Cory Doctorow (Little Brother) has a new novel called Makers, and like his previous novels, he's offering it as a free download on his website under a creative commons license. From Boing Boing:

As with all my previous novels, the whole book is available as a free, Creative Commons download, under a NonCommercial-ShareAlike license that allows you to remix it to your heart's content and share the book and your mixes noncommercially. And as with my last two books, I've created a unique donations program that connects generous people with schools, universities, libraries, shelters, prisons and other cash-strapped institutions.

You can download the book and find out how to donate it to worthy institutions at Doctorow's website. I haven't read it yet, but I LOVED Little Brother, so I can't wait!

Simon and Schuster are giving away completely free PDF copies of Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies." If you haven't read this book, run, don't walk, to the above link and download it ASAP! One of the finest scify books — YA or adult — that I've read in a long, long time.

(via Boing Boing)

Dull Boy by Sarah Cross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Avery is a 15-year-old superman, with super strength and the ability to fly, but all he wants is to be normal, dull, and not have to worry about sending his parents to the poor house with all the stuff he breaks or about hurting someone unintentionally.

But after trying to flex his powers for the forces of good, Avery finds out he's not the only person in the world with super powers — and that not all of them are so interested in fighting for the forces of good.

Avery and his buddies were what sold this book for me. Avery's voice is incredibly sarcastic, funny and authentic busy worrying about girls at the same time he's worrying about figuring out his super powers. Darla, his mad genius friend, is hilarious and geeky without falling back on geeky stereotypes, and his other friends Nicholas, Catherine and Sophie have interesting and unusual super powers and stay well out of the realm of cliche.

The overarching plot seemed a little thin to me, with the threat from the mysterious Cherchette a little too mysterious for too much of the book. The questions of whether or not she had the kids' best interests at heart, as well as Avery's struggle to decide whether to leave his parents or not, almost felt marginalized to the scene-by-scene hijinks going on with the super friends.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this one and will be looking out for a sequel!

View all my reviews >>

If you liked Dull Boy, you might like:

Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
Little Brother
The Blue Girl

My first ever contest has closed! I've chosen the winners — and if I sent you a message requesting your mailing address, please send it to lacylu42 [@] gmail [dot] com.

Thanks to everyone who entered! You made my first ever contest here a great success. And rest assured, I hope to have more in the future!

Our second winner is: nuclearsugars!

If this is you, please email me at lacylu42 at gmail dot com to claim your prize!

Have you entered my great Harry Potter giveaway yet? Click here to enter! The contest lasts for two more weeks. All you have to do to enter is tell me your favorite moment from the Harry Potter Saga!

(Drawing by my dad, Wayne Boggs.)

Using a random number generator, I picked our first winner of the Harry Potter prize pack!

Our first winner is...orexisbella!

I have sent you an email with all the deets for collecting your books!!!!!

If you're not orexisbella, I still have good news: you can still enter! I'm giving away FOUR MORE SETS of books! Just go to the contest post and leave a comment with your favorite moment from the Harry Potter saga, and you're entered to win!

Don't comment here—go to the official contest post to win!

My good friend Cate is a professor of American history, and so I was thrilled that she would let me re-post her review of "The True Meaning of Smekday" for this blog. Enjoy!

The True Meaning of Smekday
by Adam Rex
review by Cate


I love this book!

Here's the deal: the Boov invade earth. The tell humans that they all have to move to certain parts of Earth so that the Boov can have the rest (Americans get to move to Florida) and they sign treaties to show they're ...more I love this book!

Here's the deal: the Boov invade earth. The tell humans that they all have to move to certain parts of Earth so that the Boov can have the rest (Americans get to move to Florida) and they sign treaties to show they're serious about their promises. Only they end up liking Florida, so all the Americans have to move to Arizona. The Boov reckon humans can have that forever. Maybe.

(A children's book with an allegory for the colonization of Native lands? Be still my heart!)

Amid all this chaos is eleven-year-old Gratuity Tucci, who has to try and get to Florida on her own when her mother's abducted by the Boov. Her cat, called Pig, comes along for the ride, and somewhere in Pennsylvania they adopt a Boov (in a way). He goes by the name of J. Lo.

(A children's book with a kickass female protagonist who - in a beautiful moment on pages 280-281 observes, "Mark Twain said the difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between lightning and the lightning bug and people think he was good right? Didn't write any decent girl characters, as far as I can tell, but otherwise, fine."? Oh, SNAP.)

Just when you think you have the Boov figured out, along come the Gorp. The Gorp communicate mostly by hitting each other. And they smell pretty bad.

As Gratuity - 'Tip' to her friends - tries to work out how to save the world from the aliens, we're treated to a sharp, witty meta-analysis of American history and culture. The people who try to help Tip look for her mother send out an APB for a black woman, since Tip herself is black - they're very confused to realize Tip's mom is white. Chief Shouting Bear (real name, Frank) gleefully yells "YOU STOLE MY LAND" at white liberals living in Roswell, corrects the names that Tip uses for various local Native communities, and calls her Stupidlegs on account of wanting to be fair to the fact that she's half-white. There's an illustrated history of Boov evolution in the middle of the book that makes some striking points about the power of the church, the oppressive tendencies of government, and the problem of global warming. And then, over and above all else, there's language - Boov words scattered throughout the text that will encourage anyone who reads this book to start calling people poomps and kacknackers, but perhaps more beautifully, J. Lo's English shifts and changes and reflects what he's learned in books, in school, and finally by talking to humans. It makes for some moments of prime comedy, but there's an incredible thoughtfulness about words and communication beneath.

All this in a book aimed at 9-12 year olds. I would love a book aimed at 37-50 year olds that was this freaking sophisticated.

The True Meaning of Smekday is 100% poomp free. Buy yours now.