March 28, 2013: Big at Bologna
This year at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, the focus has shifted to middle-grade. “A lot of foreign publishers are cutting back on YA and are looking for middle-grade,” said agent Laura Langlie, according to Publisher's Weekly. Lighly illustrated or stand-alone contemporary middle-grade fiction is getting the most attention. Read more...
March 10, 2013: Marching to New Titles
Check out these titles releasing in March...
March 5, 2013: Catch the BEA Buzz
Titles for BEA's Editor Buzz panels have been announced. The middle-grade titles selected are:
A Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline Carlson
Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltages Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith
The Tie Fetch by Amy Herrick
For more Buzz books in other categories, read more...
February 20, 2013: Lunching at the MG Roundtable
Earlier this month, MG authors Jeanne Birdsall, Rebecca Stead, and N.D. Wilson shared insight about writing for the middle grades at an informal luncheon with librarians held in conjunction with the New York Public Library's Children's Literary Salon "Middle Grade: Surviving the Onslaught."
Read about their thoughts...
February 10, 2013: New Books to Love
Check out these new titles releasing in February...
January 28, 2013: Ivan Tops List of Winners
The American Library Association today honored the best of the best from 2012, announcing the winners of the Newbery, Caldecott, and Printz awards, along with a host of other prestigious youth media awards, at their annual winter meeting in Seattle.
The Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature went to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Honor books were: Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz; Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin; and Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage.
The Coretta Scott King Book Award went to Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America written by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, which honors an author for his or her long-standing contributions to children’s literature, was presented to Katherine Paterson.
The Pura Belpre Author Award, which honors a Latino author, went to Benjamin Alire Saenz for his novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which was also named a Printz Honor book and won the Stonewall Book Award for its portrayal of the GLBT experience.
For a complete list of winners…
January 22, 2013: Biography Wins Sydney Taylor
Louise Borden's His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg, a verse biography of the Swedish humanitarian, has won the Sydney Taylor Award in the middle-grade category. The award is given annually to books of the highest literary merit that highlight the Jewish experience. Aimee Lurie, chair of the awards committee, writes, "Louise Borden's well-researched biography will, without a doubt, inspire children to perform acts of kindness and speak out against oppression."
For more...
January 17, 2013: Erdrich Wins Second O'Dell
Louise Erdrich is recipient of the 2013 Scott O'Dell Award for her historical novel Chickadee, the fourth book in her Birchbark House series. Roger Sutton, Horn Book editor and chair of the awards committee, says of Chickadee, "The book has humor and suspense (and disarmingly simple pencil illustrations by the author), providing a picture of 1860s Anishinabe life that is never didactic or exotic and is briskly detailed with the kind of information young readers enjoy." Erdrich also won the O'Dell Award in 2006 for The Game of Silence, the second book in the Birchbark series.
For more...
January 15, 2013: After the Call
Past Newbery winners Jack Gantos, Clare Vanderpool, Neil Gaiman, Rebecca Stead, and Laura Amy Schlitz talk about how winning the Newbery changed (or didn't change) their lives in this piece from Publishers Weekly...
January 2, 2013: On the Big Screen
One of our Mixed-up Files members may be headed to the movies! Jennifer Nielsen's fantasy adventure novel The False Prince is being adapted for Paramount Pictures by Bryan Cogman, story editor for HBO's Game of Thrones. For more...
We hope it will be a great year and we’re so thrilled we get to spend it with all of YOU – our readers, fellow writers, teachers, librarians, parents AND kids!
Since we love fireworks, here’s some more!
13 Comments 
Happy New Year!!! My goal for 2011, gulp, is to exercise daily. There, it’s out there. Now I have to do it.
Yeah! I actually feel as if I accomplished much of what I set out to do in 2010. I have great plans for an even better 2011. Thanks so much for a wonderful year! And blessings for the coming one!
Happy New Years to you! I still have a few more hours to go 
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I don’t want to say any revolutions because I never keep them but i do have a plan to go to my first ever anime convention in November! Woot!
Happy New Year!!! May 2011 be your best year yet!
Happy New Year! My resolution this year is to read and review 52 middle-grade novels and also complete my first draft of my first middle-grade novel!
Happy New Year Mixed Up Files!
I am looking forward to being Mixed Up in 2011 too. By that, I mean reading a fun mix of YA and middle grade books.
My resolution is to write every day no matter how busy I get with work, school, kids and . . . life. I hope to finish my current novel and a new cookbook. Take that 2011!
I love all your wishes and goals, everyone! Thanks for responding. Sometimes I get nervous about setting goals because I tend to bite off more than I can chew, but then I’m afraid of being lazy and kicking myself later for not being productive enough. So part of me wants to just stay the course and stay alive, and the other ambitious part of me wants to write my entire new YA Victorian gothic paranormal trilogy this year. I’ve got 100 pages . . . oops! I mentioned that *other* term – the YA *ssh!* term here amongst MGers. See how mixed-up I am!
Happy New Year! Thanks for a year of fantastic blog posts, and all the work you guys do creating a sense of MG community!
My resolution (gulp) is to be querying by Easter. Here goes!
Happy New Year! Thanks for doing a blog for us middle graders.
Happy 2011. My word of the year is “persistence” and I hope to find ways to exhibit that in all the different areas of my life. But for my MG-loving self, I plan to read the thirteen MG books on my to-be-read list, continue revising my own unpublished books based on the feedback I’ve received and to write a completely new MG book. Onward!!
My New Year’s resolution is to NOT make any resolutions.
Thanks for a great launch this past year and useful, inspiring content as well as your generosity.
I’m looking forward to spending 2011 with the great gang from From The Mixed Up Files!
With all good wishes,
Donna
My New Year’s resolution is one word. Trust. I need to trust that I’m in the right place doing what I am supposed to be doing. Happy New Year to you and to all the Mixed-Up Files readers!
From the Mixed-Up Files is the group blog of middle-grade authors celebrating books for middle-grade readers. For anyone with a passion for children’s literature—teachers, librarians, parents, kids, writers, industry professionals— we offer regularly updated book lists organized by unique categories, author interviews, market news, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a children's book from writing to publishing to promoting.
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Dec 31, 2010 
