This Week in YA- December 27, 2008

Random:

• Libba Bray finally faced her fear from Lauren Myracle's Halloween Scare-a-Thon. Due to her fear of dolls, she went to the American Girl store along with Maureen Johnson (so she could film the evidence)
  
• The first 80 pages of Forever Princess by Meg Cabot were posted online by HarperTeen and Meg Cabot posted parts of Holiday Princess on her blog.
• Lauren Myracle posted a video with dancing books and what they do for the holidays!

Book Trailer Contests:

• Shannon Hale announced on her blog there will be one for Rapunzel's Revenge.
• Meg Cabot announced on her blog she will be having one for Forever Princess.

Books that came out last week:

• Wicked 2: Legacy & Spellbound by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié
• Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz
• The Musician's Daughter by Susanne Dunlap
• Need by Carrie Jones
• Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
• Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
• Parties & Potions by Sarah Mlynowski
• Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

Books that come out this week:

December 28- From Somalia with Love by Na'ima B. Robert

December 28- Angel Boy by Bernard Ashley

December 29- Does This Book Make Me Look Fat? by Marissa Walsh

December 30- The Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer and Sujean Rim

December 30- Privilege by Kate Brian

December 30- What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook

-The Yathenaeum Team

Wondrous Strange- REVIEW

Erika’s Review of Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

At first it seems like every other great fairy story, but after a few pages it becomes so much more. In short, it’s a story about a girl, Kelley, who is actually the winter fairy heir and was stolen from the Winter Court. Then, there’s a changeling, Sonny, who had been stolen by the Winter Court. After the princess had been stolen, the king locked up all the gates between the two worlds, but not perfectly, the gate that is Central Park cracks every Halloween and for nine days up to Halloween every nine years. This is one of those every nine years… Sonny tells Kelley how she’s a princess, there are things after her, and there’s a kelpie in a bathtub…

I highly recommend this book. It will force you to continue reading and flipping the pages. Even at the end when everything seems to end nicely, the last ten pages have a different agenda and you’ll be extremely annoyed that you’ll have to wait for the next book to come out in the trilogy. If there was one time that I really hate advanced readers copies, it’s when I finished Wondrous Strange. Now I have to wait even longer for the next one, not fun! (It came out December 23rd.) It will most likely play with your emotions for the entire book. It almost made me cry at the end and there were also points when I was awing out loud.

If you liked Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tales (Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside), Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange, any fairy or faerie book out there, or even just romance, pick up this book and it will definitely not disappoint (though you may want to wait awhile if you are impatient because then it’s less time waiting for the second book). Shakespeare plays a large role, there’s romance, there are faeries, what more can you ask for?

Parties & Potions!

In honor of the release of Parties & Potions by Sarah Mlynowski today, we have a special post.

A Short Q&A With Sarah herself!:

Who pwns everything?
I’ll admit I had no idea what this meant until you guys kindly explained it to me. (Apparently I am now on the wrong side of thirty.) Anyway, the answer is Lauren Myracle! She writes awesome books, she’s a terrific mom, she’s the most kind-hearted and generous person I’ve ever met, she loves to buy her friends gifts, and she manages to keep a seriously funny blog (that often include video of her superimposing John Green’s face over inappropriate images.)

If someone suddenly threw a wad of twenty thousand dollars at you, how would you respond?
By saying thank you. And possibly curtseying. It seems curtsey appropriate.

If 'they' decided to make a movie of your life, which actress would you want to play you?
Rachel McAdams. Because she’s Canadian like me! Who else is Canadian? Wayne Gretsky, Alex Trebec and the Barenaked Ladies. Fine, they can be in my movie too.

What's the most random question you can think of? Answer it.
Do you have any weird allergies? Why yes. My teeth get itchy when I eat pineapple.

Can you do the Time Warp again?
Obviously.

Which character in the Magic in Manhattan series is the most like you? (Or what parts of the characters if it's a mix?)
I’d love to say that I’m a mix of Miri and Rachel, but I’m all Rachel all the time. I should probably be embarrassed about that, eh? (Us Canadians say ‘eh’ instead of ‘huh’. If you already knew that, then you too might be eligible to be in my movie!)

Erika's Parties & Potions review:

Parties & Potions is the fourth book in the Magic in Manhattan series and one you don’t want to miss. The entire series is about a girl named Rachel who finds out her sister, Miri, is a witch in the first book. Her mother was a witch, but turned away from the witch community and never even told her ex-husband about it. Through the entire series magical spells and occurrances showed their consequences.

In the fourth book, Rachel has finally gotten her own powers and her sister is begging her to attend witch school with her in order to have their own Samsorta. A Samsorta is basically a witch coming out party for girls and takes place on Halloween. So, the entire book is them getting ready for this event as well as everything that happens in the meantime. There are guys, Simsortas (the boy version of a Samsorta) on the top of Eiffel Tower, and skiing on school nights. It’s an extremely enjoyable book that you won’t want to miss. If you’re already a fan of Rachel, then you definitely need to continue reading about her life with this book. And if you’re not already a fan and are up for an entertaining series, you should read them and become a fan. They’ll be times when you’ll want scream at Rachel and other times when you want to hug her and Miri both. Sarah’s writing is humorous as well as serious in all the right parts. It’s a book most will have a pleasure reading.




Here's the winning Kirkus Review teen book award video by Ben Cox for Parties & Potions:

And on top of that Sarah will be at the Books & Books in Bal Harbour in less than a week for the official launch party for Parties & Potions!

We're also encouraging if everyone could wear formal clothes as in a real Samsorta. However, this is by no means required, so just as long as you come is great to us.

-The YAthenaeum Team

This Week in YA- December 20, 2008

Covers:

• E. Lockhart posted the cover of The Treasure Map of Boys, the third Roo book that is set to come out July 28, 2009, on her blog.
• Melissa Marr posted some foreign covers on her blog.
• Scott Westerfeld talked about lookalike covers on his blog and linked to other lookalike covers.

Holiday Ideas:

• Meg Cabot posted her recommended gift list on her blog.
• Maureen Johnson is accepting requests for holiday cards from her up until December 23rd. Just e-mail cheer@maureenjohnsonbooks.com with your name and address if you'd like one.

Books that came out last week:

• Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler
  

Books that come out this week:

• December 23- Wicked 2: Legacy & Spellbound by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié
• December 23- Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Faria Stolarz
• December 23- The Musician's Daughter by Susanne Dunlap
• December 23- Need by Carrie Jones
• December 23- Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston
• December 23- Far From You by Lisa Schroeder
• December 23- Parties & Potions by Sarah Mlynowski
• December 26- Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman

-The Yathenaeum Team

Lisa Schroeder's Contest

Here's a contest we thought you'd all be interested in for Lisa Schroeder's new book's release:

"Lisa Schroeder, author of I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, is celebrating the release of her upcoming YA novel, FAR FROM YOU, and hosting a contest with LOTS of great prizes!

For three days leading up to the book’s release date of December 23rd, you can watch VLOGs and hear some excerpts read from the book. The VLOG schedule is as follows:

Sunday, December 21^st – Liv’s Book Reviews - http://livsbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 22^nd – What Vanessa Reads - http://whatvanessareads.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, December 23^rd – Lisa Schroeder, author - http://lisa-schroeder.livejournal.com/ ANDhttp://myspace.com/writerlisa

Help spread the word, and you might win a fabulous prize!

Copy and paste THIS entire blog entry into your blog between now and December 21st, then come back to Lisa’s blog at either Livejournal OR Myspace and leave a comment with the link to your blog and you will get TWO enteries to win a number of prizes.

Wondering what you might win? Here is the list (there will be multiple winners):

~ An Advanced Review Copy of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, by Carrie Ryan

~ An Advanced Review Copy of SOMETHING, MAYBE, by Elizabeth Scott

~ Young adult novel GIRL, HERO by Carrie Jones

~ Young adult novel, THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Freitas

~ Young adult novel, UGLIES by Scott Westerfield

~ Pair of YA fairy tale retellings by Cameron Dokey (BELLE and BEFORE MIDNIGHT)

~ TWILIGHT movie soundtrack

~ $15.00 Barnes and Noble gift card along with some Harry & David’s chocolate moose munch

~  And of course, a signed copy of FAR FROM YOU

For more chances to win, watch one or all of the VLOGs and leave a comment on that vlogger’s page, and you get another entry. That means if you post the schedule on your blog AND comment on all three VLOGs, you can have FIVE entries for the contest!

A live drawing with winners announced will be done by Lisa Thursday morning, December 24^th, in a special holiday VLOG."

-The YAthenaeum Team

Project for Awesome

Wednesday and Thursday were officially Project for Awesome on youtube!

John and Hank Green, as they had done the previous year, gathered the Nerdfighter community together to support their favorite charity. Many Nerdfighters made videos supporting their favorite charities. Then, those who made videos, as well as those who didn't (*raises hand*) commented, rated, and favorited like mad to bring those those videos to the top of YouTube's lists. All the while, John and Hank were on BlogTV encouraging the Nerdfighters to continue taking over YouTube!

Last night we officially took over the first page of the most discussed page and many more top spots were filled with the Project for Awesome videos (easily spotted with this years Project for Awesome thumbnail).

So, if you are feeling generous this season, check out the amazing videos and donate to one of the awesome charities represented.

Thanks!

-The YAthenaeum Team

Sorry For the Lack of Updates

Just a short update to say:

We are seriously sorry for the lack of updates the past few weeks.

There were midterms and way too much stuff going on.

BUT we will now be posting much more regularly from now on.

Thanks for reading!

-The YAthenaeum Team

This Week in YA- December 13, 2008

Random:

• The ALA is introducing a new award, the Morris Award, for first time authors. The 2009 finalists are up here.
• John Green faced his fear of heights.
• Meg Cabot because of the release of the final Princess Diaries book, will be at the New York Public Library January 9, 2009. Tiaras made by some amazing celebrities will also be on sale online afterwards to raise money for the library. (Meg will also be stopping by here, Miami, February 7! Which we're all excited for.)
• Sarah Mlynowski will be at the Books & Books in Bal Harbour for the Parties & Potions release party! We'd love to see everyone there!

Books that come out this week:

• Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
• What If . . . Your Past Came Back to Haunt You by Liz Ruckdeschel and Sara Jame
• Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers by Betsy Franco
• Dr. Sigmundus: The Cracked Mirror by Brian Keaney

Books that come out this week:

• December 16- Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler

- The Yathenaeum Team

Holiday Gift Ideas

The best presents to buy this year are books. (Aren't they always?)

So here are a few of our YA recommendations:

• A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
• Airhead by Meg Cabot
• Bliss by Lauren Myracle
• Bras & Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski
• The China Garden by Liz Berry
• Impossible By Nancy Werlin
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore
• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr
• Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt
  
• Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
• Need by Carrie Jones
• Paper Towns by John Green
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• Two Girls of Gettysburg by Lisa Klein
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

-The YAthenaeum Team

This Week in YA- December 6, 2008

Random Things:

• Cassandra Clare is having a contest for ARCs of City of Glass. Details are on her blog here.
• Sarah Dessen posted the paperback cover of Lock and Key that will be out in May on her blog.
• Justine Larbalestier posted a book recommendation list for the holidays.
• School Library Journal announced their Best Books 2008.
• Melissa Marr is giving out books to random commenters on her blog.

Books that come out this week:

• December 9- Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
• December 9- What If . . . Your Past Came Back to Haunt You by Liz Ruckdeschel and Sara Jame
• December 9- Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers by Betsy Franco
• December 9- Dr. Sigmundus: The Cracked Mirror by Brian Keaney

- The YAthenaeum Team

Seventeen Magazine Videos

For the first time, Seventeen magazine has featured author videos on their site. And who's videos are they? John Green's

So, of course they're hilarious and you won't want to miss them. He made them exclusively for Seventeen.

Here's the link.

Enjoy!

-The YAthenaeum Team