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You’ve read the first book in the INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE series by Maryrose Wood, right?  For heaven’s sake, I hope so!  It received four starred reviews and appeared on Kirkus’ 2010 Best Books list, among other accolades.  Not to mention that it’s extraordinarily clever and funny, of course!

The second book in the series, THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE, BOOK II: THE HIDDEN GALLERY will be on-sale February 22, 2011.  To celebrate, HarperCollins will be hosting a sweepstakes: grand prize, an e-reader with which to read all the sage words of advice from Agatha Swanburne.  And we’ll also have four first place prizes – a copy of the newly released paperback of the first book in the series, THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE, BOOK I: THE MYSTERIOUS HOWLING.

Want to enter?  Click here to get all the details and, hopefully, this will help quell your impatience until the next book comes out.  In the immortal words of Miss Agatha Swanburne: “To be kept waiting is unfortunate, but to be kept waiting with nothing interesting to read is a tragedy of Greek proportions.”

I hereby present you with photographic evidence of the great time had in the HarperCollins Children’s booth at ALA:

"How Lamar's Bad Prank Won Him a Bubba-Sized Trophy

Lauren Oliver's upcoming DELIRIUM

Cynthia Hand's UNEARTHLY and hundreds of Inkpop bags

Our fun & fabulous new tween series!

Veronica Roth's debut dystopian novel DELIRIUM

the pageturn Post-Its

Robin, Laura, Stephanie, and Heather - the Harper team minus Patty the Photographer

And that doesn’t even begin to cover it!  Books on display, hundreds of galleys in cupboards, posters for upcoming books by Kevin Henkes and Mo Willems…just a taste of all the fabulous loot we brought to the conference.

Bummed to have missed ALA Midwinter?  We’ll be at Texas Library Association in April and the International Reading Association in May!

The lovely Maryrose Wood is here to share the stories behind the beyond-amazing covers of her Morgan series (you guys must have read/seen these magical books, yes?). The third title, WHAT I WORE TO SAVE THE WORLD, is the latest. Here's Maryrose:

"I didn't have an idea for the cover. I love the visual arts and find them a great source of inspiration and creative rejuvenation (perhaps because they force my hyper-verbal brain to think on the other side), but I don't ever imagine book covers as I'm writing. It's hard enough thinking of titles!

"At some point while I was finishing up WHY I LET MY HAIR GROW OUT, the first book in the series, I got an e-mail from my editor that said: 'The art department wants to know what color Morgan's hair is.' Morgan is the main character of the book. So I tried to explain: 'Well, it was originally strawberry blonde, but she died it black, then cut it off, and the stubble is now streaked orange, so your guess is as good as mine...' I had no idea why they wanted to know until they sent me the finished cover to look at..."

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood. Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins. 2010. Reviewed from ARC from publisher.

The Plot: Miss Penelope Lumley, recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, is resolved to get a position as governess. What, she wonders, will they ask? Will they quiz her on the capitals of central European countries? At no point does she wonder, "what if my young charges were raised by wolves and only recently discovered and have never even had a bath? when is the right time to start Latin for such children?" Had she wondered that, she would have been better prepared for the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place.

The Good: The Plot description is my lame attempt at imitating the arch, wry, tongue in cheekness of Wood's style. Miss Lumley (well, by page 7 you have sufficiently made her acquaintance to call her Penelope) may be fifteen, and a responsible, wise governess (seriously -- within months her young charges are wearing clothes, reading, speaking a little Latin, but alas, still chasing squirrels), but she is also young and imaginative. In other words, she is the perfect main character for the tween set -- but if you know a teen with a quirky sense of humor, they will get a kick out of this book, also.

To back up a little: Miss Lumley (whose own origins are slightly shrouded in mystery) becomes governess to three children, discovered on the grounds of Ashton Place, by Lord Ashton. He was out hunting and found these three wild children. Let me be a grown up for a second: I think most child-readers will just go with this conceit and enjoy the fun ride of Miss Lumley bringing civilization in the form of uncomfortable clothes, poetry, and no longer chasing squirrels into the the lives of the wolfish children, now named Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia. Those who think twice about it (three children? raised by wolves?) will, I think, be rewarded in future books. A handful of clues are shared, that indicate there is something more to not only the children, their origins, and Lord Ashton, but also to Penelope herself.

This is chock full of fun. Penelope adores a series of books about a young girl and her pony (the Giddy-Yap, Rainbow! series), and applies what she learns in those volumes to raising these children. She lives by the sayings of the founder of her school, such as "That which can be purchased at a shop is easily left in a taxi; that which you carry inside you is difficult, though not impossible, to misplace."

Here is pure Penelope, as she reads poetry to the children: "Reading aloud was a task she enjoyed; it allowed her to pretend she was a famous actress on the London stage, which she thought might be an interesting career if only it were not so scandalous. Also, the working hours for famous actresses ran late into the evening, and Penelope had always preferred early bedtimes." Wood conveys Penelope's delightful mix of maturity and naivete; her practicality and dre

Maryrose Wood reports that she will be speaking at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention concerning book challenges and the First Amendment rights of students in the United States. She is one of three authors who have had their books challenged recently.

I'll be reminiscing about the madcap Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love book challenge in Florida. The panel will also include the wonderful authors Carolyn Mackler (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things) and Robie Harris (It's Not The Stork!), both of whom have had their own run-ins with people who have somehow not yet gotten around to reading the Constitution. (I know, I know, it's only been a couple of hundred years...)

According to an article in the Daily Press & Argus, Erin Gruwell, author of the controversial The Freedom Writers Diary made a stop in Howell, MI, where her book has been targeted by a group of parents opposed to allowing its real-life language be allowed in the schools. I would encourage you to read the whole article.

Meanwhile, Monroe County, MI has chosen Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury for their Big Read as has Anchorage Alaska. Anchorage Daily news reports that RAY BRADBURY, 87, author of Fahrenheit 451, will participate in an interactive simulcast at 3 p.m. March 23 in the Assembly Chambers at Loussac Library. Participants are encouraged to submit questions in advance.

The CBC has taken their share of criticism for not allowing award-winning author Yann Martel to read from Mein Kampf on a radio broadcast made in celebration of Freedom to Read Week.

Bookslut interviews Maryrose Wood, who is the author of Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love and is one of the authors who is taking the "Banned Book Challenge."

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher became the second book in less than a year to be removed from Carroll School District, Iowa. It was removed from the English class after a local pastor complained about its explicit language but has since been returned. Peter Hedges' What's Eating Gilbert Grape was returned after a superintendent removed the book without following the official policy. Crutcher's official view of censorship is, "The truth screams to be told in its native tongue." He maintains a page on his site that deals with censorship issues about his and other authors' books.

In a 2005 article for the Princeton Perspective, best-selling author Jodi Picoult explains why she writes banned books.

The truth is, I don’t write easy books. I cover issues such as domestic and sexual abuse, rape, euthanasia, infidelity — topics that are unsettling. My objective as a novelist is to take you for a breathless ride, and to make you rethink what you believe, and why. What is eye-opening to one person is offensive to the next, and it is nearly impossible to draw that line, or determine who has the right to draw it....I don’t write about controversial issues because I like to be edgy. I write about them because, like my readers, I don’t have all the answers. When a moral or ethical question roots itself in my mind, I find myself thinking about what I’d do in that situation. I force myself to turn over every stone, consider the issue from every perspective. I find myself walking down roads that are often uncomfortable....

Today marks the beginning of Freedom to Read Week in Canada. The Pelham Public Library challenges the world to read a banned or challenged book...or two...or three between February and June 2007. Register for the "Banned Book Challenge" and join challenged authors Meg Cabot, Deborah Ellis and Maryrose Wood as we celebrate our freedom to read.

Now where are all of the other challenged and banned authors -- Lois Lowry, Chris Crutcher, Madeleine L'Engle, Katherine Paterson? Who else is up for the challenge? Just drop me a line!