Young Adult Book News 6th Jan 2014

News at a Glance: Reading is good for you, Goodreads hits 25 million users (spoiler: some of them are scammers), Sherlock becomes public domain, new Vampire Academy movie clip, and Children’s authors read some of their negative reviews in a video.

Young Adult Book News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly news post bringing you all the best information about the book and blogging world, particularly for the venn diagram of people who overlap between the two. For new releases and cover reveals of all the best Young Adult fiction, check out our Sunday post: Hot New Titles.

Wanna watch the news instead of reading it?

Reading is good for your brain – Populace resists the urge to shout ‘duh!’

No really, scientists have done studies to prove this now because, I’m assuming, all those other pressing science questions have already been answered.

“On the days after the reading, significant increases in connectivity were centered on hubs in the left angular/supramarginal gyri and right posterior temporal gyro (Editor’s note: sciencey speak for gooey brain stuff). These hubs corresponded to regions previously associated with perspective taking and story comprehension, and the changes exhibited a timecourse that decayed rapidly after the completion of the novel.”

The study uses many big words, but ultimately, one may determine the eventual result being that reading is good for you. The researchers wanted to determine if there was a connection between reading and possible long-term effects. The differences in brain activity increased after the reading period ended. The scans taken intimated a correlation between the increased brain activity from the beginning of the story, hitting its highest point between days six and eight before fading shortly after. However the five days of scans after the book reading period all showed increased activity than the scans taken for the five days before the experiment.

Ultimately – Read more, yeah?

And to help people to do that, Kate DiCamillo has become an Ambassador. An Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.  DiCamillo will soon begin an across country tour promoting Stories Connect Us. The Librarian of Congress appoints an Ambassador to promote and raise awareness for young people’s literature every two years. This makes me wonder why Steph and I haven’t been appointed. We promote literature! We use big words… occasionally.

The Library of Congress, the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader all sponsor the National Ambassador.  Making me wonder if hotel rooms and restaurant bills are included in that, because that would be a sweet gig. Previous lucky bastards National Ambassadors for Young People’s Literature include Jon Scieszka, Katherine Paterson and the previous Ambassador, Walter Dean Myers.

Goodreads Reaches a New Milestone. There’s an Infographic For That!

Goodreads, the goliath social media site, reported this week that it had reached 25 million members and released an infographic to celebrate. Such as telling us that Dan Brown’s Inferno was the most popular book of 2013. Truly shocking reveal! According to Goodread’s information, the site has grown from just 6.5 million in 2011, to 25 million in 2013. 2010 was the same year I joined, coincidence? I think not! You’re welcome, Goodreads.

In other news, a Booktuber known as bookmovieguy, shared a video on Goodreads Spammers & Scammers where he describes an encounter with an author impersonating a 12-year-old girl.

Obviously, this too is nothing new, but if you notice any suspect behavior from Goodreads users, always report them to support.

Time to Start Writing Sherlock Fan Fiction, Peeps

Your Sherlock Holmes fan fictions now belong to you! Conan Doyle’s beloved high-functioning sociopath is now public domain after a ruling between Klinger and the Arthur Conan Doyle estate. Doyle’s four novels and fifty-six short stories about Sherlock and his close, personal friend, Watson, were first published in 1887. Those stories are already under public domain and aren’t contested by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate. The ruling was made regarding the ten short stories that remain under copyright protection.

Klinger has, through third party licenses by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate, written 24 books and many articles on Sherlocks Holmes’ Canon.  When Klinger co-edited a Sherlock anthology, the estate intervened enforcing copyright protections.  Random house obliged and entered a licensing agreement (rule number 1: never oblige! Never give in! Never surrender! We will fight them on the beaches! We will fight them in the trenches! We will fight them in our homes! We will fight over whether any part of Winston Churchill was quoted correctly just then!)

When they went to publish a sequel with Pegasus books, Arthur Conan Doyle estate intervened again. Then, it seems, Klinger had had enough.

Long story short –  Sherlock belongs to us all now.

And to answer your question, no, Benedict Cumberbatch is not included in that public domain. I know, guys. I KNOW. But he’s a person! Stop objectifying him!

Vampires, Herpes and Getting Punched in the Face. Sounds Like a VA Clip, Yo.

Vampire Academy has a new clip out and it’s not terribly impressive.

The clip features a fight between Mia and Rose, triggered by Mia suggesting Lissa’s baby has Herpes.  Note to Mia, disease transgression doesn’t always happen like that.

The scene is meant to whet our appetites but, possibly, it turned me off more. Mia is a Moroii, a physically weak vampire with no determinable fighting skills. Whereas Rose, a Dhampir, has been trained to fight since childhood for the purpose of defending Moroi.  Rose’s character in the books was always impulsive with a tendency toward violence, but this scene plays out like a lion picking a fight with a kitten no matter if you’ve read the books or not. Vampire Academy has already had a very mixed reception from the Young Adult community as it is. With many, like Steph, faithful to the series and excited for the movie, and others like me – skeptical at best and growing progressively less interested.

It was revealed this week that Richelle Mead will be making a cameo appearance as a teacher in one of the early scenes in the movie. It’s just a walk past though Mead stated it was still a lot of work!

Also, this happened! Congrats, Richelle!

Well, guys, I meant to finish revisions this weekend, and instead I had a baby. Writing classes don't generally cover that turn of events.

— Richelle Mead (@RichelleMead) January 6, 2014

Remember That Time When That Lawyer Tried to Out Our Queen, J.K. Rowling? Yeah… Bad Idea.

Rowling’s lawyer was fined for breach of privacy by revealing her authorship of The Cuckoo’s Calling this week, to the amount of 1000 pounds and was rebuked by the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority. I would never reveal your identity, J.K.! Hire me! The lawyer infamously revealed the secret of Robert Galbraith’s identity to his wife’s friend who he was trying to impress. That friend indiscreetly tweeted a member of the press – thus the cat was out of the bag! Her now ex-lawyer, Gossage and Callegari (wife’s friend) had legal action taken against them for breach of confidence. The damages were donated by Rowling to charity.

Children’s Authors Read Online Reviews of Their Books

I love this idea! It could have gone very, very wrong, but thankfully didn’t. (Thanks, Christina for the tip!) Check out the video below: