February 22, 2012

With this teaser for Insurgent, we are drawn right back into Tris and Tobias/Four's new reality in Amity, and after that action-packed and body count-heavy ending in Divergent, there are a LOT of adjustments ahead for these two....starting with makeovers.   The first excerpt from Philippa Gregory's first YA novel, Changeling, is up on USA Today—read it here (and get seriously impatient for May 22nd). Congratulations to the Finalists for the 2011 Los Angeles Times Young Adult Literature Book Prize: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray The Big Crunch by Pete Hautman A Monster Calls, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd, written by Patrick Ness  Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet  The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater The prizes will be presented on Friday, April 20, 2012, in a public ceremony at the USC campus. For more details, click below!   The Nebula Award nominees have been announced, and these books are up for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor Chime by Franny Billingsley Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King The Boy at the End of the World by Greg van Eekhout The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson The winners will be announced at the 47th Annual Nebula Awards Weekend, May 17-20. For more details, click below. Finally, the Agatha Awards (not to be confused with the Edgar Awards) honor the best mystery novels during the year. The finalists for the Best Children's/Young Adult category are as follows: Shelter by Harlan Coben The Black Heart Crypt by Chris Grabenstein Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey The Code Busters Club, Case #1: The Secret of the Skeleton Key by Penny Warner  The winners will be announced at the 2011 Agatha Awards banquet to be held on Saturday, April 28, 2012. For more details, click below.     After seventeen-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend Ilven kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for the charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with the vampire Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous wild magic. Felicita must decide whether her loyalties lie with the family she abandoned, or with those who would twist this dark power to destroy Pelimburg's caste system, and the whole city along with it.    I had no idea what to expect out of When the Sea is Rising Red as I dove into it. I knew there would be vampires, and a bit of magic, but I was nowhere near prepared for the elaborate and beautiful dark fantasy of Cat Hellisen's world. If you put the writing of Neil Gaiman, H.P. Lovecraft, and Tamora Pierce in a blender, you'd closely approximate the reading experience of When the Sea is Rising Red.    Click here to read the rest of our review! Even if you've already seen it, it's time to re-watch the trailer for Fever to get yourself pumped for this week's release! Who knew merry-go-rounds could feel so menacing? Two new TV spots for The Hunger Games movie are up online for your viewing pleasure, and they feature brand new scenes, including a more in-depth look at the rogue arrow that turns the bearded head of Seneca Crane during the private Tribute/Gamemakers sesh. Watch them below! Fair warning: Katniss does her strangled, desperate sister-bear scream, "I volunteer!!! I volunteer as tribute!" in both clips, just in case it still makes you tear up (PS- no shame at all, it happens to me EVERY SINGLE TIME). Would you like to win an Effie Trinket Hunger Games poster signed by Elizabeth Banks? She is holding a contest on her website until this Friday at 5 PM PST, so head over here quickly if you want to enter! Then make sure to check out her MTV interview videos, where she discusses what she's most looking forward to seeing in the film, and how her unwieldy Effie nails made life on set kind of uncomfortable bathroomwise. You decide if it's TMI.... Lily Collins chatted with The Telegraph about all things Mirror Mirror, including a moment on the set in which Julia Roberts tears her hair out! Click here to hear the distressing tress tale.   Summit Entertainment and producer David Heyman have found a screenwriter to adapt The Night Circus for film. Moira Buffini, who wrote the recent adaptation of Jane Eyre, is set to tackle adapting this mysterious, magical novel.

A humongous congrats to Dr. Jennifer Lynn Barnes, author of the Raised By Wolves series and Every Other Day, who just completed her PhD! Jennifer's doing the superhero juggling act: academic by day, talented YA author by night. Now don't you think it's time to get started on your third career Jen? I mean, you don't want to look like a slacker......