Team Jessica T-Shirt Giveaway!

Our readergirlz NYC Host, Micol Ostow, recently attended an exclusive event for the forthcoming Francine Pascal book Sweet Valley Confidential. In this novel, the famous Wakefield twins are all grown up. What has happened to Jessica and Elizabeth in the ten years since they graduated from Sweet Valley High? You'll have to read the book - which comes out in March 2011 - to find out.

In the meantime, Micol picked up something to tide you over: a Team Jessica T-shirt! It's a size large (L) in juniors, so it runs small. See the picture below.



Want to win a Team Jessica T-shirt? Leave a comment at the readergirlz blog and tell us why you're on Team Jessica or Team Elizabeth!

Read more about Sweet Valley Confidential at my blog, Bildungsroman.

I SO DON'T DO MAKEUP Contest Winners!

The winners of one signed copy of I So Don't Do Makeup via random drawing:

baileythebookworm

Cleverly Inked

And the winner of our Grand Prize Pack via random drawing is:

The Lovely Reader!

Congrats! Send your full name and address to me at mandy [at] yabookscentral [dot] com

Grand Prize Pack includes:

- one signed copy of I So Don't Do Makeup

- one signed copy of I So Don't Do Spooky

- one signed copy of I So Don't Do Mysteries

- one I So Don't Do Makeup tote bag

- one I So Don't Do Makeup t-shirt

We're giving away more book swag on Twitter today, so if you didn't win here, surf on over to http://www.twitter.com/yabookscentral for more prize packs!

Mockingbird

Ten-year-old Caitlin's world falls apart after the tragic shooting of her beloved brother Devon. Her brother helped her with coping skills to deal with those who didn't understand her. Caitlin tries to find closure to this painful part of her life. Mockingbird is one of those books you know will become a fast classic. What I love about his book is how Erskine shows in realistic way the world of an Asberger child who sees things a tad bit different than the rest of us. But Caitlin's insight and how she comes up with a way for closure will have you cheering. Love, love this book!

Click here to read more.

Your Chance to Win an I So Don't Do Makeup Prize Pack!

-- This contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered! --

To celebrate the release of I So Don't Do Makeup, we're hosting this awesome contest for your chance to win some great book swag! 

Simply leave a comment on this blog post, telling us why you love teen sleuth Sherry Holmes Baldwin to enter. It's that easy!

2 lucky winners will each receive 

- one signed copy of I So Don't Do Makeup

1 lucky Grand Prize winner will receive:

- one signed copy of I So Don't Do Makeup

- one signed copy of I So Don't Do Spooky

- one signed copy of I So Don't Do Mysteries

- one I So Don't Do Makeup tote bag

- one I So Don't Do Makeup t-shirt

Hurry -- contest ends Wednesday the 23rd at 12pm EST!

Review: As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth

As Easy As Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins is a book about catastrophes. Fifteen year old Ry is stranded in the middle of Montana (although initially he doesn't know that) when he gets off the train he's on and it leaves without him. Wandering along the railroad tracks, he stumbles into a town looking disheveled, he only has one shoe (don't ask how he lost the other one), his shirt is bloody because he used it to stop a nosebleed, and he's hungry.

He meets Del, the town's do-gooder. There are other catastrophes going on in Ry's family that readers learn about. Del decides to drive Ry home to Wisconsin. Along the way they meet a variety of people, some friends, some strangers.

My suggestion is to read this book as a road-trip book. Enjoy the escapades and adventures of Ry and Del and the strange characters they meet along the way.

Review: I So Don't Do Makeup

What happens when you have a makeup sleepover party at your house and your friend Junie wakes up in the middle of the night screaming in pain because the night cream she put on before bed is burning her face? The first thing you do, after washing her face, is bring the cream back to the mall store Naked Makeup where you bought it from your friends Lacie and Amber. The next thing you do is figure out why it happened.

And, if you’re thirteen-year-old Sherry (short for Sherlock) Holmes Baldwin, you ultimately find out why someone is tampering with the makeup. There is no shortage of suspects.

Find out how/if the case is solved by reading I So Don't Do Makeup by Barrie Summy. And don't miss the other fun mysteries in the Sherry Holmes Baldwin series, I So Don't Do Mysteries and I So Don't Do Spooky.

The Boy With The Cuckoo-Clock Heart

On a cold day in 1874, Jack is born with a frozen heart.  His mother leaves him with Dr. Madeleine--the town's midwife, doctor, and protector of orphans.  She saves Jack by putting a cuckoo-clock heart in his tiny body.  Later, when he's older, she warns him never to fall in love or be angry.  But at age ten he sees Miss Acacia, a street performer, and falls in love.  He ignores Dr. Madeleine's warnings and begs to attend the local school in hopes of meeting Miss Acacia.  Instead he encounters the school bully.  He ends up leaving Edinburg searching for Miss Acacia.  His journey takes him to Paris and then Andalusia.  The Boy With The Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a bittersweet love story told with an unique twist.

Click here to read more.

Picture The Dead

Jennie Lovell has just lost her beloved fiance on the battlefields of one of the bloodiest times of our countries history--American Civil War. Her heart is broken. She's now left to live with his stingy and indifferent family. She tries to get her life back in order but a mysterious figure haunts her. She senses something isn't right. So she goes to a spirit photographer, hoping to find out what really happened that one fateful day. Picture The Dead is a captivating paranormal mystery that have you wonder what is real and what is just an illusion.

Click here to read more

13 to Life

Jessie Gillmansen's life has changed ever since the tragic death of her mother. But it looks like that's only the beginning. Rumors are circulating around town of violent deaths in a nearby town. Then a mysterious hot guy shows up at Junction High. Pietr Rusakova's good looks and hot accent hide a dangerous secret. Jessie fights her growing attraction to Pietr while wondering what secret he hides. Will she get caught up in the danger?

13 to Life is a perfect beach read with it's fast paced action and suspense.
Click here to read more

Review: The Six Rules of Maybe

The first rule of maybe is: Respect the power of hope and possibilities. Begin with belief. Hold on to it.

In Deb Caletti's The Six Rules of Maybe, Scarlet needs to believe in the the power of hope for many reasons. Her 'irresponsible' older sister has recently come home pregnant and with a new husband. Her mother is dating the wrong guy. Scarlet herself is in love with the wrong guy and a different wrong guy is in love with her. She needs boundless hope and endless possibilities if everything is going to work out.

Deb Caletti, author of The Fortunes of Indigo Skye and The Nature of Jade, has written another enjoyable, introspective book. She has populated it with great main characters as well as memorable secondary characters. See for yourself how everthing sorts itself out by reading The Six Rules of Maybe. You may adopt some of those rules as your own. Click here to read more.

Back in March, I started giving away one book by Jen Calonita on the first Monday of the month and dubbed them Manic Mondays. Today's the final giveaway! (At least, this is the last one we currently have planned, but perhaps we'll do something similar again in the future.)

It's free to enter and easy to win. The giveaways are open to all residents of the United States and Canada. Simply leave a comment at the giveaway post at Bildungsroman with your name and email address. The first person to comment on this giveaway post will win a copy of Reality Check, Jen's brand-new YA novel in which the friendship of four teens put to the test when they get their own TV show.

Not only do I read Jen's books, but I'm also her webdesigner & webmaster. Visit jencalonitaonline.com to learn more about Jen and her books!

SHADOWED SUMMER

"Where y'at, Iris?" In SHADOWED SUMMER, Saundra Mitchell immerses us into a Southern setting so rich we can taste it, describing summer-hot Louisiana by showing instead of telling, "My nightgown stuck to me, peeling from my skin with a tickle." She pegs small town life, "According to the sign out by the highway, Ondine was home to 346 good people and 3 cranky old coots and was a good place to live, but that was a lie," and small town people, "Mr. Ourso had a lot of time on his hands, so sometimes he'd stack the groceries alphabetical. Sometimes he did them by size - you never knew until you got there."

While Mitchell is a master at setting, she's a magician with characterization, sliding Iris's skin over the reader's. "Possibility prickled at the back of my neck; it made my heart beat fast in anticipation. A copper tang spread on my tongue, a taste that made me go all tight inside, waiting for something to happen."

Ondine definitely holds some secrets, and Iris's fourteen-year-old curiosity isn't willing to leave them hidden.

Read more of my review by clicking here.

How I Made It To Eighteen

Seventeen-year-old Stacy Black hates her life. She also suffers from depression. One day, after she walks into a window, she decides she needs some help so she admits herself into a mental hospital. What happens next is told with blunt honesty. How I Made It To Eighteen is at times Girl, Interrupted with it's raw and frank descriptions of a girl who 'loses' it but wants to find her way back.

Click here to read my full review.

May Contest Winners

Perchance to Dream Winners

Kelsey Oertwich

joy rodgers 

Katelyn Burgess 

Lauren Gonzalez 

Christy Hawkes 

Yan Lin 

Amanda Lane 

Meghan Treacy 

Edna Willadsen 

Grace Parker 

Lisa Basso 

Nikki  

Whitney Wilkerson 

jeff thayer 

Marisa Messa 

Morpheus Road Winners

Debbie Penny 

Marie Messa 

Lisa Poser 

Barry Payne 

Jaydee Dusenberry 

Angie Dubisher 

Hannah Smith 

Josie Baker 

Julia Sutch 

Kimberly Hodges

Still Sucks to Be Me Winners

Katie Young 

Marcella Messa 

Victoria Gaudin 

andrea navarro 

van pham 

Patricia Shannon 

Dwan Proctor 

Victoria Segura 

Bradley Chiasson 

Andrea Julie Scoggins 

Bethany 

Sonya Sutherin 

Cristal 

Bailey  Shoemaker Richards 

Jeccica Simpson

April Contest Winners

Hi! This is Kimberly Pauley again :-) Can't get rid of me, huh? Well, I realized in all the craziness with turning over the site to Mandy that I'd forgotten to announce the April contest winners! Ack! So, without further ado...

Cinderella Society Winners

Lauren Gonzalez
judy brittle
Emily Brown 
Kelsey
Magan
Keturah Ollie-Hayes
Lia N
Linda Zamerowski
Stacey L
Bria Phillips
meagan tang
Cynthia Aguirre
Kara Cardwell
Jen McConnel
Casey Blackwell

Party Winners

Lena Ainsworth
Christy Hawkes
Taylor Zebrowski
Dani Samson
debbie penny

The Unwritten Rule Winners

Robyn L Norris
Stephanie Bondlow
Pamela Nolin
arya kirkhope
Kelly Hobbs
SARAH OGDEN
Sonia J
Sophia Lee
Liv Owen
Holly Hewett

Review: Hold Still

Hold Still by Nina LaCour is a must read. Caitlin Madison is in mourning. Her pretty much only and best friend, Ingrid, committed suicide. Caitlin can’t grasp that Ingrid is gone. She’s certain that, as a best friend, she should have seen the signs and done something about it.

Caitlin and her mother spend the summer traveling in northern California, trying to help Caitlin get over her depression. However, the beginning of her junior year of high school brings new stresses: the way her classmates and teachers treat her, new revelations about Ingrid, new friends. Can making a new friend trivialize her old friendship with Ingrid?

Hold Still is written so nicely. Caitlin is a memorable character, as is Ingrid, as we learn about her through flashbacks. The plot is excellent. The characters are great. Caitlin's growth is believable. Can a book about suicide be enjoyable? Yes, when it's beautifully crafted, emotional, with well developed characters. Hold Still fits the bill.