Minion T-Shirt Giveaway!
2010-09-29
Order 12th Grade Kills today and receive a FREE MINION T-SHIRT! The first 30 orders will receive a free minion t-shirt with their copy of 12th Grade Kills. To Receive a Free T-Shirt: Be one of the first 30 people to place an order that includes Twelfth Grade Kills ONE t-shirt per order, ONE order per customer Sizes will vary First come, first served ~ Limited Quantities Available If you are not one of the first 30 orders we receive, we will email you to verify that your order should still be processed Your book and t-shirt will ship together after September 28. Easy WaysRead More →
The Ol’ Dead Dad Syndrome
2010-09-24
Here’s an interesting editorial From Publisher’s Weekly: The Ol’ Dead Dad Syndrome Why are there so many dead parents in kids’ books? By Leila Sales Sep 20, 2010 I am a children’s book editor. You might assume this means that I spend eight hours a day reading charming bedtime tales about bunny rabbits, but that is not true. I primarily work on novels for older children, and the “in” thing right now is future dystopias. So I actually spend eight hours a day reading about barren wastelands in which teens struggle against fascist dictatorships. Also, their parents are usually dead. Dead parents are so muchRead More →
Halo
2010-09-22
18-year-old Alexandra Adornetto’s novel Halo follows three angels as they descend from heaven to a small coastal town to combat the Dark Forces that are rapidly spreading across Earth. There’s the archangel Gabriel, the healer Ivy, and Bethany, the youngest and most human. But when Bethany falls in love with a human boy…well, that is just the beginning of these angels’ escapades. This novel delivers everything you would expect a teenage supernatural romance story to have — there is the kind-hearted supernatural being who falls in love with the honorable human (even though she knows it is forbidden), the inevitable reveal of the supernatural being’s trueRead More →
Violence 101
2010-09-21
At 14, Hamish Graham is a genius, a sociopath, a brilliant strategist, and a murderer. Hamish has recently been transferred into another facility for criminal youth, and the staff doesn’t really know how to approach his rehabilitation. The director of the New Horizons Boys’ Home in New Zealand decides Hamish should keep a journal in the hopes of both providing an outlet for Hamish to reflect on himself and for the staff to get a handle on what he thinks and how he feels. Denis Wright’s Violence 101is Hamish’s first person journal alternating with 3rd person narrative of the staff’s reaction to the journal and the narrativeRead More →
Hero
2010-09-18
Mike Lupica’s Hero, due from Philomel/Penguin Books in November 2010, is a variation on familiar territory for both Lupica and the teen-hero genre. When 14 year old Billy Harriman’s dad, the globetrotting special advisor to the President, is mysteriously killed in a small aircraft crash, Billy’s world is turned upside down. Billy had always looked up to his famous hero-of-a-dad, but also secretly wished he’d been around more, instead of always putting others, and America, before Billy and his mom. But now that his dad is gone and never coming home, he is forced to confront the anger, resentment, and longings he’d suppressed for years. But that’sRead More →
Scrawl
2010-09-13
Mark Shulman’s Scrawl is the detention journal of the school’s bully, Tod. After he and his droogs are busted for breaking into the school, he’s sentenced to spend his daily detention in a hot, empty room with Mrs. Woodrow, a no-nonsense guidance counselor. Not really sure why he escaped grounds-keeping duty, Tod only knows he’s supposed to write about himself, his family, friends and school life in a beat-up notebook and turn it in for Mrs. W.’s review. Through the journal Tod eventually opens up and we can see that he is a smart, thoughtful kid who lives a bad home life, isn’t socially acceptedRead More →
The DUFF
2010-09-10
17 year old Bianca Piper could be your best friend; she could be your sister; she could be you. She’s smart, loyal, cynical and sarcastic, and, as far as she’s concerned, pretty average looking. She’s too smart to fall for the charms of Wesley Rush, her school’s gorgeous, wealthy playboy even if he has taken to flirting with her to score points with Bianca’s much prettier friends. When he nicknames her “the DUFF”, her dislike of him crosses over into all out hatred. But Bianca’s home life is in turmoil right now and eager for an escape, she throws herself at Wesley and an intenselyRead More →
Reader’s Review: Trash
2010-09-07
I only recently saw the award-winning movie, “Slum-dog Millionaire” and was haunted by it for weeks. My immediate reaction to Trash by Andy Mulligan was that it was going to be similar in a variety of ways – the children are orphans, they live in desperate conditions, and they (rightfully) mistrust the law. I wasn’t sure I could experience another story of the horrors of youth in a third world country but the writing kept me captivated. Raphael lives in a metal box on the edge of the dump. He works every day in the dump looking for something edible, recyclable, salvageable or hopefully, valuable.One day he finds something very special. HeRead More →