Kidliterate

GIVEAWAY: THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, signed by Katherine Applegate!

Giveaway extended through Thursday, March 1st!

Thanks to the incredible generosity of the author, I have a signed first edition copy of THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN to give away to a lucky reader! I am absolutely crazy for this amazing, moving book, and I know you will be too.

If you'd like a beautiful signed copy of the awesomeness of Ivan for your very own bookshelf, simply comment here or over at the Kidliterate Facebook page. I'll draw the winner this coming Wednesday, February 29th. If you're commenting here, please make sure you check back - I had a couple of winners last time I was never able to reach, and ended up having to give those books away to someone else.

(Everyone will be relieved to know that we have just had FedEx pickups arranged at work, and shipping of winnings should now not take...er...a few months, in some cases. If you are still waiting on a prize from the year-end giveaway, everything should be mailed out by the middle of next week.)

WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Selznick

Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick is the best book I've read in 2012.

I never thought I could love a Brian Selznick book more than I loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret but I was mistaken.

I think you should read it if you like journeys, memories, books, collecting things that mean the most to you, museums, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the stars in the sky, and New York City.

"Ben thought about ... what it meant to curate your own life ... What would it be like to pick and choose the objects and stories that would go into your own cabinet? How would Ben curate his own life? And then, thinking about his museum box, and his house, and his books, and the secret room, he realized he'd already begun doing it. Maybe, thought Ben, we are all cabinets of wonders."

My love for this book is big and real. I can't even speak coherently about it.

It is magic.

 

It was a cloudy (but not dark and stormy) afternoon. . .

Hi, my name is Michele and I am a Madeleine L'Engle FANATIC! I don't just like her books, I LOVE them.  I think about Meg and Charles Wallace and Calvin (and Poly and Vicky and Adam and Zachary and so on and so on.) like they are my best friends. Well, maybe I don't think about Zachary like he is my best friend, but I think you know what I mean. I imagine what Charles Wallace is doing right now. I imagine that, at some point in their lives, Vicky and Poly become the best of friends.

I have always been thrilled that I live in Connecticut--close to the Northwest Hills--because that is where my book BFFs live! Right now, I live about a half of a mile away from CT Route 63, which leads right through downtown Goshen and up into Litchfield. I've been to the top of Mohawk Mountain many times, where The Austin Kids go when they need perspective. (And, trust me, if you can't get perspective from the beautiful views there, you can't get perspective anywhere.) I have driven past old stone walls and wonder if there are any stones with Ogham writing on them. I love living near these stomping grounds, if you will, for my book BFFs.

I was first introduced to A Wrinkle In Time by Mrs. Schafer, my fourth grade gifted teacher. She read it out loud to us while we worked on projects about the story. (I chose to build a life-size model of IT for my project. By the time I was done, I knew I would NEVER, EVER want to be a brain surgeon. EVER.) To this day, when I reread Wrinkle, I can still hear Mrs. Schafer's voices for all of the characters. . . and I love it.

After our unit on Wrinkle was done, nothing was ever mentioned about companion books. I spent a lot of time in my library and one day, while looking for Pippi Longstocking, I stumbled upon a TREASURE TROVE of Madeleine L'Engle's books.  And that was it.  I was hooked.

This month marks A Wrinkle In Time's 50th Anniversary.  Last Saturday, February 11th, I attended the 50th Anniversary celebration at Symphony Space in New York City. And what a joyous celebration it was!

There was a great panel discussion lead by NY children's librarian, Betsy Bird. On the panel were some rather important YA authors: Lois Lowry (The Giver *and* my beloved Anastasia Krupnik), Katherine Paterson (Bridge To Terabithia), Rebecca Stead (When You Reach Me) and R. L. Stein (The Goosebumps Series).

It was an interesting discussion, especially since out of all the authors, only Rebecca Stead, who was the youngest author on the stage, read Wrinkle when she was a child.  Ms Stead was great because she didn't really want to talk TOO much about the book. She would answer questions, but then say, "I don't want to talk about this book too much!" She didn't want to ruin this beloved book by looking at it with an adult's point of view, which is something that I totally and completely understand.  The discussion touched upon some interesting topics: Would Wrinkle win the Newbery now because of the "heavy-handed" religious themes presented in it?  Is Meg the precursor for Katnis? (In my mind, The Hunger Games and Wrinkle cannot even be compared. . . but I guess people do, even though, as many people have said, comparisons are odious.) What would you ask Madeleine L'Engle if you could?

The topics were not kid-friendly topics, really, but what amazed me most was how silent the audience was.  The audience was filled with mostly middle-graders, and they were SILENT. (Pause, for a moment, and think about how IMPRESSIVE this is.) I knew, going in, that there would be a ton of kids in the audience. I'm a mom and a teacher and I was totally ok with there being screaming and talking and crying.  But there was NONE OF THAT.  NONE! There was glorious, respectful SILENCE. All those kids there (girls AND boys) were in awe every moment of the event and ate every word up. To know that this book is still so loved and still so cherished fills my heart with joy.

There was also a showing of 90-Second Newbery film version of A WRINKLE IN TIME, which was campy and very funny. (Although, Meg should have been wearing glasses. . . but that is just me picking a nit.) The trailer for the 50th Anniversary Edition was shown, which was great and I love the song that is playing in the background. One of Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughters, Charlotte Jones Voiklis, spoke about how much her Grandmother would have enjoyed this celebration because she always loved a celebration. How she felt that celebrations, both big and small, were important because they marked the passing of time. Jane Curtin did a wonderful reading from the book--the part where the Mrs Ws tesser them away for the first time--and she got Mrs Whatsit's creaky hinge voice down to PERFECTION. If there is ever a *GOOD* film or stage production, Jane Curtin must play Mrs Whatsit.

After everything was said and done, I waited in a LONG line to have Rebecca Stead sign When You Reach Me and First Light. The line was LONG, LONG, LONG but the kids in the line kept me entertained by their excitement of meeting their favorite authors.  Some kids had new books for Lois Lowry or R. L. Stein to sign, but some of them had their most treasured, well-read, tattered book to sign. Those kids were holding on to their books for dear life, curling them and then uncurling them. Flipping through the pages, reading favorite parts, jumping up and down. Those kids are what this event was made for. Those kids, to put it simply, rock! And so do their parents!

While waiting in the line, I got to say hi to Léna Roy, another of Madeleine L'Engle's granddaughters. I had the pleasure of meeting her last year at R. J. Julia Booksellers, where she read from her wonderful book Edges.  I've enjoyed reading her blog and tweets this past year, and it was nice to say hello again.

This was a wonderful event and I am so pleased I had the opportunity to attend and revel in the joy and love that SO many people feel for Madeleine L'Engle and A Wrinkle In Time.

EVERYBODY SEES THE ANTS by A.S. King

I already knew A.S. King was a really, really good writer. Please Ignore Vera Dietz was the best young adult book that I read in 2011, and I'm so glad that I started 2012 with Everybody Sees the Ants.

What I began to understand about A.S. King while sitting in the audience of her Printz speech in New Orleans, and what was cemented as I read Vera Dietz, is that there is a frankness about her. That she is "frank" might not sound like a compliment, but I mean it as a big one. She speaks frankly and she writes frankly, and she is not afraid to talk about pain or to write about it. 

(Part of the reason I loved Everybody Sees the Ants immediately is because it recalled for me Tiger Eyes, my favorite Judy Blume book and one of my all-time favorite books and a book I probably read at least a hundred times as a young girl. In that book, as you probably know, a teenage girl and her family move to New Mexico to stay with an aunt and uncle after a trauma, and it's a whole new world where the girl is both able to escape her life and find herself again, in a way, and it's perfect. In Ants, a mother brings her son to Arizona after a trauma to stay with an aunt and uncle, and I could write a whole essay here comparing and contrasting these two books, but I won't. I just wanted to point out that I liked that they had this in common.)

This is the story of a boy named Lucky who is treated quite badly by his fellow boys. After one particularly heinous incident at the neighborhood pool, his mom up and relocates them to Arizona to stay with her brother and his wife. Lucky's mom is addicted to swimming, his dad is addicted to the Food Network, and his aunt is addicted to pills, and Lucky escapes it all every night in his dreams. He escapes in his dreams to the jungles of Vietnam, where he spends time with his grandfather, who has been missing in action since the war and whose absence has left a big hole in their lives.

It would seem that this is all in Lucky's mind, right? Or is it? Somehow it doesn't matter, because this is A.S. King, and we go along with it, and we believe. These dreams are presented as rescue missions where Lucky tries to save his grandfather and bring him home. In this jungle are frogs and booby traps and leeches and ants. The lines start to blur for Lucky between being asleep and awake, and whether he's awake or he's dreaming, he sees the ants. 

When his uncle stands up for him when his mom and aunt give him a hard time, Lucky looks at his uncle and notes, "The ants form a rotating halo above his head. They sing that high-pitched note that angels sing."

In an A.S. King book, it just makes sense that Lucky sees the ants. She is able to spin these stories with this sort of unique, well, frankness, and this matter-of-factness, even about things which are quite extraordinary and seemingly impossible, in such a way where the reader believes them to be totally possible. We just accept the story she tells because we love the characters she creates and we believe that the rights and the wrongs that they face are real.

There is so much more to this story than I can touch on here. This book made me feel brave. It is not a book about magic, but it made me believe in magic anyway. You will just have to read it yourself to see what I mean.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green

"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

--The Fault in Our Stars 

This is a book that's being reviewed far and wide all over the universe if you'd like to read more about it. It's currently #1 on the young adult New York Times bestseller list. I think this is a lovely and special book to be sure, but rather than "review" the book, per se, I want say something about Nerdfighteria.

I've read all of John Green's books. (Looking for Alaska is my favorite; I wrote about it here.) I was aware of the existence of Nerdfighteria. (Here is a Nerdighter FAQ if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) I knew that they like to say, "Don't forget to be awesome." I've truthfully always thought the whole thing seemed kind of corny, even for me, and I am pretty dang corny. But I'd never been around any Nerdfighters (that I know of) until last night. 

When I drove up beautiful St. Charles Avenue toward the historic temple where the Tour de Nerdfighting event featuring John Green and Hank Green was being held, there were people lined up on the sidewalk well down the block. I thought to myself, "I guess there are some Nerdfighers in New Orleans," and rushed through the cold darkness, dodging the street car coming up the line, and walked inside, settling in one of the pews and feeling the energy in the air. These kids were psyched. And they stayed that way the entire time. "I can't believe how many adults are here," a girl behind me observed loudly, and I smiled to myself. I smiled so much throughout the evening that my face hurt as I drove home.

A group of three or four teenagers spilled into the row behind me and immediately took notice of a guy sitting nearby who was kind of keeping to himself. "Oh my God! We didn't expect to see YOU here! What are you doing here?" They peppered him with questions, talking over each other all at once. "Yeah," the guy said, kind of sighing, "This is kind of the other side of me." The solo guy kind seemed kind of straightlaced and calm, possibly a football player. The group surprised by his presence had more of a spazzy punk rock alternative free spirited sort of style. But there they were, smooshed side by side in the row. "I feel like this is something you would make fun of me for! But -- you're here!" said one of the girls. He sighed, "Yeah." Then the girl said, "Are you a Nerdfighter? I can't believe you're a Nerdfighter! It's not fair!" And he said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "That you, like, hide." One of the other guys yelled, "Do you have a Tumblr?" And the football player guy said, "Yeah ... no," like, "As if." Then the group said they were going to take and post a picture of him as evidence that he was there. He laughed, "It's okay ... no one I know has a Tumblr." But as they snapped his picture, he held up his copy of The Fault in Our Stars and he smiled. 

"Who am I to say that these things might not be forever? Who is Peter Van Houten to assert as fact the conjecture that our labor is temporary? All I know of heaven and all I know of death is in this park: an elegant universe in ceaseless motion, teeming with ruined ruins and screaming children."

-- The Fault in Our Stars

This was a night of reading, songs, answering questions, and talking about books and life. John Green explained at one point while answering a question that one of the criticisms of his books is that he doesn't sound like he's writing in the voice of an actual teenager. He said, "I just know a lot of hyper-intelligent teenagers," and I thought, "Indeed," looking around at the hundreds of them all around me. They were so messy and weird and quiet and wild and great.

John Green talked about how in an ordinary life, there are not many opportunities for epic heroism -- throwing ourselves on grenades for others, if you will. But that we can be heroic in our own small ways that can ultimately be big ways. Here it is: I think that John Green and Hank Green are heroes. I think they are changing these young people's lives, and I think they are making the world a better place.

So I think that my love and appreciation for the Greens is not so much about the books one Green writes (wonderful) and the songs one Green sings (brilliant) but about this community they've created together that's more than a community, isn't it? It's a movement. And the young people who are a part of this movement simply by being who they are filled that big, beautiful temple last night with so much warmth and empathy and joy and sincere appreciation for the strangeness and uniqueness of every soul in there that it moved me from my head down to my toes. The whole building was vibrating with their joy. I forgot that I thought it was corny to be a Nerdfighter.

They did not forget to cheer when John Green mentioned The Great Gatsby. They did not forget the words as they sang along with Hank Green's songs about Harry Potter and about particle physics. They did not forget to fall silent and listen -- really listen -- when John Green said things like this:

"Forever is an incorrect concept wrongly based on the idea that the sun isn't going to explode. We are temporary. This is temporary, and our responsibility as humans within this temporary -- this weirdly temporary but still sort of, in some ways, infinite -- life that we have, with our gift of consciousness, is to find a way to live as well as we can live, to take the best care that we can of each other and of ourselves, and organize our lives in a way that reflects our values and our hopes for the people who'll come after us, as well as honoring the people who came before us -- that's a very, very complicated thing to do."

They did not forget to stand up and dance together, dragging each other off their feet.

They did not forget to be awesome.

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by Katherine Applegate

(this isn't out yet, but because it comes out Tuesday (January 17th 2012) I decided to skip the "looking ahead" part of the title. just in case you were wondering. you probably weren't. carry on.)

Let me begin this review by saying: this is the first book to land on my 2013 Newbery shortlist. 

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN is based on the true story of a gorilla named Ivan who lived in a mall in Washington State and was a tourist attraction, along with some other animals. IVAN is narrated by Ivan himself, mostly as a series of thoughts - the only dialogue comes in when Ivan either hears humans speaking or speaks to another animal himself. And while this is not my favorite way for an author to write a book, it works perfectly for this one and I wouldn't have it changed for anything in the world.

At the beginning of the story, Ivan is bored but mostly content with the world of the mall, where he is a star attraction. He has friends (Bob the stray dog; Stella the elephant) and frequent visitors (his keeper/owner, Mack, and Julia, daughter of the mall's custodian). He eats; he sleeps; he draws though what comes out of his pencils and crayons never matches what's in his head. Things are a little up and a little down but mostly status quo at the mall...until Ruby arrives. 

Ruby's a baby elephant, purchased from a terrible circus, who grew up in the wild. Humans killed her family and sold her to the circus, who chained her to the floor most of the day, until finally she ended up at the mall. Stella looks after her like a mother, but Ruby cannot settle, cannot fully adjust to everything that's been taken from her. And then Stella gets sick. And one night, Stella extracts a promise from Ivan - that after she's gone, Ivan will find Ruby a safe place. A "life different than mine." 

It will take everything Ivan is, every ounce of will he has, to keep his promise to Stella.

I've said before that I don't really love animal stories, and I don't. It takes something really special for me to love an animal story, and this book has spades of special. The language is exquisite. I read it to myself but I found myself wishing Molly were just a little older so I could read it aloud to her. I wanted a classful of kids to read it aloud to. Sometimes I just read a line or two aloud to myself so I could hear the words ring in my ears. 

This is a book of love and hope and promises; of pain and fear and sorrow; of found family. This is a book that will gently turn your heart inside out and back again. This is a book that you may feel compelled to hug when you have finished it. 

This is a book I want you to know about, and I want you to read it, and I hope that you love it as much as I did.

 

Giveaway Results

Check the comments section of the giveaway entries to see if you've won! If you signed up on Facebook, the results are there.

My 2011 Favorites

I hesitate to call it a "best-of" list, because who am I to say? These are merely the books that rocked my world in 2011. A quick and dirty list, because otherwise it will never get done. I'll come back and add authors and pictures.

10 + 1 for luck in each category.

PICTURE BOOKS

Over and Under the Snow
King Hugo's Huge Ego
Tallulah's Tutu
Heart and Soul *Caldecott Pick*
Press Here
The Boy Who Cried Ninja
Art & Max
Stuck
Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake
The Man in the Moon
You're Finally Here!

MIDDLE-GRADE NOVELS

Okay For Now *Newbery Pick*
Breadcrumbs
A Monster Calls
Bigger Than a Bread Box
The Wizard of Dark Street
The Emerald Atlas
With a Name Like Love
Floors
A Dog's Way Home
The Great Wall of Lucy Wu
Small Persons With Wings

YA NOVELS

The Scorpio Races *Printz Pick*
Everybody Sees the Ants
Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Where She Went
The Beginning of After
Between Shades of Gray
Divergent
Hourglass
Guantanamo Boy
Ashfall
Entwined

Great 2011 Year-End Book Giveaway, Part Two

And here's part two of the giveaway! I'm repeating yesterday's instructions and disclaimers. 

As a celebration of achieving 200 followers over at the Kidliterate Facebook page (have you liked it? it's the easiest way to keep up on when I post here, plus I post links I think are awesome and other little tidbits), I am doing some shelf-clearing and sharing the book love with all of you. This will be the first of a few posts, so check back in the coming days for more! I'll pick all the winners on January 2nd.

Over at Facebook, you enter by commenting on each entry individually. (If you entered there, you do not need to enter here as well.) Here, simply comment on this blog post and tell me which parts you are interested in winning. (If it's all of them, just say all!) I'd also love to know your favorite book or books from this year, but that's just because I'm nosy - it's not a requirement. Anyone can win anything!

How I'll pick the winners: everyone will be assigned a number, starting with the Facebook entrants and going down from there. I'll use the handy random number generator to pick the winner of each item and mail them out sometime in the New Year. 

Get extra entries for your desired books by: posting a link to this post on your blog; retweeting the tweet I will send after this is posted (I'm @mposten); posting it on your FB page. If you link to this post, please let me know in a comment! 

7. Two awesome middle-grade novels by Matthew Cody, both signed by the author!

POWERLESS: "Soon after moving to Noble's Green, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Daniel learns that his new friends have super powers that they will lose when they turn thirteen, unless he can use his brain power to protect them."

THE DEAD GENTLEMAN: "Eleven-year-old orphan Tommy Learner's world in 1900 New York City collides with that of twelve-year-old, modern-day Jezebel Lemon in the basement of her apartment building, where together they must use the portals between worlds to thwart the Dead Gentleman, a legendary villain whose last unconquered world is the planet Earth." (Sort of like a steampunk-y Jack Harkness adventure for middle-grade - I LOVED this book.)

8. Three PINKALICIOUS books! Two of the I Can Reads - PINK AROUND THE RINK and SCHOOL RULES - and one of the 8 x 8 paperbacks - PINKALICIOUS AND THE PINK DRINK (a personal favorite of my five year old daughter Molly).

9. A signed hardcover copy of Ally Condie's MATCHED. "Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black."

10. a signed copy of Mike Mullin's ASHFALL, a fantastic post-apocalyptic book I was thrilled to help vote onto the 2011 ABC New Voices List! 

"Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don't realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano, so large that the caldera can only be seen by plane or satellite. And by some scientificmeasurements, it could be overdue for an eruption. For Alex, being left alone for the weekend means having the freedom to play computer games and hang out with his friends without hassle from his mother. Then the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts, plunging his hometown into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence. Alex begins a harrowing trek to seach for his family and finds help in Darla, a travel partner he meets along the way. Together they must find the strength and skills to survive and outlast an epic disaster." 

11. A hardcover copy of Suzanne Collins's MOCKINGJAY, stamped with the special stamp she used at tour appearances. "Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe, in the powerful and haunting final installment of Collins's groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy."

12. Anna Perera's riveting, incredibly powerful GUANTANAMO BOY. Few YA novels will inspire better discussion than this one.

"Innocent until proven guilty? Not here you're not. Robbed of his childhood, this is one boy's fictional experience of the supposed war on terror. Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy from England, is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. He is taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, where his hopes and dreams are crushed under the cruellest of circumstances. An innocent denied his freedom at a time when most boys are finding theirs, Khalid tries and fails to understand what's happening to him."

Again, simply comment by saying something like "I'd love 7, 9, and 10, please! And my favorite book of the year was OKAY FOR NOW by Gary Schmidt." (Feel free to enter for everything!) And may the odds be ever in your favor!

Great 2011 Year-End Book Giveaway

As a celebration of achieving 200 followers over at the Kidliterate Facebook page (have you liked it? it's the easiest way to keep up on when I post here, plus I post links I think are awesome and other little tidbits), I am doing some shelf-clearing and sharing the book love with all of you. This will be the first of a few posts, so check back in the coming days for more! I'll pick all the winners on January 2nd.

Over at Facebook, you enter by commenting on each entry individually. (If you entered there, you do not need to enter here as well.) Here, simply comment on this blog post and tell me which parts you are interested in winning. (If it's all of them, just say all!) I'd also love to know your favorite book or books from this year, but that's just because I'm nosy - it's not a requirement. Anyone can win anything!

How I'll pick the winners: everyone will be assigned a number, starting with the Facebook entrants and going down from there. I'll use the handy random number generator to pick the winner of each item and mail them out sometime in the New Year. 

Get extra entries for your desired books by: posting a link to this post on your blog; retweeting the tweet I will send after this is posted (I'm @mposten); posting it on your FB page. If you link to this post, please let me know in a comment!

And now, the initial list, with book descriptions I took from Ingram's website (thank you, Ingram!):

1. two awesome picture books! KING HUGO'S HUGE EGO, the latest stroke of brilliance from the awesome Chris Van Dusen; plus MOUSE AND LION, and gorgeous new retelling of the Aesop fable by Rand Burkert, with art by Nancy Ekholm Burkert! 

2. SHINE by Lauren Myracle, the riveting YA novel that was the centerpiece of the biggest debacle the National Book Award has ever known. "When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, 16-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small Southern town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone in the name of justice."

3. WILDWOOD, the debut middle-grade fantasy novel by Decemberists lead singer Colin Meloy, with beautiful art by his wife, Carson Ellis. "After her baby brother is kidnapped by crows, seventh-grader Prue McKeel ventures into the forbidden Impassable Wilderness--a dangerous and magical forest in the middle of Portland, Oregon--and soon finds herself involved in a war among the various inhabitants."

4. an advance copy of GRAVE MERCY, book 1 of the HIS FAIR ASSASSIN series by Robin LaFevers (4/12, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). "Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes a brutal arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of assassins--for a price. Packed with love, magic, and deadly games of courtly intrigue and treason, book one of a fast-paced trilogy set in 15th-century France combines romance with captivating action." (The ARC cover is not the pretty pretty you see here, BTW.)

5. Two terrific SIGNED middle-grade novels: LUV YA BUNCHES by Lauren Myracle ("The first book in a four-part series, "Luv Ya Bunches" is a funny, honest middle-grade novel about four friends navigating the ups and downs of fifth grade.") and Newbery Honor/National Book Award finalist/Coretta Scott King winner ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia (""One Crazy Summer" tells the story of three girls who go to Oakland, California, to meet their estranged mother and become involved in the civil rights movement in the late 1960s."). 

ONE CRAZY SUMMER is actually signed "to Molly," because I accidentally got two copies for my daughter - but hey, it's signed!

6. Three YA dystopian novels!

THOSE THAT WAKE by Jesse Karp: "On the same day Mal learns his brother has disappeared, Laura discovers her parents have forgotten her. Both begin a search for their families that leads them to the same truth: someone or something has wiped the teens from the memories of every person they have ever known."

POSSESSION by Elana Johnson: "In a world where Thinkers control the population and Rules are not meant to be broken, 15-year-old Violet Schoenfeld must make a choice to control or be controlled after learning truths about her "dead" sister and "missing" father."

AWAKEN by Katie Kacvinsky: "Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it's to go to school or on a date, people don't venture out of their home. For the most part, Maddie's okay with the solitary, digital life--until she meets Justin."

Again, simply comment by saying something like "I'd love 1, 4, and 5, please! And my favorite book of the year was OKAY FOR NOW by Gary Schmidt." And may the odds be ever in your favor!