So I finally got the Spring Children’s Preview Issue of PW… March 18, 2007

And, OMG, what do I see?

Bloomsbury turns the page for Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale, a tale of forbidden love set in medieval Mongolia…

Mongolia! Dude, I am so there!! Medieval Mongolia!!! I have only ever read one other YA book set in Mongolia, Diane Lee Wilson’s I Rode A Horse of Milk White Jade, which was excellent, btw.

Then I did a little digging and found Little Red Reading Hood, which quotes Hale as saying “[I]t’s not set in medieval Mongolia, though I did lean heavily on that time and place to create the setting. It’s a completely fictional setting called The Eight Realms.” Grr. And after I got all my hopes up, too! Once again, grrr.

Oh well, there were some other interesting-sounding books in the Fall 2007 Sneak Preview section.

It appears the latest adult author to join the YA crowd is Jack Higgins. Yes, that Jack Higgins. Putnam will be publishing “Sure Fire by Jack Higgins and Justin Richards, a YA novel by the bestselling adult author starring twins whose long-lost father is a spy.” Also, “Dial will be publishing The Revolution of Ramon De La Rose by Sally Gardner, a YA novel set during the French Revolution” [French Revolution! I'm so there, too!], and “Razorbill’s gone wild with Those Girls by Sara Lawrence, about the rowdy exploits of two 17-year-old boarding school students,” which made me stop and say, “Wait, Sara Lawrence?”