity, trying to fit in, and all the while staying true to your inner self. I really enjoyed this new novel. I loved reading as Ava found out about her true and inner self, and that is doesn’t matter what others think. This book is for all of those out there and in the middle.

Check out the whole thing!

It got me thinking about the way we hear about reviews in this business. In this case, we heard about the review from Lili’s editor, who got an email from the site itself with a link to the review. Sometimes, with trade publications like Kirkus, the magazine will send all of a publisher’s reviews for an upcoming issue to the publicity department, which will then distribute the reviews in-house, and then the editor or publicity contact will pass it along to the author (and hopefully, the agent, too!). With other publications, you know a book’s been reviewed when you see it in print — and depending on when you get your copy of Publishers Weekly or the New York Times, you may hear from someone else before you see it yourself.

Still, whatever way the news comes to us, it’s always great to get it. Yes, even bad reviews. I mean, we don’t prefer those, of course, but bad reviews can still sell books! And that’s what we’re here for, right?

You’ve all seen this post on Salon about some horrible reviews of the classics, right?

This refreshing fish-out-of-water story is just what the doctor ordered to spice up the tired old chick lit genre. Ava’s classic adolescent identity crisis is made brand spanking new by the fact that she’s already living the bohemian life most high schoolers dream of, but instead longs for structure, collared shirts and a date to the senior prom. Which just goes to show that the grass is always greener on the other side of the cafeteria… and nobody illustrates that fact better than Aussie author Lili Wilkinson, who also happens to be employed in the incredibly cool profession of teen librarian when she’s not writing super snappy dialogue or creating moments of exquisite fictional teenage embarrassment. All this good, girly, gothy fun can be found at a library or bookstore near you February 2011.

Hooray for Reading Rants!

Allen & Unwin did a spectacular job with the original Australian edition last summer — I can’t wait to see the reaction here in the States. Already, we’ve got some great blurbs. John Green says of PINK, “This fun, razor-sharp, and moving novel reminds us that pink – like love – is a many-splendored thing. Read it. It might just change your life.” And Justine Larbalestier says “I laughed, I cried and I occasionally burst into song.”

Pink is scheduled for release in February 2011.