Bones are important,
They do a big job.
Without them, you'd be just
A big squooshy blob.

—Jeff Moss, from Bone Poems

KIDS' Q&A: ERIN HUNTER
Erin Hunter's books about clans of cats enjoy our favorite kind of popularity: it comes from kids loving the books (rather than silly adults heavily marketing them). Over the last four years two series have released: Warriors and Warriors: The New Prophecy, with six books each. From the beginning there has been a groundswell of adoration from kids. Routinely in the aisles, kids hear us recommending the series to adult customers and interject with their enthusiastic endorsements. April 24 heralded the beginning of both a new Warriors series, The Power of Three, and a Warriors manga series, the first of which finally answers the question, whatever happened to Graystripe? As if the excitement of reading these delightful new books isn't enough, there is a Warriors event at our Cedar Hills store on April 26 at 7 p.m. In the meantime, read our Q&A with Erin Hunter and save 30% off both new titles.

To save their colony, some ants can actually explode in the face of the enemy.

KIDS' Q&A: AIDAN POTTS
How do we know what we know about dinosaurs? How can we know we're right? What can we never know for sure? Aidan Potts invites us to explore these issues with his new interactive book, Uneversaurus. Read his very English Q&A and save 30% on Uneversaurus.

"Pants" was a dirty word in England in the 1880s.

KIDS' Q&A: JEFF KINNEY
Jeff Kinney is very funny. If you like your books with humor and cartoon pictures, then you will love him! Diary of a Wimpy Kid is based on Kinney's online cartoon journal, begun in 2004. We are very lucky he has branched out onto paper. Read middle schooler Greg's journal entries and cringe (come on, it's middle school, well-known as the worst time in most people's lives) while you laugh and relate. And read Jeff Kinney's highly entertaining Q&A, while saving 30% on Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Slugs have four noses.

PREORDER HARRY POTTER
Yes, we are going to keep mentioning it, and, yes, you should feel free to do a little dance every time we mention it. Are you drooling yet? You remember the date, right? Midnight, July 20? You know we're having the most smashing soiree ever on that date, right? You know you can preorder it on our website right now at an astounding $10.50 off the regular price, right? Well, don't just sit there politely reading this, click here!

ANGELA'S SPRING BOOK PICKS
Meet Angela, the Kids' Team lead at our Cedar Hills location. When not whirling around making all kinds of magic happen in the children's section, she is out pursuing social justice in peace-loving ways. And all while rocking the most adorable French schoolgirl fashions! Here are her picks for the best picture books of this spring season.

It's against the law for a monster to enter the city limits of Urbana, Illinois.

MOTHER'S DAY
It's time to get in a motherly frame of mind. Mothers are complicated beings, but mostly if it weren't for them, there wouldn't be us, so their importance is not in dispute. How about we get in the mood by reading about mothers, in all their perplexing manifestations, from the harsh perspective, no less, of teenagers? Try these unflinching young adult novels.

A dolphin sleeps with one half of its brain at a time, and with one eye open.

NEW ARRIVALS
The rollicking fairytale-inspired adventures continue with the fourth of the The Sisters Grimm series: Once upon a Crime by Michael Buckley. Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat is a very timely and important read. Jerry Spinelli's latest, Eggs, is about friendship and loss. In the third book by Liz Kessler, Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist, Emily must find the ring that will undo an ancient curse. The last book in the Underland Chronicles, Gregor and the Code of Claw, by Suzanne Collins, is out now, and we can finally find out if Gregor can save the Underland.

KAREN ON VERSE
I've had a recent fixation with David Levithan's young adult novels. It started with Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (co-written with Rachel Cohn) and became full-blown adoration with the amazingly sweet and true Boy Meets Boy. I just read The Realm of Possibility. It's told in 20 chapters, each in the voice of a different teenager, all from the same high school, so you get multiple perspectives of the same people and situations. As if that isn't cool enough, each chapter is in verse — different styles matching different personalities. Thus we reach our theme: books in verse. It's become quite the popular literary device for young adult novels in recent years. Coretta Scott King Award winner Nikki Grimes also uses a variety of voices in her verse novel Bronx Masquerade. The Brimstone Journals, by Ron Koertge, is a timely novel that switches among several voices to reveal a disturbing school shooting plot. Sonya Sones has made a splash with One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies and before that, What My Mother Doesn't Know. And Sold by Patricia McCormick (author of Cut) is a powerful and beautifully rendered tale of a Nepali girl sold into slavery.

KIDS' BESTSELLERS

1. Grandpa Bunny by Jane Werner 2. By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman 3. HarperCollins Student Notebook Webster's Dictionary by Webster's 4. The Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary by Sue Young 5. The Landry News by Andrew Clements 6. Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech 7. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar 8. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson 9. The Apprenticeship of Lucas Whitaker by Cynthia C. DeFelice 10. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank