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Got kids on your Christmas gift list who like, love or need books?

Allow me to hook you up with the 4:00 Book Hook, a fantabulous e-newsletter dedicated to children and YA literature. The latest edition features their annual holiday book gift guide and I’ve gotten the okay to post that section online :).

The holiday gift guide features author reviews and recommendations of some of their favorite children and young adult books on the market. With the wonderful variety of books for kids and teens, you’re sure to find something for your selective young reader.

For your convenience, I’ve uploaded the entire Holiday Gift Guide section of the 4:00 Book Hook–just click on the page links below:

4:00 Book Hook Page 2

4:00 Book Hook Page 3

4:00 Book Hook Page 4

BTW, my recommendations for three of my favorite recently-published picture books are on page 4.

Oh, and please don’t forget to buy your books from your local brick ‘n mortar bookstores or at independent bookstores online–not that nameless shameless one using books as loss leaders :(. This holiday season especially, let’s show support and love for true book-loving booksellers… just sayin’. :-)!

Happy gift giving and reading!

P.S. 4:00 Book Hook is a free e-newsletter for people who share books with kids: parents, home-schoolers, teachers, grandparents and librarians. Contact the 4:00 Book Hook at this email address for your free subscription: [email protected]

(The above image came from this article).

I'm participating in the Story Siren's Debut Author Challenge. The guidelines are below:

CHALLENGE OBJECTIVE
To read and review a minimum of twelve young adult or middle grade debut novels between the dates of January 1, 2012 - January 31, 2013.*
*The 2013 extension is so that December Debuts can be read and count toward the challenge.

RULES AND GUIDELINES
You must have a blog to post your reviews or be a member of Goodreads.
Your blog must be written in English.
Deadline to join is May 31, 2012.

BOOK GUIDELINES
Must be a young adult or middle grade title.
Must be the author’s YA or MG debut, released in 2012.
If an author has a previous novel published for adults or children, they can still qualify for the challenge.
If an author has a previous YA or MG title, they do not qualify for the challenge.

As many of you know, I've run monthly One Sentence Debut Reviews, covering three books each month (technically, I've only done 10/12 months, but you get the idea). Next year, for sanity purposes, I will lump my debut reads into three posts for spring, summer, and fall releases. I will continue to give away bookmarks/swag for books debuting in 2012.

Anyone else participating this year?

by Craig Moodie, author of Into the Trap

SKIFF: (Old Ger. Skif) Any open boat that is propelled by oars, sail, or motor and used for any purpose.

Boats of all kinds play important roles in Into the Trap, almost becoming a class of character (although they have no dialogue).

You might have heard of the term “character boat” which is typically used to describe a boat with as many quirks as ribs.

The skiff Eddie takes out to Greenhead Island is one such character boat, complete with leaks and a recalcitrant Evinrude outboard. Just like Eddie’s skiffs, the skiffs I’ve known over the years have all had some number of defining peculiarities (not unlike the people I’ve known).

The clam boat I helped my old friend Chris Green and his dad Joe build was one big peculiarity. About twelve feet or so, it was essentially a box built out of sheets of plywood whose only nod to marine design was its slanted scow-style bow. It resembled the Higgins boats used for ship-to-shore transport in World War II. We painted it olive drab, too, probably because Joe picked up the paint on the cheap.

As rudimentary as it was, it floated, and we kept it moored in Round Cove in East Harwich and now and then took it fishing in Pleasant Bay out past Great Island.

Mostly we used it for quahogging. I spent many days puttering out of the cove and then opening up the throttle of the outboard to plow along to where the clam beds were in the open bay, and there to spend the day among the other quahoggers raking clams from their skiffs. The boat was no speedboat, and it was tender, meaning that if you moved, it moved with you. Taking a long trip in it wasn’t something I had the stomach for.

But it made a serviceable floating platform from which to put your long-handled aluminum bullrake over the rail, work the teeth of the rake into the unseen sand and mud below, and scrape up the blue-gray nuggets of littlenecks, cherrystones, and chowder clams in the rake’s basket, and then to empty the basket on the culling board.

You just had to remember to bail out the water that constantly leaked in before you put the rake back over again, or your boots would be ankle-deep in seawater before you knew it.

(Both photos are courtesy of NOAA. That’s not the skiff I used, but it’s certainly a character boat with a couple of characters quahogging.)

This. You must read it. Go now!

By Eugene Yelchin, author of Breaking Stalin's Nose

Before immigrating to the US, I lived in the former Soviet Union. Once in the early 1980s, an official from the KGB called me in for an “informal” chat. A typical Soviet secret policeman, he locked the door of his office, put the key in his pocket, and invited me to discuss the political views of my coworkers. His goal was to recruit me as an informer. I had no idea what would happen to my family or to me were I to refuse, but I suspected bad things. The KGB terrified everyone, and I was afraid. But I could never become a snitch, either. For two straight hours, I played dumb, evading questions and pretending I didn’t understand him. He got bored, unlocked the door, and finally let me go. I felt insulted and humiliated, but I was not harmed. Had that happened some years earlier, when the ruthless dictator Joseph Stalin ruled Russia, I would not have gotten out of that office alive.

During his reign, from 1923 to 1953, Joseph Stalin ensured his absolute power by waging was against the Russian people. Stalin’s State security executed, imprisoned, or exiled over twenty million people. Not a single person, be it a government official, war hero, worker, teacher, or homemaker, could be certain he or she would not be arrested.

To arrest so many innocent people, crimes had to be invented. Stalin’s propaganda machine deceived ordinary people into believing that countless spies and terrorists threatened their security. Tormented by fear, Soviet citizens clung to Stalin for guidance and protection, and soon his popularity reached cult status. “The father of all Soviet children” smiled and waved at his supporters during parades and celebrations, while at night, in his Kremlin office, he was signing orders for innocent people to be shot without trial.

Paradoxically, when I was growing up in the Soviet Union, few people of my generation were aware of what had transpired under Stalin. During his lifetime, the crimes had been carried out in absolute secrecy. After his death, the secrecy continued: All evidence was classified or destroyed. Older generations, either still terrified or responsible for the crimes, kept silent.

But Stalin could not simply disappear; his legacy endured in the Russian people. They had lived in fear for so long that fear had become an integral part of their very beings. Unchecked, fear was passed on from generation to generation. It has been passed on to me, as well.

My book Breaking Stalin’s Nose is my attempt to expose and confront that fear. Like my main character, I wanted to be a Young Pioneer. My family shared a communal apartment. My father was a devoted Communist. And like my main character, I too, had to make a choice. My choice was about whether to leave the country of my birth.

I set the story in the past, but the main issue in it transcends time and place. To this day, there are places in the world where innocent people face persecution and death for making a choice about what they believe to be right.

—Los Angeles, California

When I first started writing, I lived and breathed the world of middle-grade fiction. It is my very first love.

When I first started blogging, I met fabulous blogger Anna Staniszewski and shortly thereafter we found that we had very similar reading tastes, and hence a “Book Twin” was born.

So I was very excited when Anna got her book deal for her middle-grade novel, My Very Unfairy Tale Life, which arrives in bookstores next week even though I did see it in the wild last night here in Atlanta and posted a pic on Twitter.

Here’s my summary of the book:

Jenny is not your average 12-year old. First off, she’s an Adventurer, which means she travels to magical kingdoms to take care of business. But don’t get it twisted, it’s not as glamorous or as safe as Disney World — especially when crazy unicorns want to stab her or creepy clowns want to take away her mouth. It’s also a drag when her two best friends don’t even remember her — thanks to a magic spell. Oh yeah, and her co-worker is a gnome who constantly performs duties not in his job description. And even if she could leave her work at the office, Jenny only has to come home to a ditsy Aunt who only shows love to her animals.

What’s an Adventurer to do?

Jenny decides she’s had enough. She doesn’t want to be an Adventurer anymore. But living in the real world is not what she expected it to be — it’s actually kinda boring. When she finds out that she may be the last hope to save a magic kingdom under an evil curse, she has has to make a choice: Does she stay safe in her world or return back as an Adventurer and succeed where others have failed?

This is a great middle-grade novel for girls who like their characters feisty and funny. Loved the humor in this book. My personal favorite was the gnome. This is going on my Christmas list for my god-daughter who is 9-years old. She will love it!

Congrats Book Twin on your debut! You’re making me want to write middle-grade fiction again. :)

Trailer time! Check out the hilariously appropriate Wonkenstein trailer Jackie Jou put together for Obert Skye's latest book!

You can download a chapter excerpt on our site, and learn more about the series here, too!

A conversation with editor Nancy Mercado & author Paul Acampora about squirrels, books, football, writing, ice cream, the Pope and Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face

Nancy: When I look back at all the drafts of Rachel Spinelli Punched Me in the Face, I’m amazed at how in each rewrite you start the book in a totally new place! How did changing the opening change how you saw the book?

Paul: Looking in my files, I see that there are more than 30 separate versions of this novel with half a dozen different titles. YIKES! Originally, the main relationship in the story was going to be the one between Rachel and her brother, Teddy. But even in my very first drafts, Teddy was so complete. He doesn’t need to change. And it’s really hard to find a novel’s worth of story if change is not a necessity or even a possibility for a main character. But I just loved these people, and I really wanted to spend time with them so I just kept writing and writing. Glancing at the various openings now, I see myself moving the more complicated relationships in the story to the center of things. By the final version, I knew whose heart I wanted the reader to be closest to so I was working to create a beginning that (hopefully) gives sense to every action and choice that the main character makes throughout the story.

Nancy: What did you learn (if anything!) by writing all of those different beginnings?

Paul: I learned that “good” writing is not enough. The other beginnings are really not that bad. Some of them are livelier or funnier or more exciting than the final version. Some of them I like just as much (or even a little better!) than what’s there now. But they didn’t serve the story I wanted to tell. So I had to throw a lot of perfectly good scenes into the shredder.

Nancy: When you got to the current beginning (Zachary talking about moving from Colorado) did it just click into place for you and feel right? Or were you just tired and worn down from all the revising? (Ha!)  

Paul: I think the “click” happens just before I start working on a final version of anything. I seem to spend a ton of time wandering around with my characters. I’m writing stuff, but I kind of know that I’m not getting to the “real” story yet. Then one day I hear a song or read a magazine article or see a photograph or overhear a playground argument or just have a conversation with you… and suddenly I know exactly where I should be going. That’s when the writing becomes really fun! As far as getting worn down from the revising, that’s exactly the opposite of what happens! Revising moves me closer and closer to the heart of what I’ve been trying to get at. It’s satisfying and exciting and even a little scary. But that’s where I want to be!

Nancy: Have you ever been punched in the face? Either metaphorically or physically?

Paul: Believe it or not, I played high school football. I was the worst football player in the history of southern New England. I’m talking about a geographic region seriously not recognized for gridiron prowess, so believe me when I tell you that I was not good. Not good at all. I was too small to play up front, to wishy-washy to remember the plays, too ham-fisted to catch the ball, too slow to keep up with receivers, and when I was involved with any kind of hitting, I’d often jump up and down and yell, OH MY GOD THAT HURTS! (Football coaches hate that.) Also, if I accidentally tackled somebody, I’d help them up and then ask if they were okay. (Football coaches REALLY hate that!) In any case, every play felt like getting punched in the face during a forty car pile-up. I really don’t know why I played the game.

Nancy: What was the most important thing to you when writing this book? In other words, what did you most want to accomplish