From Caroline Mercurio, Managing Editor, Hunger Mountain, The Vermont College Journal of Arts & Letters Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Who’s the writer on your gift list? Join us for the Hunger Mountain Holiday Fundraising Auction, featuring manuscript critiques with notable authors and limited edition letterpress broadsides.

All items will be available at Caroline’s Hunger Mountain Store,

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Enter to win an autographed copy of A Thousand Never Evers by Shana Burg (Delacorte, 2008)!

To enter the giveaway, email me (scroll for address) with your name and snail/street mail address by 10 p.m. CST July 28! Please also type “A Thousand Never Evers” in the subject line. Read Shana’s blog and a Cynsations interview with Shana.

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A.M. Jenkins blog: “The reasons for this blog: 1. To provide basic author information (for students, teachers, librarians etc.), without me having to maintain a website. 2. I think out loud a lot as I work through writing projects, so I’m going to try dumping those thoughts here rather than on my friends.” Read a Cynsations interview with A.M.

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Happy Independence Day to those who celebrate it! Please note that Cynsations will be taking a very short hiatus, and will resume posting next Thursday, July 10!

The Cynsations grand prize giveaways for July are two signed copies of Wake by Lisa McMann (Simon Pulse, 2008). From the promotional copy: “For 17 year-old Janie Hannagan,

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Enter to win one of three autographed copies of A Growling Place by Thomas Aquinas Maguire (Simply Read, 2007)(author-illustrator interview)! To enter, email me with your name and snail/street mail address by 10 p.m. CST April 29! Please also type “A Growling Place” in the subject line. Note: one copy will be awarded to a teacher/librarian (please identify yourself accordingly in your entry),

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“BEST GYMNAST. BEST speller. Best kazoo player. It seems everyone has a talent except Babymouse. That is, until Babymouse takes to the ice and surprises everyone with her spectacular spins and jubilant jumps. Until the famous Olympic coach, Coach Bearnakorva, discovers her and asks Babymouse to be her new protege. Will Babymouse’s dreams of a medal come true?

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Ann Angel on Ann Angel: “I’m a writer of young adult fiction and nonfiction with books that include Such A Pretty Face: Short Stories about Beauty (Abrams, 2007), Robert Cormier: Writer of the Chocolate War (Enslow, 2007). A biography of Amy Tan will be coming out with Enslow in 2008,

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Geography Club Banned! The Final Chapter from Voices in My Head, author Brent Hartinger’s blog. See Dec. 16, 2005 update post. Read a recent related cynsations author interview with Brent.

“JK Rowling in Full:” the full transcript of Jeremy Paxman’s exclusive interview. Broadcast on BBC Two in June, 2003.

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Kathi Appelt, department chair of the Vermont College/Union Institute & University M.F.A program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, is the author of numerous books for young readers. Her recent titles include: Miss Lady Bird’s Wildflowers: How A First Lady Changed America, illustrated by Joy Fisher Hein (HarperCollins,

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Looking over the Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA) nominee list, I thought it might be a good time to review those books on the list that have been recommended (see title links) and/or whose authors were interviewed (see author links) on cynsations:

Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking, 2005);

Whales on Stilts by M.T.

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