The new issue of Bookslut is up with a new column from me saluting some titles for creative minded teens. I love love loved Simmone Howell's Notes from the Teenage Underground. All fans of Andy Warhol should read this novel about a young would-be film director whose life is changed by Warhol's work. (It's also mandatory for film enthusiasts, feminists and teenage girls who have been screwed-over by their friends!)

Lemonade Mouth has already been making fans and is a delightful look at the making of a teen band. Somebody needs to turn that book into a movie, and I don't say something like that lightly.

Kelly Bingham's Shark Girl is about a girl who loses her arm to a shark while swimming - and as it turns out might have lost her dreams as well. She's a gifted right-handed artist who now has no right hand. Lots of interesting questions raised with this one (written in verse) and while I'm not completely sold on the decisions made by author, I am impressed by how well written this novel is.

Also Postcards edited by Jason Rodriguez where several comic book authors and illustrators used found postcards as story jump-off points. You read the actual postcards Jason found and then the stories that the authors created from those postcards. Many of these shorts blew me away - really really well done.

The 1000 Journals Project is a beautiful (from Chronicle Books of course) volume about art created in found journals. This is a fascinating project and shows how all of us are artistic in one way or another and just waiting for the opportunity to unleash a hidden talent. (Be sure to follow the link and check out the website for this one!)

My Cool Read was Jimmy Liao's Sound of Colors which is a gorgeous picture book about sensing color through more than sight. This one is special and all picture book enthusiasts and artists (of any age) need to check it out.

As for adult reviews - I ended up with a bunch this time out. The Twilight Hour by Elizabeth Wilson is a post WW2 mystery about a dead artist, sins committed during wartime and all sorts of brooding Englishness. Very well done and rather unusual.

After raving about Nicola Griffith's Always for months, you can read my review (finally). Also see my thoughts in yesterday's entry on her new memoir.

I really enjoy Terri Windling & Ellen Datlow anthologies and I've been quite remiss in not reviewing Salon Fantastique prior to now. So many stories I loved in this one - especially Delia Sherman's and Gavin Grant's. My review is up but the paragraph on Richard Bowe's short story is somehow the draft of what I finally wrote. Hopefully Jessa will get my final copy on that story up and in place soon as it gives you some more insight into his fine tale on how creepy critics can be.

Finally (promise!), I was so impressed by Ellen Wittlinger's Parrotfish that rather than wait for an appropriate themed column later this year, I wrote a standalone review for it. I hope all the prize committees are aware of this book because it deserves some major recognition. Be aware that the first paragraph in my review is a quote - for some reason my quote marks and html tags get lopped off all the time by the web master....

(Sorry about not linking to all the reviews - the Bookslut site has stopped loading for some reason. I'll hopefully fix this tomorrow.)