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I've been traveling so much lately that I've started to play a little game by guessing what reading material people tend to bring on airplanes.  One of the most frequently sighted books?  The Secret.  No surprise there.  Rhonda Byrne's book, which followed a popular DVD, will be celebrating its one-and-a-half-year anniversary atop the bestseller lists on May 28.  I've been told about it, gushingly, not only by my new agey crunchy granola friends (OK, I live in LA), but by my more ordinarily skeptical friends as well.

"OK," they say, "We know that the law of attraction [which argues that you can manifest or attract whatever your heart desires, from Prada bags to husbands] sounds ridiculous.  But it works!  It has truly, sincerely, and genuinely made me happier."

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Laurie Halse Anderson receives Margaret A. Edwards Award,  The Moon Over Star Awarded Coretta Scott King Honor & Jerk, California wins Schneider Family Book Award

New York, NY...January 26, 2009 - The American Library Association (ALA) announced today that SAVVY by Ingrid Law and AFTER TUPAC AND D FOSTER by Jacqueline Woodson have both received 2009 John Newbery Honors for outstanding contributions to children's literature, Laurie Halse Anderson has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens, and that JERK, CALIFORNIA (Speak; September 2008) by Jonathan Friesen has been awarded The Schneider Family Book Award for teens.

Savvy (Dial Books; May 2008) is the story of the Beaumonts, an eclectic family who can move mountains, stir up hurricanes and spark electricity. Each of them possess a "savvy"- a special power that erupts when they turn thirteen - and young Mibs Beaumont is celebrating her big birthday in two days.  Mibs is eager to blow out her thirteen candles, but more importantly, she can't wait to discover her savvy.  When her day arrives, she finds herself on an odyssey that will force her to make sense of growing up - and of others, who also might have a few secrets hidden just beneath their skin. Savvy was published under the joint venture between Dial, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group and Walden Media. The film is in active development with Karen Janszen attached to pen the screenplay.

Ingrid Law is a big fan of words and stories, small towns and big ideas. Born in New York, Ingrid's family moved to Colorado when she was six years old. Now the mother of a teenage daughter, Ingrid still lives in Colorado, where she is hard at work on her next book.

Read an excerpt of Savvy

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Penguin Group (USA) Tops 2008 Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lists

Publishers Weekly recently announced its 2008 bestseller list leaders and Penguin Group (USA) was recognized for its outstanding number of bestsellers.

In an overview essay, PW’s Daisy Maryles wrote: “On the paperback side, Penguin USA had the most impressive performance—32.5% of all paperback slots, a gain of more than 8% in just one year ... In 2008, Penguin had five of the 13 longest-running trade paperback bestsellers (Eat, Pray, Love, Three Cups of Tea, The Kite Runner, A New Earth and The Friday Night Knitting Club), with a total of 205 weeks on the 2008 charts; that adds up to 27% of all available slots on the weekly trade paper lists. Two of its titles—Eat, Pray, Love and Three Cups of Tea— were the only two books last year on the charts every week in 2008.”

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Here’s the thing about anabolic steroids. If they’re bad for guys, they must be really, really bad for girls.

And yet, if I were a teenager today, wouldn’t I be tempted?

I played in the “old days” when girls’ sports were a whisper and not a glory. We wore tunics for basketball, old wool things that made us sweat like linebackers. We played softball on a Little-League baseball field and I—a wicked pull hitter—routinely put the ball in the pond on the foul side of third base. (What…you think we actually had fences?) We played field hockey games on the football practice field, dodging rocks and kicking up dust. There were no accolades and no fan base (not even parents). Except for the gymnasts, who looked really good in their leotards, we all hid the fact that we were varsity athletes.

Title IX changed everything.