Who's Reading What on Wednesdays?

Each week, Early Career Committee members are asked to recommend a book published by a house other than their own. Here are their (anonymous) picks...

The Drowned Cities | October 17, 2012

Are you sick and tired of dystopian novels that say the world as you know it has come to an end, but people are still acting and living pretty much the same way? Well you’re in for a gritty treat …

Skinny | October 10, 2012

Donna Cooner drew on her personal experience as a gastric bypass patient to write Skinny, the inspirational debut novel featuring an overweight fifteen-year-old, Ever Davies. Ever has been gaining weight since her mother died. At three hundred and two pounds, …

Chloe | October 3, 2012

Chloe by Peter McCarty can be counted among the crop of recent picture books about how simple pleasures provide more entertainment than technology, but it has an understated, tongue-in-cheek humor that is all its own. A bunny named Chloe can’t …

Every Day | September 12, 2012

I found myself thinking about the phase, “Live every day to the fullest”, as I read the pages of David Levithan’s newest novel, Every Day. What if one day was all you had in life? For A, that is the …

House Held up by Trees | September 6, 2012

As the season begins to change, it’s time to cozy up with a good picture book – like House Held Up By Trees by former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, illustrated by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press). The lyrical writing describes a …

The Raven Boys | August 29, 2012

From Maggie Stiefvater, author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes The Raven Boys, a YA love story that avoids the recent dystopian phenomena. While the characters aren’t living in a post-apocalyptic world, Blue Sargent can’t exactly call …

Goldlilocks And The Three Bears | August 15, 2012

We all know the drill. One tiny, towheaded tyrant systematically wreaks havoc on the home of a family of bears, leaving a trail of upended porridges, splintered chairs, and lumpy comforters in her wake. Enter James Marshall, and the rote …

Son | August 8, 2012

Fans of dystopian teen fiction, think back to your first experience with the horror and wonder of a dystopian world. Was it Lois Lowry’s The Giver? Good news: the fourth installment in Lowry’s series about a dystopian future, Son, releases …

Malcolm At Midnight | August 2, 2012

This illustrated novel, W.H. Beck’s debut, was featured on the middle-grade editors buzz panel at BEA this year, and I got lucky enough to snag an ARC. Malcolm at Midnight is a classic “miniature world” book like Abel’s Island or …

Princess Academy | July 25, 2012

I practically jumped out of my seat as soon as I heard that Shannon Hale had written a sequel to her Newbery Honor book, Princess Academy. In Palace of Stone, Miri leaves Mount Eskel and moves to capital to attend …