A fine publication. Note that it is not of the academic bibliographic type, if you equate that sort of thing to paint drying. A fair chunk of the book is basically mini-interviews with authors, editors and illustrators, so for fans or others with an interest in these people an easy access source for an overview of their work in that time.

Other than that, it has a cool cover, thanks to Stathopoulos, and an odd landscape type format, which seems to work ok.

Her intro says she aims to take a look at the years 2000-2005, given earlier periods have been covered. Probably a sensible approach, and one that could be repeated in the future without the Herculean effort required by the publications produced by Collins, Stone or Nicholls.

I definitely found out quite a few things I didn't know, which really is the point when getting something like this, and it becomes clear, when you know what you might like, who you will want to avoid.

A great feature is that she lists the contents of anthologies and magazines mentioned. This is something some publishers editors and authors fail at regarding their own publications. Some of these magazines have vanished, hence there won't be any websites or anything remaining. Bonus points for that.

Only odd thing would be when she says that some authors didn't want to be in the book? Who the hell cares, apart from perhaps you don't put their photo in if they don't give you permission to do so. If they don't want to be mentioned in books of authors, then don't put work out in public. Strange.

The other thing was something one of the authors said, Penni Russon : "I Love YA fiction because the possibilities are endless." This is, of course, complete and utter rubbish, with that label itself indicating it is limited. That's nothing to do with Hanson, but certainly one of the stupidest things I have seen recently, so entertaining in its desperate spin that sounds more like something a politician would say.

Anyway, it is absolutely worth buying, and I should have gotten my hands on this earlier than I did.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/06... ( )