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If you like Philip Pullman’s books (His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass), I Was a Rat!), you’ll be interested in this radio interview with him that aired last night on CBC Radio’s Writers & Company. The interview was Part 1 of 2, conducted by Eleanor Wachtel when Pullman was in Toronto for the Particles of Narrative conference.

Pullman talked about his childhood, his love of writing, Greek myth, religion, The Golden Compass, and more. You also get to hear an excerpt from the upcoming movie based on his book The Golden Compass (which is being adapted at the cost of a $150 million), and an excerpt of The Golden Compass read by Pullman–an excerpt with a cliffhanger that will make you want to read the book, if you haven’t already, or re-read it.

You can download the interview here, if you want to listen to it or have a copy. Archives are only kept online for four weeks, so you’ll want to get your copy now. You can also download it here, where they keep a few more back issues in the archives.

If you like Alex Flinn’s books (I love them) (think gritty, compelling contemporary Breathing Underwater, Nothing to Lose, Diva, and now her new YA Fantasy Beastly) you might want to head over to YA Cafe to see the recent interview she did, where she talks about her new book, Beastly, the research she did for it, what she was like as a teen, and more.

As part of the YA Cafe feature, Alex will keep popping in throughout the week (until sometime Wednesday, I guess) to answer any reader questions. So if you wanted to ask Alex a question, now’s your chance.

Two wonderful things begin today in the kidlit world: Cybils nominations and 31 Flavorite Authors for Teens.

The Cybils are the internet’s first literary awards for the best children’s and teen books of 2007–and you can have a say in which books are nominated. Yes, you! Anyone with an email address can nominate a book.

Love children’s books? Have a favorite 2007 picture book, middle grade, teen fiction? Then head on over to the Cybils blog, and have your say. You can nominate books from there–one book for each category.

There are seven categories:

Curious about last year’s winners? Click here.

If you love children’s books, this is an experience you won’t want to miss out on. Get over there and make your voice heard! I can’t wait to see what you all nominate.

The other neat thing that begins today is 31 Flavorite Authors–an opportunity for readers to chat live with some great YA authors, every evening in October (5 pm Pacific, 8 pm Eastern). Meg Cabot opens the 31 Flavorites tonight, and Stephenie Meyer closes them on October 31. ReaderGirlz have lined up some fantastic authors.

The authors include (in order):

Week One
1. Meg Cabot 2. Tiffany Trent 3. Brent Hartinger 4. Lorie Ann Grover 5. K.L. Going 6. Nikki Grimes

Week Two
7. Ellen Hopkins 8. Justina Chen Headley 9. Chris Crutcher 10. Ann Brashares 11. Sarah Mlynowski 12. Cecil Castellucci 13. Kirby Larson

Week Three
14. Tanya Lee Stone 15. John Green 16. Sara Zarr 17. Deb Caletti 18. Rachel Cohn 19. Kirsten Miller 20. Mitali Perkins

Week Four
21. Sonya Sones 22. Lisa Yee 23. Carolyn Mackler 24. E. Lockhart 25. Janet Lee Carey 26. Gaby Triana 27. Lauren Myracle

Week Five
28. Holly Black 29. Cynthia Leitich Smith 30. Dia Calhoun 31. Stephenie Meyer

Make sure you join the ReaderGirlz forum on MySpace; you must be a member of the forum to participate in the 31 Flavorite Author chats. (http://groups.myspace.com/readergirlz)

You can print a 31 Flavorites bookmark or poster from ReaderGirlz’s current issue found on their website. You can also win a FREE book; the thirty-first person each night to comment on the Flavorite Author chat will win a book. So put the chats on your calender, and don’t forget.

If you enjoy reading YA author interviews or want to discover new teen books you might enjoy, then YA Cafe is a blog you won’t want to miss. Marlene Perez (Unexpected Development), Mary E Pearson (Scribbler of Dreams), and Melissa Wyatt (Raising the Griffin), all YA writers themselves, regularly interview teen fiction writers about their books, and post those interviews on YA Cafe. Nancy Werlin (The Rules of Survival) and Cathy Atkins (Alt Ed) also interview YA authors, though less frequently.

A neat feature about YA Cafe interviews is that they are interactive. Readers are invited to post their own questions and the interviewed authors will answer them for one week following the posting of the interview.

The current interview is with K. L. Going, author of Saint Iggy. Past interviews have included A.M. Jenkins, author of Repossessed; Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of Tantalize; Laura Wiess, author of Such a Pretty Girl; and many more.

So if you like teen fiction, head on over to YA Cafe