A gorgeous picture book,
a highly-anticipated teen novel,
and a fascinating history of pioneer life
join our roster of children’s Midwest Connections Picks for this fall.

THE LONGEST NIGHT
Marion Dane Bauer
illustrated by Ted Lewin
Holiday House

FRONT AND CENTER
Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

PIONEER GIRL
A True Story of Growing Up
on the Prairie
Andrea Warren
University of Nebraska Press

Click on the links for all the details about these books, then buy them from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores.

We recommend these new Midwest Connections Picks for October — entertaining fiction, an affecting memoir, and a thought-provoking study of our Midwestern small towns.

HEAVEN TO BETSY /
BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF
Maud Hart Lovelace
Introduction by Laura Lippman
Harper Perennial Modern Classics

BETSY WAS A JUNIOR /
BETSY AND JOE
Maud Hart Lovelace
Introduction by Meg Cabot
Harper Perennial Modern Classics

BETSY AND THE GREAT WORLD /
BETSY’S WEDDING
Maud Hart Lovelace
Introduction by Anna Quindlen
Harper Perennial Modern Classics 

STRAY AFFECTIONS
Charlene Ann Baumbich
Waterbrook Press

THE SKY BEGINS AT YOUR FEET
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg
Ice Cube Press

HOLLOWING OUT THE MIDDLE:
The Rural Brain Drain and
What It Means for America
Patrick J. Carr and Maria J.  Kefalas
Beacon Press

Click on the links for all the details about these books, then buy them from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores.

Read these terrific new books for Fall!

Our Fall 2009 Midwest Connections Picks which launch in September are –

LIGHTS ON A GROUND OF DARKNESS
by Ted Kooser
Bison Books / University of Nebraska Press

OUR BOYS
A Perfect Season on the Plains
with the Smith Center Redmen
by Joe Drape
Times Books

THE SEASONS ON HENRY’S FARM
A Year of Food and Life
on an Organic Farm
by Terra Brockman
Surrey Books / Agate Publishing

TWISTED TREE
A Novel
by Kent Meyers
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Click on the links for all the details about these books, then buy them from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores.

These colorful new picture books for Fall
are our latest Midwest Connections Picks
for children —

OTIS
by Loren Long
Philomel Books

MOOSE ON THE LOOSE
by Kathy-jo Wargin
illustrated by John Bendall-Brunello
Sleeping Bear Press

CORN
by Gail Gibbons
Holiday House

Click on the links for all the details about these books, then buy them from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores.

__________________________

Plus, don’t miss this bestselling
Midwest Connections Pick for young adult readers!

SHIVER
by Maggie Stiefvater
Scholastic Press

This Midwest Connections Pick
is now available in  paperback!

SING THEM HOME
by Stephanie Kallos

Grove Press
$14.95 Trade Paperback
with Reading Group Guide
ISBN 978-0-8021-4413-3
Grove/Atlantic / PGW
www.groveatlantic.com

“Not since the Wizard of Oz has a tornado been used to such potent literary effect. . . . Dorothy may have thought that there’s no place like home, but what happens when there’s no house left at the old address, and no real parent figure to go home to? The Jones siblings take a further step down the road to enlightenment: They learn that home is where the heart is. . . . Kallos performs ample wizardry in blending both tears and quirky humor in this tale of lost souls.” —Seattle Times

Featured now in the 2009 MBA Catalog –
Books – A Reader’s Catalog
– at participating MBA member bookstores!

Read more about this book…

NEW updates including
Fall 2009 Picks!

The title list files below are updated on a regular basis as we add more Midwest Connections Picks titles for 2009. Be sure to check back often to get the most up-to-date lists, which you’ll always find on the Midwest Connections Picks Title Lists & Spreadsheets page. If you have questions about these files or need help with this information, please contact us.

• Basic list of 2009 Midwest Connections Picks (PDF)   
  – NEW UPDATE 8/21/09
  – includes Fall 2009 titles confirmed to date
  – This list can be posted in your store and given to your store’s customers, too.
• Primary Midwest Connections Picks Title List (Excel file) 
  legal size page
  – NEW UPDATE 8/21/09
  – includes Fall 2009 titles confirmed to date
  – You can use this Excel file for ordering and tracking inventory and sales, entering your own information into the spreadsheet as desired. This is NOT a list to give to your customers.
• Primary Midwest Connections Picks Title List (PDF)
  legal size page
  – NEW UPDATE 8/21/09
  – includes Fall 2009 titles confirmed to date
  – This is a PDF of the Excel file above.  You can print it out and write information on a hard copy, but you won’t be able to enter details directly info the file.

You can always get to the Midwest Connections Picks individual title pages for each book we’ve chosen  from 2006 through the present from any Midwest Connections related page or post.  Look to the right hand side of the web page for the Picks by Title list. Links to the most recent Picks are listed there.  Click on Browse All Titles to get to the entire list.

The summer is hot as these exciting books join our Midwest Connections Picks starting in August.

Click on the title links below for much more information about each one of these books for adults. And check out our  children’s Midwest Connections Picks for summer reading , too.

Buy these books from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!  Click here for the new searchable directory of our MBA member bookstores.

While I’m Falling
by Laura Moriarty

Hyperion Books

$24.99, Hardcover
ISBN-13:  978-1-4013-0272-6
Fiction

The tug-at-your-heart new novel by the bestselling author of The Rest of Her Life and The Center of Everything.  Every mother and daughter should read this story of a family in the midst of profound change!

“While I’m Falling deftly captures the moment a child realizes that growing up means being responsible for your parents’ mistakes-and preventing yourself from making the same ones. Laura Moriarty keeps getting better and better.”
-Jodi Picoult, author of Handle with Care

Missing Mark
by Julie Kramer
Doubleday / Random House
$23.95 Hardcover
ISBN-13:  978-0-385-52477-3
Fiction / Mystery & Suspense

This novel is set in the Twin Cities.

“Julie Kramer has done it again!  Her second Minnesota mystery features sassy, independent-with-a-vulnerable-side Riley Spartz investigating a missing groom and a missing BIG FISH.   The White Bear Lake setting and snappy dialogue move the plot along nicely to a satisfying conclusion.  I loved it!”
– Susie Fruncillo, Co-Owner, Lake Country Booksellers, White Bear Lake, MN

Shiver
by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic Press
$17.99 Hardcover
ISBN-13:  978-0-545-12326-6
Young adult fiction set in the Minnesota Boundary Waters area / supernatural romance

Dazzlingly talented newcomer Maggie Stiefvater brings readers a powerful supernatural love story in Shiver. This chilling, beautifully crafted novel brings two teenagers together against all odds.

“Oh. My. Goodness…I got totally sucked in, took most of Sunday to read the second half, and bawled through the last fifty pages. Teenage girls are going to love this!! I’m going to pass [this] on to one my colleagues tomorrow so she and her 15-year-old daughter can read it. I’m going to include a kleenex for each of them.”
– Kathy Adams, Education Specialist, Valley Bookseller, Stillwater, MN

The Fifth Floor
by Michael Harvey

Vintage / Random House
$14.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN-13:  978-0-307-38629-8
Mystery and detective fiction set in Chicago

Booksellers – The new Midwest Connections Pick sign and shelf-talker are available now for The Fifth Floor! Click on the book title to go to this book’s Midwest Connections webpage. 

Also available from Vintage –

The Chicago Way
$13.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN-13: 978-0-307-38628-1

PRAISE for The Fifth Floor

“The perfect Chicago detective story, complete with a loving tour of the city’s funkier locales that’ll make any displaced Chicagoan long for home.”
-Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City

Click on the links above for more information about these books.