BBAW Nominations, BBAW Meme & No New Crayons

Yet another week of no new crayons (but I did get all 3 Gallagher Girl series books that I won in a contest from Cecilia!)

I just wanted to thank everyone and anyone who nominated me for BBAW Week.
I got nominated for

1. Best YA Blog-First reaction: Mouth open in shock. Too cool. There are so many great YA blogs out there, just the fact that I got nominated is amazing. I'm honored to even be in the same category as some other really great YA blogs.

2. Best Cultural Review-First Reaction: Wow. I think I do decent cultural reviews, but not the best. I'm so pleased to be nominated and I like how BBAW has this category this year.

3. Best New Blog-First reaction: I'm really new. My blog is a baby still, about to be two months old! I can't believe people think my blog is doing such a good job to be nominated. I always thought of to be nominated in this category too.

Congrats to everyone who got nominated! Good luck :)

Now for a BBAW Meme

1) What has been one of the highlights of blogging for you?
My answer is pretty similar to all other new bloggers out there. Meeting so many people via cyberspace! I've talked to authors, fellow bloggers and fellow book lovers. If you had asked me last year or even six months ago if I planned on starting a blog, I would have laughed and said no. Laughed because I didn't think I had the talent or skill to start one. Well, now I think I'm getting there, becoming a better blogger. Also I've learned so many new things about books, publishing, people and technology!

2) What blogger has helped you out with your blog by answering questions, linking to you or inspiring you?

Oh my. So many great people. Big, big hug to Susan at Color Online. She was a huge help. Answering all my annoying little questions, posting about me on her blog (I'm sure I owe at large number of my followers to you!), giving me lists of books to read when I didn't really know where to start. She never missed a post to comment on, emailing and commenting with suggestions and advice.

Doret at the HappyNappy Bookseller. She also answered all my annoying questions, gave me book titles and helped get the word out about my blog. She was one of my earliest commenters. Always there (along with Susan) with advice. I view Doret and Susan as my godmothers and they are my inspirations.

Justine Larbalestier. She gave me lots of exposure when she asked me to write a guest-post for her blog. I'm pretty sure that I got half of my followers from the two posts I did for her! Justine is also an inspiration because she really helped bring attention to the lack of faces of people of color on YA book covers. She brought much needed attention to this issue and if it weren't for her, a large number of people may have gone on thinking there was no issue, there was nothing wrong or amiss about the lack of colorful faces on YA covers.

Zetta. She sent me my first review copy and has contacted numerous authors on my behalf. Zetta you rock! I loved A Wish After Midnight, and I'm pretty sure if it weren't for my blog, I wouldn't have ever heard of AWAM which would have been a real shame.

Last, but not least all teens of color out there are my inspiration. I do what I do because I want all teens of color out there to see themselves in books. I want them to know that they aren't alone in searching for books about people who look like them, I too am searching. I want to spotlight new up and coming authors of color writing for us teens. I want to create a change, to show the publishing companies that we want to see more YA books about people of color with colorful faces on the cover! I hope other teen book bloggers join me in reading and reviewing more books about people of color, we especially need more teens of color to be blogging!

Other wonderful people who've helped me; Tashi at Taste Life Twice (it's nice to see another black teen blogger and your blog is so fun! I love your posts, they are thoughtful and funny), Cecilia at the epic rat (You were the first teen book blogger to spotlight me and I so appreciate it! Also I love your creativity), Jessica at Eat, Sleep, Dance Read (for being the first teen book blogger to add me to her blogroll! Also your book blog was the first one I ever went to because the title basically summed up my life.), Shalonda (You've been so encouraging!), Steph Su (I just love your blog. I really, really do! And you were one of the first teen book bloggers to post about my first contest.) and so many other people, Thank You!

3) What is one question you have about BBAW that someone who participated last year can answer?
I really don't know what to ask. To be perfectly honest, I'm not exactly sure as to what goes on during BBAW week. So I guess I would ask, what activities should I participate in, all of them?

Have a great back to school all fellow teens who blog and adults try not to act too eager to see us go back to school so we can get out of your hair (this mostly applies to adults with little kids, but I know my parents were excited that I was back in school so there may be other parents out there like that!)