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John Green is a New York Times bestselling author who has received numerous awards, including both the Printz Medal and a Printz Honor. John is also the cocreator (with his brother, Hank) of the popular video blog Brotherhood 2.0, which has been watched more than 30 million times by Nerdfighter fans all over the globe. John Green lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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With each passing page I read in this book, the lump in my throat got bigger and bigger. 

The Fault in Our Stars is a book I feel privileged to have read and would whole-heartedly recommend for everyone to read.

There’s nothing inherently new about the tale being told here. Boy meets girl and falls in love with girl who falls in love with boy despite some very challenging circumstances. Where this book differs from most books out there trying to tell the same story is the way the author – John Green – beautifully captures the voice of the main protagonist, Hazel Grace and makes us FEEL every single high and low moment she suffers as a normal teenage girl but diagnosed with terminal cancer. Augustus Waters a.k.a. Gus, is the very charming and attractive gentleman who captures Hazel’s heart. Gus’s passion for life is very contagious and it fills every page. I have to say there was a very, very important moment in Amsterdam that really took me by surprise and I had to go back to reread the previous pages. It almost slid under my radar but it was a MOMENT and I feel like the author could have made that moment more impactful as it changed everything. Readers of the book will know what I’m talking about. Maybe it’s just me but that moment deserved more bells and whistles… in my humble opinion.

You will find many laugh out loud moments plus quite a few ‘Oh No!’ moments as you read this book. There are many positive and inspiring messages to be found here. I think it’s a celebration of life and a celebration of love. I’ll give myself a few months before watching the movie as I’m not yet ready to have Hollywood dilute the experience.

A MUST-READ! Please do grab a copy today. 

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Hello Readers,
I hope you're all enjoying summer (well, at least those of you in the Northern Hemisphere!). These are definitely not "lazy, hazy days" for me. I spent much of our blogging break working on lesson plans for upcoming classes, including a children's writing camp that begins today. (If you'd like to see my summer class offerings, check out my website.)

Today I'm kicking off a series of posts in which we TeachingAuthors talk about a book we recently read or are currently reading. Thanks to the lovely Linda Baie over at TeacherDance, I know about a meme in the blogging community called "It's Monday, What Are You Reading?" hosted at Teach Mentor Texts. I'm happy to have a blog post that qualifies for the roundup!

The book I'd like to discuss is John Green's The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton). Even though this bestseller has been out since 2012 and has been made into a "major motion picture," I didn't get around to reading it till this month. I might not have read it all if it hadn't been selected as one of our Anderson's Bookshop's Not for Kids Only Book Club titles for August.

Author’s Note

      This is not so much an author’s note as an author’s reminder of what was printed in small type a few pages ago: This book is a work of fiction. I made it up.

      Neither novels nor their readers benefit from attempts to divine whether any facts hide inside a story. Such efforts attack the very idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the foundational assumption of our species.

      I appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

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• First up, my little sister.  My daughter recently had her third birthday so my sis came up with a craft involving what she calls Do It Yourself Cupcakes. Each cupcake sported a teeny tiny cover of one of my child’s favorite books.  Then we took them to her daycare where she delightedly set about pointing out all the books she knew.  I have zero crafting skills but if you do then you might want to try this sometime.  It was kind of friggin’ amazing.

• Now in praise of Kevin King.  The Kalamazoo Public librarian has long been hailed as one of the best in the country.  Fact.  Children’s authors and illustrators everywhere know his name.  Fact.  But when a man attended a summer reading kickoff  for Kalamazoo Public Library with a gun, who confronted the fellow and asked him to please leave?  Kevin King.  So basically, he’s an amazing librarian AND he has the guts to talk to someone packing heat around children.  Kevin King, today we salute you.  I don’t know that many of us would have the courage to do what you did.

• Look, we all talk about how we don’t have enough of one kind of book or not enough of another.  But what do we actually DO about it?  Credit to Pat Cummings.  She doesn’t take these things lying down.  Check out the Hero’s Art Journey Scholarship then.  As the website says, “The Children’s Book Academy is proud and excited to offer merit scholarships for writers and illustrators of color, identifying as LBGQTI, or having a disability, who are currently underrepresented in the children’s publishing industry. In addition, we are offering scholarships for low income folks who might not be able to take this course otherwise as well as to SCBWI Regional Advisers and Illustrator Coordinators who do so much unpaid work to help our field.”  The first and only scholarship of its kind that I’ve certainly seen.

• Sometimes it’s just nice to find out about a new blog (even if by “new” you mean it’s been around since 2012).  With that in mind, I’d like to give a hat tip and New Blog Alert to The Show Me Librarian.  I believe it was Travis Jonker who led me to St. Charles City-County Library District librarian Amy Koester’s site.  It doesn’t have a gimmick.  It’s just an honestly good children’s librarian blog with great posts like this one on Reader’s Advisory and this one on picture book readalouds.  Them’s good reading.

• Jules would never alert you to this herself, but don’t miss this interview with the woman behind the Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog as conducted by Phil and Erin E. Stead.  Even if you know Jules you’ll learn something new.  For example, I had no idea she enjoyed Marc Maron’s podcast too.

• Speaking of Jules, who is the most tattooed children’s author/illustrator (since we already know the most tattooed bookseller)?  The answer may surprise you.

• “There’s not just one way of believing in things but a whole spectrum.”  That would be Philip Pullman talking on the subject of fairy tales and why Richard Dawkins got it wrong.

• I’m sorry.  I apparently buried the lede today.  Else I would have begun with the startling, shocking, brilliant news that they’re bringing back Danger Mouse.  Where my DM peoples at?  Can I get a, “Crumbs!”?  That’s right.

• I don’t read much YA.  Usually I’ll pick out the big YA book of a given year and read it so that I don’t fall completely behind, but that’s as far as I’ll go (right now deciding between We Were Liars and Grasshopper Jungle).  But I make exceptions and Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles fall into that gap.  Now I hear that Meyer wrote a prequel called Fairest giving her villain some much needed background.  That’s cool enough, but the cover?  You only WISH you could see more jackets like this:

• Speaking of YA, and since, by law, nothing can happen at this moment on the internet without some mention of The Fault in Our Stars at least once, I was rather charmed by Flavorwire’s round-up of some of the odd TFIOS merchandise out there.  Favorite phrase: “for the saddest party ever.”

• It’s important to remember that school library cuts aren’t an American invention.  They’re a worldwide problem, a fact drilled home recently by the most recent post on Playing By the Book.  If you’re unaware of the blog it’s run by the wonderful Zoe Toft and is, to my mind, Britain’s best children’s literature blog, bar none.  Now Zoe’s facing something familiar to too many school librarians and it’s awful.  Does anyone know of a British children’s literary magazine along the lines of a School Library Journal or Horn Book?  The fact that her blog hasn’t been picked up by such an outlet is a crime.

• “I should think there would be more chance of your child choking to death on a chocolate bar than of becoming seriously ill from a measles immunisation.”  As a woman with a child too young at the moment to be vaccinated against diseases like measles, every parent that refuses to get their own children vaccinated is a threat to mine.  So I read with great interest what Roald Dahl felt about vaccinating your kids.  It ran on BoingBoing back in 2009 but this kind of thing never dies.

• Father’s Day has come and gone but it’s never too late to look at a bunch of adorable pictures of dads reading to their kids.  Particularly when one of the dads is married to yours truly.  See if you can spot him.

• And the award for Best Summer Reading List of All Time goes to . . . Mike Lewis!  His Spirit of Summer Reading list for reluctant readers can only be described in a single word: Beautiful.  Designed flawlessly with books that I adore, this is the list I’d be handing to each and every parent who walks in my library door, were I still working a reference desk somewhere.  Wowzah.

• A whole exhibit on Appalachian children’s literature?  See, this is why I need my own private jet.  Why has no one ever given me a private jet? Note to Self: Acquire private jet, because it’s exhibits like this one that make me wish I was more mobile.  You lucky denizens of Knoxville, TN will be able to attend this exhibit between now and September 14th.  Wow.  Thanks to Jenny Schwartzberg for the link.

• So pleased to see this interview with Nathan Hale on the Comics Alternative podcast.  Love that guy’s books, I do.  Great listening.

• New York certainly does have a lot of nice things.  Big green statues in the harbors.  Buildings in the shape of irons.  Parks that one could call “central”.  But one thing we do not have, really, is an annual children’s book trivia event for folks of every stripe (librarians, editors, authors, booksellers, teachers, etc.).  You know who does?  Boston.  Doggone Boston.  The Children’s Book Boston trivia event happened the other day and The Horn Book reported the results.  One could point out that I could stop my caterwauling and throw such an event myself.  Hmm… could work. We could do it at Sharlene’s in Brooklyn… it’s a thought…

• C.S. Lewis on the Three Ways of Writing for Children and the Key to Authenticity in All Writing.  Need I say more than that?

• Daily Image:

There are bookshelves that seem kooky or cool and then there are bookshelves that could serve a VERY useful purpose, if you owned them.  Boy howdy, do I wish I owned this because useful is what it is.  It’s a “Has Been Read” and “Will Be Read” shelf.

Thanks to Aunt Judy for the link.

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Did you all catch John and Hank live? The show in Carnegie Hall was amazing. So much fun! readergirlz are Nerdfighters. Thanks, brothers! We celebrate with you!

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50 Book Pledge | Book #28: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

On Friday, May 18, 2012, Jason Koebler of the U.S. News & World Report published an article entitled “Is It Time To Rate Young Adult Books for Mature Content?” The premise of the piece is Sarah Coyne’s insistence that young adult books come with a content warning.

I see not one, but four problems with implementing a rating system. Firstly, books have always been a safe haven for young readers. In the pages of a book they are free “to explore edgier, sensitive, or complicated topics” without judgement. If books are taken away, young people have lost a valuable platform that can help them better understand themselves and the world around them.

Secondly, whose going to decide what is and isn’t appropriate reading material for teenagers. What makes a “nebulous organization” more qualified than your child or you? What criteria are they going to base their decisions on? Is the reading public going to be able to question their decisions?

Thirdly, are librarians now going to be called upon to enforce this system? If so, how? Will students be required to provide some form of identification every time he or she wants to take out a book?

Finally, and most importantly, a rating system is a form of censorship. How is it any different from banning a book? The truth is, it isn’t.

A book on a shelf is meaningless if a reader can’t actually read it.

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Today’s post comes to us from Youth Advisory Board member Skyanne, who read “The Fault In Our Stars,” a sad yet heartening novel by John Green about two terminilly ill teenagers who meet at a Cancer Kid Support Group and fall in love. The... Read the rest of this post

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So, here's a great idea for something to do while dealing with the recuperation of your aging father who is battling lung cancer.     Read a book about two teens who are struggling with cancer and fall in love and one of them is certainly going to die but hopefully not in the book. (Hah!  You think I'm going to tell you if one of them dies?  Read the book yourself.)

Read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  Really, read it.  (That link takes you to an NPR article and about the book.)

I adored books about dying teens when I was a teenager.  They - the teens, not the books - were always so noble. And brave.  And selfless.  Green's characters are also very attractive and intelligent and literary.  And brave. And witty.  And selfless - sort of.  And sarcastic.  And irreverent.  And in love.  Sigh. 

There's this whole other character, an author, who turns out to be just...oh wait.  I can't tell you what that character turns out to be like because then as you read the book you'll be saying things like, "He's going to save their lives"..or, "She's going to wear clown shoes" or whatever I intimate the author might do.  You can't make me say more than I have already said.

Read the book.  It will not cheer you up.  It might make you grateful.  If it doesn't make you grateful, do NOT let me know.

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Today for Trailer Tuesday, check out these trailers for The Fault in our Stars by John Green and Partials by Dan Wells.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.




Partials by Dan Wells
Recovered from an off-site ParaGen records facility on July 17, 2063, the above archival footage is from an investor reel, dated March 1, 2056.

Don't miss this year's blockbuster novel, where the very concept of what it means to be human is called into question. Check out PARTIALS now!

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In the video embedded above, YA writer John Green revealed the title for his new book (The Fault in Our Stars) and promised to sign every single one of the 150,000 books in the first print run.

Even though the manuscript is currently unfinished and the cover has yet to be finalized, the title hit #1 on the Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com bestseller list recently. Green said the publication date has been moved up from May 2012 to January 2012. The author will be video-recording himself throughout the entire signing process; the video will be available on the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel he shares with his brother, Hank Green.

Here’s more from Green’s announcement: “I am doing this because 1. I like my readers, and 2. I want to find a way to thank them for choosing to read my books in this media-saturated world, and 3. I can’t tour everywhere, and it seems weird to preference readers who live near big metropolitan areas of the US over other readers, plus 4. I think it will be kind of fun unless my hand falls off.”

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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