As the Printz Award is now 12-years-old, it is the perfect time to showcase the book jackets of the winners on a calendar. The calendar will debut at Annual for the cost of $15. Members of the Financial Advancement Committee will be selling the calendars at Saturday morning’s Strategic Planning Session from 10am to noon and again that same day outside the entrance to the Edwards luncheon. Sunday you can purchase a Printz calendar at YALSA’s Membership booth from 2 to 5pm and, if you miss those opportunities, it will also be sold on Monday from 10 to 11am at the Membership Booth, then later at the Membership meeting, and that evening at the Printz Awards (if copies are still available). Read More →

Yes, it’s conference time once again and although I know we’ll all be very busy, there are times when we want and need to escape from the conference craziness and just roam the city for a little bit on our own. For those of you who’ve attended ALA in New Orleans before, you probably have your own favorite haunts; for me, because I love bringing home artsy souvenirs, these three galleries have always been wonderful to poke around in.

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Need a speaker for a workshop? Staff in-service? Beth Gallaway is offering libraries a great deal: if you pay her travel fees, she’ll waive her speaker fee for a 3-hour training or workshop of your choice. Can’t miss this deal at the NSS Auction in San Diego.

Need help with all that summer reading? Now is the time to plan ahead for Summer of 2011 with the help of Evanced Solution’s Summer Reader Software. They are offering, for new customers only, a free one-year subscription to their Summer Reader software. So give yourself a chance to get in some summer reading and bid away for your library.

Two more fabulous female authors have offered Skype visits: Carolyn Mackler and Ellen Hopkins.

The author of the Printz Honor Book, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, Carolyn’s latest title is Tangled. In between those two titles came Guyaholic and Vegan Virgin Valentine, both funny yet touching stories to read. A mother with two young sons, Carolyn managed to find time to serve as a judge for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature in 2008.

Carolyn has a great sense of humor, so be sure to get her talking about her adventures with a hockey puck. She’d really like to speak for about 30 minutes with a book club that’s reading one of her titles; you’ll have to bid early and often to outbid everyone for this Skype visit. She has a charming blog where you can meet her “up close and personal.”

The verse novels of Ellen Hopkins have captivated teens and caused consternation for adults because she writes about problems teens face every day. When one of her daughters because addicted to crystal meth, she wrote her first book called Crank, which has been followed by Glass and the recently released Fallout. ‘ Her other fiction titles include Burned, Impulse, Identical and Tricks. When Ellen first began writing, she wrote nonfiction and has written approximately 20 nonfiction books for children.

It’s obvious that Ellen cares about teens and the problems they encounter and knows how to describe their anxieties. She is a favorite writer for teens whose books have appeared on both Quick Picks lists as well as those in The New York Times. You can learn much about her by taking time to read her blog‘ and then be ready to bid on her visit. Just as with Carolyn, you may be bidding early and often to chat with Ellen Hopkins.

If you make the winning bid, you can arrange a Skype visit with young, vivacious author Melissa Walker, a former editor at both ELLEgirl and Seventeen. She loves to meet and talk with teens about writing, fashion, magazines, or pop culture.

Thus far she’s written Violet on the Runway, Violet by Design, Violet in Private and Lovestruck Summer. For more info about Melissa, check out her blog.

Authors Daniel Ehrenhaft and Jacqueline Woodson, along with SLJ blogger Diane Chen, all say that Selene Castrovilla is an author to “watch out for.” You and your teens will have that opportunity to “watch out for” Selene at YALSA’s Not-So-Silent Auction on Friday night of Midwinter when her Skype visit will be auctioned.

For those of you who attended the YA Lit Symposium in Albuquerque this past November, you may have met Selene or received one of her rubber chicken keychains. Her young adult novels include Saved by the Music and The Girl Next Door, Read More →

Give $10 in '10

Since 2005 the Friends of YALSA (FOY) donors have given more than $25,000 to support YALSA initiatives and services that help the profession and teens. They have sponsored Spectrum Scholars and Emerging Leaders, created advocacy materials for members to use, and sent five YALSA members to ALA’s Library Advocacy Day.

As those YALSA members who attended Annual know, YALSA’s Financial Advancement Committee initiated a major campaign to encourage more people to join Friends of YALSA, called Give $10 in ’10. Financial Advancement Committee members were easily spotted wearing their 2010 sparkly glasses as they passed out information about becoming a FOY in addition to accepting donations. Thanks to the response of attendees, many of whom donated more than $10, more than$1,700 was collected. All money raised by Friends of YALSA in 2010 is being used for YALSA’s advocacy efforts.

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