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Archive for August, 2008

Bad School. Bad, Bad School.

Posted in Staff Rec - Madeline, Staff Recommendations, tagged , , , , , , on August 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »

As the first week of school in Austin wraps up, I’m sure that most of the kids here would happily tell you that school is evil. It is a miserable, horrible place run by demonic instruments of torture known as teachers.  At least, that’s what I think most of the kids would say.
However, I [...]

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Teen Fiction Café

Posted in Online Stuff, tagged , , , , on August 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Today I had wanted to talk about fan mail and list authors who answer fan mail and generally have a fan mail-tastic time.
Let’s just say that for me to do a post like that, I’ll need a lot more than the half hour I had allotted for research.  There isn’t already a resource out there [...]

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Putting the REAL in reality: New Nonfiction

Posted in Staff Rec - Meghan, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I know we blab on and on about our favorite fantasy books. And yes, that can be irritating to those who prefer fact to fiction. But we can sometimes pull our heads out of the clouds long enough to appreciate a little reality, and to prove it, I wanted to mention a few great new [...]

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Fall Kids’ Indie Next List

Posted in Online Stuff, tagged , , , , , on August 26, 2008 | 4 Comments »

The fall Kids’ Indie Next List has officially hit the BookPeople information desks. Previously known as BookSense, the program is run by the American Booksellers Assoc., a trade association geared towards promoting independent bookstores.
The books on the list are broken into four categories: Top 10 overall, Ages 4-8, Ages 9-12, and Teen. The books are [...]

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Where did the summer go?

Posted in Staff Rec - Madeline, Staff Recommendations, tagged , , , , , on August 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Here in Austin, today is that day parents have been anticipating while their kids were filled with dread — the first day of school. All the little tykes, teens, and everything in between hopped back on their buses and filed into their classrooms for another long year of history, grammar, and arithmetic.
As a result, [...]

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Picturing Words

Posted in Staff Rec - Madeline, Staff Recommendations, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »

When I was a kid, decades ago, I was not much of a reader. I had learned how to read, but I had difficulty with new words. And since I am inherently lazy, I had no interest in increasing my reading vocabulary. Any book that was much more complicated than a cat [...]

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Girls, glorious girls!

Posted in Online Stuff, Staff Rec - Meghan, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on August 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I love Clementine, the title character in Sara Pennypacker’s early chapter book series. She’s spunky, she’s smart, she would be a great best friend (who would talk you into getting in a whole lot of trouble), and she reminds me a bit of one of my other favorites, Ramona (who needs no introduction).
If you want [...]

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Can you solve the case?

Posted in Staff Rec - Madeline, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 21, 2008 | 4 Comments »

I have to admit that I think there is a lack of really great new kid mystery series. There are some good stand alone books like Elise Broach’s Shakespeare’s Secret, but not the kind of series where you just want to read nine or ten of the books in a row.

In fact, I could only think of three current mystery series at all. However, I fortunately like all three series, and I can heartily recommend them as great chapter books for kids and teens.

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Are you ready for BRISINGR? Play the online game!

Posted in Events, Online Stuff, tagged , , , , , , , on August 20, 2008 | 2 Comments »

If you are antsy for the highly-anticipated release of Christopher Paolini’s third addition to his Inheritance Cycle, you have exactly one month left to wait — it releases on September 20. And if you are dying to meet Christopher Paolini, well, you only have to wait a little bit longer, because he will be at [...]

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Our sister blog is up!

Posted in Online Stuff, tagged on August 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that the other crazy folks at BookPeople (you know, the ones who prefer dealing with those books for “grown-ups”) have started a blog too. And although they are totally copying us (cuz we totally invented the internet), you definitely want to check them [...]

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