• From the Mixed-Up Files... > Learning Differences > Super Spring Giveaway
  • OhMG News!


    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...

     


  • Subscribe!

    Get email updates:

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

Super Spring Giveaway

Learning Differences

It’s that time of year when neighbors throw open their windows, lean over the back fence or stop to chat on the sidewalk.  We wish we could host you all for a big  potluck, but the next best thing is…give away some books!

This time we’ve got four, plus a sneak-preview  ARC, all signed by their authors.

From Trudi Trueit’s terrific series, Secrets of a Lab Rat, it’s SCAB FOR TREASURER?

from IndieBound:  Scab McNally has set his sights on a new challenge–proving once and for all that his classmate, Missy Malone, is really an alien in disguise. Scab and his friends have nicknamed Missy “Never Missy” because her hand is always first in the air every time the teacher asks a question, and Missy never gets one wrong. Come on, how is that really possible? When Missy decides to run for class president, Scab sees the perfect opportunity to challenge her by running against her. Scab’s sister Isabelle doesn’t miss a beat reminding Scab that he should be busy creating an agenda of what he’ll do as class president, preparing a speech, and making signs. Instead, Scab focuses on launching wild enough stunts to win the popular vote . . . but will Never Missy be the first to beat Scab at his own game?

Julie Crabtree’s THE CREPEMAKERS’ BOND makes our mouths water! It’s the sequel to her popular DISCOVERING PIG MAGIC.

from IndieBound: Ariel is the head chef in her family kitchen. Cucumber salads, fettuccine carbonara, fish tacos, and peanut butter pie are just a few of the dishes she crafts when she’s feeling frustrated by the world. And it’s turning into a frustrating year. Ariel, Nicki, and Mattie have been inseparable friends since they were little kids, but now Mattie’s mom has decided to move away. It’s the girls’ last year in middle school, and they can’t fathom being separated. The friends concoct a plan that will keep Mattie in the Bay area — she’ll move in with Ariel and her family. But before you can say “bff,” the party is over. Everything Mattie does gets on Ariel’s nerves, and it’s not long before the girls are avoiding each other. This was supposed to be their best year ever, but some painful lessons are threatening to tear their friendship apart. Can the girls scramble to make things right before the bond crumbles?

It’s the second book in the… Accidental Adventures series.   First we were (happily) not eaten  by yaks, and now WE DINE WITH CANNIBALS! 

from IndieBound: When we last saw Oliver and Celia Navel, they had fallen into the clutches of Sir Edmund S. Titheltorpe-Schmidt III and were doomed to spend their entire summer vacation doing his deadly bidding.

In their second unwanted adventure, We Dine with Cannibals, Oliver and Celia will travel from the ruins of ancient temples to the shadowy forests of the Amazon. They’ll need all their reality TV survival skills when they ride a llama, race the rapids, and even fly an airplane! If that’s not enough excitement for you (it is decidedly too much excitement for Oliver and Celia Navel), they’ll be forced to learn the proper etiquette for a cannibal feast and confront the strangest and most brutal rite of passage ever devised by human imagination: dodgeball.

And from Barbara Dee, it’s a title we can all relate to– TRAUMA QUEEN. 

From IndieBound:  

Every tween girl knows what it’s like to have a mom who can be a little embarrasing at times. But for Marigold, it goes way beyond embarrassing. Marigold’s single mom is a performance artist, meaning she stages dramatic, wacky performances to express her personal beliefs. Things like wrapping herself in saran wrap for a piece on plastic surgery, or inviting people over in the middle of the night to videotape her sleeping. In fact, Marigold’s mom’s performances caused such a ruckus in their last town that the two of them, along with Marigold’s little sister, have just had to move. Now Marigold’s starting a new school, missing her best friend like crazy, and trying to fit in all over again in the shadow of a mom who’s famous for all the wrong reasons. As if that’s not bad enough, Marigold’s mom takes on a new job–teaching drama at Marigold’s school! Now all the kids know instantly just how weird her mom is, and Marigold’s worried she’ll never be able to have a friendship that can survive her mother.

So, comment below for your chance to win all five signed copies delivered to your door!  For this giveaway, you can garner bonus entries by sharing this on Facebook or Tweeting about it.  (You must list each action separately in the comments.)  The winner must live in the US or Canada.  The winner will be announced April 21st.  Happy spring!

Comments Off