12 Cats Who Are Serious About Reading (from BuzzFeed)

I can't resist reposting this gem I found on BuzzFeed this morning. It's 12 Cats Who Are Serious About Reading and it's adorable!

To view this article (posted on August 2nd), click here and enjoy a giggle.

Happy Birthday, Ann M. Martin!

Today Ann M. Martin's birthday and she turns 58-years-old! In honor of this day, here are 5 fun Ann M. Martin facts:

1. When Ann was born, she was the biggest baby in the hospital.

2. When Ann was 11-years-old, she fell off of a ladder while climbing down from her treehouse and had to have her spleen removed.

3. Ann loves scary books, and Stephen King is one of her favorite authors.

4. One summer, when Ann was a kid, she and her friends set up a library in Ann's room with lots of books for the kids on Dodds Lane to check out. They had due dates and late fines, too.

5. Ann loved writing about Karen, Kristy's little sister. She thinks that Karen is her alter ego, the kind of girl she wished she could have been at the same age.

For the complete list of fun facts (29 of them), click here!

I read SO MANY Ann M. Martin books when I was younger (and not-so-young), but if you haven't and you're looking to start, here are a few recommendations:

The Baby-Sitters Club #1: Kristy's Great Idea

A Dog's Life: Autobiography of a Stray

A Corner Of The Universe

The Doll People

The Summer Before (The Baby-Sitters Club)

Main Street #1: Welcome to Camden Falls

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck

Woohoo! The new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book cover has been revealed!

A brief synopsis of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck" from the publisher:

Greg Heffley's on a losing streak. His best friend, Rowley Jefferson, has ditched him, and finding new friends in middle school is proving to be a tough task. To change his fortunes, Greg decides to take a leap of faith and turn his decisions over to chance. Will a roll of the dice turn things around, or is Greg's life destined to be just another hard-luck story?

The book is due to hit the shelves on November 5th of this year. Less than three months to go!

For more on "Hard Luck," click here!

Happy Birthday, J.K. Rowling

Today J.K. Rowling turns 48-years-old! And Harry Potter turns 33-years-old!

Joanne Rowling (J.K. Rowling) was born in July 1965 in England. In college, she earned her degree in both French and Classics, and then worked as a researcher at Amnesty International. She started writing the Harry Potter series during a delayed train trip (Manchester to London King’s Cross), and during the next five years, she outlined the plots for each book and also began writing the first novel.

Joanne then moved to Portugal, where she taught English as a foreign language. In 1992 she got married and in 1993 she gave birth to a daughter (Jessica). When the marriage ended, she and Jessica returned to the UK to live in Edinburgh, where Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone was eventually completed. The book was published under the name J.K. Rowling. The “K”, for Kathleen, was added at the request of her her publisher, who thought that a woman’s name would not appeal to the target audience of young boys.

Today, J.K. Rowling lives in Edinburgh with her husband and three children. Her latest book is her first novel for adults! It's called The Casual Vacancy and was published in English in September 2012.

Check out J.K Rowling's website here!

Don’t Pigeonhole Me: Two Decades of the Mo Willems Sketchbook

By now, we're pretty much all familiar with the works of Mo Willems: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and the Elephant and Piggie series. But did you know that before all this fame, Mo Willems published a zine? Parts of it, as well as other early-days doodles and comics by Mo are available now in a book called Don’t Pigeonhole Me: Two Decades of the Mo Willems Sketchbook. Be sure to put a copy on hold today!

Unlike the books that made him famous, Don’t Pigeonhole Me: Two Decades of the Mo Willems Sketchbook is not necessarily for small children. According to Disney, this book “reveals the author/illustrator at his most truthful, most experimental, most grown-up. Most Mo.” Sounds awesome! Plus, bonus: It features a foreword by Eric Carle!

For more on the book and Mo Willems' zine days (mostly an interview with Mo!), click here.

Or, click here for an exciting preview from Mo Willems' Doodle Blog.

Chris Van Allsburg's Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Chris Van Allsburg! Today Chris Van Allsburg turns 64-years-old!

For those of you who don't know, Chris Van Allsburg is the author and illustrator of many famous children's books: Jumanji, Zathura,  The Polar Express, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Two Bad Ants, and The Sweetest Fig.

He also has a pretty sweet website with a story writing contest: http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com

Check out one of his books today and celebrate his marvelous work!

My List: 15 Books For Your Perfect Young Adult (And Classic Children's) Summer Reading List

This morning Mashable posted an article called "23 Books For Your Perfect Young Adult Summer Reading List" and it got me excited! Some of them I've already read but some of them I haven't even heard of! Today I'm going to try #15 on the list: Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson.

I decided, in the spirit of recommended summer reads, I'd create my own list of 15 Books For Your Perfect Young Adult (And Classic Children's) Summer Reading List:
 

1. Wak Two Moons by Sharon Creech: "An engaging story of love and loss, told with humor and suspense. Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle's mother leaves home suddenly on a spiritual quest, vowing to return, but can't keep her promise..." (School Library Journal)

2. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse: "...Set during the time of the Great Depression and written in free verse, Karen Hesse's spare but powerful work captures every nuance of Billie Jo's emotions, from heartwrenching sadness at the death of her mother and newborn brother to the challenge of rebuilding a relationship with her embittered father..." (School Library Journal)

3. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead: "...Stead's novel is as much about character as story. Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation. The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise. As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way. The setting is consistently strong. The stores and even the streets–in Miranda's neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways. This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers." (School Library Journal)

4. Every Little Thing In the World by Nina de Gramont:"Friends Sydney and Natalia, both 16, are sent to a wilderness camp to canoe the waters of northern Canada for six weeks. They have secrets: Sydney is pregnant, and Natalia has just found out that her older sister, Margit, is actually her biological mother..." (School Library Journal)

5. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green: "...Once again Green offers a well-developed cast of characters capable of both reflective thought and hilarious dialogue. With his trademark humor, lovable parents, and exploration of big-time challenges, The Fault in Our Stars is an achingly beautiful story about life and loss." (School Library Journal)

6. Paper Towns by John Green: "...Green's prose is astounding—from hilarious, hyperintellectual trash talk and shtick, to complex philosophizing, to devastating observation and truths. He nails it—exactly how a thing feels, looks, affects—page after page. The mystery of Margo—her disappearance and her personhood—is fascinating, cleverly constructed, and profoundly moving...."  (School Library Journal)

7. Stolen by Lucy Christopher: "While 16-year-old Gemma is en route to Vietnam from England with her parents, she is drugged and kidnapped from the Bangkok airport. She regains full consciousness in a rustic house deep in the Australian Outback with a 25-year-old man who is going to 'keep her forever'..." (School Library Journal)

8. If I Stay by Gayle Forman: "Forman creates a cast of captivating characters and pulls readers into a compelling story that will cause them to laugh, cry, and question the boundaries of family and love..." (School Library Journal)

9. 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson: "This whirlwind adventure begins as Ginny, 17, reads a letter from her free-spirited, unpredictable Aunt Peg, who has recently passed away. She is given several destinations, four rules, and the instruction to open one envelope upon her arrival at each place. Thus begins a rapid tour of Europe as the teen struggles to accomplish the tasks established by her aunt..." (School Library Journal)

10. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: "When her older sister dies from an arrhythmia, 17-year-old Lennie finds that people are awkward around her, including her best friend. While dealing with her conflicted feelings toward her sister's boyfriend, her anguish over Bailey's unexpected death, and her sudden curiosity about sex, Lennie must also cope with her unresolved feelings about her mother, who left when Lennie was an infant..." (School Library Journal)

11. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares: "Best friends Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen are preparing to spend their first summer apart since they were born. Before leaving to visit her father, Carmen buys a pair of second-hand jeans on a whim, and when the others discover that the pants fit all of them, they create the sisterhood of the traveling pants. Each teen gets them for a few weeks before sending them on, and thus they travel from Washington, DC, to Greece to Baja California to South Carolina, linking the friends even as they are apart. The summer and the pants come to represent more than any of them can ever anticipate in this four-part coming-of-age story...." (School Library Journal)

12. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen: "...Roy Eberhardt has just moved with his family to Coconut Cove. He immediately becomes the target of a particularly dense bully who tries to strangle him on the school bus. Roy seems more concerned, however, with discovering the identity of a running, barefoot boy he spots through the window of the bus. Meanwhile, plans to build a pancake house on a vacant lot are derailed when someone vandalizes the construction site. The two story lines come together when Roy discovers that the runaway boy is disrupting the construction to save a group of burrowing owls. Roy must help his new friend, nicknamed Mullet Fingers, as well as fend off the bully and adapt to life in Florida..." (School Library Journal)

13. The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd: "Ted and Kat lose their cousin Salim at the London Eye sightseeing attraction, 'the largest observation wheel ever built.' Given a free ticket by a stranger, Salim enters the ride, but he never emerges. Guilty about their part in the bungled outing, the siblings trace scraps of information that illuminate the boy's disappearance..." (School Library Journal)

14. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko: "...Family dilemmas are at the center of the story, but history and setting--including plenty of references to the prison's most infamous inmate, mob boss Al Capone--play an important part, too. The Flanagan family is believable in the way each member deals with Natalie and her difficulties, and Moose makes a sympathetic main character. The story, told with humor and skill, will fascinate readers with an interest in what it was like for the children of prison guards and other workers to actually grow up on Alcatraz Island." (School Library Journal)

15. Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles: "A lively, humorous story featuring Miss Eula Garnet and her granddaughter Ruby as they share adventures and day-to-day miseries. The feisty duo shakes up their Mississippi town, Halleluia, 'Population: 400 Good Friendly Folks And A Few Old Soreheads,' when they liberate three soon-to-be-euthanized chickens from an egg ranch in a daring, daylight raid..." (School Library Journal)

There you have it! Whether you use Mashable's list, my list, or both lists, you should have plenty of light-but-not-too-light and richly-set books to choose from this summer. Happy reading!