Links Recap : 2nd - 6th March

Two book deal announcements which have me MASSIVELY excited! Next year, Kathryn Ormsbee's Tash Hearts Tolstoy - about an asexual teenage girl finding sudden internet fame - will be published by Simon & Schuster! And as amazing as that is, even SOONER than that we have a UK publication month for a book I've been dying to read for ages - Meredith Russo's #ownvoices story about a trans girl, If I Was Your Girl, will be published here in June by Usborne. I am ridiculosly excited for both of these!

And speaking of brilliant books, you can download (free!) an amazing anthology Up And Coming: Stories by the 2016 Campbell-eligible authors from Bad Menagerie!  I've only read the first one, La Heron by Charlotte Ashley, but it's superb.  

Getting this up on Mother's Day - just about!! I think I linked to Caitlin's thank you to her mum last week, but going to put it in again because it's such a brilliant post, and appropriate for today. Of course, Mother's Day can also be a tough day for people for various reasons - this Safe Space guest post from Sophie on how her life changed after her mum's death is a really powerful read
Book-wise, there's a fantastic Minerva Reads blog about mothers in modern children's books and also if you missed it last week, Stacey's post on Unsung Heroic Mums in Literature is wonderful!

And going back to Safe Space, I love this post from Laura on needing to treat mental and physical health in the same way and this one from Jo on virginity. I think all of the Safe Space posts are always superb reads, but this one by Ray on grief and dementia hit home especially hard with me, having seen a much-loved relative of my own suffer horribly from dementia.

The 6 Degrees feature moved from Teens on Moon Lane to this blog, with Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell as the lead-off book for March!

Brilliant post here from Grace on doing work experience at the Times magazine.

I am constantly dismayed by what little coverage YA does get from mainstream media, most recently by a dire 'review' of a book in the Melbourne Review of Books which took numerous snipes at the category in general. That said, I was really glad that they accepted they'd made a mistake in publishing the piece as it was and apologised for it.

Great 'Books We Like' post from Booktrust for March - awesome to see The Shadow Keeper, The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth and Superhero Street here!

Booktrust also announced that Juno Dawson and Anthony Anaxagorou are the new judges for the BBC Young Writers' Award, joining Radio 1 DJ Alice Levine. 14-18 year olds definitely shouldn't misss this!

Loved Georgia's post on diversity in the English curriculum!

I am super-excited to read AMAZING MG author Stephanie Burgis's adult historical fantasy debut, Masks and Shadows. Superb post here on Book Smugglers on her influences!

Emma Gannon's post about the evolution of the Online Creator is awesome!

Fantastic Elle UK article about Louise O'Neill's Asking For It, along with a cover reveal for the adult cover of the novel.

And a great Katherine Woodfine's post on this blog about The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth and the Moonstone.

Also awesome on this blog, Mark Huckerby, Defender of the Realm co-author, gave us his top children's books!

And on my Twitter, I was thrilled to reveal the gorgeous Rachel Lawston cover for Jess Vallance's The Yellow Room - thank you Hot Key for letting me do this!

I also put together the March Happy Book Birthday post on MG Strikes Back.

On Saturday I went to The Bloggers' Market with Stacey and Grace - this was fabulous! Lots of fashion bargains from the superstar bloggers behind the event, and great biscuits and cakes, amongst other things. I would massively recommend Afternoon Crumbs to anyone with a sweet tooth! Oh, and a fabulous Oliver Bonas photo room with props to Instagram purchases!

Reminder that Robin Stevens and Non Pratt's guide for authors on doing events is Monday 14th April! This should be a fantastic evening, well worth signing up for if you're an author.

And a future event which looks amazing and I'm so glad I have tickets for - Anna James's Literary YA Salon, with Babysitters' Club author Ann M Martin and super-fans Laura Dockrill and Holly Bourne! There are THREE TICKETS left for this!

The fabulous UK subscription box Illumicrate has reopened for subscriptions! Both of the first two boxes sold out pretty quickly, so worth getting signed up NOW if you want May's box! To see some of the awesome swag that comes in Illumicrate boxes, check last week's links recap for various unboxings, or this brilliant Books and Quills video!

Love this Jenny McLachlan, Holly Smale, Harriet Reuter Hapgood and Marianne Levy piece on funny YA!

Michael S Mammano, freelance author for Den of Geek, is crowdfunding a pilot for 90s-set queer teen drama True Colors. This looks FANTASTIC and I really hope it gets funded!