First Thing First: Teens, GO VOTE for your favorite books, author and illustrator in the Children's Choice Book Awards. The nominees this year are:
Teen Book of the Year
Clockwork Prince: The Infernal Devices, Book Two by Cassandra Clare (Margaret K. McElderry/S&S)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Little, Brown)
Divergent by Veronica Roth (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins)
Passion: A Fallen Novel by Lauren Kate (Delacorte/Random House)
Perfect by Ellen Hopkins (Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster)
Author of the Year
Jeff Kinney for Diary of a Wimpy Kid 6: Cabin Fever (Amulet Books/Abrams)
Christopher Paolini for Inheritance (Knopf)
James Patterson for Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life (Little, Brown)
Rick Riordan for The Son of Neptune (The Heroes of Olympus, Book 2)(Disney Hyperion)
Rachel Renée Russell for Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star(Aladdin/S&S)
Illustrator of the Year
Felicia Bond for If You Give a Dog a Donut (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)
Eric Carle for The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse (Philomel/Penguin)
Anna Dewdney for Llama Llama Home With Mama (Viking/Penguin)
Victoria Kann for Silverlicious (HarperCollins)
Brian Selznick for Wonderstruck (Scholastic)
Now that is done, on to the links!
- This video of The Exquisite Book looks awesome! (via Fuck Yeah, Book Arts!)
From Goodreads: “In The Exquisite Book, one hundred indie artists play an ingenious version of the Exquisite Corpse drawing game. Each adorns a page with artwork having seen only the page of the artist immediately prior and using a single horizon line to connect the two. Some continue the “story” quite literally while others build on the previous page in more fanciful ways. This astonishing volume’s format is as unique as its content, with each of the book’s ten chapters residing on a ten-page accordion pull-out, allowing readers to view the art continuously. With an illustrated foreword by Dave Eggers, and art from such luminaries as James Jean and Jill Bliss, this charming book is, simply, exquisite.”
- I really enjoyed this article from Tor about Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. It reminded me of what Micheal Stipes said when REM retired, 'the skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave.' I have enjoyed every book in the series thus far, and am glad she won't drag it out past its natural conclusion. (I think it helps to know that there is a new spin off series - The Finishing School - in the works, though!)
- Finally, I know it has been a while since I talked about the banning of books used in the Mexican American Studies program in the Tucson Unified School District. It is wonderful that there are still groups of people fighting this just as strongly as when it first happened. The Librotraficante Caravan is "a bus filled with about 60 Latino writers, artists, activists and students 'smuggling' Latino-themed books to Arizona." According to My San Antonio, the librotraficantes ("book trafficers") will be participating in a series of events in six different cities between Houston and Tucson. Tony Diaz, organizer of the tour, wrote this excellent opinion piece explaining his reasons for starting this tour, 'For me, this was a cultural offense on the same level as denying Rosa Parks a seat at the front of the bus.' A video from their website:
Just in case you couldn't tell from the video, Diaz says the caravan's "use of words such as 'trafficking, 'underground' and 'smuggling'--and its use of 'tricked-out taco trucks' to deliver them--has captured imaginations" with targeted satire: "It's meant to expose how unfair the law is." (Found via Shelf Awareness)
