Losers Is, Weirdly, Popular!

UPDATE: I just found out what exactly "Popular Paperbacks" means. It actually doesn't mean the book is a popular paperback (or a bestseller or anything); it means that the American Library Association thinks that my book should be popular. That's colossal. And kind of better-sounding.

Whoa! Just got an awesome email from the good folks at Scholastic. Thank you, people! It's really amazing that five years after this little neon novel got birthed (oboyo am I old), people are still thinking and talking about Losers.

(And: the other people on the list! Raina Telgemeier, who did the amazing Baby-Sitters' Club adaptations [that are actually brilliant, srsly]! Michael freakin' Northrop!)

Great news! – the following Scholastic titles are included in lists just announced by the ALA, selected at the recent ALA Midwinter Convention in Seattle.

2013 ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults

·         Prom and Prejudice, by Elizabeth Eulberg (A Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Top Ten Title)

·         Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, by Jordan Sonnenblick

·         Drama, by Raina Telgemeier (A Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults Top Ten Title)

·         Does My Head Look Big in This?, by Randa Abdel-Fattah

·         All the Broken Pieces, by Ann Burg

·         Born Confused, by Tanuja Desai Hidier

·         Losers, by Matthue Roth

·         Green Heart, by Alice Hoffman

·         Bluford High: Search for Safety, by John Langan

·         Trapped, by Michael Northrup

·         Smile, by Raina Telgemeier

FAQ: What are you excited about?

random question that ended up in my inbox this morning:

Q: What are you excited about in Judaism?

A: G-d! physics! the creation of the universe anew from nothingness at every moment! the fact that everything happens for a reason! the idea that i shouldn't be anxious about things because it's all part of g-d's plan! the fact that there is a plan in the first place, and we're all a part of it, and basically everything has been predestined, but we have free will and free choice anyway. like g-d knows where we're going to end up, but how we do end up there -- and what it means for us -- is still all in our hands.

Dork! download it here, now, free

Hey, remember how I said I was going to give away free stuff every month? It's January 1. It's here. Click to listen or hit the downloady thing to download -- you won't have to enter an email or a credit card or anything. Or just download it here.

Please, please, check out Katie Skau, who did the art. And for the extra version of "Shit Girls Don't Say," I asked a bunch of people on my facebook and twitter if they'd record themselves doing a version of a poem. I didn't tell them what the title or the lyrics were.

This mix features queendeb, Postal, Lacy LeBlanc, Michelle Hilburn, Cate Freyer, and Amalya Tolchin. Track them down, twitter-follow them, thank them every time you see them in the streets. I will. I'd love to just throw up each of their unedited versions. They're all brilliant.