One last little thought from KidLitCon… (I know it’s been a while but I honestly thought this was the best place to put this.) I went to a panel put on by Holly and Shiraz Cupala about marketing books. No, I don’t have a book to market, nor will I ever, but I did find this one statistic they stuck up to be interesting (especially considering where my interests lie):

People buy books based on:
Next one in a series (61%)
Familiarity with the author (57%)
Flap copy (51%)
Title (32%)
Cover (31%)

See that? Flap copy — good flap copy — is important. I know it is to me.

In other news: if all is going well, M and I should be on our way to the Austin Teen Book Festival. We’re both quite excited! Hope to see (some of) you there!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Little, Brown): “Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”; she speaks many languages–not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out. When one of the strangers–beautiful, haunted Akiva–fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?”
What I love about this one is that they capture the essence of Taylor’s writing and of the story, without giving the plot away. You know there will be mystery and angels and demons, and it all sounds so very enticing.

The Incorrigible Children of Aston Place: The Hidden Gallery (Balzer and Bray): “Of especially naughty children it is sometimes said, “They must have been raised by wolves.” The Incorrigible children actually were. Thanks to the efforts of Miss Penelope Lumley, their plucky governess, Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia are much more like children than wolf pups now. They are accustomed to wearing clothes. They hardly ever howl at the moon. And for the most part, they resist the urge to chase squirrels up trees. Despite Penelope’s civilizing influence, the Incorrigibles still managed to ruin Lady Constance’s Christmas ball, nearly destroying the grand house. So while Ashton Place is being restored, Penelope, the Ashtons, and the children take up residence in London. Penelope is thrilled, as London offers so many opportunities to further the education of her unique students. But the city presents challenges, too, in the form of the palace guards’ bearskin hats, which drive the children wild—not to mention the abundance of pigeons the Incorrigibles love to hunt. As they explore London, however, they discover more about themselves as clues about the children’s—and Penelope’s—mysterious past crop up in the most unexpected ways. . .”
This one is good because it gets you up to speed about the Incorrigibles, and lets you in on the plot of the first book, while giving you the briefest of hints about what the second one is all about.

The Night Circus (Doubleday): “The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.”
This one is a little long for my taste, and it gives away a few of the plot points that would have better been left unsaid, but it’s gorgeously written, much like the novel.

Other books read this month:
Year of the Horse
Cold Sassy Tree
The Demon’s Surrender
The Absolute Value of Mike
Friday Night Lights
Mercury
The Slayer Chronicles: First Kill
Uncommon Criminals
Molly Moon’s Incredible Book of Hypnotism
The Son of the Shadows
The Grand Sophy