A Novel Gift: rgz and First Book Partner!

BREAKING NEWS! readergirlz and First Book are partnering to give away more than 125,000 brand-new books to low-income teen readers.

They’re great books, too, donated by generous publishers. Among the three dozen choices are P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast’s HOUSE OF NIGHT series and Alyson Noël’s SHADOWLAND.

We need your help getting the word out about the A Novel Gift campaign. Right now! Right now! As in, now!

Let's get organizations serving these teens registered with First Book so they can be matched with inventory during the holidays.

Here’s what we need you to do:

Post to Facebook and tweet your beak off about these books using the hashtag #novelgift.

Here’s a tinyurl link to their registration page:http://tinyurl.com/2a5mwpj.

Or you can link to this blog post:http://readergirlz.blogspot.com/2010/11/novel-gift-over-125000-free-books-to.html

Then, get in touch with every group you can think of that works with young adults–schools, after-school programs, church youth groups, community centers, etc.—and let them know that these books are available now. 

The five-minute online registration these groups can use is here:
http://booksforkids.firstbook.org/register/.

First Book is also eager to answer questions, either by email to help@firstbook.org, or by phone at 866-READ-NOW or 866-732-3669.

If you participate, drop us a note at readergirlz@gmail.com to be included in our blog roll of thanks to run December 31.

Be a part of A Novel Gift! OK, go! And thanks, sincerely, from First Book and the readergirlz teams.

Love Letter to readergirlz

As we get ready to change to our new format, I wanted to reflect on how we came to be, remember what we've done together, and just pause to appreciate our journey. I made this for all of you. Thank you for being a part of rgz. Thanks for the lemonade. :~)

Feel free to repost!

Happy Teen Read Week!

Thanks to Holly Cupala for the gorgeous poster for rgz! Happy reading, everyone! Print your own poster by clicking here.

My new rgz card

Updated and ready to go! Woot!

Welcome, Elizabeth Scott!

I heart my divas!

We've arrived in NYC!

Dia and I have arrived in New York City! Last night we partied it up at the Powerhouse Arena. Today we are off to receive the Innovations in Reading Prize from the National Book Foundation for readergirlz! Getting ready to hit Wall Street with my Docs! And we are off!

rgz Teen Read Week!

Many thanks to Holly Cupala for another great year of graphics! Spread the news and mark your calendars!


Click here for a downloadable pdf version to print.

And the trailer!!!

Cecil's at rgz!

I just turned over the sites to welcome Cecil! Woot!



What a blast to have Sara Zarr all through June. Loved it!

TBD '09 Trailer

I'm psyched to get to post our TBD '09 trailer by Holly Cupala! She rocked this piece. And I love Andrea Wittgen's music. Thank you, ladies! And here we go! Press release is coming soon. Consider this a sneakity peek. And please feel free to repost it everywhere. Thanks!

Matter to Your Peeps

Over at readergirlz we are reading Meg Cabot's HOW TO BE POPULAR this month.

Little Willow asked for the team's thoughts on popularity and has posted them collectively at her site. So, with the song from Wicked running through my head,

here are my thoughts:

I'm thinking middle school is when popularity is defined most narrowly. If you can grind through it, you will have the rest of your life to find your peeps. That's really the bottom line: find people that matter to you, those you can relate to.

If you find yourself in the "popular" group, know you have a much bigger responsibility. Your influence is wider and people are watching. Don't lose yourself to maintain your position. If you are tempted to do so, maybe you haven't found your peeps after all.

Once you find a group that has meaning to you, foster your friendships. Who cares if everyone knows or watches? You've found a place to nourish others and be nourished. That's what matters.

It's good to remember that whatever popularity is gained, there's always a bigger group out there that never recognizes it. Actors, statesmen, even countries pass from popularity and are forgotten. So, find your small corner of the world, and be a good friend. Matter to your people.

Month Change at rgz

I'm whipping the last minute deets together for the month changeover at rgz. The whole team is busy contributing!

We are looking at blog posts on voting, and a chat with Joseph Bruchac and Cynthia Leitich Smith on November 6th to celebrate Native American Month.



Plus a trivia blog contest. There's a great addition to announce on the 3rd in a forthcoming press release, and meetings for TBD 09. And yesterday I gave the group forum stripes like my stripey socks.

Playlist, slideshow, issue, and community service are done! Woot!

Now a few more days to chat with Rachel Cohn. Perfect.

Maybe I need another cup of coffee...

Teen Read Week, Verse Bites

I'm so excited to host Stephanie Hemphill and Lisa Ann Sandell tomorrow (Tuesday) at rgz Verse Bites, Night Bites. Tonight's Multicultural Bites went so well with Coe Booth, Mitali Perkins, and An Na. I know the fun is just going to continue at rgz.

Stop in at 6 PST, 9 EST if you have the time.

Happy Teen Read Week!

John Green says, "Hi!" to rgz!

Woohoo!



How fun is that?

I found Justina!

I found her, readergirlz! I found Justina!!!! Okay. She found me. She pulled up to my house and drove us down to Portland for the amazing Washington and Oregon Library Media Association Convention.

Tell me. She does NOT look like she's been awake for 30 hours, does she?

And who did we meet at the author meet and greet party? Jone MacCulloch, amazing blogger who hosted the Kidlitosphere Conference with Laini Taylor just 2 weeks prior!


What a flurry of a day as Justina spoke, we chatted with librarians, and eventually made our looooong way back to the car.


We deserved that loaded burger and milkshake, right? Okay, off for her keynote speech this morning! *waving from Portland*

rgz TV: rgz panel highlights, Kidlitosphere Conference, 2008

Finally, I have the movie made of rgz highlights from the opening panel at the Kidlitosphere Blogging Conference. Can you BELIEVE the opening Holly Cupala made for this series. HA!

rgz in The Christian Science Monitor

Do you hear me squeeing over the mention in the Christian Science Monitor. Linked to rgz? Screaming yellow zonkers! *do a little dance*

Things That Make Us [Sic], Martha Brockenbrough

I'm giving an enormous shout out to the hilarious rgz media specialist, Martha Brockenbrough (aka MSN's Cinemama), for her new book, Things That Make Us (Sic): The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar Takes on Madison Avenue, Hollywood, the White House, and the World. As Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) says,

"'Grammar' and 'glamour' have the same derivation: an old Scottish word meaning 'sorcery.' So, good grammar is not merely a glamorous antidote to creeping meatballism, it has the power of the black arts behind it. Martha Brockenbrough is hip to these secrets."

Congratulations, Martha!!!!!

rgz Night Bites!

I'm so excited to announce:



Tuesday night is for me to hang out with the awesome Stephanie, Lisa Ann, and rgz! Woot!




Read the full press release here.

I'm psyched about this event in support of YALSA's Teen Read Week. A shout out to every amazing author who is participating!

Hopping Across My Laptop

Things are hopping across my laptop for readergirlz right now. So what does that look like? Without giving away top secret rgz diva info, this is what's boinging around.

1. First there's Operation Teen Book Drop, 2009! I just outreached to the Woodmark Pediatric Hospital group to see who's in for TBD in April. Already we have 4 hospitals signed up! Thanks to Holly Cupala for our new green version of the logo.

2. The letter to request publisher participation is drafted and ready for Dia Calhoun to run with it.

3. There's a top secret meeting on Thurs. I can't say more. Very nervy-making.

4. Nearly all the bookings are complete for our amazing Teen Read Week. Did you see the poster Holly made for us? Woot! Soon there will be a final edition with book covers and a pdf available at rgz.



4. We have the Kidlit Conference we are headed down to the end of the month where we hope to make great connections and fab rgz tv. Plus there will be a very special partaaaay. More about that soon!

5. Then Dia and I have a couple speaking gigs to prepare for. She is a wiz at Powerpoint. Yay!

6. Mitali and I are hunting down great features for rgz. Right now we are concentrating on Latina work. Very fun.

7. We are getting ready to turn around the October issue.

8. We are ordering buttons to give away. I made a new button at the Zazzle Store with the new rgz tv logo designed by Holly. It's the cutest!

9. New coolio bookmarks are on the way.

10. And we are having a blast chatting with Paula Yoo about Good Enough at the rgz MySpace group forum!



Of course, all of that is between when I'm checking Facebook to see if Justina Chen Headley is on in China. Obviously, there's a ton to talk about. And of course, now that she's settled, her new ideas for rgz will be hopping too. Boing, boing, boing!

September rgz Roundtable

I participated in rgz postergirl Little Willow's roundtable this month where we discussed Paula Yoo's novel Good Enough. So I get to post it, too. Some differences popped up, but that just makes it all the better, right? Read on and then enter the chatter at the rgz group forum!

Roundtable: Good Enough by Paula Yoo

Paula Yoo's debut novel, Good Enough, was declared great by the readergirlz and chosen to be our selection for September 2008.

In this roundtable discussion, three members of the postergirlz teen lit advisory council plus readergirlz diva Lorie Ann Grover talk about schoolwork, homework, and making families work.

Little Willow: What did you think of Good Enough in general?

Jackie: I thought it was a really fun read. I'm happy that I can give it with confidence to all ages - and that's not common.

LW: I agree, Jackie. It's fun and it's clean, so I have no problem giving the book to middle school readers - though most of the girls I've shared it with have been high schoolers, all of which have told me they can "so relate to Patti," and I quote.

HWM: I enjoyed reading this book and could relate to everything on so many levels.

LW: I loved how the humor came from a very real place. It was a truly funny book because the funny bits felt true. The narrator wasn't a comedienne, and she wasn't TRYING to be funny - she simply was.

HWM: I laughed out loud in a couple places and I teared up too. I love books that get the emotions going.

LW: I think - not only from having read the book, but from speaking to the author about it, too - that Paula wrote Good Enough not to be a cautionary tale (this is what happens when you disobey your parents!) nor a recipe (directions on how to disobey your strict parents!) but instead to be simply real. I feel as though she accomplished that.

Lorie Ann: The voice rang true for me. I could feel Patti's pressure and enjoy her humor so much. I was instantly submerged in the story.

To read the complete roundtable click here.