Cool Series: Gone by Michael Grant

Friday 09 October 2009 at 08:30 am The Gone Series, with 2 books released and 4 more plans, looks to be EPIC. EPIC! Like more EPIC than Harry Potter or Twilight, maybe even more than both of those combined. Ok, that may be going overboard. Anyway . . . This series dabbles a lot in familiar territory. Everyone over the age of 15 has just vanished off the face of the planet, and now kids, who can't even drive, are left to rule the planet. Or their small beach town, that's ominiously near a nuclear power plant. But the book quickly becomes more interesting than it's tried and true premise . . . It seems that most of the kids have mutant abilities! This only makes the power struggles more interesting and adds tension for the upcoming books. If your into Hereos or just comic books in general than I recommend Gone, it's sequel Hunger, and, hopefully, the 4 upcoming books.

Cool Series: Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi

Thursday 08 October 2009 at 08:11 am Kazu Kibuishi is among my (Scott's) Top 5 favorite comic artists/graphic novelists. Daisy Kutter is a brillant SF/Western Mashup and The Flight Anthologies, which he edits, always win my heart, and his work in particular is winning. He mixes manga sensibilities with whimsy and flights of fancy that few other artists have the knack for. So I was beyond excited when his new series Amulet was released last year. And it was an excruciating wait for Book 2. But now that it's arrived and the magnitude of this series has become clearer I am even more excited. Filled with adventure, humor, robots, monsters and more, Amulet promises to be a fun, exciting trip. Now about that next book . . .

A few words on the YA Title Eliminator

Wednesday 07 October 2009 at 10:20 am A few weeks ago, we announced our YA Title Eliminator in preparation for Teen Read Week. The competition is a combination of March Madness and School Library Journal's own Battle of the Kid's Books. We have judges reading the books for the first 2 rounds, and then during Teen Read Week we are opening up the Championship voting to the whole teen community. We've already had a few surprises, so if you want your voice heard, sign up next year to help make this competition grow and succeed. Here were the first round matchups.

Check after the jump for the winners and the second round matchups. see more