ALA Award-winning Books for 2012!

February 20, 2012 American Library Association Award-Winning Books for 2012! The biggest and best known Children's Literature Awards of the year have officially been announced. (Honoring books published during 2011.) This link will take you to a full listing of the 2012 Awards This link will take you to January's SPELLBINDER'S Newbery Award Predictions - and it may surprise you that this year's Newbery Committee did not choose any of the books many book people, bloggers, and Mock Newbery Committees were talking about during 2011. Which is always an interesting phenomenon!) Do take note that a few of the SPELLBINDER January Book Buzz titles received awards in various other categories. 2012 ALA Youth Media Awards Emcees: [left to right] Chrystal Carr Jeter, Chair Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee; Molly Raphael, President American Library Association; Sarah Flowers, President , Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA); Mary Fellows, President, Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC); and Maria Kramer, President, The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, REFORMA. The ALA Youth Media Awards honor children's and young adult authors and illustrators, as well as producers of children's audio and video materials. Known worldwide for the high quality they represent, the ALA Youth Media Awards are selected under a cloak of secrecy by national judging committees composed of librarians and other children's literature experts. This year's awards presentation took place on Jan. 23, 2012. The ALA announced the winners of 18 awards, including the renowned Caldecott and Newbery Medals, the Coretta Scott King Book Awards and Printz award. The books honored serve as a guide for parents, educators, librarians and those interested in providing children and teens with the very best reading and viewing materials.       Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos is the 2012 Newbery Winner! Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a 2012 Newbery Honor!   Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Velchin is a 2012 Newbery Honor!    A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka is the 2012 Caldecott Winner! (Please see the 3 Caldecott Honor books at the blue link above)  Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley is the 2012 Printz Award Winner for Best Young Adult Novel!   (Please see the 4 Printz Honor books at the link above.) Join Our Mailing List! Meet the Spellbinders Carolee Dean has made numerous appearances as a guest poet/author at schools, libraries, poetry events, and teacher/library conferences. She holds a bachelor's degree in music therapy and a master's degree in communicative disorders, and she has spent over a decade working in the public schools as a speech-language pathologist. Her first novel, Comfort,was nominated as a Best Book for Young Adults, was named the Best YA Novel of 2002 by the Texas Institute of Letters, and was on the TAYSHAS (Texas Library Association) reading list. Take Me There is a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers.   She conducts teacher trainings on inspiring reluctant writers including "The Secret Language of Stories" and "Random Act of Haiku."             Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. She's taught English and social studies to upper elementary and middle-school students in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. Back in New Mexico, Caroline now writes middle-grade novels and picture books full time.    To find teacher's guides, writing activities, and information about author visits, go to my website.    Kimberley Griffiths Little is the recipient of the Southwest Book Award, The Whitney Award for Best Youth Novel of 2010, and the author of the highly acclaimed, The Healing Spell and Circle of Secrets, published by Scholastic Press. Look for her books at the Scholastic Book Fairs, as well as two more forthcoming novels in 2012 and 2013.    She lives on a dirt road in a small town by the Rio Grande with her husband, a robotics engineer and their three sons. Kimberley is a favorite speaker at schools around the country, presenting "The Creative Diary", a highly successful writing workshop and has been a speaker at many conferences. Please visit her website to download free Teacher's Guides and Book Club Guides.          Upcoming Author Events Sunday, March 11 Kimberley presents at the  Tucson Book Festival    11:30 -12:30 Panel with Author Will Hobbs: "Opening Minds Across Borders: Characters in Conflict"  AND 2:30 - 3:30 "Breaking into Children's Novels through Magazine Writing"    Each session followed by autographing Saturday, March 17 UNM Continuing Ed   Young Writers Conference Kimberley is presenting "The Creative Diary" - a hands-on Writing Workshop for kids and teens    Sunday, April 29th  9-5 Preconference Session   Author's Panel at the International Reading Association Conference Chicago, Illinois "Rekindling the Reading and Writing Fire"    Join us for this all day session featuring 11 authors including all 3 Spellbinders Carolee Dean Kimberley Griffiths Little Caroline Starr Rose     Tuesday, May 1 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. International Reading Association Conference Chicago, Illinois "The Secret Language of Stories" Carolee Dean November, 2012 YALSA Literature Symposium  "Author Research Panel" Carolee Dean Kimberley Griffiths Little and two other authors St. Louis, Missouri

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Newsy Thursday

Hey everybody, how are y'all?

I'm pinching myself because I just received my first paid invitation to speak at a conference! And it's the perfect one. SIBA: SOUTHERN INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS ALLIANCE trade show on September 17th in Charleston, South Carolina!

Charleston: The city of the South, the Civil War, and Gone with the Wind! I have always dreamed of going to Charleston and I'm thrilled. Plus pretty darn excited to meet a whole bunch of booksellers from the Indies of the South!

If you are going to be there, please come to the 11:00 a.m. panel:

11:00 – 11:50 AM – Hideous & Haunting
Moderator: W. Scott Poole, Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting (Baylor University Press)
Kala Ambrose, Ghosthunting North Carolina (Clerisy Press)
Alma Katsu, The Taker (Gallery Books)
Kimberley Griffiths Little, Circle of Secrets (Scholastic)

I also got a CRAZY GORGEOUS review of The Healing Spell here:
http://bibliophilesupportgroup.blogspot.com/2011/07/healing-spell.html

Bibliophile Support Group

This is a place for book addicts like myself to feel safe and understood – and find out about some awesome (or not-so-awesome) books to feed their ever-hungry habit. You'll find new reviews here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday ranging in genres from sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, suspense, historical fiction, action, adventure, middlegrade and more in all age categories. Though there tends to be more YA reviewed here than other genres, this blog is in no way limited to that.

Isn't that a great name for a book blog?! THANK YOU, Angie L.!!!

And finally, I adore this picture from ALA in New Orleans. Me and Carolina Valdez Miller. I stole it from her blog post. Yes, I steal pictures from the internet. :-) I loved meeting Carol and getting a chance to chat in person. We even had burgers for lunch on the floor and spilled mustard together. Unfortunately, I was only there one day and missed a lot of author action and parties. But I think we're pretty adorable here:

More ALA!

I only got to attend ALA the one day, Saturday, June 25th which was the day of my signing - and Scholastic had STACKS of The Healing Spell and STACKS of ARCs of Circle of Secrets which were all snatched up in about 10-15 minutes! So very cool.

But I got to meet some longtime online friends and have a burger lunch on the *floor* of the (cafeteria) there in the exhibit halls, ha, ha. Felt like high school again!

The amazing, adorable, generous and very sweet Shannon Messenger!!!

The gorgeous, kind and darling Carolina Valdez Miller!!!

Kimberly Weiner Marcus, darling, fun and long-time online friend author of the amazing novel, EXPOSED!!! (And we have the same agent, too!)

NEW friend, Sara Ann McClung

Next time I gotta stay more than one day and meet all the people that I wanted to meet and didn't get to! 


But the ARC I snagged that I'm most excited to read but will not give away until AFTER I've read it is none other than Maggie Stievfater's upcoming delicious novel: THE SCORPIO RACES!!!

Happy Weekend! And stay tuned for the beginning of next week's AMAZING SUMMER GIVEAWAYS!!!

ALA in New Orleans, 2011!!!

What can I say? It was awesome, overwhelming, wonderful, exciting, and I LOVED the people at Scholastic! They were so warm and friendly and helpful and took me under their wing. There were Scholastic publishing offices people there from New York City as well as Book Fair folks from around the country who man the offices and warehouses and buy and sell books to schools and bookstores. Really impressive people, I loved them!

Here's a couple of pictures below and there are lots more at Facebook with tags and descriptions if you'd like to take a peek. Go here! ALA New Orleans Pictures!

And if we aren't friends on Facebook yet, please Friend me!

After ALA, I traveled Louisiana for another 5 days and went on a swamp tour on Bull Run Bayou and to Nottaway Plantation, and the LDS Temple in Baton Rouge, and visited friends on Bayou Long, and did some filming for my book trailer for my upcoming book, Circle of Secrets. Fun stuff!

So more pictures coming later this week! Stay tuned!

Me at ALA - hard to believe, but gonna be awesome!

I'ts been a month since I blogged! Bad, bad me! But I have very good reasons . . . really . . . seriously . . .

I made it through Pioneer Trek 2011 as Director with my husband - that has got to be one of the biggest things we've ever put together. 200 people in the wilderness with handcarts in pioneer costumes for 4 days with a portable kitchen, water, porta potties, games, firesides, skits, dances, historical re-enactments, service project, testimony meetings, Handcart Families, Ma's & Pa's, etc! It was mind-blowing the month leading up to it - 10,000 details!

We made it. It was very uplifiting, spiritual, and we saw so many miracles before and during. Truly an amazing experience.

My husband and I came home and crashed and got sick and wrung out 10,000 particles of sand and dirt and I leave tomorrow for ALA in New Orleans!

If you are there, COME TO SCHOLASTIC BOOTH 1439 ON SATURDAY AT 3:00 P.M.!!!

I'm signing THE HEALING SPELL and ARCS of CIRCLE OF SECRETS!!!

I'm excited and nervous! I'm looking forward to meeting lots of cool librarians and authors. Then we get to attend the Scholastic Family Dinner that evening! I'm thrilled. It's like I'm a real author or something. Even though I'm probably the least known author there . . .  but I'll take it!

Even with stomach flu the last two days, and now running around like a maniac to get ready I feel so blessed.

ALA Winners!!!

SO excited for all the winners! I LOVE the Newbery winners!!! I LOVE the Caldecott winners!!! I LOVE the Printz winners!!!

GOING BOVINE for Printz award - did not expect that but I'm so excited for Libba!!!

I got to read GOING BOVINE four years ago when Libba was first writing it - at a super secret conference in Texas. Moi! Yes! Moi got to read Libba's first draft - and it read like my polished drafts. She's such an incredible talent. And a crazy girl, too. She had us all rolling with laughter all weekend.

Happy sighs for all the winners. A good morning. A very good morning indeed.

And no whining about getting up early from all you East Coasters. I was up at 5:30 Mountain Time to watch the live video. Then I drove hubby to his van pool for work. Yep, it's always an early morning out here in the Rio Grande valley.



Enjoy a great book today! I have lots in my stacks!

And if you missed it, check out the January issue of SPELLBINDERS down below or here at Spellbinders Blogspot for all our past issues and book talk. I have a great Tweener Book Buzz column as well as an interview with two-time Newbery Committee member Vaunda Nelson.

Savoring Life

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners yesterday at ALA!!! Love the awards week!

Every year as the award announcements get closer, I get so excited to hear who the winners are going to be. I was partly surprised and partly not. Like every year. Hope everyone is celebrating!!!

My itsy bitsy, teeny, weeny good news: Carolee Dean and Kersten Hamliton and Lois Ruby and I had our Panel Proposal for the New Mexico Library Association accepted. Look for us at the Convention center in Albuquerque on April 23rd. I think we've been invited to the evening reception, too. And book signings, but I need to double check. More info as it comes down the pipeline . . .

I finished reading the adult novel, THE HERETIC'S DAUGHTER, last weekend. It's told from the POV of a 10 year old girl in 1692 during the Salem Witch trials. The author, Kathleen Kent, spent 5 years researching and writing the novel - and it's based on the life of her great, great, great grandmother Martha Carrier who was hung for witchcraft. WOW. I've never read such a raw, detailed book about those times and the things that led up to the witch trials. I felt like I WAS THERE, experiencing and living it myself. Chilling and beautifully wrought. (And I had no idea they actually arrested children and they were in prison for months at a time! Horrible.)

One of my girlfriend's mother died unexpectedly a few days ago (even at the age of 86) and after taking care of her mother for more than 10 years, she is very lost and feeling alone. R. isn't married, has no children and it was a "Mom and me" situation for the two of them for a very long time. The house is empty, she can't sleep, and the memorial is now over. Her siblings are scattered and the sister closet by geography is a bit, um, crazy, vindictive, and an alcoholic - so not much comfort. So I'm making awesome cinnamon rolls (a new fab recipe I recently acquired) and picking up Sobe drinks and taking them down to her house. We're going to eat, drink, get fat, hug, cry, talk and laugh. Like usual.

Savor life's moments. Savor your writing today. Savor your family and friends.