Coming This Fall: A Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler Collaboration!

Ever since I finished Jay Asher's debut novel Th1rt3en Reasons Why in November of 2007, I have been stalking* him in an attempt to find out any information possible about any upcoming projects.  Today that wait is FINALLY over!  It has been announced that Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler (author of the Printz Honor book, The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things fame) have co-written a novel, The Future of Us, which is set to release under Penguin's Razorbill imprint this fall.

Jay and Carolyn both created cute videos to promote the upcoming title.  Here's Jay's video. Here's Carolyn's.  Set in a world before high-speed internet, The Future of Us is the story of Emma and Josh, who log onto a free trial CD-ROM of AOL and "discover themselves on Facebook...fifteen years in the future." Hmm...Dial-up internet? Time travel? Sounds oddly intriguing.  And since these are two authors whose past work I have enjoyed, I'm excited to see how it turns out.

ARCs at BEA? ALA? I hope so!

*internet stalking, not "real" stalking 

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YA in the News

The past two weeks have been newsworthy for YA lit.  First we learned that Jay Asher's novel Th1rteen R3asons Why was going to be a movie and Selena Gomez is set to play Hannah Baker.  Then Valentine's Day came around and brought us the announcement of the Cybils winners.  This morning's New York Times has an article about dystopias in YA lit, which was kind enough to separate out less-well written, but still popular works like I Am Number Four from higher quality offerings, such as Scott Westerfeld's Uglies books and Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, but still missed the mark on YA lit (if you ask me).  And finally, in sad news, the Times also reported that Perry Moore, author of Hero, a novel about a gay superhero, was found dead in his Manhattan apartment.

Oh, and on a personal note, I'm running a week-long Hunger Games camp this summer, and more and more students are coming to me to tell me they've registered.  At the same time, more students are asking about Hunger Games and looking for the books, which makes me hopeful that there is some good word-of-mouth buzz around the camp and the books.  Gotta love peer pressure!

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Thirteen Reasons Why...You Should Read This Book

1. Clay Jensen comes home from school one day to find a brown bag filled with cassette tapes recorded by his crush, Hannah Baker, who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

2. The tapes explain the thirteen reasons why she decided to end her young life.

3. Clay is one of the reasons.

4. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those aged 15-24.

5. As many as 25 suicides are attempted for each one that is completed.

6. The audio book features the narrator's voice and a separate voice for Hannah's tapes, so it feels like you're listening along with Clay.

7. You can follow along with the story through the interactive map on the book's website.

8. Even without the audio or the map, you are so quickly drawn into the story and it is so vivid and real in your head that you can't put it down.

9. The novel is former bookseller and library staffer Jay Asher's debut novel. And it's YA!

10. Jay Asher will respond to your book discussion group's questions...via cassette tape.

11. Word of mouth has grown the audience of the novel so much since it's 2007 release that for the past two weeks it has been the #3 bestselling chapter book on the New York Times rankings!

12. And speaking of NYT...it was written up (albeit years after publication) in The New York Times.

13. Do you really need another reason? Just read it already! I promise you won't be disappointed.