I also received four catalogs while I was gone, the biggest of which (of course) was from Scholastic. Here is what caught my eye (and pretty much none of them are up online yet which is a bummer as some of these covers are really awesome):

The Good Neighbors Bk 2: Kith by Holly Black & Ted Naifeh. The first one stood out for me as it wasn't just a "human girl finds out she is part faerie and now must save the world" type story but was also very funny and played a lot with the traditional tropes of fantasy. As in - "why doesn't anyone notice that vines are covering every building in town???" I was hooked on this from this series from the get-go and loved it more at the end of Bk 1 then the beginning - a very good sign. Perfect for fans of the vamp/faerie genre looking for something fresh. (Naifeh's illustrations are awesome.)

Imagination and Innovation: The Story of Weston Woods by John Cech. This is a big book ($50) covering the Weston Woods studio and the number of children's books that have been transformed to film through their production. I was intrigued by the names mentioned: Rosemary Wells, Margaret Mahy, Robert McCloskey, etc. When was a Mahy book made into a film? At some point I would like to lump together several books on lit crit etc. about children's books and discuss them in one piece, maybe for Eclectica. Regardless, for those interested in film history this sounds like a winner.

Ruined: A Ghost Story by Paula Morris. Set in post-Katrina NOLA, Rebecca goes to visit her voodoo-obsessed aunt (don't we all need one of those) and discovers a haunted cemetery where she meets a the ghost of a runaway slave. There is a mystery in her aunt's house which must be uncovered and Rebecca finds that her contemporaries, including the popular girls at school, might be involved. Sounds like a good one for Voices of NOLA and the cover is positively dreamy.

How to Steal a Car by Pete Hautman. "Some girls act out by drinking or doing drugs. Some girls act out by sleeping with guys. Some girls act out by starving themselves or cutting themselves. Some girls act out by being a bitch to other girls. Not Kelleigh. Kelleigh steals cars."

Sold me on this one with the catalog copy. Can't wait to see how Kelleigh comes across on the page. (This one has a blue cover.)

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford. Beatrice is the new girl in town and hoping to meet a new best friend her first day at school. Instead she ends up sitting next to Jonah who is decidedly unpopular and the two form a "unexpected friendship". Interestingly, Standiford describes this "not romance, exactly - but it's definitely love." In the end she must help Jonah get past some family issues. I'm interested to see if the nonromance friendship sustains to the end, and how it all turns out. Oh - and this cover is pink.

Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes. In the interest of full disclosure, Sara is an internet friend in that we have never met but have emailed (and she was key to the development of GLW). I have not read anything else she has written but this book jumped right out at me - partly because the cover with two plastic army men balanced in front of a chalkboard is so darn unusual. Set at a school on an air force base in NC it is the story of innovative teacher and her troubled students. Here's a bit of the catalog copy:

Bo loves the improvisation exercises: They focus his restless energies and distract him from his father's impending deployment. But Gari has more important things to worry about - like getting her mom home safe from Iraq. When Mrs. Loupe's brother goes missing in Afghanistan and Mrs Loupe herself breaks down, Gari, Bo and the rest of the class have to improvise their way through their own "great battles"....and find a way to help their teacher fight hers.

There are very few well written books about kids on the homefront of any war, let alone the two we are currently waging. Sara knows this world (as readers of her blog are aware) so she is a great author to tackle it. Looking forward to seeing this big time.

The Doom Machine by Mark Teague. Okay, this just sounds like big fun. "When a spaceship lands in nearby Dutch Woods, juvenile delinquent Jack Creedle and prim A- student Isadora Shumway form an unexpected friendship. Jack's uncle Bud, a witty amateur inventor with unschooled Einstein abilities, has built a space-travel machine, and a group of hilariously bizarre space aliens are here to steal it."

I have no idea what time the book is set in, but it sounds very funny and great to MG readers. It's illustrated and the catalog samples look very good. Other than the stereotypes for the main characters, it should be a winner - and honestly if Teague knows what he is doing with those stereotypes it will work quite well. (Just please don't let the girl be a major whiny wimp; I hate that!)

Truce by Jim Murphy. A 144 page look at the famous Christmas Eve truce on the western front in 1914. There have been books written about this for adults but not children (as far as I know). Great subject and Murphy has an excellent record of historical fiction so this should be a solid NF entry.

Tentacles by Roland Smith. Marty and Grace are 13 year old twins whose parents disappeared tracking something for a nature magazine and now they live with Uncle Wolfe who is going to New Zealand in search of the Kraken. The kids - of course - stowaway but, unfortunately, "someone on board the ship is determined to sabotage their mission"!!! Classic adventure if done well and should be fun.

Peaceful Heroes by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Sean Addy. This NF title (64 pages) looks at a pet peeve of mine, that so many heroes are warriors. We hear about how everyone in the military is a hero (which is hard to accept when at the same time we have soldiers on trial or imprisoned for crimes committed against civilians and fellow soldiers) and everyone in the Twin Towers was deemed a hero (Sherman Alexie wrote a great short story skewering that idea) but really - it shouldn't be a wear the uniform or die prominently from outside attack kind of designation. Winter looks at many peaceful heroes, from Jesus of Nazareth to Sojourner Truth to Paul Rusesabagina to establish a canon for children of brave people who did not find their heroics in combat. I love Jonah Winter's work and can't wait to see what he does here.

The other catalog I received that was much appreciated was Graywolf's spring titles. More on that tomorrow as I have much to say about past and present books from that wonderful pub.