Naomi Shihab Nye, award winning poet, author and editor, is the winner of this year’s ALAN Award. She will accept her award at the ALAN Breakfast, which will take
place during the National Council of Teachers of English Conference in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 21, 2009. If you are interested in attending the breakfast, visit the ALAN website.

Stephenie Meyer is rumored to be accused of plagiarism charges, concerning the latest book of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. Jordan Scott, author of book The Nocturne, claims that Stephenie Meyer took many plot lines from her book.

Check out more here.

As promised, we have the title of the third Chaos Walking book for you right here!

As announced on author Patrick Ness’s blog, the title of the third and forthcoming novel in the series is …

Monsters of Men

To read more about the title, click here

The title of the article says it all, folks. The first chapter of the highly anticipated fourth Vampire Academy novel, Blood Promise (scheduled for release on August 28, 2009) is online! This is an authorised copy and won’t be removed, so you don’t have to worry about feeling guilty about reading it. However, if you’re not into spoilers I’d suggest you stay well away.

Click here if you’re game.

Enjoy!

Melissa Marr has announced that the fourth book in her popular Wicked Lovely series is now officially titled Radiant Shadows. We think it suits the other titles released so far. What do you think?

Patrick Ness has announced on his website that on August 3, 2009, he’ll be announcing the title for the third Chaos Walking book. For those of you that read the interview we did with Patrick recently will know that everything about the third novel has been kept top secret. That includes the title. So, as you can imagine, we’re very excited about this!

Stay tuned for the announcement!

This just in from the ALAN Review:

The Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased and proud to announce the finalists for the inaugural Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction. The honored titles for 2009 (in alphabetical order by title) are:

· After Tupac and D Foster, by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)

· Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)

· The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)

· Me, The Missing, and the Dead, by Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins)

· My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park, by Steve Kluger (Dial)

This year’s winning title will be announced at an open reception and reading at the 2009 ALAN Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Established in 2008 to honor the wishes of young adult author, Amelia Elizabeth Walden, the award allows for the sum of $5,000 to be presented annually to the author of a young adult title selected by the ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award Committee as demonstrating a positive approach to life, widespread teen appeal, and literary merit.

The 2009 Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee was comprised of ten members representing the university, K-12 school, and library communities who considered 232 young adult titles over the duration of the process.

For more information contact Wendy Glenn, 2009 AEW Committee Chair, at wendy [dot] glenn [at] uconn [dot] edu.