Image from Kaimira Animation Test

Here are a couple of nice things the Committee had to say about The Sky Village:

“Well-formed writing style that impeccably blended two plot sequences… and it had demons fighting!” – T.
“I experienced sensations that at times made me feel like saying ‘Don’t do that or you will get hurt!‘” – J.

The Sky Village was nominated for the Wake County Public LIbraries Eva Perry Mock Newbery Award (that’s a mouthful).

And then it was shortlisted.

Book clubs like this are a real inspiration. Here’s a bit about the book club:

The Eva Perry Mock Newbery Club is a group of about 25 6th-9th graders who read newly written books, some of them donated to the club as advance reader copies. We read books from April through January, listing and discussing our favorites in our blog, and nominating the very best for our own Mock Newbery Awards. We select our winners just before the official winners are announced by the ALA each year. We have also traveled to ALA conferences and been visited by local authors.

Our club was started in 1998 by Teresa Young Brantley, an official member of the 1999 Newbery committee that chose Holes by Louis Sachar as its winner

An excerpt:

Mei is one of those who (reluctantly) takes to the sky when her father sends her off to live in the Sky Village. Hovering high above China, the Sky Village is a community tied together through a maze of interconnected hot-air balloons and a shared history; Mei is forced to do some serious adjusting–both in her balance and in her life outlook. Half a world away in what remains of Las Vegas Rom fights his own demons (literally). In an attempt to save his sister, he enters the Demon caves where he finds himself embroiled in a gladiator-style competition against demon hybrids for the entertainment of the masses.

Read the rest on Laura’s blog.

Update: it looks like I declared a winner a tad too early (I was having trouble converting from Greenwich time). Charlotte swooped in like a ninja at the last minute with a final line. The solution: Charlotte and Teenbookreview will each receive a copy of the book.

Here is the collaborative poem:

Kill This Poem

The name of this poem is its fate.
How quickly will it meet its death
Pushing forward to the end date
And quickly losing all its breath

It sheds its words onto the ground
Discarded there to rot
And ever more shall we discern
That our words are worth naught

But is the poem an empty shell?
Or does it have deep meaning that is sought?
My words may ring the final bell
Then deathly silence is their lot.

Alone and buried in the snow
The pages, blank, tell tales of woe.

And a big thank you to all the runner-up poets:

• Kelly Fineman
• E.L. Foster
• Izzy Neis
• Kelly
• cloudscome