GreenBeanTeenQueen

(This post was orignially published in January 2014, but I think it's fitting that I have friends serving on the award committees this year and I want them to read this encouragement once again and know it's for them too!) Dear Committee Member- On the eve of the youth media awards and your committee announcements, I offer you some words of advice from someone who has been there before. Your choices are amazing. You have done a fantastic job and worked the hardest you have ever worked over the past year. You have read, and re-read, and re-read yet again, taken notes, analyzed, and discussed titles in more depth than you ever thought possible. Your hard work is appreciated. When the announcement happens and your choices are known, just remember that your titles are amazing. You know why you honored the books you did and now you get to share those amazing titles with the world. You get to watch as others read them and discuss them and discover the intricacies in the...

So I'm going to try my best to share my predictions and we'll see how close I can get (probably not close at all!) Here are my predictions (and hopes!) for Monday morning: Caldecott Prediction: Winner: I wish I had come across this one when I was making my Mock Caldecott list because it would have made our final list for sure. If I was on the committee, this is one I would be championing for-the texture, the use of words in the art, the collage style-it's all fantastic. Honor Books: I think this may be a strong year for honor books and we may end up with quite a few depending on how the committee discussion and voting shakes down.  I think this wordless book will be getting some love. The detail! It's gotta count for something! Caldecott Dark Horse: I have two possible dark horses this year: I've only recently been seeing Flashlight crop on other Mock lists. When this one came across my desk, myself and all of my ...

A few weeks ago at ALA, I participated in a preconference sponsored by YALSA called the Blogger's Summit. I was asked to be part of the panel on blogging and talk about my blog, reviewing, and any other questions that came up. I was thrilled to be on a panel with Gillian Engberg, who an Editorial Director at Booklist  and Sarah Flowers, who blogs with her son Mark at Crossreferencing -a great blog you should check out! Here are a few things we talked about on my panel: -Blogging is a great tool to stretch your reviewing muscles as a librarian and expand your reader's advisory. -Blogging is a fantastic way to have more in depth reviews and discussions of books-Mark and Sarah's blog is very much a back and forth discussion of books and they do a lot of Mock Printz discussion. -Blog for yourself and don't worry about an audience. -Blogging is different than reviewing because you can expand more in a blog (whereas reviews are typically limited to 130-170 words) and are...

ALA is here!! Instead of trying to come up with new tips, I'm sharing a post I wrote back in June 2011 with my tips for ALA-they all still hold true! And if you're there, find me and say hi! :) ALA is my favorite event of the year! I get to hang out with my favorite people, meet other librarians, network like crazy, learn new things to take back to my library, and of course meet authors! As a librarian and book lover, what's not to love?? This year's ALA will be my fourth conference, so I thought I'd give some advice for conference newbies (or even conference oldies!) because it never hurts to hear someone's take on the massive event that is ALA! - Make a schedule, but don't be strict about sticking to it . There is a lot to do and there's no way you can do it all, so schedules help a lot. Even if you're not normally a schedule person it can be a lifesaver. It helps to make a schedule before you get to ALA and then look over the conference boo...

Will you be attending ALA Annual in Chicago this year? If so, check out the YALSA Blogger's Summit Preconference happening Friday afternoon from 12:30-4:00. Here's what the preconference is about: A must-attend event for YA lit bloggers! Take your blog to the next level by participating in a discussion of the state of YA lit and networking with bloggers, reviewers, publishers and authors. Topics such as leadership, marketing, tech help, review writing, ethics and copyright will be covered. You’ll leave with new contacts in blogging and publishing and a clear vision for how to make a positive mark in the vibrant world of YA lit. Authors participating include: Holly Black, Sarah Dessen, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Gene Luen Yang. I don't know how I got added to such a cool list of people, but I'll be there speaking about blogging as well! I'll be joining by the awesome Gretchen and Emily to talk about blogging and being a librarian and how it all w...

Monday morning bright and early. ALA announced the youth Media Awards. I was at ALA so I was up early and part of the crowd there to hear the annoucements live! Of course, my predictions were pretty much wrong, which is part of the fun! I'm sure if you follow kidlit and YA, you've already read about the winners, but I wanted to share my thoughts and hear yours! The Newbery Winner: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos -I have not read this book and honestly, it wasn't really on my radar before the Newbery. Of course I'm on hold for it now at my library! If you're read it, I'd love to know what you thought! Newbery Honors: - Inside Out and Back Again by Thannhha Lai-I've read this one and I really liked it a lot! I also really love seeing award love for verse novels! - Breaking Stalin's Nose by Euguene Yelchin-Another one I'd heard of but was hardly on my radar. Caldecott Winner: A Ball For Daisy by Chris Raschka -I'm a big dog lover, so o...

It's a beautiful day in San Diego and I got to spend the morning at the ALA Youth Media Awards Announcements! I loved being there with the crowd and hearing the cheers and gasps of shock as the awards were announced. Here's what won the biggies: Printz Award Winner: Ship Breaker Paolo Bacigalupi-I've read this one, now I need to review it! I'm pretty happy with this win and I'm not that surprised. I also think it has a good amount of teen appeal which is nice when it comes to the awards! Printz Award Honors: Stolen by Lucy Christopher, Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (my dark horse pick! It won an honor-so so thrilled!), Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick, and Nothing by Janne Teller. (I've got some reading to do!!) Newbery Award Winner: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (big surprise and not a well known title) Newbery Award Honors: Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm, Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus, Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by...

Well, ALA is almost here and I'm getting read to go! And on Monday we'll get the big book announcement of who will take home the top prizes for Caldecott, Newbery and Printz and the other ALA Youth Media Awards. It's always fun to make predictions so here's are my predictions. It's a bit of a mix of what I want to win, what I think will win (luckily this year that fits most my choices) as well as my dark horse candidates that might surprise us all. Caldecott Award My favorite picture book of the year, The Quiet Book, can't win because the illustrator is from Canada. Which leaves me without any other picks that I really really love for the top spot. So I'm going to go ahead and put David Wiesner's Art & Max in the top spot. I don't think it's his best picture book, but it's still fantastic and he' a librarian golden boy-seriously, we librarians gush over his books. Caldecott Honors: A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Steed, ill...

Are you going to San Diego for Midwinter? Are you a YA blogger librarian, a YA author, or publicist interested in hanging out with a bunch of your kin? You're in luck. We're having a party. We'll get together Friday night, starting at 8:30 p.m. Tentative plans have us at the Hilton Bay Front but depending on interest, we might move it somewhere else. That's why we ask if you're interested to shoot us an email at midwinteryabloggerfest@gmail.com. This is a super informal but fun way to meet one another, chat about our favorite books and authors, gossip over wine and screwdrivers, and relive our own teen years (Dream Phone and The Babysitter's Club game may be involved). And hey - we're librarians. We're into this whole skype thing. We'd love if anyone interested would dig phoning into our party to hang out for a while. Let's make this multimedia! Pass along our contact information to anyone you think may be interested. We'll send an email when...

What a whirlwind weekend!! Here are some of my highlights of ALA Part 2: -Saturday night I went to dinner with fellow librarians/bloggers and it was so much fun! We talked forever and it was a blast talking about teens, YA books, libraries, and sharing ideas. It made me wish everyone was close by so we could meet up all the time. Kelly , Tiffany , Katie , Drea and Michelle were all at my end of the table and I had so much fun talking to them. Can't wait til we can all meet up again-ALA Midwinter, right girls?? -The YALSA YA Coffee Klatch. This was my favorite event last year and it rocked again this year! We had great authors at our table but I'm too tired to remember them all. One of my favorite parts was meeting James Kennedy, author of The Order of Odd Fish . I hadn't heard of his book but I left the table wanting to read it (and so did Mr. GreenBeanSexyMan who hardly ever reads YA-score!). He gave us all mixed CDs inspired by the book-and it's the strangest soundtr...

It's been a busy time at ALA which means not as much time for blogging. But I'm having a blast and I thought I'd share some of my highlights so far: -Visiting the Young Reader's Room at the Library of Congress. And yes, they had Hunger Games and Catching Fire on display, as well as five versions of Harry Potter and the Order and the Phoenix, including a set in Braille! -Blogger breakfast with Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl-these two are super sweet and nice and they love bloggers! They're hoping to do lots of blogger outreach at every tour stop, so be sure to keep at eye for their tour stops and events. -Hanging out with my librarian friends Drea and Katie -they rock and are fellow teen librarians who also have book blogs you should check out! -Being the first person to purchase the Nathan Fillion READ poster . Apparently this news was enough to make the ALA flickr account , which I find flattering and also a little embarassing! I can't wait to take this b...

Waiting on Wednesday is brought to you by Breaking the Spine ! As you know, ALA is coming up fast-I leave tomorrow!! Mr. GreenBeanSexyMan is traveling with me and here's his ALA Waiting on Wednesday list: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud -Mr. GreenBeanSexyMan is so excited for this one, it would make his ALA trip! The Fiend and the Forge by Henry Neff As you can see, Mr. GreenBeanSexyMan loves fantasy, so he'll be on the lookout for great fantasy series and I'll of course ask him to write reivews for you all!

I got up early (on my day off!) to watch the live Twitter feed of this year's ALA Youth Media Awards. I predicted a couple correctly, and was terribly off on others but it was fun to read the tweets from everyone-almost as good as being there!:) Here's what won: Caldecott Winner - The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (predicted correctly!) Honors : All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee Red Sings From Treetops by Joyce Sidman and Pamela Zagarenski Newbery Winner: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (predicted correctly and not a surprise at all) Honors : Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip M. Hoose The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin The Mostly True Adventures of Homor P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick Printz: Winner: Going Bovine by Libba Bray (totally shocked! I got this whole list wrong!) Honors : Charles and Emma: The Darwins Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman The Monstrumolog...

So I ended up with a good amount of signed books too! Here's what I got: 1.Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (for my niece) 2.Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber (for my mom) 3. Hidden Talents by David Lubar (for my brother) 4.Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (for my mom) 5.A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Freze (for my dad) 6.Chicken Dance by Tammi Sauer (for my mom) 7.Mortal Friends by Jan Stanton Hitchcock 8.Ash by Malinda Lo 9.Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler 10.Murder of a Royal Pain by Denise Swanson 11.Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima (for my husband) 12.Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen Bryant 13.Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan 14.Finn the Half Great by Theo Caldwell 15.Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater 16.The Espressologist by Kristina Springer 17.Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson (ok, not really from ALA, but from her signing Saturday night) 18.Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen (same signing as LHA, but they were at ALA too!) 19.Saving Francesa by Melin...

Ok, before you look at this super long list and think I'm a crazy obsessed book person (maybe a little) I DID NOT grab all of these books for me. The majority of these books are for work and for the teens on my teen library council to read and review or for me to read before I present my tween training in November. Some I picked up for me yes, but not everything. And I really highly doubt I'll be able to read ALL of these, but I will try my hardest! If it's an ARC, I've put the release month/year next to it. If it's a finished copy, there will be no date. I tried to do this with pictures, but my loot is in three different places right now. Maybe I'll change it later. P.S.-I'm not trying to gloat or brag at all, I'm posting this list for those who asked to see what books I picked up. And I don't know about you, but I like seeing what books were pushed because then I can keep those books on my radar. YA and MG Books: 1.Happyface by Stephen Emond-3/10 2...

Today was all in the exhibits. I was able to get a free exhibits only pass for my cousin-in-law who is a teen and loves books but today was the only day we could take her with us. I was nervous because I wasn't sure what would be left since a lot of booths seemed to run out of ARCs yesterday. But we lucked out and ended up finding a good amount of ARCs (again Egmont pulled through and was the greatest booth-they loaded her up!) and I was super thrilled to stop by Disney-Hyperion and find ARCs of The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima. I was at her signing yesterday and they were supposed to give out ARCs, but they said they'd run out. Then today they pulled a box out and said it was mislabeled so we got The Demon King, Psych Major Syndrome , and Karma for Beginners. We even came across an author signing for an adult historical, The Tory Widow , which was pretty cool-author Christine Blevins even gave us lavendar sachets to go with the books, so now the car smells great! We pi...

I spent today mostly in sessions. I started out in Sex in YA Lit, but ducked out early to get in line for Sarah Ockler's signing. She's super cute and sweet and I now have a signed copy of Twenty Boy Summer so be watching for a giveaway! I then walked around the exhibits and talked to Andrea (Awaiting Serenity). We went over to the Simon and Schuster booth to see if could snag a copy of The Hollow , but I was told they were all out. I walked by later in the day and what do I see on the counter but a lone copy of The Hollow just begging me to be it's new owner! I felt super lucky!! Then it was off to a session on self-censorship and collection management. It was a really good panel, but my library already carries the items they were talking about like YA movies, music, and comics, so I felt pretty good about that. I then got to Malindo Lo's signing for Ash (be watching for another giveaway!) and she was also super nice and sweet. Next I ran over to the Disney-...

The day started with my husband and I attending the YA Author Coffee Klatch. We moved to a table in the back when they announced there were tables without people where authors would be sitting and since our table only had four people, we were able to talk to the authors more one-on-one which was pretty cool. They announced the authors and then they came in. I saw a group of authors coming over and I recognized Sarah Dessen and Julie Halpern, and then an author I didn't recognize sat at our table. When she started talking, a lovely Australian accent came out and I realized I was sitting next to Melina Marchetta , this year's Printz award winner!! She was super sweet and talked about her Printz call and we congratulated her. (Later in the day I got a book signed by her and she remembered me from her table!) The other authors we met from the coffee klatch: - Michael Buckley -very funny and nice and he had an adorable son (we saw pictures) - Maggie Stiefvater -so charming and...

We drove in last night and got in at 2AM! Tonight I'm heading downtown to pick up my confernece booklit and then me, my husband, my bro-in-law and his girlfriend, and my cousins-in-law are heading to the Harry Potter Exhibit at Museum of Science and Industry . I'll try to read blogs and keep up with posting and let you all know about my trip. And did you know that Mo Willem's Pigeon is twittering about ALA?

So you guys have heard me blabbering my excitement over ALA for awhile now and it's almost here! I can't wait!! For those of you wondering what ALA is, it's the American Library Association's annual conference (there's also the midwinter conference held in January every year) This is a chance for librarians to meet up, attend awesome sessions, award committees meet and discuss what they'll be awarding, and lots of library vendors make appearances in the exhibit hall to tell you how they can help improve your library. There's also publishers with ARCs of new books and author signings. This will be my first ALA conference and the more stuff I get about it, the more excited I get. I'm making my schedule, figuring out what sessions to attend, what authors I want meet, and just how many books I can bring home with me. If you'll be heading to ALA, author or blogger, let me know. I know of a few bloggers that are going and we'd love to have a bl...