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In celebration of the 95^th annual Children’s Book Week, authors and illustrators showed up at local indie bookstores nationwide to read stories aloud. I’m so glad I had the chance to see the four Texas authors—Crystal Allen, Nikki Loftin, Kathy Duval and Varsha Bajaj—at Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston as they shared their favorite picture books. This event was big fun! All four authors were amazing laugh-out-loud readers and the diversity of the books they selected added so much flavor to the event. Kathy Duval shared SOPHIE’S SQUASH, written by her friend Pat Z. Miller. Nikki Loftin read one of her favorite books from her own childhood, FREDERICK, while Crystal Allen chose a new favorite MY COLD PLUM LEMON PIE BLUESY MOOD and Varsha Bajaj read a book her children had loved, SIXTEEN COWS.

I barely had time to run home and get a few errands done before it was time to be back at Blue Willow for the launch of Joy Preble’s new YA novel, THE A WORD. As usual for Joy’s events, it was a packed house. I think nearly every YA author in Houston (and one from Austin!) was there. After Joy’s lively discussion and book signing, we all headed to Ooo La La for cupcakes, gelato and coffee. A yummy day!

The only downside was that with everything else that was going on, I missed the Houston YA/MG Writers meeting where Jessica Capelle was talking about world building. The good news is that this summer, Jessica will be giving a full day workshop on this topic at Houston’s new hot spot for writers, Writespace.

Coming up this week…

May 20, Tuesday, 5:00 pm
Blue Willow Bookshop
Jarrett Krosoczka, PB Author/Illustrator

Award-winning picture book creator Jarrett Krosoczka will sign his books, including PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLYFISH, his latest picture book—a funny and touching story of friendships old and new, and about being brave enough to apologize. Peanut Butter and Jellyfish are best of friends and swim up, down, around, and through their ocean home. Crabby is their neighbor. He is not their best friend. But when Crabby gets in trouble, will Peanut Butter and Jellyfish come to the rescue? You bet they will!

Wednesday, May 21, 5:00 p.m. 
Blue Willow Bookshop
Chris Gall, Author/Illustrator

Illustrator and author Chris Gall will discuss and sign his newest picture book for kids, DOG vs. CAT. Dog and Cat do not get along. But when they’re forced to share a room, they agree to be on their best behavior…until Dog won’t stop “sniffing.” Cat won’t stop “primping.” Dog won’t stop “howling.” Cat won’t stop “scratching.” And when it comes to the litter-box…sharing is “not” an option! What will it take to bring Dog and Cat together? Find out in Chris Gall’s comic clash that brings out the best (and worst) in two very different pets.

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If I remember correctly, author appearances in Houston got off to a slow start last January. Not so this year! I hope a lot of you got to attend the Texas YAHous’s Whim2Weird event last weekend.  If, like me, you couldn’t make it, you can see pictures of the event with local authors Sophie Jordan, Christina Mandelski, CC Hunter, Crystal Allen, Joy Preble, and Mary Lindsey, courtesy of Blue Willow Bookshop. We have another huge event coming up this weekend:

Sunday, January 15, 3:00 P.M. Doors open  2:30 P.M.
Johnston Middle School
10410 Manhattan Drive, Houston, TX.
Sponsored by Blue Willow Bookshop and
Inprint’s Cool Brain Series
Christopher Paul Curtis, Author

Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Christopher Paul Curtis comes to Houston to discuss his newest book for children, THE MIGHTY MISS MALONE.

Book:
“We are a family on a journey to a place called wonderful” is the motto of Deza Malone’s family. Deza is the smartest girl in her class in Gary, Indiana, singled out by teachers for a special path in life. But the Great Depression hit Gary hard, and there are no jobs for black men. When her beloved father leaves to find work, Deza, Mother, and her older brother Jimmie go in search of him, and end up in a Hooverville outside Flint, Michigan. Jimmie’s beautiful voice inspires him to leave the camp to be a performer, while Deza and Mother find a new home, and cling to the hope that they will find Father. The twists and turns of their story reveal the devastation of the Depression and prove that Deza truly is the Mighty Miss Malone.

Please be sure to check Blue Willow Bookshop’s website for the latest information on this special event.

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2011 is winding down, and what a fantastic year it has been for author visits in Houston! We had our first ever Tween Reads Festival, which is now planned as an annual event. If you missed seeing Mary at Blue Willow Bookshop last week, you have two more chances! Scroll down for the info. I hope to go see her again, but in case I don’t write about it, you can read my post about Mary’s launch at Blue Willow Bookshop.

We’ve had so many great authors here this year. At times I was swamped with other work and didn’t get a chance to write posts about some of our wonderful author visits, but if you’d like to read about the ones I managed to write about, you can see their posts here:

Crystal Allen—How Lamar’s Bad Prank Won a Bubba-Sized Trophy
Varsha Bajaj—T is for Taj Mahal
Ilsa Bick—Ashes
Jessica Brody—My Life Undecided
Tera Lynn Childs—Sweet Venom
Jay Epstein—The Familiars: Secrets of the Crown
Richard Paul Evans—The Prisoner of Cell 25
John Flannagan—The Ranger’s Apprentice: The Final Battle
Andrew Jacobson—The Familiars: Secrets of the Crown
Maureen Johnson—The Name of the Star
Sophie Jordan—Vanish
Gail Carson Levine—A Tale of Two Castles
Christina Mandelski—The Sweetest Thing
Alyson Noël—Riley Bloom: Dreamland
Mary Pearson—The Jenna Fox Chronicles: The Fox Inheritance
Joy Preble—Dreaming Anastasia: Haunted
Gabrielle Zevin—All These Things I’ve Done

Now, here are the events for this week:

December 16, Friday, 6:30 pm
Murder By The Book
Sophie Jordan & Mary Lindsey

Sophie Jordan will sign & discuss VANISH, the dramatic follow up to her debut paranormal young adult novel Firelight.

To save the life of the boy she loves, Jacinda did the unthinkable: She betrayed the most closely-guarded secret of her kind. Now she must return to the protection of her pride knowing she might never see Will again—and worse, that because his mind has been shaded, Will’s memories of that fateful night and why she had to flee are gone.

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Around the office, we refer to this time of year as “Conference Season”.  You’ll see why – here’s the schedule:

April: Texas Library Association Conference
May: International Reading Association Conference
May: SLJ Day of Dialog/BEA
June: ALA Annual Conference

It’s crazy…but we also have lots of fun.  First up is TLA in Austin where we have a phenomenal line-up of authors signing with us:

Wednesday, April 13th
10:15 am – 11:00 am Pat Mora (author aisles)
10:15 am – 11:00 am Rafael Lopez (author aisles)
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Lauren Oliver (author aisles)
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Will Hobbs (author aisles)
12:30 pm – 1:30 pm Bettina Restrepo (author aisles)
1:30 pm – 2:00 pm Crystal Allen (Harper booth 1824)
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm Sophie Jordan (Harper booth 1824)
2:30 pm – 3:00 pm Tera Lynn Childs (Harper booth 1824)
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Suzanne Harper (Harper booth 1824)

Thursday, April 14th
9:00 am – 10:00 am Diane Stanley (author aisles)
11:30 am – 12:00 pm Jason Henderson (Harper booth 1824)
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm Jennifer Archer (Harper booth 1824)
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Kevin Henkes (author aisles)
3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Don Tate and Audrey Vernick (Harper booth 1824)

And don’t miss JAMIE LEE CURTIS as the Keynote Speaker on Wednesday, April 13th at 9:00 am!

Aside from our outstanding authors, we’ll have galleys galore at our booth (#1824) and we hope you’ll stop by to say hi to Patty, Robin, and me!

See you in Texas!

~ Laura

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Publisher: Harper Teen (September 7, 2010)
Hardcover: 336 Pages
Book from BEA

With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki—the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda’s rebelliousness leads her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can’t resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she’s risking not only her life but the draki’s most closely guarded secret. (Source)

Review
FIRELIGHT, by Sophie Jordan, introduced me to a supernatural creature that I have never read about before, dragons. Or in this case draki. I was immediately drawn to this book by the cover, isn't it gorgeous? The subtle changes in the human form make the cover intriguing and when I heard about it, I just had to read it.

I read this book a couple of weeks ago and I have been going back and forth about the review. I wanted to love the book but I couldn't. I did like the book but there were times when I wanted to close it and be done with it.

I really liked the creativity Jordan put into her creation of the draki. Since I have never read a dragon book I can't compare it to anything else but I thought the history and way of life was stellar. I wanted Jacinda to let her draki come out more often because I enjoyed experiencing the natural freedom it gave her. I did enjoy the suspense of the story and the cliffhanger ending did leave me wanting more.

I did not like how easily the romance blossomed between Jacinda and Will. It seemed to happen too quickly and Jacinda would be hot and cold about the relationship at the drop of a hat. It went back and forth too often and it seemed to me that the relationship was there, just to be there. I don't want to spoil too much, that is why it was tough for me to write the review. I have an idea about why the connection is so strong between these two and it might negate what I just said, but it was not explained in this book so I am actually excited for the next book to answer more questions.

Overall, this was a good book. The draki culture really make it stick out to me, but in the relationship department I found myself being taken out of the story too often.

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The winner of Dead Beautiful is...

Candyland!


Congrads and please email your address to [email protected]


Today's Arc Giveaway is Sophie Jordan's Firelight.

This was one of the books on the YA Buzz Panel.

Don't you love the cover? And the premise is awesome!

With her rare ability to breathe fire, Jacinda is special even among the draki—the descendants of dragons who can shift between human and dragon forms. But when Jacinda’s rebelliousness leads her family to flee into the human world, she struggles to adapt, even as her draki spirit fades. The one thing that revives it is Will, whose family hunts her kind. Jacinda can’t resist getting closer to him, even though she knows she’s risking not only her life but the draki’s most closely guarded secret.

Today, all you have to do to enter is sign up for my new monthly Market My Words newsletter to enter.

Starting the end of this month, I will be sending out marketing tips, scoop on upcoming contest news, book giveaways, marketing book reviews, special newsletter interviews, and more.

Good luck to all on the Pitch Contest! They were great! :)

Update: Bree says she will have the winners by Monday!!

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