NYT's Top Ten Illustrated Children's Books (some great selections this year including this beautiful biography of William Carlos Williams) (New York Times, reg required)

- Another wacky t-shirt tie-in? (I'm really not one to talk. I totally fell for every book that came with a charm bracelet) (GalleyCat)

- YALSA's YA Lit Symposium (was held in Nashville, TN this past weekend. Check out their blog for video and audio from the event. Also, see Twitter posts on this Twemes page)

- Immune to Twilight fever? (The actress playing Bella in the upcoming films can apparently take it or leave it. Ouch. Thanks Stefan!) (i09)

- Google to publish out-of-print books (and the battle between Google and Amazon quietly rages on) (NY Times, reg. required)

- All booksellers want for Christmas (is to make it out of the Holiday season in decent shape. With heavy hitter JK Rowling on deck, there may be hope yet) (Publisher's Weekly)

- 'Knucklead' (trailer is out) (Fuse #8)

- A room of one's own (or at least a separate section. Popular indie bookstore Politics and Prose sets aside space for older teens) (The Brown Bookshelf)

- 'The Saints of Augustine' (interesting review on Guys Lit Wire)

- Dear Mr. President-Elect… (Fourth-graders' letters to Obama. Plus, children's author Fran Manushkin suggests a Children's Inauguration) (Edinger House) (Fuse #8)

Mariko Tamaki's Skim (and a good roundup of other graphic novels for teens) (Bookslut)

- Obama spreads hope (to librarians) (SLJ)

- Check out this list (of politically-themed titles for kids and teens.) (SparkLife)

- Borders gets Twilight makeover (for Christmas. Watch out for elves with fangs. Plus, Stephenie Meyer shares some of her influences with Entertainment Weekly.) (Wall Street Journal)

- Interesting profile on Brock Cole (children's book illustrator and author of The Goats) (The Buffalo News)

- A whodunnit (written and performed by a teen advisory board at the library in Scranton, Pennsylvania) (SLJ Teen)

- A new social networking site (for young readers in the UK) (The Bookseller)

- YALSA asks (how libraries can help kids find news) (YALSA)

- Review of 'A Dictionary of High School B.S.' (published by Zest Books - a sponsor of Ypulse!) (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

- 'Goosebumps' is back! ( R.L Stine resurrects the popular series for today's young readers) (YA Fresh)

Page to Screen (Neil Gaiman signs on to produce a live-action adaptation of "The Graveyard Book") (MTV Movie Blog)

- Blog the vote! (Across the kid litosphere bloggers speak out about why voting matters. The master list of participants is up on Chasing Ray. Plus Obama and McCain coming to a comic book near you) (via Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast) (Cleveland.com)

- ReaderGirlz (moves from MySpace and welcomes new "diva" blogger Melissa Walker)

- Freddy the Pig goes to Washington (Fifth-graders at Tenacre Country Day School give their fictional picks for who they'd want to see as Prez) (Shelftalker)

- Literary twins (A mother of twins speaks out against literary stereotypes. As the sister of twins, I can also attest to the lack of realism) (The Guardian)

- More Trouble for Google? (Harvard refuses to play ball with Google Books) (Information Week)

- A guide (to the best graphic nonfiction for teens) (SLJ)

- Guys Lit Wire talks to Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (author of Floating Circus, about what it feels like to write from a boy's POV.)

- New study names four types of Harry Potter readers (and they correspond with the different Hogwarts houses?! I don't know if I buy this.) (The Bookseller)

- Fourth Story Media (a new "multi-platform" company telling stories across books, the web, mobile phones and other media)

- World’s first multimedia novel… (published on a T-Shirt) (2d Code)

Page to screen (Mixed reviews of "City of Ember" in the Salt Lake Tribune, Washington Post and on MSNBC.) (Entertainment Weekly)

- More on Beacon Street Girls books (promoting wellness through its tween series) (The New York Times, reg. required)

- Ooops, I think I missed this (and it's really good…"The big questions — science fiction and young adult fiction share themes and, hopefully, readers.") (Baltimore City Paper)

- I love this post about trading [and finding] books while you travel (I discovered Marion Zimmer Bradley when I was traveling alone in Greece — A happy day indeed.) (popmatters)

- Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice (Maureen McCormick's new tell all.) (Jossip)

- 'How reader girl got her groove back' (Author Shannon Hale describes how she came to love books and reading… again.) (SLJ)

- 'Bedtime Stories' (In this hilarious piece, one dad asks about the prudence of politics in children's books?) (Weekly Standard)

- Goth is in (To one authors' chagrin…hey, that rhymes.) (The Globe and Mail)

- BooksofSoul (offers African-American writers a place to promote their books, including children's and young adult authors.) (PR News)

- Jezebel's Fine Lines remembers (The Long Winter)

- More on the struggling book industry (tough times ahead, esp. for new authors) (The New York Observer)

- Diane von Furstenberg (publishes her own Wonder Woman comic) (Racked)

Laurence Yep's The Tiger's Apprentice (To be made into a live/action/CGI movie version by Cartoon Network.) (Broadcasting & Cable)

- Teen Read Week (through October 18th. This year's theme, Books with Bite.) (YALSA)

- Slate's booklist for tight times ("Great kids' books about financial ruin.")

- Coraline's website and movie trailer (This looks so good. I can not wait!)

- Children's Librarian a CNN's hero of the year one nominee (This brought tears to my eyes. Wow. How inspiring.) (SLJ)

- Tim Burton to make Alice in Wonderland (Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter already cast.) (Powell's)

- More doubt and insight about the book industry (stemming from the demise of Minx?) (Publishers Weekly)

- A new social site for writers (BookRix allows writers to publish and promote their work online.)

P.S. Happy Birthday RL Stine (Washington Post, reg. required)

The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti ("…too good and too rich with commercial potential to be limited to the YA section," Hmmmmm? Nevertheless, a great review.) (Boston Globe)

- New Harry Potter Movie (albeit a little bit late, will feature 25 Minutes of Imax 3D!) (Cynopsis)

Read Twilight, visit Forks, Washington? (Apparently, as a result of the huge success of Meyer's vampire series, Forks is a hip vacation destination for fans. Me? I'll take Hawaii, thank you very much.) (MSNBC)

- Sara Flavel from Puffin (discusses designing book covers and also gives some tips at the Spinebreakers Book Cover Design workshop. Cool.)

- Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (Check out some commentary on the subject of Knives and the short list.) (The Guardian)

- Toon Books (Brought to you by New Yorker art director Francoise Mouly and Art Speigleman [we've posted about this before] and some other suggestions for your monthly entertainment.) (Mercury News)

- A personal request by the author (for anyone that wants movies rights to his book, Oprah's latest book choice The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.) (Powell's)

- Scarlett and Crimson (is on its way! A series for girls 10-14 "focussing on individual style and strong friendships.") (Licensing Biz)

- Brisingr (is huge in the UK) (The Guardian)

Four Twilight Essentials right off the bat! Whatcha expect?

- 'Touched by a Vampire' (I read this after I wrote my post for today…interesting stuff. One really positive thing about the popularity of the "Twilight Series" is all the discussion.) (Salon.com, reg. required)

- Breaking Dawn (Out tonight at 12 a.m. Why do teens love it so much? Teen expert Aimee Clark discusses the reasons it's so popular?) (SLJ)

- AND Stephenie Meyer at Comic Con ("Twilight Series" author gets warm reception, natch. Also, Her four-part video interview at EW's Popwatch is featured.) (GalleyCat)

- Edward vs. Jacob: The Great Twilight Debate (I love it.) (Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast)

- Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's book Influence (is out this fall. A coffee table book about fashion. This is the cover.) (Jossip)

- Orson Scott Card (on gay marriage and a great round-up of the general controversy regarding the author at Galleycat.)

- Book cover-coverage continues (Are serious female writers being dissed by "chick-lit" covers?) (GalleyCat)

- 'Presidential candidates to be featured in comic books' (But will teen comic book readers "buy" it? I don't think so.) (The Celebrity Cafe)

- Asimov's 'Foundation Trilogy' going to the Big Screen (but geekier than the Hobbit? Not sure. And here's more about it at Powell's.) (New York Magazine)

Jeff Smith on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (Transcript of interview of the popular comic book artist and author of Bone.) (Online Newshour PBS)

- 'Soapbox opinions and reactions' (At Chasing Ray. Sorry I'm a little late with this, but these are all worthy of reading anytime, anyday! Really good stuff.)

- Twitter useful for authors and publishers (Create buzz, or develop storylines.) (Galley Cat)

- Stephen King goes digital (Looking for other outlets for his work, King will release a series of webisodes to promote his newest book of short stories.) (Silicon Alley Insider)

- New NY Times series discusses literacy (Remember when TV was readings's archenemy?) (reg. required)

- New cool YA blog (Beth Kephart, author of House of Dance.)

- 'I'm Y.A. and I'm O.K.' (Margot Rabb talks about her new membership in the YA club.) (New York Times, reg. required)

- Heavy Metal Islam by Marc Levine (Metal's metal — In any language.) (Slate)

- New non-fiction for young adults (Doesn't Sea Queens by Jane Yolen look cool? Women Pirates, who knew?) (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

- LGBT content and characters in YA (Young readers see themselves in the characters they read about in young adult literature making positive LGBT characters even more urgent.) (Red Orbit)

- Go Ask Alice (Friday's Fine Lines over at Jezebel)

Phew. Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted. I've been making my way cross country to Maine where I will be staying for the next month or so. It's dark and rainy and I'm staying in a very, very creepy old house, alone. It's quiet and a moody fog horn has been my soundtrack for two days and nights straight. I thought, in light of this and today's post about reluctant readers, I should read some Stephen King, but I decided against it. Too scary.

I'm glad to be back though, and before today's Essentials I want to take a minute to thank our friends at Viz for sponsoring the first Ypulse Books conference. If you were overlooked in any way, we apologize. You rock. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts from everybody at Ypulse.

Pretty Tough (There's a "new player in the world of teen sports books.")

- Cover-Coverage (Our friend Melissa Walker, of the Violet Book Series fame, is blogging an awesome series on one of my favorite topics…book covers. Who chooses? Designs? Which get canned? Which make it? WHY? Check it out. If you're an author, send her your cover story.)

- 'Blog a holiday read' (Very clever. Penguin invites YOU to blog about their books.)

- I love these things ("The 25 most modern libraries"…Go Seattle!)(Seattlepi.com)

- Interactive literature ("Books where you decide what happens sprung from the bedrooms of D&D-playing teenagers, but the form is having something of a revolution." Remember Choose Your Own Adventure?)(The Guardian)

- Book video for Lamplighter (Book 2 in the Monster Blood Tattoo Series by DM Cornish. I received this book a few months ago, and I'm very intrigued.)(YouTube)

- 'Librarians want to turn you into a privacy fiend' (Not quite, but they do want to educate you on your privacy rights.) (ArsTechnica)

- Twilight author (Stephenie Meyer will be online live at EW.com for an exclusive interview…today! And while you're at it…check out the newest Twilight trailer.) (EW.com)

- More about Audible-Kids (and the power of listening to audio books.) (Ohio.com)

- Spinebreakers live in London! (A whole day of book-y workshops and other cool stuff….today. Get over there!)

- Making the Kindle more kid friendly? (Duh, you've got to make textbooks available, says one blogger.) (ArsTechnica)

- This Latest Fine Lines [when we published] (The Wolves of Willoughby Chase)

NPR's series 'In Character' (celebrates Nancy Drew)

- 'Children know which books they're old enough for' (in this blogger's opinion, "kids themselves are the best judges") (The Guardian)

- 'Second hand books, yea or nay?' (I dig them, especially if there are little notes inside. One of my favorite Winnie-The-Pooh books is second-hand and on the inside cover it says, "Phoebe, we love you, Happy Birthday." It makes me smile every time.) (Book Maven)

- Spotlight on the Carnegie Medal (this year's winner is Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve) (The Guardian)

- YA romances are for guys too ("Scuse me while I kiss this guy: Guy-centric YA romance" from Carlie Webber at Reader Advisor News) (Libraries Unlimited)

- Crack the code and win an Alec Flint, Super Sleuth book (And read a review.) (Big A Little A)

- Terrible flooding in Cedar Rapids (destroys the public library. This picture at The Monkey Speaks really drives the damage home.)

- Misery-lit (author of A Child Called It is interviewed at The Guardian. I'd like to know how YA's respond to this genre?)

-Penguin, Sony and Amazon (offer the The first eBook publication of 11 of John Steinbeck's books.)