Bear with me!

No, not this Bear with Me.

Though it's pretty cute.

I slightly broke Ann Stampler's website earlier this week, and am busy putting it back together. Almost done! In the meantime, you can pay Marisa Calin a visit, since her site is pretty OK ;)

In My Mailbox (13)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren (inspired by Alea at Pop Culture Junkie) where you can show off the books that you got last week.

I attended ALA Annual in Anaheim over the weekend. Before you jump all over me, librarians, please note:

• I am an ALA Associate member
• I am a YALSA member
• I am a Games & Gaming Round Table supporter (though I could not make it to anything for GameRT--I always had another meeting going on) -- sorry, dudes!
• I had an Exhibits Supreme pass--ok, I admit, I only got it because I wanted to go to the Imagineering Interest panel with GRRM. (It was worth it!)
• I am a literacy advocate and work to connect kids to reading through Bridge to Books with my educator pal Alyson, often on our own dime. If by accident we make a profit, we pay it forward to the next event.

I'm a little disappointed that I have to provide a disclaimer before telling you what I got this weekend, but it's a hot topic at the moment. Say what you will in the comments. I welcome your dissent. :)

I don't have receipts for everything I bought, so if I put a couple of books on the wrong list, oops. All links go to Goodreads.

Purchased Finished Copy:

Picture Books:

Won Ton by Lee Wardlaw, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin

A Strange Place to Call Home by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Ed Young

An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long

A Butterfly is Patient by Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long

A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long

Middle Grade:

Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin

Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

Young Adult:

Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly

Angel Fire by L.A. Weatherly

Long Lankin by Lindsey Barraclough

The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry

A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle

Poison Most Vial by Benedict Carey

The Agency: The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y.S. Lee

Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott

Grave Mercy by Robin L. LaFevers

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Girl of Fire & Thorns by Rae Carson

The Letter Q by Various authors (signed by David Levithan, Arthur A. Levine, and Brian Selznick)

Purity by Jackson Pearce

Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern

Ghost Medicine by Andrew Smith

Promo copy received at ALA: 

Picture Books:

Jangles: A Big Fish Story by David Shannon**

Oh No! Not Again! by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Dan Santat

Kel Gilligan's Daredevil Stunt Show by Michael Buckley, illustrated by Dan Santat

Middle Grade:

Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead****

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Phoenix (The Five Ancestors, Out of the Ashes) by Jeff Stone

The Big Stink: Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie by David Lubar

Summer & Bird by Cat Mull

Dark Lord: The Early Years by Jamie Thomson

The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano

The City's Son (The Skyscraper Throne) by Tom Pollock

The Infinity Ring: A Mutiny in Time by James Dashner**

Stealing Air by Trent Reedy**

Drama by Raina Telgemeier**

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

The Fire Chronicle by John Stephens****

The Giant & How He Humbugged America by Jim Murphy

Young Adult:

Necromancing the Stone by Lish McBride****

A Thunderous Whisper by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

The Paladin Prophecy by Mark Frost

Farseed by Pamela Sargent

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

The Journey Back by Priscilla Cummings

Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Skyship Academy: Crimson Rising by Nick James

Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfeld

Body Slammed! by Ray Villareal

Escape Theory by Margaux Froley

Unwholly by Neal Shusterman****

Butter by Erin Jade Lange

Pinned by Sharon G. Flake**

Endangered by Eliot Schrefer**

The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron**

Crown of Embers by Rae Carson***

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce***

Have a Nice Day by Julie Halpern***

Passenger by Andrew Smith***

Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Crewel by Gennifer Albin

What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton

Innocent Darkness by Suzanne Lazear

Skinny by Donna Cooner

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

Betrayal by Gregg Olsen

Rift by Andrea Cremer

Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier (my friend and client, Marisa Calin, read the audiobook!)
The Diviners by Libba Bray

Adult:

Blasphemy by Sherman Alexie

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison

The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen

The Lost Prince by Selden Edwards

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness

Year Zero by Rob Reid

The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen

Not from ALA*:

The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Skylark by Meagan Spooner

Ripper by Amy Carol Reeves

Scorch by Gina Damico

Son by Lois Lowry****

Blake Charlton being awesome

Purchased for Kindle:

Spellwright by Blake Charlton

* From a dear author friend.

** From Scholastic Literary Brunch, to which I was invited

*** Received with purchase of a finished copy book

**** OMG!

***** I was wrong about percentage of bought to promo. But I did spend hefty wad of cash.

ALA12 Attendees, click here for a contest to win a Live to Read poster.

Visit the YA Book Council blog for more highlights from ALA.

Check out Cypress Park LAPL's updated "Strike a Reading Pose" blog post (scroll down to the end) 

Phew! I thought I'd never finish that. What's in your mailbox?

Live to Read ALA12 Contest (US/CAN ends 7/1/2012)

US/Can attendees of #ala12, tweet your favorite photo from the conference that has something to do with YA/YoungAdult and you could win a Live to Read Poster. There will be 3 winners. You must @frootjoos and include #iloveYA12 -- I'll pick 3 random winners on July 1, 2012! Good luck!

Jackson Pearce signing Purity & Fathomless

My favorite find: Lish McBride's Necromancing the Stone 

Ally Condie signing Marked and Crossed

Marisa Calin's Between You & Me

Day 4 ALA

Waiting for Macmillan to give away display copies.
Little Z got happy with some glitter.
Macmillan rep graciously let her play--so heartwarming!

Took this snapshot for my friend Deezy, Slake aficionado

Eugene Yelchin signs Won Ton and Breaking Stalin's Nose

Day 4 Book Haul - I bought quite a lot in addition to the ARCs I picked up.

Irish Nachos at Bruxie in Old Town Orange

Aly got the Nutella and bananas waffle at Bruxie.
Next time, I think I'll try the Green Eggs & Ham.

Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman giving a hilarious thank you thank you speech speech simultaneously
accepting their Printz honor award for Why We Broke Up. They also performed a song!

John Corey Whaley accepting his Printz award

You can find the whole ALA Annual 2012 album here.

If you attended, I'd love to see your photos--please post a link in the comments!

The Knit Spot (1)

The Knit Spot features characters spotted knitting in books.

This week we feature the chickens from Bawk & Roll.
Stressed out before a big gig, the chickens try various activities to try and relax.

Bawk & Roll (Sterling Children's Books, April 3, 2012)
is written by Tammi Sauer and illustrated by Dan Santat

Bawk & Roll is the sequel to Chicken Dance.

Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads | IndieBound

Day 3 ALA

Patrick McDonnell signs Me... Jane for Alyson @ KidLitFrenzy

Dan Santat signing Oh No Not Again for me

Ann Stampler brought us goodies from BEA

I have a Patch on my shirt

Scholastic Reader's Theatre with James Dashner, Eliot Schrefer, and Sharon Cameron

Scholastic Reader's Theatre with Trent Reedy, David Shannon, Sharon G. Flake & Raina Telgemeier

All gussied up for the Newbery/Caldecott dinner

Beautiful flowers from the Scholastic Brunch

My Book Haul for the day.

Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket representative (author not pictured)

A short film for A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka,
made by his son Ingo

Jack Gantos saying "Thank you!" over and over during his Newbery acceptance speech
for Dead End in Norvelt

You can find the whole ALA Annual 2012 album here. 

Day 2 ALA

I adore: authors from the anthology The Letter Q
from left to right, Brian Selznick, Arthur Levine, David Levithan ('s ear)
Sorry, I have a pic that has David's lovely face also.
Will post soon. But that's what I get for taking candids.

Can you see him? It's George R. R. Martin. 

Marie Lu is gorgeous and charming!
I'm going to wait and buy Prodigy in hardcover so I can match my copy of Legend, haha!
Can you develop OCD in your 30's? Because I just might be doing that.

Best part of the day: I hugged R. J. Palacio.
She is awesome. I almost cried on her.
You should read Wonder.

2nd best part of the day: Blake Charlton was quite a revelation--he gave a speech before Lois McMaster Bujold and GRRM spoke. It was witty, on-point, and very moving. I hope someone caught it on audio and video. 

Everyone go look up Blake Charlton right now and read his books. #awesome

You can find the whole ALA Annual 2012 album here. 

Day 1 ALA

Met some awesome librarians, was recognized in the wild by 4 authors/illustrators which totally impressed the hell out of said librarians.

You can find the whole ALA Annual 2012 album here. 

ALA All the Way

Thuy, Kimberly, and I will be at the ALA Annual Conference all weekend! So it's unlikely you'll find any new blog posts from us til after we recover from being totally book-drunk all weekend.
We'll be tweeting with the hashtags #ALA12 #rnslbk and #yabcb2b

In the meantime, some helpful links:

Attending ALA Anaheim 2012 - Links and Guides

Win Silence by Michelle Sagara

in the Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop (INTL)

Win Ewe Ewe Yarn and Patterns

from unwindyarn.com (US)

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook 
for updates from the exhibit floor

@frootjoos (Alethea)
@fishgirl182 (Thuy)
@thewindypages (Kimberly)

If you see us at ALA, stop and say hi!

Insurgent - Review

Insurgent (Divergent, Book 2) by Veronica Roth 

Publication date: 1 May 2012 by HarperTeen

ISBN 10/13: 0007442912 | 9780007442911

Goodreads | Amazon.com | Book Depository

Category: Young Adult Dystopian Fiction

Format: Hardcover, ebook

Keywords: Series, Dystopian, Uprising

Source: Library

Jacket copy:

One choice can transform you--or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves--and herself--while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Kimberly's Review:


All right, so let's get some things straight here. 


I really liked Divergent, book one of the Divergent series. I thought it was well written, fast paced, fun and creative. 

Well, that was nothing compared to my love of Insurgent. 

Insurgent starts where Divergent left off, and I won't go into too many details or talk about spoilers.

Tris grabbed me in this book and didn't let go. She's suffering from survivor's guilt issues, trust issues, love issues. Tris has become a totally complex and multi-layered character in this book. Bravo to Roth. Tris reminds me of a beautifully conflicted and haunted Buffy, in a good way. 

We start to see the cracks in Four, finding out more about his past. Of course, everyone loves Four. But really, Four's character also develops so well in this book, he's not the same Four from Book One. And that's a good thing.

The conflict is intense. Action packed violent sequences that continue to throw the reader back and forth like a crazy rollercoaster ride. 

Oh yeah, and the ending... Killer.

Go read Divergent if you haven't and be sure to pick up Insurgent. 

And you'll stay up all night.

---

Visit the author online at veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com and follow her on Twitter @VeronicaRoth

Don't forget to check in on the Dark Days of Summer Tour to see if Veronica or any of the other authors will be in your area!

Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop - INTL

The 2nd Annual Midsummer's Eve Giveaway Hop - June 20th to 26th

Hosted by I am a Reader, Not a Writer and Uniquely Moi Books.

What is Midsummer's Eve, anyway? For many areas, it's the longest period of daylight of the year, or the day the summer solstice occurs (this year, Wed. June 20, 2012). The occasion has Pre-Christian roots, but if you look at the spirit of the observance, it's a celebration of healing, prosperity, and the warding off of evil. What better book to give away then, than Silence by Michelle Sagara? 

From Goodreads:

It began in the graveyard. Ever since her boyfriend Nathan died in a tragic accident Emma had been coming to the graveyard at night. During the day she went through the motions at her prep school, in class, with her friends, but that's all it was. But tonight was different. Tonight Emma and her dog were not alone in the cemetery. There were two others there—Eric, who had just started at her school, and an ancient woman who looked as though she were made of rags. And when they saw Emma there, the old woman reached out to her with a grip as chilling as death…

---

I'll be writing a full review later--for now, let's just say it's a story of life, death, friendship, healing and the power of good versus evil. And look at that gorgeous cover! Some lucky person will really be enjoying their summer reading if they win this lovely novel.

I received a review copy from Penguin Teen. If the winner is outside of US/Canada I will keep the review copy and instead send a copy from bookdepository.com to the winner. So when I say it's open internationally, that means any country to which bookdepository.com ships. Please check the list before you enter! It's a long list :)

More rules:

To enter you must be over 13 years old or have the permission of a parent/guardian since you may be sharing personal info such as your email address. The winner will be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter.  None of the entries are mandatory, but you need to do a least one to enter. Good luck!

Don't forget to visit the other blogs on the giveaway hop for more chances to win! My post will be up early (12 pm EST) so you may have to wait til 12 am on Wednesday night for most of the other links to be live.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

---

Attending ALA Anaheim 2012 - Links and Guides

Hey all! ALA Annual 2012 will be held in Anaheim right here in sunny Southern California!
I know I have a heck of a time keeping names straight (not to mention finding everyone's pages and so forth) so I'm making a page for it... if you are attending #ALA12 and would like to share your info here, please do so in the appropriate section!

Attending Authors: Webpage only (Please only add your url here if you are a) an author AND b) attending ALA Annual 2012. Add Twitter names in the appropriate linky below.)

---

Attendees: Webpage only (If you are not an author but are attending ALA Annual 2012, please add your url here and in parenthesis, mark your role: librarian, blogger, etc.--see example. Add Twitter names in the appropriate linky below.)

---

Twitter @names and #hashtags (Make sure you add the whole URL where needed, not just your username, or we won't be able to click on it!)

---

Guides and Resources (I don't want to write a whole brand new guide to etiquette, what to do, where to eat, etc. So let's all just add the links to resources and guides right here. Deal?)