Blogger is giving me HUGE problems

I cannot seem to post pics or my ratings and it's really aggravating me.  I was trying to post my review of THE IRON KING and I can't do it.  Blogger says they're working on the issue, but I have my doubts.

I just this evening finished DELIRIUM and I cannot WAIT to post my review!

Is anyone else having blogger issues with attaching pics?

The Mockingbirds, Daisy Whitney

Reading Level: Young Adult

Paperback: 447 Pages

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 11.2.10 Bookmarks: 5

I didn't know what this book was about when I grabbed it at BEA. I kinda like not knowing what I'm getting into when reading a book. But I must say that I was blown away with this story. There were a few clunky moments with the writing, but we'll chalk it up to first-time writeritis. But I will say this, Daisy Whitney is a kick-ass writer. And the story she tells is one that teens should read. Heck, parents should read because date rape is a problem in high school and college. As we send our teens out to the real world after they graduate high school, who will watch them?

Alex Patrick goes to Themis Academy. A close and tight-knit community. Every student there, according to the teachers and administrators, are intrinsically good. There is no discipline in the school. So a few years ago, Alex's older sister, Casey, created the Mockingbirds to self-police the students. Too many students were staying quiet when they were being bullied, raped, or just a simple cheating case. During a Friday night concert, Alex has too much to drink, hangs out with Carter. Ends up back in his room and wakes up the next morning, naked and not sure what has happened. As she starts piecing together the evening, she realizes that she never agreed to have sex and she's not exactly sure what has happened. In talking to her roommate, TS, Alex realizes that the possibility is that she has been date raped. She is presented with a dilemma: stay quiet and allow this to happen again, or get The Mockingbirds involved to help her come to terms with what has happened. Because a date-rape case has never come before The Mockingbirds, they must get the student body to ratify the code before they will take the case. They must vote on:

Sexual assault is against the standards to which Themis students hold themselves. Sexual assualt is sexual contact (not just intercourse) where on of the parties has not given or cannot give active verbal consent, i.e., uttered a clear "yes" to the action. If a person does not say "no" that does not mean he or she said "yes". Silence does not equal consent. Silence could mean fear, confusion, inebriation. The only thing that means yes is a yes. A lack of yes is a no. The Mockingbirds, Pg 268.

From there, Alex starts the arduous journey of clearing her name and proving that a sexual assault occurred when she was not in her right mind. There were times when you're not sure what exactly happened and whether if Alex was misremembering things. With the help of The Mockingbirds and a sweet boy named, Martin. Alex realizes that The Mockingbirds are working in her favor to help her. She just has to let them to help. I absolutely loved the definition of what describes a sexual assault. So from the book I took it verbatim. If anything like this happens to you, please do not be ashamed and tell your parents, a confidante, guidance counselor. They are there to help you. This book is here to help you realize that you are not alone.

New Blog Design!

Lori from Pure Imagination has worked with me to create a new blog that I hope is pleasing to the eye.  I'm very excited for it.  I'm still working some bugs out, but hopefully this will be minimal to your reading pleasure.

I'm so excited and I hope you like it!

ONLINE LAUNCH PARTY

To all my great blog readers.  Y.S. Lee has invited everyone to the launch of her newest book, THE AGENCY: THE BODY AT THE TOWER.

Date: Tuesday, September 28

Time: 4pm BST (UK/Europe) or 4pm EST (US/Canada)

Place: Twitter

Hashtag: #bodytower

Walker Books UK and Candlewick Press are co-hosting the parties, and we’re all providing prizes. I’ve got Agency t-shirts and stickers to give away, and my publishers are offering up books (of course!). I’d love to see you there (and of course, you can attend whichever party you like – the times are intended to be convenient).

This sounds like it's going to be a blast.  Have fun!

I Interrupt your book reading for this important announcement.

Pam (aka Bookalicious) created this Twibbon

Over on Twitter, there will be a Laurie Halse Anderson chat to discuss what has become a hotly contested issue.  Banning of books by meat-headed people in Republic, MO.  Under the hashtag #SpeakLoudly, we will be discussing this disturbing trend of parents complaining about books that they haven't read.

Dr. Wesley Scroggins has written something like a 29-page manifesto complaining about SPEAK (he calls it soft porn.  Yep, a book about rape, is considered soft porn!)  He complains about SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE (for it's language and it's unchristian attitude) and he also complains about TWENTY BOY SUMMER.

So yeah, c'mon over to twitter to partake.  It's starts now!

Btw, if you are a parent and you have questions about the books that the schools are requiring your child to read, READ the book first.  Don't go by word of mouth.  Isn't this a great way to open up dialog with your child?  How you can not like it, if you haven't tried it?  How can you condemn a book when you haven't read it?

Small-mindedness has never gotten the world very far.  I'm pretty progressive and quite laid back, but when it comes to censoring, it just boils the blood.

UGH!

If I owe you a book, I have not mailed them out!  I keep forgetting about it.  If I DO owe you a book, can you e-mail me???

Life has been nuts and I need to grab them, and put them in a place where I will REMEMBER to bring them to post office!

I really stink at going to post office!

Just some random thoughts and blatherings

I could not finish ALMOST TO DIE FOR. I tried, but I just couldn't do.  I ran out and bought MOCKINGJAY as soon as it was released and read it immediately.  I was a bit disappointed with the way that she wrapped everything up.  It seemed to be rushed.  Plus, I felt like was talking at me rather than to me.  Too much telling and not much showing.  Became quite annoying.  Plus, I just really hated what she did to one character (not Gale), it seemed sorta forced and predictable.  Almost like she was following a formula and absolutely stuck to it.

Just last night I finished Daisy Whitney's THE MOCKINGBIRDS and was really blown away by it.  This is a book that can be studied in the future on how to deal with date rape and how students policing themselves can work.  There are many questions that need to be asked.  I loved the definition that THE MOCKINGBIRDS came up as the definitive for sexual abuse.

I'm very excited for the books that are coming out soon.  I just started Lauren Kate's TORMENT and so far I'm enjoying very much.

Oh, before I forget I've also been reading Gail Carriger's books, The Parasol Protectorate.  They are so much fun and so witty.  I need to get my hands on the third book soon.  I'm missing me some Alexia Tarabotti Maccon.  If you like Austen, Bronte, Forster, you will definitely love this steampunkish, classy lady.

Picture Book Thursdays

I've gone away from this and have been wondering if I should go back to it.  I absolutely enjoy reading picture books with my little one and her reading skills have grown exponentially!  I'm simply amazed how well she's doing.

Are there anyone readers out there with young children that would like this segment to come back again to give you an idea what books are out there and what are fun to read?  I'd also start including some chapter books (first readers) for the just starting to read group out there as well.  It'll give me more to review and will help parents find books for their little ones.

We go to library a lot so most of the books will come from there, although, I do accept queries from publishers to review brand-new picture books, most of the books will be the tried and true classics and some different ones as well.  I will be trying focus on multicultural picture books as well because they seem to be forgotten.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Banned Books Reading Challenge (Sept 1 - Oct 2)

The absolutely lovely Steph Su has created this challenge for bloggers and specifically young adult bloggers to read books that have been banned or challenged.  In light of the Ellen Hopkins v. Texas fiasco, I think the time is absolutely right for this challenge!

Steph is asking us to read one banned book a week for the duration of the contest.  We can do more or less depending on time and how fast one reads.  I would really like to see my readers of this blog pick up a banned book (I'll post resources below), read it, and let me know why you think this book was banned, challenged by school systems.  I'd like to keep this in the young adult genre and we know there are tons of books in the past decade that have been challenged.

I'm really excited about this and will try to come up with some great giveaways.

As always Banned Book Week is September 25 - October 2, and the ALA goes out of it's way to promote this.

This is taken directly from Steph's blog:

Goals of This Challenge:

• To bring attention to books that have been challenged or banned
• To support authors whose freedom of expression have been questioned or challenged by buying and reading their books
• To increase awareness of censorship

Resources:

• The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Challenged Children's Book List. This list is divided up into age group, which is definitely convenient.
• 10 Frequently Challenged Books Everyone Should Read at Paste Magazine
• Hit List for Young Adults 2 by Teri Lesesne and Rosemary Chance. Written for librarians combating censorship but provides a list of 20 titles that may or may not interest you.
• The left-hand sidebar of the ALA Frequently Challenged Books site features many ways in which challenged books are broken down by year, decade, type of challenge, etc. Very fascinating to look at.
• The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has a great website dedicated to Banned Books Week, the freedom to read, and reviews of banned books.
• The Illinois Library Association issues a fantastic bibliography every year noting the books challenged that year. This could help you a lot with more recently challenged books. 
• The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas has compiled a shocking list of challenges made in the state.

Try to do your part and read at least one challenged book and tell us what you think.  Or if you have a blog, why not sign up for this challenge.  I've linked Steph's blog and the post above and on the Ban This picture on the right side of the blog.

RADIANCE TRAILER

Radiance by Alyson Noel

A Continuation of the Ever Series featuring Ever's sister, Riley!

Riley has crossed the bridge into the afterlife—a place called Here, where time is always Now. She has picked up life where she left off when she was alive, living with her parents and dog in a nice house in a nice neighborhood. When she’s summoned before The Council, she learns that the afterlife isn’t just an eternity of leisure. She’s been assigned a job, Soul Catcher, and a teacher, Bodhi, a possibly cute, seemingly nerdy boy who’s definitely hiding something. They return to earth together for Riley’s first assignment, a Radiant Boy who’s been haunting a castle in England for centuries. Many Soul Catchers have tried to get him to cross the bridge and failed. But all of that was before he met Riley . . .

Link to trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P51HFqVj9s

Author website:

http://www.alysonnoel.com/

I am linking to the trailer to make it easier to load the page

First Person to Find Fat Vampire on my blog WINS the book

and no it's not in the title... Do some scrounging.  It could be backwards, upside down or spelled correctly.  The first one to post HERE get's the book.


Also, make sure you check out some of my reviews and the blog tour that I just participated in!  More people visiting, makes Laura a happy camper!


Good luck and have fun!

Halo Trailer!

I am so excited for this book! I hope you enjoy the trailer!

And here you can find all the information you want about Alexandra!  Quite the Wunderkind!

http://us.macmillan.com/author/alexandraadornetto