A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

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Mockingjay

Here it is!  The cover of Mockingjay, the final installment of The Hunger Games Trilogy.  Do you love it?  Could it be better?  What do you think it means?

Since Scholastic released the title and cover last week, I have been scouring the wondrous interweb in search for clues as to what will go down in the third book.  And, there was nothing! No hints, no giveaways.  N – O – T – H – I – N – G!  You and I are left to wait in anticipation for a little over 180 days.  Essentially, Scholastic has decided to go all President Snow on us by withholding information that could be key to our literary freedom and survival (Yes, Scholastic, I went there…couldn’t you just float an advanced reading copy to this poor little old YA librarian?  I promise that I will not tell anyone what happens!).

Actually, I take back that there was NOTHING online.  I did find a little something, but that little something only referred to what will NOT be happening in Mockinjay.  In an interview, VP Editorial Director of Scholastic David Levithan (as in the David Levithan who wrote The Realm of Possibility, Boy Meets Boy, and – insert school girl scream here – the upcoming Will Grayson, Will Grayson) essentially said that his lips are sealed tighter than Fort Knox about Mockingjay.  However, he did mention 5 things that will be absent.  Here is the list:

1. Panem is not shaken up when District 9 is nominated for a best picture Oscar.
2. At no point does President Snow utter the line, “It’s Snowmaggedon, baby!”
3. Despite internet rumors to the contrary, it is not revealed that Cinna has been designing outfits for a Capital operative known as “Lady Gaga.”
4. All rumors of a crossover appearance by Geronimo Stilton are false.
5. In a tough editorial call, we decided to not have Katniss win the Hunger Games…only to be interrupted by Kanye West.*

*Careful about throwing Kanye into the mix, Mr. Levithan.  That fella is crazy with a capital “C” and who knows what he will do!  Although, personally, I have no doubt that if it came down to a cage match between Katniss and Kanye, Katniss would be stronger and more heartless than the rapper any day!

Epic Fail of a New Year’s Resolution…

Do you remember how I mentioned that I was not going to procrastinate during 2010?  Well, it really has not lasted for long, and I am deciding to officially call my 2010 New Year’s Resolution the Epic Fail of New Year’s Resolutions.  First, I was looking at old drafts for blog posts and found one, which oddly enough had a series of New Year’s Resolutions from characters from your favorite books.  They were absolutely hilarious!  Here are just a few:  Bella Swan wants to stay away from people who suck; Voldemort wants to stop cursing; Waldo wants to find himself; and the Giving Tree wants to set firm boundaries.*

Just this one episode may not seem so bad, but, don’t worry, it only gets worse from here.  Katrina sent me an email last week with the newly released cover of the final installment of The Hunger Games. 7 DAYS!  Are you counting?  It has taken me 7 days to pass this along to you!  I will forever owe you my apologies for making you wait to see the new cover on our blog.  Since I love The Hunger Games to no end, I have decided to discuss the third installment at length in the post directly above where you are now reading…so look up for more!

*To give credit where credit is due, author Alice Porter wrote the literary New Year’s Resolutions for The Horn Book Magazine.

I LOVE IT!

I was walking in the stacks the other day and noticed that we had copies of Twilight and New Moon on the shelf.  I am not going to lie to you – it made me a little happy to see this especially since I was alluding to my joy in the downturn of Twilight back in August.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I love it when our selves are empty because it means that people are reading.  But sometimes, you just need to move on to bigger and better things (like The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey, Beautiful Creatures by Kim Garcia and Margaret Stohl or Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor with illustrations by Jim Di Bartolo).  Finally, I found the following image on Post Secret, and I LOVE IT!