Devious Book for Cats

 Happy Friday, everyone!  I’m not sure if it’s time, yet, for our Pet of the Month selection, but I was in need of some feline humor and thought you might be, too.

-Erica

 

The undead live on in The Forest of Hands and Teeth

I’ll freely admit I haven’t jumped on the latest book bandwagon. You know the series I’m talking about… Dark covers, a dark and brooding beautiful guy with fangs and the muy bella girl he loves and can’t live without. It just isn’t my swoony cup of tea, much to the chagrin of many of my fellow female department members. Yet, I recently stepped back into their good graces with my last Young Adult read. It’s a foray into the Children’s group but it deserves a mention on our end as well since it is great for adults, too.

Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth introduces readers to Mary, a heroine who is as firmly planted in her reality as she is in her dreams. She longs to escape the confines of her village, one that for as long as she remembers has been fenced in, cut off from the rest of the world…if there still is one. On the other side lies the Forest of Hands and Teeth, the Unconsecrated, a zombie-like people who are as undead as vampires but who somehow haunted me more with their hollowed-out faces and continuous crashing against the fences looking for prey. Despite Mary’s obligations to her family, her people and her own survival she longs for something bigger. She knows she must marry to keep the bloodlines going but she dreams of escaping to the beach, a faraway entity she has only heard of in her mother’s stories. Think The Village meets The Handmaid’s Tale with just a smidge of Twilight (the undead factor) and you get a sense of this book. Since The Handmaid’s Tale is one of my favorites, I was anxious to see how I’d like this one. Luckily, it didn’t disappoint. I found Mary to be a well developed heroine struggling with the adult in a very young adult mindframe. The book wonderfully sets the reader up for the sequel which has a great name, The Dead-Tossed Waves (scheduled to be published in April 2010). This could just be the next great series. I happily jump aboard.  

This book will be available on 3/10. Check out the trailer below. It’s great!  For other great YA books for adults also check out Jen’s previous post.  

-Marie

 

School Librarian in The New York Times

Finally!  National coverage recognizing the essential contributions school librarians provide to our education system.  Perhaps there is hope that they will no longer be the first sacrifices made during budget cuts.

Also see what SLJ’s Joyce Valenza PhD had to say in her blog about the article and video…

-Erica

 

Congratulations to our ALEX Award Winners!

The ALEX Awards, for those who don’t already know, are given each year by YALSA to the best adult books for young adults. Of the 10 this year, we’re happy to say that 3 of them are from the Random House, Inc. family! This is a great honor, and there was much squealing at the dinner table in Denver when we found out. See the full list here! More award announcements from Denver to come soon!

 

The Cybils: Award Nominees

The Cybils–a series of awards given out by bloggers of children’s and young adult books–has announced their 2008 nominees in the Graphic Novel category.  See the nominees here and check them against your shelves! We’re honored that these include 4 titles from Random House, Inc.:

Janes in Love (the follow-up to the classic “Plain Janes”)
Emiko Superstar
Out of Picture 2: Art from the Outside Looking In
Y: The Last Man: Volume 10 – The Whys and Wherefores (a staff favorite around the building here)

-David

 

Opening Today: The Boy in Striped Pyjamas

A stirring piece of Holocaust fiction from the Random House Children’s Group has now been adapted to film. The book is a tale of friendship, beginning when young Bruno is shipped off to a boring faraway town when his military father receives a promotion. In the back of his new home, there is a fence stretching as far as one can see, cutting him off from the strange people he can see beyond it.

However, one day, while exploring, he happens upon a boy of the same age with circumstances very different from his own. Their friendship blooms brightly, but it may have revealing and devastating consequences. Check out the preview below, or visit our movie-tie-ins page for more information and more RH books being adapted to film.

 

Blogs —> Books

One of the biggest “surprises” in the publishing industry recently has been the success of a book called Stuff White People Like, based on the eponymous blog covering the eponymous subject. However, its success came as no surprise to me, because, being a young Brooklynite, I’d heard so much about this blog before, and also because two friends had asked me to try to get them a copy before it even went on sale.

This, however, hasn’t been the first book based on a blog. There has been quite the influx of them in the past few years. Parisian cookbook Chocolate & Zucchini published in May 2007 by Broadway comes from chocolateandzucchini.com. Bar Mizvah Disco came from the hilarious barmitzvahdisco.com. Yeah Dave’s Guide to Living in the Moment came from yeahdaveyoga.com. (That’s not this Dave, by the way. I can barely touch my shoelaces.) “Mommy Confidential” came from themommyblog.net. Et cetera.

So, yes, it happens. Is your blog going to get picked up? Maybe! Is this blog going to become a book? OF COURSE IT IS.

Just kidding. But be sure to have as many of these as you can in your collections to draw in the young and Web savvy.

-David

 

Gushing about The Good Thief

 

Just out is The Good Thief from Hannah Tinti, a Dickens-esque novel to be enjoyed by YA and adult readers alike.  It has been getting rave reviews and is an in-house favorite here at Random House. Here’s what we’ve been hearing:

“…For a novel full of scams, shams and underhanded deals and populated by hustlers, thieves and grave robbers, the sense of menace is muted, but as an adventure yarn with YA crossover appeal, it’s tough to beat. –Publishers Weekly

“THE GOOD THIEF deserves comparison to the work of classic authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Dickens – it reminded me of what it was like when I was a kid to be truly engrossed in a book.  You lift your head and hours have passed,  and you realize that you’ve been utterly drawn into a world that is as vivid and real as your own.  A masterful achievement.”

– Dan Chaon, author of National Book Award finalist Among the Missing and You Remind Me of Me

 

“Every once in a while — if you are very lucky — you come upon a novel so marvelous and enchanting and rare that you wish everyone in the world would read it, as well. THE GOOD THIEF is just such a book — a beautifully composed work of literary magic. That masterpieces don’t come along very often only makes it more wonderful to experience.”

 – Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

 

And here is what Hannah Tinti herself has to say about The Good Thief and the process of writing it:

 

–Jen

 

 

More Manga Please

Looking to stock up on manga for your library?  Wish you could take a peek before you bought?  Well, your wish has been answered.  Del Rey Manga has previews of 20 of their series that you can easily view online.  Shugo Chara, Dragon Eye, Kagetora, Kitchen Princess and more! And while you’re there, be sure to sign up for Del Rey’s manga e-newsletter to get manga updates sent right to your in-box! Don’t even know where to start?  Then check out the handy Booksellers & Librarians Resource page with the basics of manga buying.

-Jen

 

Laughing Without an Accent

I’ve been one of the lucky ones so far to see Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi and Laughing Without An Accent, speak in person.  She doesn’t just read from her hilarious memoirs, she could be a stand-up comic.   Invite her to visit your library, school, or book festival!  Contact www.barclayagency.com  Her recent interview on NPR was buzzed about recently at ALA.  For a guaranteed laugh and thoughtful discussion, listen here.

 

–Erica