One thing I learned today is that when company comes to town and you end up taking a week off of running, the first time you go back out is most unimpressive. This is when that whole dedication thing rears its ugly head (or so I keep reminding myself.)

In the meantime, the Spring 09 catalog for Penguin (and its many imprints) arrived last week. Here are a few titles that caught my eye:

Flygirl by Sherri L. Smith. "When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women's Airforce Service Pilots - and Ida suddenly sees a way to fly as well as do something significant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But even the WASP won't accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make the difficult choice of "passing", of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program."

This combines two of my primary interests: aviation and military history. I especially have a soft spot for books on female pilots as so few have been written. On top of that, Smith is an excellent writer and I'm sure she did an outstanding job with this story.

Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson. "Twelve-year old Lonnie is finally feeling at home with his foster family. But because he's living apart from his little sister, Lili, he decides it's his job to be the "rememberer" - and write down everything that happens while they're growing up. Lonnie's musings are bittersweet; he's happy that he and Lili have new families, but though his new family brings him joy, it also brings new worries. With a foster brother in the army, concepts like Peace have new meaning for Lonnie."

Woodson's last book, After Tupac & D Foster, really impressed me and I'm very interested to see how she folds the story of a family split apart into the larger context of the war. She nails so much about urban life and African American children and she's downright fearless about letting her children speak hard truths.

Ron's Big Mission by Corinne Naden and Rose Blue. Based on a true story this is the tale of future astronaut Ron McNair (who died in Challenger) and his struggle to desegregate his South Carolina public library in the 1950s. McNair went on to become a scientist and while there have been books like this one before about famous writers, etc., I'm quite pleased to see one that focuses on a scientist who struggled to obtain a library card. Honestly, I don't think we can ever have a enough books about why libraries matter and the positive impact they can have on children. Don Tate is the illustrator here and the catalog copy looks lovely.

The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz. I'm a sucker for a good baseball novel and this one sounds very interesting. "In nine innings, this novel tells the stories of nine successive Schneider kids and their connection to Brooklyn and baseball. As in all family histories and all baseball games, there is glory and heartache, triumph and sacrifice."

The catalog copy includes descriptions from 1845, 1908, 1945, 1981 and hints at five more. I love the idea of generations loving the game and playing it at all different levels (and at least one player, in 1945, is a girl). We'll see how Gratz does with the idea.

Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run by Michael Hemphill and Sam Riddleburger. This one sounds perfect for mg boys. Young Stonewall is dragged around to reenactments by his "Civil-War obsessed parents". He hates it (of course). One day though he gets transported back to the Battle of Bull Run along with a Confederate supporter from his time who has traveled back to change the outcome of the war. It's up to Stonewall to save the future and he has to use all of his knowledge about the Civil War in order to do it.

Time travel and war - it should be a major winner.

One other observation about the Penguin catalog - it seems that all Razorbill titles are now romances. It's literally becoming the Harlequin romance imprint for teens. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but Penguin is getting downright skimpy on SF, fantasy, mystery and anything edgy for teens. Firebird is still there but I don't see too much in the way of new titles for Spring. This could all be an aberration but it bears watching.