Hunger Games Fans!! New Flash!!

Great News for all our Hunger Games fans (myself included)! The third and final installment (see cover art to the left) Mockingjay is due in bookstores on August 24th, 2010. The LTC will plan to have three copies ready for checkout in the fall. No early release copies will be made available to keep the plot from leaking out ahead of the book. This happened with the final Harry Potter book as well.

In addition, and some of us have talked about this already in the LTC, the film version of Book 1 The Hunger Games has a 2011 release date and currently in development. I will keep you posted if I hear, see, read anything else.

PS The film is being produced by the same people who made The Diary of a Wimpy Kid film due out in April - Nina Jacobson of Lionsgate Films.

2010 Newbery winner - When You Reach Me

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (author of Caudill nominee First Light) is this year's Newbery winner. Set in 1979 NYC, 12 year old Miranda and her best friend Sal know their way around their neighborhood, where it is safe and where it is not. Miranda's hard working paralegal mom is getting ready to be a contestant on the $20,000 Pyramid. Cryptic notes written on very small pieces of paper begin to appear in Miranda's things. It is clear that the person writing them knows a lot about Miranda and needs her help to save a friend of hers' life. Miranda's favorite book is Wrinkle in Time, and as she rereads that time travel story, it becomes clear that the messages may be coming from the future. The setting of this evenly paced fantasy adventure keep many of our modern conveniences out of the plot (computers, cell phones, the Internet). Because of that Miranda's experiences have a timeless quality. The connections with Wrinkle in Time (1963 Newbery winner), will captivate and intrigue fans of that story but prior reading of that story is not necessary to the enjoyment of this tale of friendship, family and personal growth.