What I Will Be Looking for at BEA!

On Wednesday I will be heading into the city for BEA.  This will be my second year at the convention and I am looking forward to actually meeting some people this year.  (Are you going to be at BEA?  Leave a comment with your email address if you want to meet up and say hi!)

I am looking forward to networking and meeting fellow bloggers, but I am also looking forward to the authors and publishers.  It’s always fun to see the new and upcoming titles.  I will be keeping my eye out for a few galleys. I discussed BEA with my classes, and they placed requests for galleys I absolutely, positively must be on the lookout for. I’m pretty sure it’s under penalty of death. 🙂

I love Anna Godberson’s The Luxe series so I am hoping to pick up a copy of her newest, Bright Young Things, set in the 1920’s. (Harper)

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (Harper) sounds amazing. It is set in a world where love is considered a disease. Sounds a bit dystopian, so you know I want to take a look at it.

The Magnificent Twelve: The Call by Michael Grant (HarperCollins) has been getting rave reviews on Twitter from Paul W. Hankins. I also love Grant’s dystopian series, so I imagine this will be just as good.

Reckless by Cornelia Funke (Little, Brown) sounds amazing. Dark fairy tales that come to life? Sign me up!

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher (Dial) is a sequel to Incarceron. Enough said. Where do I sign up?

I have some avid James Patterson fans in my class. Witch & Wizard: The Gift by James Patterson (Little, Brown) is high on my must-get list because they are begging for it! The first novel is the series is making the rounds through my classroom right now.

Hush by Eishes Chayil (Walker) sounds a bit old for my readers, but I am drawn to the description. Written pseudonymously, it tells the story of a teenager who confronts her memories of and guilt about abuse she witnessed in her Hasidic community.

Matched by Ally Condie (Dutton). Since we finished The Giver earlier this year, dystopian novels have been huge in my classes. I introduced this title and had kids salivating over it. Another “must-get” in the eyes of my 6th graders.

We just finished our Holocaust unit, so Annexed by Sharon Dogar (Houghton Mifflin) immediately caught my students’s attention. Annexed is fictionalized account that follows Peter van Pels from the attic he shared with Anne Frank to Auschwitz.

Dystopian? We love it. Zombies? Their popularity is growing. Needless to say, the gimme gimme’s started when I talked about The Enemy by Charlie Higson (Disney-Hyperion). The Enemy is a dystopian novel where teenagers older than 16 are turned into flesh-eating zombies.

The Limit by Kristen Landon (Aladdin) caught my eye because it sounds a bit like historical fiction, yet it is a fantasy. The story is set in a world in which children are taken to “workhouses” when their families exceed their monthly debt limits.

Gross plots always catch my students’s attention. Needless to say, they were clamoring for more information about Thaw by Rick Jasper (Carolrhoda Lab). All we know is the short jacket description, which sounds awesome. In the story, the cryogenically frozen bodies of 27 federal inmates thaw out—and disappear—after a blackout. Ew. Creepy. And I can’t wait to take a look at it!

Wendy Mass is one of my all-time favorite middle grade authors. Her books rarely stay on my shelf and I’m sure her newest title will be no different. The Candymakers (Little, Brown) is a mystery involving four children and a candy contest. Sounds a bit like Willy Wonka, eh?

And of course, I MUST MUST MUST get a copy of Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (sequel to Chains). I have been waiting desperately for this one for over a year!

Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin (Dial) sounds amazing. Two girls become as close as sisters, but one doesn’t know the other is a fairy in disguise, sent here to trap the girl into fulfilling a promise made by her ancestors.

Those are the galleys I will be keeping my eye out for. If you are going to BEA, what will you be looking for? Are there any books I missed?