It has been hard to post here over the last few weeks, but I am determined to finish listing my favorites of last year (even if, in the end, it is simply a list). These are not necessarily my Caldecott predictions, as the books that I end up loving most are often not the sort [...]

Santa left a signed print of this Chris Van Dusen art (from IF I BUILT A CAR, natch) under the tree for me:

No, I wasn’t excited or anything. It’s just okay, I guess.  I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I feel lukewarm at best about that book.
(Did I mention it’s in the top [...]

Four series I love came to an end this year. Two I’m okay with; one I’m uncertain about, ONE I AM IN COMPLETE DENIAL ABOUT YES JESSICA DAY GEORGE I AM LOOKING AT YOU. Although I am very sad (and in denial, DON’T LOOK AWAY WHEN I AM TALKING TO YOU, JESSICA), fortunately for me [...]

In honor of the early release of Chris’s new book THE CIRCUS SHIP, we are posting this video in which we ramble on like besotted maniacs about his books (for about six minutes). We made the video before the book had come out, thinking it wasn’t going to be released until mid-October, but we were [...]

I am going to be able to sell SKATING SHOES! La la la la la la! In my head, I am dancing around the room and singing! Marry me, Random House – you’ve just made my whole week. I can’t wait for this fall!
(Psst: MOVIE SHOES next, okay? Please?)

(or not so occasional…I’ll probably have several posts like this in the coming days to get some books out of my head, and then it’ll likely taper off a bit.)
It never fails to surprise me when people have never even heard of a book I love. Even though I know that there are bajillions of [...]

From Sherman’s website:
Dear readers, my YA novel, Radioactive Love Song, has been replaced on my writing and publication schedule by The Magic and Tragic Year of My Broken Thumb, which is great news, since Magic and Tragic is the sequel to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Yes, I am currently hard at [...]

(no cover art yet)
Jessica Day George’s website says that the upcoming DRAGON SPEAR is the last of the books she will write about Creel and her dragon friends, and now I am VERY VERY MAD at Jessica Day George. Stop writing if the books seem in danger of starting to suck, yes, but THAT IS [...]

My husband’s been away for a few days, so there hasn’t been much time for writing. I sat down today to write some reviews and instead got sucked into reading The All-Of-A-Kind Family Companion which a thoughtful Betsy-Tacy email list member posted this morning. It is utterly fascinating and has sucked up the better part [...]

If I go more than a day without posting here, you can be pretty sure it’s because I am reading very bad galleys. I have, in fact, been reading some dreadfully bad galleys, galleys of books whose upcoming publishing I don’t understand, but I don’t want to necessarily say that here because do I need [...]