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Martin Luther King, Jr. was an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. His most famous speech, "I Have a Dream" was delivered in 1963 during the March on Washington and it continues to be studied in American schools today. Five years later, Martin Luther King was assassinated after giving another speech in Tennessee. Immediately after his death, politicians began to advocate making the time around his birthday a national holiday but it was not until 1983 that President Ronald Reagan signed the bill to make it a national holiday.

In the words of Coretta Scott King, "The greatest birthday gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others."

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Sonja Lyubomirsky is one of our guest bloggers during the week of January 19th. If you have any questions for Sonja Lyubomirsky, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some more information about The How of Happiness:

A groundbreaking, practical guide to attaining happiness based on innovative scientific research, The How of Happiness is a powerful contribution to the field of positive psychology and a gift to people who have sought to take their happiness into their own hands. Drawing upon years of her own pioneering research with thousands of men and women, psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky reveals that much of our capacity for happiness is within our power. Detailing an easy-to- follow plan, including exercises in new ways of thinking and understanding our individual obstacles, The How of Happiness offers a positive and empowering way to sustain a new level of joy in our lives.

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Kathy Mackel is one of our guest bloggers during the week of January 19th. If you have any questions for Kathy Mackel, add a comment to any of her posts. Here is some more information about Boost:

 Thirteen-year-old Savvy is six two and full of raw basketball talent; her three-point shot is deadly. But she’s also skinny and gets pushed around on the court. Her older sister, Callie, is a freshman on varsity cheerleading, but she’s not quite light enough to be a flier—her coveted position. Both girls need to boost their level of competition to get off the bench and into the action. When steroids are found in Savvy’s gym bag, she claims they are not hers. Suddenly, accusations are flying and nobody knows who is telling the truth.

When it comes to competitive sports, no one is exempt from being offered a boost.

Nate Green is one of our guest bloggers during the week of January 19th. If you have any questions for Nate Green, add a comment to any of his posts. Here is some more information about Built for Show:

Every guy is looking for an edge, some way to get single women his age to notice him more than they do now.

Unfortunately, most guys have absolutely no idea what kind of body automatically flips a girl's attraction switch. Nate Green does.

Built for Show is the first fitness book to address young men on the prowl. It’s not just written for them; it’s written by one of them. Green, who’s just twenty- three years old, is already a veteran fitness professional who’s been quoted in Men’s Health and Maximum Fitness magazines. Green offers four twelve- week workout programs, each with a seasonal theme. The fall and winter workouts add muscle size and strength that’ll show even under layers of clothing. The spring and summer workouts burn fat and chisel the showpiece muscles—creating a lean, cut, beach-ready physique.

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One of the great things about writing for younger readers is the sense of enthusiasm and fun that goes along with the children's and YA book business. I first experienced this among writers, editors, and agents at children's writing conferences and workshops. When Vidalia in Paris was released, though, I discovered an even more exciting world of YA, an online one that's created and controlled by readers. 

Book blogs have become a major feature of the YA landscape in recent years and, in many cases, teen readers are behind them. These teen bloggers write book reviews, interview authors, and engage with readers in lively comments sections. The bloggers are in touch with one another, too, bouncing links and references back and forth, posting to one another's blogs, and sharing customs like the Waiting on Wednesday post in which bloggers list the books they're looking forward to reading. (The WoW posts from Reviewer X are a good example of that trend.) All of this adds up to a culture of interactive reading and a community that sizzles with excitement over books.