We leave week 1 (which we hope you enjoyed as much as we did) behind us and kick off week 2 of our Young Adult Appreciation Month as of now. But first, we have a few winners to announce.

Giveaway winners:

Random.org (which we fondly refer to as our “Smugglers’ Sorting Hat” ) hath spoken and the winners are:

Kelley Armstrong’s The Summoning (book 1) - Jenny N (comment number 26)
Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely – Raelena (comment number 63)
Aprilynne Pike’s Wings – Brooke Reviews
Claudia Gray’s Stargazer – Kimberly B (comment number 12)
Kim Harrison’s Once Dead Twice Shy – Sandy

Congratulations! Please send your snail mail addresses to contact AT booksmugglers DOT com and we will send the books to you ASAP.

This Week on The Book Smugglers

Monday: the wonderful Angie, from Angieville is our special guest, talking on reading and blogging about YA.

We follow her post with Ana’s review of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, a book that comes highly recommended by Angie.

Tuesday: Ana writes a “I Love This Series” post with an overview of the FABULOUS Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner.

And Thea writes a review for Kiss of Life, book 2 in Daniel Waters’s awesome Generation Dead series.

Wednesday: Ana reviews the Anthology Eternal Kiss…

…followed by a guest post by debut author Karen Mahoney who has a story, Falling to Ash, in the anthology.

Thursday: It is Juliet Marillier Day when Thea reviews Wildwood Dancing and Cybele’s Secret.

Friday: Thea reviews Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater…

…followed by a guest post by author Lisa Mantchev (Eyes Like Stars) with a conversation about Young Adult novels between the author and some very special guests.

Saturday: Finally (phew), on Saturday, a joint review of Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

Other YA News:

- There is a huge controversy surrounding the release of a book called Liar by Justine Larbalestier . The book will be released in September but the release of the cover art is causing a major wave of distress.

It is a most beautiful cover indeed BUT the protagonist of the book is, according to the author: “black with nappy hair which she wears natural and short.” Accusations of racism and whitewashing are flying all over the place and you can check the author’s post about it, as well as an article from Publishers Weekly.

This is quite apropos since I (Ana) read a (wonderful, by the way) book this week called Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell, which has another undeniably beautiful cover:

The problem is, you see: the protagonist of Everything Beautiful is self-proclaimed as fat. She weighs 82 kilos, has huge boobs and a wobbly belly.

So what is up with these covers? Are these cases of Marketing!Fail? Do publishers have problems with non-white, non-skinny people on their covers?

I also wonder about how much information the art departments receive when a cover is commissioned. Maybe the problem could be easily solved if there were more communication between all the parties?

- We read a wonderful article by Diana Wynne Jones, author of several YA novels (including Howl’s Moving Castle) about writing YA vs. writing Adult books, about the assumptions made about both genres and a myriad of other interesting stuff about genre boundaries. It is a very interesting article and well worth the read. Thanks to reader MaryK for bringing this to our attention!

- The blog Ink and Paper is having a special throughout the month of July on Sex on Teen Lit. . There are some pretty good articles and interviews with authors. Also well worth a visit.

Two Books on Our YA Radar

Maria Snyder has a new YA series coming out in 2010 and the cover has been unveiled this week:

When we interviewed Maria last year, she told us a bit about the book:

I’m Trella and I’m a scrub living in the lower two levels of Inside with all the other scrubs. We’re the ones who clean the pipes and air ducts that crisscross our world and keep us all alive.

Scrubbing is mindless busy work to prevent us from rioting or revolting or something. The uppers don’t want that. The Trava family who rule our world from their spacious upper levels also send the Pop Cops to recycle the dissenters and police the scrubs. I guess I should call them by their official name, the Population Control Police, but no one does that. And it’s a lie. They don’t control the population – just the opposite. The Pop Cops want us to breed until we’ve filled every square inch of the lower levels. And no one knows why.

I hate them all. Pop Cops, scrubs, and uppers. I prefer to sleep in the pipes and avoid contact with everyone. But that’s how I got myself into trouble. Since I know every single duct, pipe, corridor, shortcut, hole and ladder of Inside, the latest prophet wants to recruit me to his cause.

Every fifty weeks or so, the Pop Cops send a prophet down to spout some nonsense about Gateway to Outside. Gives all the scrubs some hope that someone is trying to figure a way out so they don’t have to.

And how about this new title? Pastworld by Ian Beck:

What if all of London were really an amusement park—a whole city returned to Victorian times to entertain visitors from the twenty-first century? That’s the wildly original premise of Ian Beck’s Pastworld, a high-stakes mystery set in a simulated past.Eve is a lifelong resident of Pastworld who doesn’t know she’s living in a theme park until a mysterious threat forces her to leave home. Caleb is a visiting tourist who finds the lawlessness of the past thrilling—until he suddenly becomes a fugitive from an antiquated justice system. And in the midst of it all, in the thick London fog a dark and deadly figure prowls, claiming victim after victim. He’s the Fantom, a creature both of the past and of the present, in whose dark purpose Caleb and Eve will find their destinies combined.

There is even a special website created for the book which is coming out in September 29.

So, that’s it from us today. Hope you have a good week!

~ Your Friendly Neighborhood Book Smugglers