Hamri to Direct Sisterhood Sequel
Yay!!! Oh, I so hope all the original actresses come back--I thought The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was one of the better book-to-movie adaptations, and a lot of that was because of the cast. Plus, I'm excited that it's getting a sequel, and that it'll be going right to the fourth book, so that you'll have that growth in the characters.

Sam Raimi Confirms Spidey 4, 5, and 6
This is slightly less exciting, since we don't know anything about who's gonna direct, whether Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst will come back, etc. Since it's frankly unlikely, IMHO, that any of those three will return, I'm waiting to see whether I should look forward to this or not.

Gregory Smith and Christopher Eccleston cast in Dark is Rising movie
Woo-hoo! Doctor Who meets Will Cooper! Time for a reread . . .

Hutcherson and Robb escape to Terabithia

Send your ARCs to New Orleans detention centers

Gurinder Chadha Helming Angus

I liked the first Angus, Thongs . . . book when I read it, but like other series, the later books are too much of a semi-good thing. I am curious to see how they adapt the book: are they going to be faithful, or veer off a bit to make it more kid-friendly, as opposed to teen-friendly?

Paramount Vantage scoops up King Dork

I read King Dork recently, and I enjoyed it. As someone who doesn't like Catcher in the Rye at all, but has been told "Well, it's a boy book," I liked the fact that the male narrator of King Dork didn't like Catcher either. Because, after all, saying that something is a "boy book" or a "girl book", as a way of explaining its appeal, is actually a bad way of doing that. Why do we feel the need to gender pigeonhole books? I admit, I've done the same kind of thing, with working on Popular Paperbacks and such, but I don't think I've ever said, "I didn't like this book, but it's because it's a boy book."

The Game of Sunken Places set to become a movie

I haven't read Game of Sunken Places, but it's by M.T. Anderson, so you know that it's a good book. Hopefully, if the movie gets made, you'll be able to recognize the book in the movie.

Warner Bros. options The Au Pairs

Drew Barrymore's Flower Films is set to adapt and produce.

The Tale of Despereux by Kate DiCamillo is being turned into a computer-animated movie, and they've announced the cast. It's a great book, so I'm glad to see it's getting a nice splashy treatment.

zeisgeist linked to info about the Delaware Book Festival, which I am most excited about. The always-fabulous zeisgeist will be appearing, and she reports that Chris Crutcher, Jordan Sonneblick, and Lola Douglas will be there, too. Yay!

I'm halfway through my re-reading/note-taking of Uglies, all part of the post I want to write about the themes of the Uglies trilogy. Hopefully, I'll be able to get something posted in the next few days.

An interesting link today: Icon Options Libba Bray Trilogy. I'm surprised that it hasn't been optioned before now, frankly.

Also, did you know that Shel Silverstein wrote "A Boy Named Sue"? I got a huge chuckle out of this. Thanks to Wikipedia for that.

I have a couple of different posts that are in the works, but for now, some links!

Chasing Vermeer to big screen
I tried listening to the audiobook of Chasing Vermeer, but I couldn't get into it. I thought that it might be a book that you have to read, rather than listen, only to talk to someone yesterday who said she tried to read it but couldn't get into it.

Firestorm to hit Warner Bros.
I have the ARC of Firestorm sitting at home, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. It's interesting to hear about YA lit with a strong environmental bent.

Finally, courtesy of the briliant mind of David Lubar: The History of Young Adult Literature. Hilarious!

After a whirlwind, action-packed weekend in New Orleans, I'm back from ALA. Highlights include:
--having dinner with some PPYA folks and meeting Shannon Hale. And finding out that Shannon Hale is an enormous geek, too, and thus nerding out over TV and comics.
--having very productive meetings with the PPYA subcommittees I'm on.
--conducting my last meeting as chair of Youth Participation.
--rooming with lizzb and cedarlibrarian.

Lowlights:
--only having two days for the conference--I only got to do committee meetings and a quick trip to the exhibits.
--having all my flights take off late, and nearly missing my connection in Charlotte on the way home.

While I was away, some cool things happened! First, Uglies has been optioned by 20th Century Fox. Woo-hoo!!!!

Secondly, my article in The Edge of the Forest has been published. Check out the feature on Clash of the Titans: Sports Novels for Middle Grade and YA Readers. Let me know what you think--I'd love to get some feedback!

Hmmm, this could be very good or very bad: Ephrons Flipped Over Van Draanen Novel

Flipped is such a fantastic book--I was so happy to get a chance to reread it last year for PPYA. The Ephrons' more recent work hasn't been very satisfactory, but I'm eager to see how the book might become a movie.

I'm trying to get ready for ALA, but it's tough finding time. Thank goodness it's Annual that I'm prepraring for, not Midwinter; otherwise, I'd be in real trouble!

First off, a link: Fox 2000 Takes The Book Thief. I haven't read Book Thief yet--I'm waiting to get it from the library--but based on the amount of discussion I've seen about it, I'm curious to see what it's like. I really enjoyed I Am the Messenger, which I thought was a clever, unusual YA novel. Plus, come on, who doesn't love a novel narrated by Death?

I've volunteered to start writing a book review column for the local paper, and today my first column is due. Lord help me. Once the column is published, I'll post it, because I'd love some feedback.

First off, I'm so far behind on Lost it's not even funny, so I haven't watched the season finale. At this point, I'm waiting for the season 2 box set.

Anyway, here's news from ComingSoon.net about movie deals.

Jeff Stockwell adapting Edward Tulane
I just read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane recently, and I thought it was an interesting flip-side to that classic, The Velveteen Rabbit. I don't know if Edward Tulane has really connected with kids, though--from my perspective, it was written more for nostalgic adults than for children. But, after all, it was written by Kate DiCamillo, so it gets more leeway from most people, I think.

Jon Favreau on Iron Man
Iron Man's certainly not my favorite Marvel character, but I have enjoyed his appearances lately in Amazing Spider-Man. And reading Ultimate Iron Man, written by Orson Scott Card, was a treat. So I'm curious to see how this movie turns out.

Dragonriders of Pern to the big screen
I've never read any of the Pern books, so I'm not sure what this movie might hold. I have to say, the production company's credits would give me pause if it was a book I really loved. But hey, what do I know? :-)