Hunger Games Movie: More Casting

Well, there are finally a few more confirmed cast members for The Hunger Games movie!

We already know about Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, but here are a few other characters:


Josh Hutcherson as Peeta


Liam Hemsworth as Gale



Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket


Amandla Stenberg as Rue



Willow Shields as Prim


Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh


Leven Rambin as Glimmer

Not bad! Also, according to New York Magazine, John C. Reilly has been offered the role of Haymitch. Let's cross our fingers that he takes it! He'd be perfect!

Book Crossing and Teens' Top Ten Nominees

Did you or your library do anything to celebrate Teen Literature Day yesterday? Did you Rock The Drop? If not, that's okay- you can still do something just like it!

Introducing... Book Crossing! This awesome project goes on every day, all year, and it's just like Rocking the Drop, except it's not only for teens and it's a little more calculated.

Just make a quick, free account (I have one!) and you'll have access to all kinds of features like lists of (worldwide) book locations for your hunting pleasure, labels to order or print for your book-giving pleasure, and their community of book-loving people. Once you plant a book, you can watch it travel all over the world by tracking it's various log-in's! Check out Book Crossing's About for all the details.

In addition, yesterday (to celebrate) YALSA announced the 25 nominations for this year's Teens' Top Ten. Read all twenty-five through the summer and get ready to vote for your favorite from August 22 through September 16!

Teen Literature Day: Rock the Drop

Tomorrow is a pretty exciting day for people who love teen lit!

As many of you may know, we are smack in the middle of National Library Week, and every year, the Thursday of this glorious library-oriented week is dubbed Teen Literature Day!

So what can you do to celebrate? One of my favorite ideas comes from Readergirlz. This year they have teamed up with Figment (which you should check out if you like to read and write; it's cool) to bring us Rock The Drop in honor of tomorrow, Thursday, April 14th.


Here's how it works:

1. Print a copy of the official Rock The Drop bookplate and insert it into a book (or books) that you'll drop on April 14th.

2. Drop a book in a public spot (park bench, bus seat, restaurant counter, etc) and you're done! Lucky finders will spot the book it and see that the book is part of this awesome event.

3. Be sure to take a picture of your drop and send it to the readergirlz. They will be posting lots of pictures of drops happening all over the world on their blog!

Sound like fun? Click here for the official rules, banner, and book plate.

Additionally, YALSA has provided a list of other ways to celebrate Teen Literature Day as well as a pretty cohesive list of recommended books for Operation Teen Book Drop. Click here for YALSA's Teen Literature Day wiki.

Happy day and happy reading!

Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary

Happy Birthday, Beverly Cleary!

Today the author of over 30 books for young adults and children celebrates her 95th birthday!

Celebrate by learning about some of her books, or playing some fun games on her website: http://www.beverlycleary.com/

Or, if you've never read any of her famous and awesome books, put one one hold! Here are a few suggestions (the complete list of her works can be found on her website):

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Ramona the Brave

Dear Mr. Henshaw

Henry Huggins

Muggie Maggie

The Invention of Hugo Cabret on the big screen

If you're anything like me, you are absolutely in love with Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Well there's good news for Hugo-fans! They're making a movie and it's being directed by Martin Scorsese!

Among the pretty awesome cast are Johnny Depp (as M. Rouleau), Chloe Moretz (as Isabelle), Asa Butterfield (as Hugo) and Jude Law (as Hugo's father). Click here for the rest of the casting information.

The movie is due out November 23, 2011 and I have to say, I am VERY excited.

If you haven't read the beautiful, Caldecott-winning novel yet (the only novel to ever win this illustration award!), click here to put a copy on hold.

And for more Hugo Cabret fun, check out theinventionofhugocabret.com

International Children's Book Day

Did you know that today is International Children's Book Day?

Well, it is!

Since 1967, International Children's Book Day has been celebrated on April 2nd to mark Hans Christian Andersen's birthday and to inspire a love of reading in children.

To celebrate, I am going to be completely biased and recommend my 10 favorite picture books, in no particular order:

Smitten by David Gordon

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas

Valentine Friends by Ann Schweninger (good all year, really!)

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

The Jolly Postman, or, Other People's Letters by Janet and Allen Ahlberg

The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems

The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood

Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox

Celebrate by reading one of YOUR (or my) favorites!

Authors Unlimited tickets available today!

Tickets are availalbe today! Don't miss this FREE full-day event! It's your chance to meet dynamic authors of YA literature such as Rita Williams-Garcia (author of One Crazy Summer), Robert Lipsyte (author of Center Field and The Contender), Tonya Hurley (author of the Ghostgirl series), and many more. This event is open to everyone, but teens get preferred seating. There will be cool giveaways, books for sale, and an autographing session.

The event is at St. Josepht's College campus on Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Doors open at 9:30 am.

For all of the details, visit http://www.authorsunlimited.org/ and come into the library for tickets!