A lot is going on! 

First: WE WERE LIARS is my new YA book and the cover will be revealed on Entertainment Weekly's web site on November 1, 2013.  The book comes out in May, but when you see the cover you'll have a sense of what the book is about, what John Green had to say about it, and the like. 

Second: I am chair of the National Book Award committee on Young People's Literature this year.  The rest of our committee:  librarian Lisa Von Drasek, bookseller Peter Glassman, writer Deb Caletti, writer and editor  Cecil Castelluci. We announced our long list (top ten) on The Daily Beast, and they did a great job giving not only summaries of the books, but Twitter feeds, interviews, etc.   Below you can see the cover art for all our amazing choices.

Then Galley Cat did this really cool link post to FREE samples of every single book, not just young people's literature but fiction, nonfiction and poetry, too. So go there and read your heart out. 

Third:  You know by now that I write under another name, yes? Picture books and books for elementary-aged readers. 

Well, the inimitable, amazing, super-creative Sophie Blackall, illustrator of the Ivy & Bean books, Meet Wild Boars, Ruby's Wish, Pecan Pie Baby and a lot of other beautiful books, has begun blogging about the process of illustrating a book we are doing together -- A Fine Dessert. It requires a lot of historical research and Blackall is showing sketches and inspiration. Fascinating for anyone who is interested in children's book illustration. She is a real master and is opening up her creativity to her readers.  Here is Part One. Part Two. And Part Three.  The project continues almost daily on Sophie's blog.

A trial piece of her work for A Fine Dessert.

Fourth: The National Book Awards short list (finalists!) comes out on October 16, 2013. The awards are on November 20, 2013.  I get to stand up and give the award. What will I wear?

Nice problem to have.

Hope yours are just as nice. 

xo E