ALA's adding a new literary award to the prestigious Youth Media Awards, presented at the Midwinter Conference each year. The Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award honors “English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience.” The Stonewall Award has been given to adult books for almost 40 years (under various names), but the children's and young adult category is new. Thanks to Kelly of Stacked for the link!
Wondering what to do with your review copies once you've written the reviews? Donate them to a classroom library! While public and school libraries cannot accept ARCs for their collections, classroom libraries, often paid for out of teachers' own pockets, can. Need help finding a classroom to donate to? Or maybe you're a teacher and would like to be matched with a blogger? Sarah at The Reading Zone has set up ARCs Float On, a program to match review bloggers with teachers who need books for their classrooms. Read more about the program at that link and then fill out the ARCs Float On Matchmaker Survey to be paired up with a classroom/blogger.
Ari at Reading in Color has started a list of supernatural/paranormal YA books with protagonists of color: Supernaturally Brown. And she's got a list of boarding school novels that feature protagonists of color: Boarding While Brown. Do check 'em out (and add suggestions in comments!).
Looking your next great listen? Check out October's AudioSynced Roundup, hosted by Kelly at Stacked. (By the way, I just started listening to The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, read by Anne Hathaway and it is AWESOME. I just want to listen to it all the time. Expect a review soon...)
Picture books are just for little kids, right? WRONG! Sarah at GreenBean TeenQueen has an excellent list of picture books for tweens. Check out the comments on her post for even more suggestions.
And that's all I've got for you this week. You NaNovelers, how are your novels coming? (I'm a bit behind, but planning on catching up tonight...!)