ALA Midwinter Gathering, January 2009

The ALA Midwinter Gathering has come and gone...this year coming and going through Denver, Colorado. LJW Publishing was represented by its very own award winning YA novel, Meeting Lizzy, by SarahBeth Carter. The novel won the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards Bronze recognizing outstanding children's books. The official awards ceremony took place during the ALA Midwinter Gathering and the Meeting Lizzy was on display throughout the proceedings.

LJW Publishing is very excited to have their first undertaking in the YA or teen book world recognized by the awards program and would like to thank the Jenkins Group for their dedication to the love of reading that led them to create the program and recognize exemplary authors for children and young adults.

For more information on the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards (they are now accepting entries for 2009) visit their site.

For more information on where to get Meeting Lizzy visit Atlas Books (our one and only favorite, alright...exclusive...distributor)! Or if you're a consumer that stumbled upon the site and want to check out a fabulous, award winning YA book...get it here!

Visit again soon for updates!

A New Review of Meeting Lizzy at Gruntlings

Gruntlings, a popular review site that featured anything baby or child related has seen fit to post a great review of LJW Publishing's recent YA release: Meeting Lizzy.

The review reads:

Price Tag: $9.95
Age Range: Young teen and up
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

We were originally going to feature this book in our gift guide, but it deserved much more attention than the gift guide would have allowed for.

Meeting Lizzy by SarahBeth Carter is a book that addresses the difficult topic of abusive teenage relationships. This book is narrated in part by a teenage boy named Cy who stumbles across the abuse of his neighbor Eliza and who tries hard to help but who is unable to help because Eliza swears him to secrecy. Her abuser is her boyfriend, a popular high school jock. The chapters by Cy alternate with chapters by Eliza which detail her confusion and fear. She doesn’t know how this happened, or why it has become the new normal. She tries to leave her relationship but is bullied back into it by her abuser...This book goes into a great amount of detail that shows that the abuse isn’t only physical. It’s isolation and control. Her boyfriend controls what she wears, who her friends are, who she talks to, and as many other aspects of her life as he is able...This book is a great way to open a discussion with your daughter about dating and violence, and to make sure she knows what to do if she finds herself in a bad situation. It’s an eye-opener for parents to read, as well.

This is just an excerpt...for the full review click here!