ALA's Youth Media Awards!!

Today was the announcement of all of the American Library Association Youth Media Awards at the ALA Midwinter meeting in Seattle.  I'm not going to list all of the winners and honors because the list is *really* long, but... I do want to give a full shout out to two of the winners:

I was SOOOOO happy to see that Ms. Tamora Pierce (my all-time favorite author EVAH!) won the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. *squee!!*

Rachel Hartman, author of Seraphina, which I gave a gold star review to here, won the William C. Morris Award for a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens!!

Very exciting!!!

Congratulations to Tamora Pierce, Rachel Hartman and ALL of the other award winners and nominees.  You can check out the full list on ALA's website HERE.

Anxiously Awaiting...The Cadet of Tildor!

The Cadet of Tildor

by Alex Lidell

Publication date: January 10, 2013

Having already survived six years at the Tildor’s top military academy, sixteen-year-old Renee De Winter is determined to graduate, training day and night to compete with her male classmates. When the boys overpower her parries, she works harder. When a bully sabotages her gear, she fights without it. But when an underground crime group captures her mentor for its illegal gladiatorial games, she must choose between her career and her conscience. Determined to penetrate the group’s inner circles, Renee will leap from academia to the crime filled streets, pick up a sword, and weigh law against loyalty.

I believe that I may have mentioned once or twice, or you know, a million times if you know me in real life...that my favorite book of all time is Tamora Pierce's Alanna: The First Adventure. It is epic. It is the standard to which all my book love is held...

This, this sounds like it would be perfectly up my alley. I can only hope that it meets the same high standard I require for my high fantasies. I *CANNOT* wait to find out. I think I'll be pre-ordering this one. :)

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales

Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales
by Tamora Pierce

Collected here for the first time are all of the tales from the land of Tortall, featuring both previously unknown characters as well as old friends. Filling some gaps of time and interest, these stories, some of which have been published before, will lead Tammy's fans, and new readers into one of the most intricately constructed worlds of modern fantasy. (description from Amazon.com)

Tamora Pierce is my favorite author. I love almost everything she's ever put out. She is an incredible world-builder and her characters have phenomenal depth. If you've never read anything by Ms. Pierce, this would be an excellent place to start...you could read one story, or them all!

I loved that while some of the stories relate to Tamora Pierce's larger series books, each could be read individually, and some were completely new. One of my favorites was called "Huntress," and took place in modern day New York City, seemingly realistic fiction until Artemis, the Moon Goddess makes an appearance.

Fans of Daine from the Wild Magic series will rejoice to read a story about Kitten, her little dragon friend. Aly's fans (Trickster series) will love to read the story about birthing her triplets. Several others are set in the Tortallan kingdom and surrounding lands, but feature new and interesting characters.

The best thing about these stories, though, is that they can tackle tough topics without losing the reader's interest in the fantastic. Morality, murder, discrimination, sexism, abuse...it's all there with tough, interesting characters in fascinating situations to take it on. I ended just about each story with a smile on my face (sometimes a tear in my eye...) and a warm feeling in my heart.

Well worth checking out!