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Cindy: At the end of each publishing year and after the announcement of YALSA’s BBYA list and the Printz, Newbery and other awards, we purge our temporary BBYA collection and give the advanced reader copies away to our hard working teen BBYA book club members as a reward for sharing their opinions and their enthusiasm [...]

Cindy: While strolling the ALA exhibits last week we were in the Penguin booth and Lynn noticed a poster about John Flanagan’s Ranger’s Apprentice series. She loves the series and said, “Oh, there’s a series I’m all caught up on. I’ve read all six.” We picked up a few galleys they had out on the [...]

Cindy and Lynn: At the ALA Midwinter Meetings in Boston the YALSA Board voted unanimously to adopt the changes to the Best Books for Young Adults Committee that eliminate adult books, graphic novels, and nonfiction from the BBYA committee. YALSA has posted an FAQ page to help answer some of the questions that we and [...]

Cindy: Hey, Lynn! I’ve been reading that sample Kiki magazine we picked up at the ALA exhibits and I’m so impressed. This looks like a great addition to my middle school fashion magazines for the girls who aren’t ready for or interested in the more mature offerings. Have you had a chance to look at [...]

Cindy: All week I’ve been reading sad library news about the cuts coming down in the state of Michigan as our districts are looking to balance their budgets in the face of mid-year drastic cuts. Post after post talks of librarians being eliminated entirely from districts and replaced with volunteers or a single librarian serving [...]

Cindy and Lynn: We’re just home from the ALA Midwinter Meetings in Boston and will be back to posting about book titles soon. We picked up many fabulous Spring 2010 advance reader copies and as soon as we get some sleep and unpack we’ll begin prioritizing our reading. Our editors reminded Cindy that her priorities [...]

Cindy: Brother is just shy of twelve-years-old when he must step up and help his grandfather run their Oregon farm after his father is shipped off to Iraq. The theme of conflict and loss runs throughout the story from the opening chess sequence to Brother’s fights with his older brothers when they come home and [...]

Lynn and Cindy: So here we are again. Less than a week from the start of an ALA conference and we’re posting an unhappy rant about a YALSA Board proposal for BBYA. A draconian proposal in June received such an outcry of dissent that the Board tabled the proposal and agreed to try again. This [...]

Cindy and Lynn: So here we are. Last year we listed our Baker’s Dozen of top books and who are we to argue with tradition? These are our choices for the most outstanding teen books for this year in terms of literary merit. Each list is arranged alphabetically by title. We’ve always wondered how authors [...]

Today’s Bookends Best of the Year list features books published for older readers – upper middle school and high school. We’ll lead off with titles we both have at the top of our lists and then will each add a few individual favorites. Want more information? Titles are linked to our prior Bookends blog posts [...]