It’s here! It’s here! The 3rd edition of BBYA, that is, wearing a lovely cool blue to ward off the dog days of August.

You can bet that any list this comprehensive and complex has a colorful production history, and this is no exception. Thanks to volume editor Holly Koelling, YALSA executive director Beth Yoke, Editions managing editor Christine Schwab, Editions book designer Dianne Rooney, and freelance editors Russell Harper and Kristy Mangel for powering through and giving us a great product!

From the jacket:

The new third edition continues to be the most comprehensive and effective reference for great reading for young adults, including

• Annotated lists of the the YA books extending back to 1966, indexed by author and title
• Background on the history and procedures of the BBYA Committee
• A recap of the current trends in teen literature as reflected in the past decade of BBYA lists
• Twenty-seven themed and annotated reproducible book lists, perfect for readers’ advisory with teens, parents, and teachers or for collection development.

Themed lists include:

FICTION LISTS
Abuse: Physical and Psychological; American Historical Fiction; Challenges: Physical and Psychological; Family in Crisis; Family Redefined; Fantasy: Dark and Light; Friendship; Humor; Identity, Image, and Acceptance; Loss, Grief, and Recovery; Love and Romance; Mystery and Crime; Retellings: Old Stories Made New; Science Fiction; Short Stories; Stories Creatively Told; The Teen Social Experience; World Historical Fiction; The World in Conflict

COMBINATION LISTS
Adventure and Survival; The American Ethnic Experience; Social and Environmental Issues and Activism; Sports and Competition

NONFICTION LISTS
Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir; Exceptional Women; Fascinating True Stories; The World in Conflict: Past and Present

Our goal was to publish Gamers . . . in the Library?! in time for the Gaming, Learning and Libraries Symposium, where author Eli Neiburger was a keynote speaker. To the right is a carton shipped to the symposium. Hats off to Managing Editor Christine Schwab for making it happen. Yeah, I guess Eli deserves some credit too. Authors will tell you that a book project can shift the domestic workload and diminish attention space for family and friends. At the symposium, I saw Eli’s family and thanked them for letting us borrow him for a while. Eli assured me though that the book was written at Denny’s while the rest of the family slept. Eli is a funny guy. He also speaks truth. I chuckled when reading in the book’s introduction: “My son will surely cherish his memories of the first time he camped out with his dad . . . on the sidewalk in front of Toys R Us, the night before the Wii launch.” Eli used the same line at the symposium then clicked to the photograph documenting it. He is an unabashed gamer.

In short, I’m one of them. You know who I’m talking about. The thumb twiddlers. The cathode-ray zombies. The strung-out junkies who can’t even wait for the bus without staring at some sort of screen. I am a gamer.

In the spirit of confessions, I’m one of them too. That is, one of those parents who don’t let the videogame consoles or the gameboys into the house. We were afraid it might hinder the kids’ creativity; you know, turn them into thumb-twiddling, cathode ray zombies. We might be wrong. My teenage son was arguing the point just last night at dinner. If he had known of Eli’s work at Ann Arbor Public Library and in his book, it might have been Exhibit A.

After seeing the vibe gaming tournaments have created at the library, as shown in Eli’s keynote, it’s hard not to be a convert. A word of caution though. I often hear the argument for gaming in the library of getting kids in, especially that hard-to-reach teenage boy demographic, so that you can show what else the library has to offer. No, the gaming is the thing. It’s not a hustle for pushing books. Eli repeatedly warned against the bait and switch.

ALA Publishing Marketing Coordinator Tina Coleman takes to heart Ranganathan’s first law of library science, “Books are for use.” I caught her in the hall on her way to show Jenni the purse that she made from cover overruns of Serving Teens through Readers’ Advisory. Tina is an ALA Editions author. Along with her crafter mom, she is writing a book on library craft programs for teens. Author Heather Booth is reviewing draft manuscript to assure that Tina’s projects will fly in the library. Tina graciously made this purse, which she packed away in a trunk headed for ALA Annual Conference, where she will present it to Heather. Tina works in the ALA Store at annual conference. If you have the chance to meet her, be sure to ask how you can jazz up your conference T-shirt.

Holly Koelling, editor of the forthcoming third edition of YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults, weighs in on trends in Young Adult Lit at MSN.COM: “Life after ‘Harry Potter’?”

No doubt everyone who’s anyone will have devoured Book 7 long before the summer is over. Readers and parents are certain to ask “Now what?” The new edition of BBYA (due out in August, but available for ordering now) is just the resource you’ll need for post-HP readers’ advisory.
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