is anyone still here?

Some things:

I see a few of us are interested in the idea of talking about some picture books, too. Rebecca suggested Emily Gravett (see the comments section of her post for specific titles), who I think is a great choice. I own one already, and have the other two on my library list, so I'm definitely down with that discussion.

I had suggested reading the first Sweet Valley High book, Double Love, now that the series has been repackaged. Others are interested in this, too. I bought the book last week (or rather, my kind husband, who is no longer embarrassed to buy books written for teenage girls, bought it for me) and will hopefully post on it after next week.

I'm realizing I am woefully behind on middle grade fiction, having maybe read 6 books for that age group in the past year. I just read Canned, by Alex Shearer, and it was completely enjoyable, very unique, and somewhat disgusting. If anyone else had read much middle grade lately (Leo?), I'd love some suggestions.

Since I'm sort of disconnected from the YA world (or at least less connected than I was while working in bookstores and libraries), I rely a lot on blogs. Lately I've been reading and enjoying Not Your Mother's Book Club, The YA YA YAs, and YA New York. If you have time to kill, check them out. Lots of great reviews and discussions.

Finally, I know we're forever picking books and hardly ever actually discussing them, but can we talk about an August book? We don't seem to have much enthusiasm (or time?) lately, and the blog is pretty quiet, so I think maybe we'll talk about picture books, the SVH book, and whatever else we're reading and want to mention, for the next handful of weeks. But does anyone have any thoughts on a title for August? Or other picture books they'd like to discuss? Months ago, we had been talking about maybe reading a YA classic. I still like that idea, but don't have any great thoughts on what title to suggest. Personally, I am hoping to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn this summer (which I know can now be found in the YA section often, so maybe that would count). It's hard for me to think of a YA classic that many of us wouldn't have reread while at Simmons. Somewhere (email? personal blog? here?), Jess had mentioned at one point that she wanted to reread the Anne of Green Gables series and blog about it, and I have been hoping to reread the Betsy-Tacy series and start a blog on that, too (though those don't turn YA-ish until many books in). All just my random thoughts.

Your thoughts?