Gayle Forman’s most recent book, If I Stay, follows 17 year old Mia in the aftermath of a car accident that kills her whole family and leaves her in a coma. Publisher’s Weekly has a great Q&A with Gayle. Enjoy!Read More →
Acknowledging that “we all make mistakes, sometimes big ones, sometimes small ones, sometimes hilarious ones,” K.L. Going wants readers to confess their biggest “screwups” in an online contest. Those interested in entering (it’s open to readers 12–up) can wrote a paragraph (or more) describing a mortifying or hilarious mistake and email it to the author. Going will reward her favorite entry with a $100 gift certificate to a bookstore of the winner’s choice as well as autographed copies of all of her books; three runners-up will receive autographed copies of King of the Screwups. Enter by visiting Going’s King of the ScrewUps websiteRead More →
Liam is the popular, charismatic, drop-dead gorgeous son of a former supermodel and high powered CEO. He’s got great fashion sense, developed over years with his mom on the high fashion circuit; a knack for connecting with people; and an engaging personality. The trouble is he has no qualities his controlling, reserved, angry father respects. And to make things worse, Liam continuously makes poor judgment calls that draw his father’s ire. After the final straw (caught drunk on his father’s desk with a nearly naked party date), Liam is kicked out of the house the week before his senior year. He can’t go live withRead More →
In James Roy’s Max Quigley: Technically Not a Bully, Australian 6th grader Max Quigley is the biggest kid at school. He and his mate Jared casually torment, tease, and bully just about everyone around them. He’s confident, self-centered, and completely clueless about how his behavior impacts other people. He claims, repeatedly, not to be a bully since he doesn’t physically hurt people, steal or make them cry; instead, he’s really proud of his powers of “persuasion.” Things start to change when the mother of his favorite victim, Nerdstrom, suggests a plan to help both boys work through this: Triffin will tutor Max in math and both boys willRead More →
“Vampires are meant to be glamorous and powerful, but I’m here to inform you that being a vampire is nothing like that. Not one bit. On the contrary, it’s like being stuck indoors with the flu watching daytime television, forever and ever. If being a vampire were easy, there wouldn’t be a Reformed Vampire Support Group. …God I’m sick of it.” And so we meet Nina; a fifty-one year old vampire who’s had a chip on her shoulder since she was infected at the age of 15. Tired of a listless, sickly life stuck in her mother’s house, Nina writes a vampire adventure series with aRead More →
PBC was thrilled to host a dinner for Heather Brewer, author of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, last night. We had about a dozen valley librarians join us for tasty food, delicious wine, and lots of great conversation about vampires, YA lit, and getting kids reading. She’d spent the day at 3 Valley middle schools and is at 3 more today, Friday, before she heads home tonight. Auntie Heather’s horde of Minions was certainly increased over these two days and we’re stoked to have been a part of that! Posted by CoriRead More →
I just finished my second read of John Barnes’ hilarious, gritty novel, tales of the MADMAN underground (it was too good to read only once!). Barnes does a brilliant job of capturing the voices, struggles, insecurities and angst of his teen characters. He creates a time and place in life that adults can remember wading through and that teens find themselves in every day. One method by which Barnes authenticates his characters’ reality is through language, and here I mean profanity. tales of the MADMAN underground is rife with swear words. At some points, Karl “weaves a tapestry of profanity” that brought tears to my eyes (from laughter). Read More →
Wednesday, September 5, 1973 is the first day of Karl Shoemaker’s senior year of high school, and the first day of “Operation Be F-ing Normal.” In John Barnes’ first novel for young readers, tales of the MADMAN underground, we’re on a sometimes painful, often hilarious, uncensored journey through the first six days of Karl’s senior year as he tries to change his life by just being “normal, normal, normal.” In a small Ohio town, Karl’s been part of a therapy group at school dubbed “the Madmen” for years, and he’s decided that he wants out. He wants a normal life, but the question is, can he achieve it? His dad’sRead More →
In the first book in the new Frontier Magic trilogy, fantasy writer Patricia C. Wredeintroduces Eff, the 13th child of a large magical family. Wrede imagines an alternate history of world, where magic and magical creatures co-exist seemlessly with history as we know it. Eff’s twin brother, Lan, is the seventh son of a seventh son; in their magical world he is a rare, special, gifted and powerful person. Being the 13th child is as powerful, but in the most negative way possible. Seen as a witch, a purveyor of bad luck and misfortune, Eff is shunned and blamed as much (or more) than LanRead More →