Winners for the Thank You to My Followers Contest

Cue up the drum roll....the winners are in!  Remember there are actually a total of six lucky winners. All winners were generated with Research Randomizer number generator.

For the 2 Clockwork Angel Posters:
# 7 - Lucky Proof
# 15 - Aik

For the 2 Bookmark Packs:

The Debut Author Pack goes to:
#4 - Raven

The 2010 Release Bookmark Pack goes to:
#2  - Lisa

And now for the big winners....

# 12  - Khelsea will be receiving her first choice which is the ARC of Torment by Lauren Kate (and she has claimed it already - yay!)

#1 - Cynthia will be receiving her first choice which is the signed copy of Heist Society by Ally Carter.

I have emailed all of the winners and you have 24 hours in which to claim your prizes. 

Congratulations to all the lucky winners and thanks for following!
-Aly

P.S.  Lucky Proof (Victoria) - Your email bounced back.  I will try again, but if you are reading this can you email me at kidlitfrenzy(at)gmail(dot)com Thanks

Why We Know Who Egged Rick Riordan's Car In High School

 Stopping by Kid Lit Frenzy today are authors Adam Jay Epstein & Andrew Jacobson.  Their first book, The Familiars, will be released on September 7, 2010.  Thanks guys for stopping by the blog.

Distractions.  Every writer knows that their biggest enemy to putting words on the page each day is their own mind wandering.  It's so easy to find yourself staring down at your iPhone or Googling that it's a miracle you get anything written at all.  Take a sample morning for the two of us.  First, we discuss if either of us saw any good movies this past weekend.  Oh, you saw Inception? Who was that guy playing Eames? I'm not sure, let me IMDB it.  Tom Hardy. Ooo, he's going to be Mad Max in the Mad Max remake.  And he has a dog named Max!  Let's wiki him and learn everything about his entire life.

Fifteen minutes later.  Back to the book writing.  But before getting through even a paragraph, the topic wanders to whether either of us has purchased Rick Riordan's The Red Pyramid yet.  No, but it's at the top of Andrew's to-read list.  I wonder how many copies he's selling of this book.  Twenty minutes pass, as we don't find the answer to that, but instead are led to browse Publisher's Weekly's list of 100 top selling books from 2009.  How is PC Cast selling so many books?  Who is PC Cast and why have we never read any of her books?  Back to Riordan.  Somehow we find ourselves on his official home page, learning everything there is to know about him.  Did you know that in high school, he wrote an underground newspaper that criticized his school and especially its losing football team?  But the football team got their revenge by egging his car.

Maybe we should get some writing done.  No can do, it's time for a snack.  Many delays will arise during out 9 to 5 workday.  And many delays will arise for you as well.  Let's be honest, you're reading this blog post right now!  You should be writing.  But we know how it is.  We're probably doing something other than writing, too.  Reading a tweet or watching a Youtube video.  The key is just to stay focused.  We have to cut through the swath of information we're constantly being bombarded with.  For a couple hours a day, unplug the Internet.  Turn off the wifi and put your iPhone on airplane mode.  Adam's asking me right now how to get on Dooce.com some hot new blogger and tastemaker.  I just want to finish this guest post and get back to writing.

ADAM JAY EPSTEIN spent his childhood in Great Neck, New York, while ANDREW JACOBSON grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but the two met in a parking garage out in Los Angeles. They have been writing for film and television together ever since.  The Familiars is their first book. 

One day, Adam asked Andrew, "Are you familiar with what a familiar is?" And from that simple question, Vastia was born, a fantastical world filled with the authors' shared love of animals and magic. They wrote every word, sentence, and page together, sitting opposite each other.

Adam Jay Epstein lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jane, their daughters, Penny and Olive, and a black-and-white alley cat who hangs out in their backyard. Andrew Jacobson lives with his wife, Ashley, and their dog, Elvis, four traffic lights away.

The Familiars will be produced for film by Sam Raimi and Sony Animation.

You can learn more about The Familiars at www.thefamiliars.com. 

Book-A-Day Challenge Weeks 9 and 10


The Book-A-Day Challenge was started by Donalyn Miller, The Book Whisper. Many of the participants have been doing their end of the summer wrap-ups as they have returned to school. It has been one of my favorite challenges and I have really enjoyed getting to know so many wonderful teachers, and school librarians. As a result, we will continue to use the #bookaday hashtag on twitter during the school year, even if we only read 1 or 2 books per week.

Though students have not returned to school yet, in my district, my reading has slowed down as I prepare for the new school year. I have read some great books over the past two weeks. Let me tell you about them.

Picture Books

A Long Piece of String by Willian Wondriska - Check out my review here.

Chicken Big by Keith Graves - Check out my review here.

Day and Night by Teddy Newton - If you saw Toy Story 3, this is part of the short shown prior to the movie. One time when I would say that the animated version is stronger than the book. I will be posting a review on this.

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg - This is a great book about fear of the first day of school at a new school. A fun little twist. A definite read for teachers and students.

Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins - A fun picture book for toddlers and preschoolers. See my review here.

Swim! Swim! by Lerch - Check out my review at MundieKids



Middle Grade Books

Friends Forever? (Mackenzie Blue #3) by Tina Wells - Since I am posting a review on Monday, I will hold off on saying anything about this book for now.

YA Books

Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King - This story mixes pirates from the 17th Century, Caribbean curses, dog facts, and the present day life of a teen girl. Definitely for older teens. I had mixed feelings about this one.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - What do I even say? I am still processing the third and final book in The Hunger Games series. An emotional rollercoaster worth riding.


Professional Books

The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller - If you look at my copy of this book, it has sticky notes in different colors marking pages, and stars and underlines on lots of others. Upon finishing it, I promptly emailed my teachers that we are going to be reading this book as part of staff development. Inspirational, practical, wonderful.

Feel free to leave a comment about what you are reading.
- Aly