The Hunger Games

So, you've read Graceling, right? (Seriously, if not - what are you waiting for?) And now you're looking for another strong, fun, smart female character who kicks butt in the wild. And I've got one!

Katniss Everdeen has been chosen to participate in the Hunger Games, a yearly competition in her country of Panem (a post-apocalyptic US) that's passed off as an honorable tournament, but is really just an excuse for the government to punish their citizens for a long ago uprising.

And the Hunger Games are not quite the Olympics - 24 teenagers are chosen at random to participate in a Survivor-like tournament...to the death. It's televised and everything. Only one will win - will Katniss be able to prevail with her meager skills compared to those that have been preparing for the games all their lives?

Check out The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins to find out. And if you want to know more, check out this website where you can witness the games for yourself!

Printz news!

We've got Printz results, people!

First, here are the results of the Nassau County/Suffolk County Mock Printz:

The Winner:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Raised since he was a baby by ghosts, werewolves, and other residents of the cemetery in which he has always resided, Bod wonders how he will manage to survive amongst the living with only the lessons he has learned from the dead.

Honors:
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Now, here are the results from the actual Printz committee, announced just this morning in Denver, Colorado:

The Winner:
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Abandoned by her drug-addicted mother at the age of eleven, high school student Taylor Markham struggles with her identity and family history at a boarding school in Australia.

Honors:
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Volume 2 by M.T. Anderson
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Now we know what the Long Island librarians and the Printz Award committee think - read one or all and tell us who you think should have won.

PS - No worries about The Graveyard Book - it picked up the Newbery!