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Take a look at Publishers Weekly (PW) editors' choices of 2015 best books to discover outstanding new titles. The lists include picture books, middle-grade, and young adult books.

The picture books range from well-known authors such as Drew Daywalt (The Day The Crayons Came Home) and Dave Eggers (This Bridge Will Not Be Gray) and Mordicai Gerstein (The Night World) to debut authors such as Guojing (The Only Child), who writes about growing up under China's one-child policy.

Middle-grade books include bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson (My Diary from the Edge of the World) and the amazing Brian Selznick (The Marvels).

Young adult titles range from a nonfiction title by M. T. Anderson (Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad) to Chicago-area writer Laura Ruby's new novel (Bone Gap). 

For more information visit PW or click on any of the above links.

Hot New Releases & Popular Kids Stories It's important to keep up on the hot new releases and popular kids' books as we enter the gift giving season!

I'm reading reviews on goodreads of Jodi Lynn Anderson's new book, Tiger Lily. 

In which there's a shaman named Tik Tok who also happens to be Tiger Lily's adoptive father, and, a guy the same age as Tiger Lily... His name is Pine Sap.


According to reviewers, Tiger Lily is shunned because her tribe thinks she is cursed. They also shun Pine Sap because he's very small (physically) and to them, that's not ok...

The first lines in the publisher's promo for the book:


"Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . ."

Crow feather in her hair?

Reading some of it at the HarperCollins site, I see that Tiger Lily is of the "Sky Eaters" tribe. She stands out because she's like a cross between a roving panther and a girl. She stalks instead of walks. And, because she's female, she's out in a field when the story opens, cultivating tubers, because that is a woman's job.

I don't have an ARC. If someone wants to send me theirs, send me an email and I'll send the mailing address. The book is due out on July 3rd.

Interesting news out today that Simon & Schuster has launched an online interactive serial novel for teens.

At www.loserqueen.com, the first few chapters of a new novel by New York Times best-selling author Jodi Lynn Anderson are available. Here’s the novel (forgive the pun) part: readers can vote on what happens next. And they can continue to do so every Monday through Sept. 13, when new chapters and voting opportunities will be added to the website.

Online readers also can vote on the final cover art for the novel, which will be released in paperback and e-book on Dec. 21.

According to the Simon & Schuster press release, Anderson said, “When Simon & Schuster approached me about creating an online book together, I was intrigued. It was a chance to create something really new … the interactive elements, getting the chance to involve readers in deciding on where the story will go. … It has been an exciting, creative process.”

It’s definitely an interesting experiment, and judging by the comments on the site, teens are already enjoying it. The website even has a Rec Room section, in which fans can dress up the main character (with sponsorship from JC Penny), explore a character’s bedroom, check out the school’s year book and read Anderson’s blog.

It will be fun to see how this new product plays out once the novel hits paperback. If it works and brings readers through to the final book, it could bring web-hungry teens to paper.

What do you think?

Write On!