Random House Children's Books Event 17.07.10

Hey there everyone!

Last Saturday, my fellow bloggers and myself have been invited by Random House Children's Books for a brunch and a talk about upcoming books. This was the first time I went inside a publisher company before (and let me tell you it's awesome!).

Aside from seeing again my blogging buddies:

Becky @ The Bookette, 

Sammee @ I Want To Read That, 

Sarah @ Sarah's Book Reviews, 

Lynsey @ Narratively Speaking, 

Jessica @ Nayu's Reading Corner 

and Carly @ Writing From The Tub, 

I also met Lauren @ I Was a Teenage Book Geek and Liz and Kaz @ My Favourite Books (Kaz Mahoney is also a writer, check out her website).

Upcoming books

I can tell you people that the upcoming books this year are AWESOME. I am extremely excited for most of them! There will be the new Malorie Blackman book called Boys Don't Cry about a teenage boy taking care of a baby. We even had the chance to see the different covers they had created. It looks great, especially seeing this story from the point of view of a teenage boy!

There will be a new Terry Pratchett book, I Shall Wear Midnight, out in September and which seems very touching (and fun as always), can't wait to read it!

The book Trash (I got an ARC!!) is one of the books I anticipate the most for this year. It looks very different and awesome, you can read below what it is about!

I also can't wait for the new Jonathan Stroud book (and all the others) and a book called Long Lankin as well as the Michael Scott series on Nicholas Flamel!

There are some secret books which were talked about but I can't tell anything... But BE EXCITED!

Translated books at Random House

I also had the occasion to talk a bit about translated books to Lauren and I will be asking some question to the team taking care of this at Random House and posting them as part of my Lost in Translation meme! We'll be able to understand the process they go through to acquire rights to some books and translate them. I can also submit some French and Italian books that I liked for them to check out, which is YAY!

The last part was surreal, it was basically like one of those horror films where a bunch of people are locked in a room together. Here, nothing too horrific, they put a bunch of book addicts book bloggers in a room packed with books with the only indication of "take all you can carry" *jaw dropping* I Know. Wow.

So I brought back a *few* books. 

And that's just because I can't carry weight on my shoulders =D

Mo-Bot High (Bk 1) - Neill Cameron

The Spider moon (Bk 1) - Kate Brown

These are two graphic novels I took because I looove graphic novels and these ones looked different and fun (I obviously love the colours!)

Noughts and Crosses (Bk 1) - Malorie Blackman

To Kill a Mockingbird (50th Anniversary edition) - Harper Lee

Before I Die - Jenny Downham

Ithaka - Adèle Geras

So I have never read a Malorie Blackman book, and I was told it isn't acceptable :)

I have read To Kill a Mockingbird several times, but this is one of my favourite books and I am a sucker for cute covers (don't you just love this cover? I'm thinking about getting a poster!!).

Before I Die is an incredibly beautiful story (I had tears in my eyes just reading the blurb on the cover) and I need to read it :)

I am still waiting for my (signed!) copy of Dido I won from Becky @ The Bookette but I am already a fan of Adèle Geras books from the many reviews I have read, hence Ithaka which I snatched as soon as I saw it. The others had no chance. ;)

Bloodlust and Initiation (Vampire Beach Novels) - Alex Duval

Tender Morsels - Marco Lanagan

The Runaway Troll (Bk 2) - Matt Haig

Heroes of the Valley - Jonathan Stroud

The Alex Duval book was offered to us in the goody bag and it is the story of Vampires on the beach, which looks like the perfect summer read :)

I loved the cover of Tender Morsels, and when I picked it up, I saw it was a retelling of the Grimms' Snow White and Rose Red. And that was enough to make me VERY EXCITED to read it!!

I need to get the first book Shadow Hill, but I'm sure The Runaway Troll will be such a laugh!!!
[Erratum: I definitely need to change my glasses since the first book of Matt Haig is Shadow Forest and not Shadow Hill, sorry about that! And thanks for letting me know my mistake ;)]

It would appear I also need to read Jonathan Stroud, so I am :)

Noah Barleywater Runs Away (ARC) - John Boyne

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne

The Ring of Solomon (Prequel to the Bartimaeus Trilogy) (ARC) - Jonathan Stroud

Trash (ARC) - Andy Mulligan

I wanted to read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas forever and I got to get a copy of it, as well as an ARC of John Boyne's new book Noah Barleywater Runs Away which looks fantastic!

Jonathan Stroud again, because I must :)

Trash is one of the books that Random House will publish this year, and let me tell you that I am extremely excited about that one. It looks like such a different story that we usually read in YA: it takes place in a slum and the main character Raphael has to go through rubbish to survive. Some children face hunger, violence and poverty on a daily basis, and they don't even feel sorry for themselves. From what I have heard, it is fantastically written, and I absolutely can't wait to read it. 

The Necromancer (Bk 4) - Michael Scott

Corinne presented Michael Scott latest publication in the Nicolas Flamel series. She spoke very warmly about this amazing book, and totally convinced me! I will be reviewing Michael Scott previous books in the series in August because I like reading books in the order (and I love series!), so stay tuned!

I am *soooo* excited at all the amazing books I got to bring home and the upcoming books coming out during the year! Wow! 

Thank you so much to the lovely Clare, Corinne, Lauren, Kelly and Rosi who took the time to come on a Saturday and organised this event for us, you girls rock!!

For other posts about this event, check out (they even put pictures!):

Liz @ My Favourite Books

Sarah @ Sarah's Book Reviews

Jessica @ Nayu's Reading Corner