This particular list features forthcoming titles I would like to read. The majority of the books listed below are young adult fiction and juvenile fiction. If I read and review an advanced copy, I link the title to my review. At the close of every month, I move that month's remaining titles from this list to my backlist of books to read.

November 2009
The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate
Deadly Little Lies by Laurie Faria Stolarz (Sequel to Deadly Little Secrets)
Destiny's Path (Warrior Princess, Book 2) by Frewin Jones
In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles by Chris Welles Feder
The Seven Rays by Jessica Bendinger

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Have you ever seen a John Wayne movie? I hadn't - until I read Girl, Hero by Carrie Jones.

The Girl in question is a high school freshman named Liliana. Lili's not looking for someone to save her, but rather someone to listen to her. Aside from her cat, Muffin, she really doesn't have anyone. Her parents aren't together. She only sees her day on Sundays (and that's about all she can deal with) and her mom, who hasn't had the best romantic track record, is now dating a guy who's pretty creepy. Meanwhile, her older sister, Jessica, in also in a bad relationship, and her best friend, Nicole, isn't so nice anymore.

Remember Leigh, the boy who wrote letters to his favorite author in Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary? If you like epistolary novels (stories told through letters) like that, then you'll like Girl, Hero. Rather than sharing her thoughts and feelings with someone she knows, Lili writes letters to John Wayne. She thinks the world of Mr. Wayne. She watches his movies over and over and wishes that he were her father.

As a fellow actor, I respected John Wayne's body of work and his lengthy career, but I had never sat down and watched one of his films. You see, I'm not really a fan of westerns. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and things of that nature, I'll watch, but not so much the shoot-'em-ups or saloon brawls. After reading Girl, Hero, I watched the movie True Grit - just for you, Carrie!

With the help of some new friends, Lili summons up the nerve to audition for the school musical. Though I'm not particularly a fan of South Pacific, I'm always happy to read stories which feature productions⁽¹⁾, and I cheered Lili on as she found her voice and her footing.

Throughout the book, Carrie Jones does a great job of making Lili really sound like a freshman. Not overly naïve and never striving to be sophisticated, Liliana is simply a girl in her early teens trying to quietly deal with everything and everyone around her.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Each of us has the potential to be a hero, even as we're looking for someone else to save us. I truly believe that you can be your own hero, and I'm glad that Lili learned this, too.

Related Posts:
My review of Girl, Hero at SparkLife
My reviews of Tips on Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend and Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape) by Carrie Jones
My interview with Carrie Jones

⁽¹⁾ Want to read more stories with productions, practices, and performances? Check out my related booklists, But I Don't Want To Be Famous! and But I DO Want to Be Famous!

In the summer of 1980, Madison becomes the first girl in Southern Michigan to join a boys' baseball team. Though some of the other players are more friendly than others, they don't exactly welcome her with open arms. Once they see her play, she earns both their respect and their jealousy. Townspeople start writing letters to the editor of the local paper, expressing their positive or negative thoughts about having a girl on the team, and Madison doesn't know what to say when reporters interview her. After Madison's old friends pull away from her, she finds new friends on the team - one of whom is her first crush, while another might have a crush on her.

No Cream Puffs is a sweet treat. Even with all of the media coverage, Madison never develops an ego and never thinks she's the bee's knees. She doesn't want to make waves; she just wants to play ball and be treated fairly. I highly recommend this book to middle school athletes of both genders and to parents and coaches.

Related Posts: Booklist: Hey There, Sports Fan, Interview: Karen Day, Book Review: Tall Tales by Karen Day

I am a readergirl! Are you?
Read the new issue of readergirlz. This month, readergirlz are discussing Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham.

Talk About It

Drop by the readergirlz forum to talk about this and other great reads.

Listen in as Little Willow, Miss Erin, and Lorie Ann Grover discuss Shark Girl.

Chat with author Kelly Bingham on Thursday, April 24th at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST at the readergirlz forum. The chat will last for about an hour.

Recommended Reads

Our April theme is Triumph. Considering this theme and the spotlighted book, the readergirlz divas and the postergirlz advisory council recommend the following books:

Fiction:
Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley
Side Effects by Amy Goldman Koss
The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern
Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

Non-Fiction:
Nerves Out Loud edited by Susan Musgrave


Operation TBD

YALSA and readergirlz are partners in Operation Teen Book Drop (Operation TBD). To celebrate April 17th, 2008, Support Teen Literature Day, we've organized a massive, coordinated release of 10,000 publisher-donated YA books into the top pediatric hospitals across the country! Learn more about Operation TBD at the readergirlz website and feel free to repost this post.


New Downloads and Shareables

Come and get your readergirlz downloads! Imagery by Dale Leary, Dia Calhoun, Lorie Ann Grover, and Holly Cupala. Show your support for readergirlz with cool avatars/icons, banners, bookmarks, logos, and more. We even set up cut-and-paste code to make it easy for you to post the images at your blog or website. Enjoy!

Recent Reads
Last month's featured book and author: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
Next month's featured book and author: Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Visit the readergirlz archive.

Related Posts
Meet the readergirlz divas and the postergirlz advisory council
Read the original readergirlz press release
View all of the readergirlz-tagged posts at Bildungsroman
Check out my interview with author Kelly Bingham and my review of Shark Girl

The readergirlz book selection for April 2008 is Shark Girl, a verse novel by Kelly Bingham about a young woman whose life changes after she loses an arm. Little Willow, Miss Erin, and Lorie Ann Grover gathered around a virtual roundtable to discuss the book.

Little Willow: I'm fond of saying that Shark Girl is 95% verse novel but 100% heart.

Miss Erin: When I finished reading it, I felt that the story wouldn't have been as good if it'd been told using prose. For certain "tough subjects," verse novel seem to make the story feel starker, more real, more close somehow. Does anyone else feel the same way?

Lorie Ann Grover: Verse is the perfect format to carry intense emotion about hard subjects. Shark Girl definitely deals with these. Verse allows readers to jump in and out of the poems. We have a chance to consider and recover and move forward. It's not as daunting as, say, an entire prose chapter on amputation.

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LW: Any closing thoughts?

Lorie Ann: Thanks, Kelly, for writing a book to encourage readers to redefine themselves after life changing events. Thanks for inspiring us!

"Big picture, Jane," he says.
"You could have died.
Instead, you are here. You have time to find out why.
You have your whole life to discover
and rebuild."

If you enjoyed this post, I hope you'll check out previous roundtable discussions, which include three friends giving A Little Friendly Advice by Siobhan Vivian a try and the postergirlz for readergirlz considering Just Listen by Sarah Dessen.

Related Posts at Bildungsroman:
Interview: Kelly Bingham
Book Review: Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
Booklist: Verse Novels

Published as part of Penguin's Students across Seven Seas (S.A.S.S.) line, Girl Overboard by Aimee Ferris charts Marina's trip aboard a ship with kids from around the world. (Read my full review.) The well-traveled author dropped by, speaking at length about places I've never been, conservation efforts, and her love for dolphins and octopi.

Your book's main character, Marina, grew up in Vermont and plans to attend the University of Hawaii. What is your hometown, and where did you study?

Like Marina, I lived in Stowe -- which is a gorgeous little mountain village in the middle of Vermont. However, I grew up in Illinois just 15 minutes over the Mighty Miss. from St. Louis. Our house sat in a rural town smack dab between a corn field, a bean field, and a whole lot of cows -- not exactly where you'd expect someone who's done thousands of scuba dives to come from! I had planned to attend U of Hawaii and was actually accepted into the Marine Biology program, but my plans changed and I am now finishing the last of my degree in Philosophy from the University of Illinois. Just for the fun of it, I've been known to argue that dolphins should be considered persons in the occasional ethics class -- a little homage to my past life.

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Visit Aimee's LiveJournal and her page at the Class of 2k7 website.

Sometimes, two books have the same title. Typically, they are vastly different. In this case, both of them are definitely worth reading. While Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley hit the slopes on New Year's Day this year, Girl Overboard by Aimee Ferris sailed into stores last May.

Published as part of Penguin's Students across Seven Seas (S.A.S.S.) line, Girl Overboard by Aimee Ferris charts Marina's trip aboard a ship with kids from around the world. This book is not only about studying abroad, but about appreciating and protecting marine life. It touches on many other things, such as being away from home, relating to different cultures, even unmasking poachers.

Much like the seas in which Marina swims, there's more to this book than meets the eye. The poacher storyline is handled well, and the creatures and facts sprinkled throughout the story are well-researched. The school-on-a-ship setting will appeal to teens who dream of traveling to other countries. I hope that readers start thinking about how they too can make conservation efforts.

Read my interview with Aimee Ferris.

Visit the S.A.S.S. website.

Check out tips from S.A.S.S. on studying aboard. (PDF)

Check out my review of Justina Chen Headley's Girl Overboard.

Jo Knowles' debut novel, Lessons from a Dead Girl, details the complex and painful life-long friendship of two girls: Leah, the abuser, and Laine, the victim. Out of shame and confusion, Laine refuses to tell anyone what Leah does for years. It's a remarkable book, and anyone who reads the author's blog can tell that she's remarkably compassionate. I had the good fortune to speak with her at length.

What resources - books, websites, hotlines, support groups - did you use while writing your book?

You know, it's an interesting question. Many years ago, I read an article about kids who abuse kids. I'm not even sure where I read the piece. I was working on a freelance project about abuse and this article was included in the research package I was provided. The story just went right to my heart. I started thinking about how complicated childhood friendships can be. How incredibly binding they are, even when the friendship is far from perfect. So often as a kid, friends can be forced upon you based on family friendships and other circumstances. I don't think it's always true that you can pick your friends. Growing up, there were certain kids my mom made me invite over, or visit, for different reasons. Some of those, I really didn't want to be with. That's just how it was.

From there, a story emerged.

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Visit Jo's website to learn some more lessons.

"The Class of 2k7 is a group of first-time children's and YA authors with debut books coming out in 2007. We're helping to promote each other's books with this joint Class of 2k7 website as well as a collective blog, newsletter, forum, chatroom, and brochure. Our authors hail from 20 states and D.C. representing an extensive range of genres and publishers."

I salute this project. It is not the work of one certain publishing house or publicity firm, but rather the authors themselves, who come from all different backgrounds and publishers.

If a title is bold, then I've read it. Click on a title for my book review. Click on an author's name for an interview.

January
Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

March
So Not The Drama by Paula Chase
Prom Dates From Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore

April
My Last Best Friend by Julie Bowe
In the Name of God by Paula Jolin
Reality Leak by Joni Sensel
The Silver Cup by Constance Leeds
City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
Kimchi and Calamari by Rose Kent

May
Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel by Ruth McNally Barshaw
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
Beauty Shop for Rent by Laura Bowers
Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend by Carrie Jones
Tall Tales by Karen Day
Bloom by Elizabeth Scott
Girl Overboard by Aimee Ferris
Quad by C.G. Watson

June
Bad Girls Club by Judy Gregerson
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Into The Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
Before, After, and Somebody In Between by Jeannine Garsee
First Light by Rebecca Stead

July
This Is What I Did: by Ann Dee Ellis
Me and the Pumpkin Queen by Marlane Kennedy
Revenge of the Homecoming Queen by Stephanie Hale
From the Desk of Septina Nash: The Penguins of Doom by Greg R. Fishbone
Blood Brothers by S.A. Harazin
Toby Wheeler: Eighth Grade Benchwarmer by Thatcher Heldring

September
To Catch a Mermaid by Suzanne Selfors
Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell

October
Big Slick by Eric Luper
Brendan Buckley's Universe & Everything In It by Sundee T. Frazier
Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles
Hallowmere: In the Serpent's Coils by Tiffany Trent
Head Case by Sarah Aronson
No Castles Here by A.C.E. Bauer
The Swan Maiden by Heather Tomlinson
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

See Tom ransack your pockets for each note,
And read your secrets while he cleans your coat
- from Curiosity by Charles Sprague

BIG SLICK is part Ferris Bueller's Day Off, part Texas Hold 'Em. The book's cover has the perfect tagline: High stakes and dirty laundry. Andrew "borrows" $600 from the cash register at his dad's dry cleaning business to play poker, then loses it all. While trying to figure out a way to make that money and slip it back into the register before his parents find out it's missing, Andrew gets tangled up in some dirty dealings and must reach out to his somewhat nerdy best friend Scott and his beautiful, slightly older, totally Goth co-worker Jasmine for help.

Author Eric Luper dropped by Bildungsroman as part of his book tour this week. I dealt him the following questions, and this is how he played his hand:

BIG SLICK is your big debut. Did you "become" a writer as an adult, or do you feel as though you have always been a writer?

I was brought up to believe you could do anything in life as long as you were a doctor, a lawyer or an accountant. However, I have always been a storyteller of one kind or another. Whether it was through my "serial cereal" cartoons in 6th and 7th grade (I had a strip about the Honey-Nut Cheerios Bee getting killed in very clever ways), role-playing games (which really is a form of community storytelling), or just discussing amongst my friends what we would do if zombies suddenly leapt out from behind a mailbox, stories have always been a big part of my life. The concept of actually pursuing writing as a career came later.

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FREE BOOK ALERT!

The first two readers to email childrens.publicity@fsgbooks.com and mention this interview will get free copies of Big Slick.

Travel with Eric on his blog tour.
October 5th: Alice Pope's CWIM blog
October 8th: SaturnCast
October 9th: The Longstockings
October 11th: Bildungsroman
October 12th: Big A little a
Later in the month: The Edge of the Forest

To learn more about the author, visit his website, LiveJournal, and MySpace.