Christina Makes the Bookish Rounds (62)

Christina Makes the Bookish Rounds is a feature that will let you know about recent MG/YA/NA book related news. I'll post about articles from the publishing industry, cover reveals, discussions from fellow bloggers, the latest tv/movie news, and giveaways that you're hosting. If you would like to follow along with cover reveals during the week, see my Pinterest.

Publishing:
Rights Reports, 1, 2, 3:

• How to Hang a Witch - Adriana Mather (Pitched as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir meets The Craft, the debut follows Samantha Mather, who has moved to Salem with her stepmother 300 years after her family hanged witches there, to find she is ostracized by the witch descendants at school, as she unravels the lost secrets of the hangings and her family. Publication is set for fall 2016; Knopf).
• The Gas Station Pagans - Louis Bayard (Set in 1934… tells of an orphan girl trying to keep her siblings together by engaging a man to impersonate their father, which has both good and bad consequences. It's scheduled for winter 2016; Henry Holt).
• Future Shock - Elizabeth Briggs (In the books, a Latina teenager raised in Los Angeles's foster care system with an eidetic memory is recruited by a tech company for a mission – a trip 30 years into the future. Publication is slated for March 2016; Albert Whitman).
• The Way I Used to Be - Amber Smith (Told in four parts – Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Year – it tells the story of the deep emotional wounds of sexual violence. It's scheduled for spring 2016; Margaret K. McElderry Books).
• Slip - Kara Bietz (debut; Academic overachiever and athlete Sam North, now 17, has been terrorized by rival Ace Quinn since kindergarten. When Ace's contempt for Sam takes a dangerous turn and puts Sam's girlfriend in the crossfire, Sam knows that being quiet won't work anymore. The book will pub in fall 2016; Egmont).
• T R A C K - Jason Reynolds (The book follows the lives of four kids from vastly different families who become friends after joining an exclusive track team; under the guidance of their coach, they learn more than just how to win races. Publication will take place every six months beginning summer 2016; Atheneum).
• Shadow Magic - Joshua Khan (The middle-grade fantasy books are set in a world ruled by six ancient Houses of Magic; in the first story the princess of the House of Shadow joins forces with an outlaw boy and a giant bat on a dangerous quest to save her land. Publication is set for summer 2016 and summer 2017. Disney-Hyperion).
• Fire and Heist - Sarah Beth Durst (a YA novel about a girl with a big secret. She comes from a family of were-dragons who must steal their first treasure hoard to gain power and acceptance, but while attempting her first heist, she uncovers a dark truth about were-dragon society that is more valuable—and dangerous—than any gold or jewels. It's scheduled for summer 2016; Crown).
• A Taste for Monsters - Matthew J. Kirby (YA debut about a disfigured teenage girl who befriends real-life Elephant Man John Merrick in 19th-century England while the Jack-the-Ripper murders are taking place. Publication is slated for spring 2016; Scholastic).
• As I Descended - Robin Talley (a retelling of Macbeth set at a contemporary Virginia boarding school. It centers around a lesbian couple who set out to dethrone the school's resident Mean Girl, only to find themselves struggling to hang onto their sanity and their lives when they accidentally summon a trio of brutal, manipulative ghosts. Publication is scheduled for summer 2016. HarperCollins).
• The Inhabitant of Alexis O'Riley - Holly VanDyne (debut middle-grade speculative thriller in which the world's youngest brain transplant donor is convinced that her new body (which she hates) is trying to kill her. Publication is planned for 2016; Egmont).
• The Pact - Stacie Ramey (Debut in which two sisters vow to take their lives together. Told from the perspective of the sister who lives, the teen spirals into grief, prescription pill abuse, and mysterious visions, which lead her to uncover unexpected secrets. It's scheduled for fall 2015; Sourcebooks Fire).
• Dear Sister - Alison McGhee (It tells the story of a brother and his little sister through notes and drawings and progress reports, and depicts the sibling relationship at its most real: hilarious, cunning, vengeful and, ultimately, devoted. It is slated for release in 2016; Atheneum).
• The Murdstone Trilogy - Mal Peet (It's a dark comedy about a children's book author who makes a deal with a gnomic stranger to help him reach international celebrity and acclaim, with Faustian consequences. David Fickling Books will release the novel this month in the U.K.; Candlewick will publish in spring 2016.)
• Two YA fantasy novels, currently untitled - Sarah Fine (A 16-year-old who has been training her whole life to become queen finds that, when coronation day arrives, she has not inherited the magical powers of her predecessor. She is cast out and powerless; her only redemption is to search for the person who did inherit the former queen's magic. Publication is set for spring 2016; McElderry Books).
• 100 Days - Nicole McInnes (Trapped in the body of an 85-year-old, Agnes suffers from progeria, a rare disease that causes her to age at 10 times the normal rate. When tensions flare between Agnes and her best friend, after the two become closer to the class loner, Agnes's health suddenly deteriorates; the three of them must find a way to connect or risk losing each other forever. It's scheduled for spring 2016; Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
• Water for Starfish - Amy Allgeyer Cook (YA debut pitched as an Erin Brockovich story set in coal country, 17-year-old Liberty is sent to live with her grandmother in Kentucky after her mother is arrested during a protest. Liberty discovers that the water has turned orange and starts questioning whether the new mining process might be the cause, opening a Pandora's box of problems. Publication is slated for 2016; Egmont USA).
• Click Here to Start (a Novel) - Denis Markell (MG is pitched as The Westing Game for fans of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library. In it, young Ted Gerson inherits “all the treasure” to be found in his great-uncle's old apartment – only to realize the flat is actually an in-person “escape the room” game and the reward for completing it could be extraordinary. Publication for Click Here is set for summer 2016; Delacorte Press.)
• Roar Like a Girl - Coleen Paratore (a new middle-grade series called Always Willa… Willa Havisham leaves the comfort of Cape Cod and finds herself in the old river city of Troy, N.Y., where she discovers the new meaning of home. Publication is scheduled for July 2015, May 2016, and September 2016; Little Pickle Press).
• Everyone We've Been - Sarah Everett (about a girl whose heart is broken so badly she resorts to having her memories erased, as well as a second untitled book. The first book will publish in fall 2016; Knopf).
• The Girl in the Well Is Me - Karen Rivers (It tells the story of an 11-year-old who has an accident trying to impress some bullies; trapped in the dark, growing increasingly claustrophobic, she reflects on what has brought her to this point. Publication is tentatively set for fall 2016. Algonquin).
• Sachiko - Caren B. Stelson (The book, intended for middle graders, tells the true story of Sachiko Yasui's life as a hibakusha, a survivor of the 1945 nuclear bombing in Nagasaki. Six-year-old Sachiko was only half a mile from the explosion, and though she survived, the blast and its fallout killed most of her family either instantly or over the course of the next few years. Publication is slated for fall 2016; Lerner).
• Firsts - Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (YA debut in which a 17-year-old girl gives classmates the chance to get their awkward fumblings over with. All she asks in return is that they give their girlfriends the perfect first time she never had, but what was meant to be temporary gets out of control. Publication is scheduled for 2016; Thomas Dunne Books).
• Class Dismissed - Allan Woodrow (When their fifth grade teacher quits and the students of classroom 507 are the only ones who know, they assume it will be one big holiday. But they soon learn that life without a teacher isn't easy, and keeping the secret is more work than they imagined. Publication is set for fall 2015; Scholastic).
• The Memory Thief - Bryce Moore (In his new book, 11-year-old Benji ducks into a tent at the county fair called the Memory Emporium; soon, a lot of people in town are acting like someone has stolen their minds. Fall 2016 is the projected publication date; Egmont).
• Poison Ivy: The Case of the Washed Up Warlock - Patrice Lyle (The book follows a teen P.I. and witch who must use her spunk and her spells to solve multiple mysteries. The projected publication date is fall 2015; Leap Books).

Nothing from two weeks ago.

Abbi Glines's final two books in the Rosemary Beach series, which follows the tumultuous love lives of twenty-somethings in the titular town, to Atria.

Lauren Barnholdt's THE HEAT OF MOMENT trilogy that centers around three ex-best friends who wrote emails to their future selves back in freshman year of high school about one thing they hope to accomplish before they graduate; when the emails get delivered on the first morning of their senior trip all three girls will spend the next three days trying to keep the promises they made to themselves four years ago, while trying to put the pieces of their friendship back together, to Harper Teen, for publication for all three books in Summer 2015.

Excerpts: The Sheridan Institute Files - Susan Dennard, Prologue to Frostfire (Kanin Chronicles) - Amanda Hocking, Dove Arising - Karen Bao (audiobook), Waistcoats and Weaponry - Gail Carriger

Interviews: Gracefully Grayson - Amy Polonski, Follow Me Through Darkness - Danielle Ellison, Creed - Trisha Leaver & Lindsay Currie, The Walled City - Ryan Graudin, Lemony Snicket / Daniel Handler, The Ghosts of Heaven - Marcus Sedgwick

Book Trailers: The Walled City - Ryan Graudin

Awards & Lists: Best (YA) Books of the Year from Hudson Booksellers + best teen books of 2014 from Indigo. Don’t forget to vote for your favorites in the Goodreads Choice awards: Best Debut Author, Best Young Adult Fiction, Best Young Adult Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best Middle Grade & Children’s. And Publisher’s Weekly has announced its Best Books of 2014. (This is seriously my favorite time of year for books. I LOVE looking at all these lists). Amazon also announced its Best Books of 2014 for Teen & Young Adult. You can suggest nominations for the William C. Morris Award too.

A summary of recent author and industry events. Also, it looks like so much fun to work in Children’s Publishing when so many of the workers actually dress up for Halloween.

I’m still mixed on self-publishing, but look: a high schooler has created a successful fan fiction of Minecraft and another teen self-published a book on how to survive bullying.

Thanks to Divergent becoming a blockbuster and purchasing Harlequin, Harpercollins is making a lot of money.

Penguin bought a YA horror novel based off a 1,800 word short story. Curious? Read more about it here.

If you’re a West Coast fan of YALLFEST, turns out there’s going to be a YALLWEST in Santa Monica in April. (Reasons for me to visit home… hmmm…)

Support the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign here.

A Sesame Street parody of Harry Potter? Yes please.

A R.L. Stine scary story on Halloween? Yes please.

Are you Ready for January 24? It’s National Readathon Day sponsored by the National Book Foundation, Goodreads, Mashable, and Penguin Random House.

Fairest has some cool marketing coming up. I’d like to be in one of the cities where the costumed characters are...

On the off-chance you haven’t already read or seen this: The Umbridge Harry Potter story.

Also around Halloween was this hashtag, #twitterghoststory. Are you spooked yet?

Cover Reveals:

Discussion/Other Blogger Posts:

Harry Potter concept art. *faints from the prettiness*

The best thing about the internet is the devoted Harry Potter fan who went through and made a timeline of all the shorts/little tidbits that Rowling has revealed about the world post publication.

Writers on the books that inspired them. Some surprising inspiration…

Having Limited Bookshelf Space is a definite Book Nerd Problem. My shelves have started to curve downward with the added weight but but I don’t want to get another shelf o.O.

The very scientific reason for why you’re getting lost in a book. I don’t actually know much about what else the mid-cingulate cortex is correlated to, but I am interested in reading the study since it uses neuroimaging and that Bustle article is definitely, definitely oversimplifying everything. Also, another study on how reading boosts vocabulary (or the pleasure of reading). It is so weird to read articles talking about the neuroscience of reading and the ventral striatum and combining my two separate lives. What is this?! Ahhh.

Looking for more southern gothic YA recommendations, YA retellings of classics, modern spins on old tales, reads for the reluctant YA paranormal reader, YA murder mysteries, or YA horror novels? BN Buzz has quite a few lists up your alley. (Diverse MG recs from We Need Diverse Books are also available).

I want more YA to be adapted to Netflix too (and some interesting choices from Epic Reads).
Lots of interesting discussions: Meg Wolitzer: Why are teenage girls drawn to books about mental instability?& What does the future hold for young adult literature?& The Thrilling, Traumatic Lives of Teens: The Fall’s Best YA Fiction

A series of great articles on bookstores -- The booksellers of South Sudan. 11 Mega Bookstores We Love. The history of Vroman’s as it celebrates 120 years.

Do you plan on creating a Reading Manifesto?

What is your reading personality?

Is the future of the ebook phones? Is the future of the book ebooks?

10 extraordinary mobile libraries.

Reading Together Even While Reading Alone (Reading is solitary and personal, but you aren’t necessarily alone in it. In some ways, we are all reading together; even if we are also reading alone. The List is infinite. My life is finite. I don’t need to finish everything. Finishing isn’t even the point.).

It’s a good thing to hear that women in science fiction are getting more recognition, and here’s to hoping that such a positive trend will continue. And perhaps another list for those interested: 40 books every woman should read.

The true stories behind classic fairy tales. Very interesting.

Blogging
Tips/Support/Advice
** Rita at Blog Genie:Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Blogging Checklists
** Erika at The Red Bookmark:Blog Design Tutorial: Blog Signature
** Rachel at Parajunkee: Free Social Media Icons for Bloggers
** Stephanie at These Paper Hearts: Affordable Design Graphics
** Ashley at Nose Graze: 6 Things You Don’t Need in Your Sidebar
** Ashley at Nose Graze: Are You Allowed to Use Modified Social Media Icons?
** Ashley at Nose Graze: How to Find Your Own Design Style

Blogging and Bloggers:
** Ashley at Nose Graze: Can You Manage More Than One Blog?
** Ashley at Nose Graze: I Care about Numbers
** Ashley at Nose Graze: Why I Don’t Like WordPress Theme Frameworks
** Ashley at Nose Graze: Posts I Wasn’t Inspired to Finish
** Ashley at Nose Graze: We Blog for Ourselves
** Jessi at Novel Heartbeat:Am I the Only One Who Hates Too Much Formatting?
** Amy at Ten Penny Dreams: 6 Tips To Win More Books Online
** Chyna at Lite-Rate-Ture:What’s the Best Way to Become Updated?
** Shannon at It Starts At Midnight:Are You Obsessed?
** Aimee at Deadly Darlings:Bookworms, have you ever…?
** Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction:Do You NaNoWriMo?
** Rebecca at The Library Canary:Commenting on Other Blogs.
** Tanja at Ja čitam, a ti?: Having a Co-blogger
** Amanda at Book Badger:Questioning My Role in the Community
** Alice-Jane at Crazy Red Pen: Balancing Blogging with Life
** Hannah at So Obsessed With: Looking Back on BEA 2014
** Amber at The Mile Long Bookshelf: Comments vs. Page Views
** Sarah at Workaday Reads: Blog Stats
** Angie at Angela’s Anxious Life: Group Blogs: Confusing or Fabulous?
** Emz at Icy Cold Reads: Blogging Tips & Tricks -- Memes
** Rachel at Parajunkee: Controversial Post Topics
** Rachel at Parajunkee: Eight Blogging Myths You Must Overcome

Reviews, Ratings, Recommendations, Authors, ARCS:
** Rachel at Parajunkee: Bad Arguments against Negative Reviews
** Chiara at Books for a Delicate Eternity: Would You Like Some Salt with That?
** Mel at The Daily Prophecy: Reviewing Series
** Allie at Little Birdie Books:Reviews vs. Discussions -- Who Wins?
** Alise at Readers in Wonderland: How Do You Like Your Book Reviews? (Survey)
** Lisa at Read. Breathe. Relax.: Reviewer’s Regret or Changing Your Mind about Books You Rated Awhile Ago

Reading:
The Experience:
** Cee at the Novel Hermit: Are Reading Challenges Really Good for Our Health?
** Kat at Cuddlebuggery: Condescending Shit to Say to Readers
** Trish at Between My Lines: The Joys of Non-solitary Reading
** Kel at Booked Till Tuesday:Reading for Fun vs. Work
** Ruby at Feed Me Books Now:Winter Reading Ideals
** Alica at a Kernel of Nonsense:Emotional Reading
** Cait at Notebooks Sisters: 13 Best Book Beginnings Ever
** April at The Starry-Eyed Revue: When You Just Can’t Get into Anything
** Mitchii at Aeropapers: The Pros of a Book Slump

Characters & Tropes:
** Gillian at Writer of Wrongs: YA Characters with Romantic Pasts
** Genevieve at The Reading Shelf: Common Archetypes: Invisible Bisexuals