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In the News |
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'Lightning Thief' Picked for Roker's Book Club |
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Rick Riordan doesn't quite have the name cachet of J.K. Rowling… at least not yet. But the author's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series has been causing a stir in the world of children's publishing. With the recently published third book in the series, The Titan's Curse, #3 at B&N this week—behind
pre-orders for the final Harry Potter book and Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go!—Riordan is riding a wave of success that includes Hollywood attention and, now, a major plug from Al Roker.
Not only has Chris Columbus (who directed the first and second Potter films) signed on to helm a movie version of book #1, The Lightning Thief, but the Today Show just selected The Lightning Thief as the second book for its summer reading group, Al's Book Club for Kids. (The club's first pick was The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.)
To discuss the 2005 title, published by Hyperion/Miramax, Riordan will appear on the Today Show on June 15, with various online forums being built at Todayshow.com around the book. According to the Disney Book Group,
The Lightning Thief currently has more than 500,000 copies in print. —Rachel Deahl
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More News |
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Abdo Hitches Its Wagon to a Star |
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Minneapolis's ABDO Publishing Group, which serves the library market, is celebrating its 25th anniversary by launching a new publishing company this fall. The company—which was originally called Red Wagon and was subsequently changed by ABDO to Magic Wagon, so as to not confuse it with Harcourt's Red Wagon imprint—will focus on library-bound picture and graphic books for preK to eighth-grade readers.
Magic Wagon will debut with two imprints releasing a total of 64 books: Graphic Planet, featuring fiction and nonfiction for readers grades 4-8, includes a graphic horror series, graphic history and biography series, and a graphic classics series. Twenty-eight titles will be released under this imprint this fall. For younger readers, 36 books will be released under the Looking Glass Library imprint, fiction and nonfiction books for younger readers, preK to fourth grade. Magic Wagon intends to launch a third imprint in January 2008.
While ABDO primarily serves the library market, director of marketing Dan Verdick said that they're hoping to enter the trade market at some point, with graphic fiction and nonfiction titles. — Claire Kirch
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Book News |
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S&S Rolls Out with INsiders |
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Its title is key. INsiders, a new nonfiction series from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, offers an in-depth, graphically innovative look inside various worlds. The inaugural titles, due out in June, examine Dinosaurs, Space, Oceans and Egypt. Written by an international spectrum of authors, the paper-over-board volumes contain computer-generated art and 3-D model imagery.
That art surely grabbed the attention of Rubin Pfeffer, senior v-p and publisher of S&S Children's Publishing, who spotted a large poster promoting the series at last year's Bologna Book Fair. "I was on a mission to find good, engaging nonfiction for children and that poster pulled me in to talk to the packager," he recalls. That packager was Sydney-based Weldon Owen, whose Discoveries series has sold more than nine million copies in 23 languages.
"I saw sample spreads for INsiders and liked the promise of what I saw," Pfeffer says. "I made a decision to go for it shortly after the fair. One of the commitments I needed from Weldon Owen was that Simon & Schuster
would be actively involved in creating the books. In fact, we were exceedingly
hands-on in developing the series." The series is being edited at S&S by Alexandra Cooper.
While developing INsiders, Pfeffer notes that they analyzed the series' competitors in the marketplace, most obviously DK's Eyewitness line. "I am a big fan of the Eyewitness books," he says, "and our goal was to bring out a series that was not necessarily better but complementary to that and other existing series. It wasn't our plan to unseat them but to publish something different."
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Harry Potter Corner |
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Harry's Sticky Send-Off |
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Forget the Nimbus 2000–Harry's going to be hitching a ride on millions of pieces of mail. Britain's Royal Mail joins France and Australia among other countries in designing official Potter postage. The agency will issue a series of seven stamps depicting the covers of the bestselling Harry Potter books on July 17, just four days before the seventh and final volume Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows goes on sale.
Julietta Edgar, who is in charge of special stamps at the Royal Mail, said that the new stamps fall in line with the post office's tradition of celebrating "social themes and important occasions central to our way of life," according to an Associated Press report. "There's no doubt that J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, published in dozens of languages worldwide, have made a phenomenal impact on our reading habits," Edgar added.
Wait till the Midnight Hour
We knew Harry's swan song would be special, but it's going to be downright electrifying for 1700 lucky fans who will have the chance to meet J.K. Rowling and have their copy of Deathly Hallows signed at a publication party called "J.K. Rowling and the Midnight Signing." The author will make her appearance at London's Natural History Museum at the stroke of midnight on July 21. The first 500 randomly selected winners will attend Rowling's midnight reading. The subsequent signing is expected to last until dawn. Each ticket holder will receive a free copy of the book from Bloomsbury. Between May 23 and June 11, fans may apply for free tickets to the event on Bloomsbury's Web site.
But lest Stateside Potterphiles feel left out, Scholastic has announced a sweepstakes in which seven winners will receive the prize of free roundtrip airfare and a three-night stay for two in London, and, of course, a free copy of the book—to attend Rowling's midnight reading/signing. U.S. winners will be selected by a random drawing and entries (open to fans under 21 years of age) must be received by June 15 either via the Web site, or snail mail: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Sweepstakes, Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
10012. —Shannon Maughan
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In Brief |
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A Red Carpet Premiere in Cannes |
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YA author Blake Nelson is at the Cannes Film Festival this week, for the premiere of the Gus Van Sant movie Paranoid Park, based on Nelson's 2006 Viking novel. Check out Nelson's extensive blog entries about his trip.
Jocelyn Hayes Simpson of Killer Films, daughter of Viking Children's Books' president and publisher Regina Hayes, saw the film in Cannes and e-mailed this report to her mother: "Saw Paranoid Park today. I thought it was very, very good and quite devastating. He really captures how it feels to be a teenager so well—with not just the dialogue, but with the structure, sound, everything."
Here, the author is shown en route to the premiere. From his blog: "Anywhere else in the world people look odd taking the subway in a tuxedo. In the south of France nobody notices."
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A Sneak Peek |
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| © The CW/Timothy White |
Our recent story on the Gossip Girl series reported that a pilot TV show was under consideration by The CW. Since then, The CW has picked up the pilot, and placed the show on its fall schedule. Here's a publicity shot of the cast; (back row, l. to r.): Penn Badgley as Dan, Ed Westwick as Chuck, Taylor Momsen as Jenny; middle row, l. to r. Leighton Meester as Blair and Chace Crawford as Nate; (front row) Blake Lively as Serena. |
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The Lowry Lounge |
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Houghton Mifflin has made a gift to the Cambridge Public Library in the name of author Lois Lowry. The gift will fund a Young Adult Lounge when the library is rebuilt in 2009. Earlier this month, Houghton held a ceremony to mark the occasion; shown here, Lowry with her longtime editor, Walter Lorraine.
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Q&A |
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Bookshelf talked with Mini Grey about her new picture book, Ginger Bear (Knopf, June).
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You dedicate Ginger Bear "to cookie lovers everywhere." Did your own love of cookies inspire the book?
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I love food and I love drawing it particularly.
My first book was about an egg [Egg Drop, a Humpty Dumpty picture book published in the U.K.], then came The Pea and the Princess, from the pea's point of view. This third book is about a biscuit, and biscuits give you the opportunity to draw all the ingredients you use to cook with. I'm very fond of biscuits, you know, and you have to research these things properly. I'd put them on my scanner and have a jolly good look, and then afterward I would have to eat them. In the past, I would have photographed them, but the scanner makes things much easier—you just have to keep the scanner from getting too many crumbs on it.
read more
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People |
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Paula Herr has joined Peachtree Publishers as publicity manager. Previously she was communications manager for the town of Celebration, Fla., and was public relations and marketing manager at the History Center in Orlando. Mimi Schroeder, who was formerly Peachtree’s publicity manager, will be leaving the company at the end of June to start up Max Communications, a book publicity service.
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Mark Your Calendar |
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On Saturday, June 9, the Western Massachusetts Illustrators Guild is holding its first Children’s Book Festival, which it hopes to make an annual event, at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst. Seventeen illustrators from the Guild, including Margot Apple (illustrator of Nancy Shaw’s Sheep in a Jeep series, Houghton Mifflin), Laura Jacques (illustrator of Virginia Kroll’s Sweet Magnolia, Charlesbridge) and Ruth Sanderson (author and illustrator of The Snow Princess, Little, Brown) will sign books, give readings and lead hands-on activities. Original pieces of art and prints will be available for purchase, and there will be a silent auction (the art is available for viewing online).
The festival is free with museum admission.
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Featured Reviews |
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My Little Grandmother Often Forgets |
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 Reeve Lindbergh, illus. by Kathryn Brown. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-1989-3
Lindbergh (My Hippie Grandmother) writes in the voice of a youngster endearingly devoted to his grandmother, who suffers from memory loss. The title page shows the lad and his parents arriving at the home of the diminutive woman, who sports an eccentric hairstyle, snazzy earrings, jeans and striped socks. The child observes that his grandmother can't find her belongings, including her cat (perched atop the chair she's sitting in) and her glasses (tucked into her hair). The boy stays close to his grandmother, watching her take burnt cookies from the oven and waiting patiently as she ponders a purchase, explaining that on an earlier visit "She got to the store/ but forgot the way back./ Now she takes me along,/ and I help her keep track." In an especially affecting
scene, the understanding grandson gently corrects her when she calls him by his father's name: "So I say, 'I'm not Roy,'/ and she answers, 'You're not?'/ Then I tell her, 'I'm Tom./ That's okay. You forgot.'" In the story's heartwarming ending, Tom reveals that his grandmother now lives with him and "She can't find her cat,/ and she loses her way...../ But she says she's found me,/ so she thinks she will stay." Brown's (Tough Boris) wispy, pastel-toned watercolor and ink illustrations poignantly underscore the bond between the narrator and his grandmother. This will easily provide a springboard for adult-child dialogue and will reassure children faced with similar family situations that they can be of
help.
Ages 4-6. (Apr.)
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 Beauty Shop for Rent: ...fully equipped, inquire within |
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 Laura Bowers. Harcourt, $17 (336p) ISBN 978-0-15-205764-0
Fourteen-year-old Abbey Garner, the star of Bowers's debut novel, has lived with her great-grandmother Granny Po since her mother abandoned her three years earlier. Abbey believes the women in her family are cursed because, starting with Granny Po, each had a baby by age 17. ("Not only did the women in my family inherit overly fertile eggs, they each married men who were total, complete, and absolute duds.") Abbey is determined to avoid the same fate; instead, she intends to become a millionaire by age 35. Working at her grandmother's beauty shop and on her neighbor's horse farm, Abbey is well on her way to her financial goal, yet she still hopes to be reunited with her mother. Then Gena Hopkins breezes into town and rents Granny Po's beauty shop, transforming it
into a posh day spa and giving Abbey a new job and an ambitious, entrepreneurial role model. During a rare visit, Abbey's mother promises they'll be reunited as soon as she can afford a down payment on a house. Reluctantly, Abbey hands over her savings, but she soon discovers her mother has deceived her. Teens will find Abbey's emotional turmoil rings true, as does the reason behind her final act of forgiveness. But it's the multigenerational friendships—the feisty, sniping conversations with Granny Po and her close circle of friends, "The Widows," brim with humor—that make Bowers's first novel a delight. Ages 12–up. (May)
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see all of this week's reviews
including our web exclusive Annex *
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Bestsellers |
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Picture Books Bestsellers
May 2007 |
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- Oh, the Places You'll Go! Dr. Seuss.
Random House, $17
ISBN 978-0-679-80527-4
- Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy. Jane O'Connor, illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser.
HarperCollins, $16.99
ISBN 978-0-06-054213-9
- Someday. Alison McGhee, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds.
Atheneum, $14.99
ISBN 978-1-416-92811-9
- Bad Dog, Marley! John Grogan, illus. by Richard Cowdrey.
HarperCollins, $16.99
ISBN 978-0-06-117114-7
- Thanks to You. Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton.
HarperCollins/Andrews Collection, $14.99
ISBN 978-0-06-124002-7
see full list
see more bestseller lists
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Behind the Bestsellers
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It's graduation season again, and as sure as you'll see caps and gowns on the nation's campuses, you'll also see plenty of copies of Oh, the Places You'll Go! given as graduation gifts (though Dr. Seuss didn't write the book with that purpose in mind). Random House has eight million copies in print.
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Galley Talk |
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Eden Ross Lipson, former children's books editor at the New York Times, talks about a favorite fall galley. |
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Arnold Spirit Junior, the 14-year old narrator of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Little, Brown, Sept.), Sherman Alexie's wonderfully appealing, loosely autobiographical novel for young adults, is an old-fashioned hero.
He doesn't look or sound the part. A Spokane Indian, Junior "was born broken and twisted." He stutters and lisps, so he draws all the time because "words are too unpredictable." A "zero on the rez," his only chance to survive is to leave.
The novel covers Junior's freshman year journey at Reardon, an all-white high school, 22 miles and worlds away.
We're talking classic bildungsroman here—questing, testing and coming of age. What is new and fresh is the voice of this smart, self-aware and anxious Indian kid and the bleakly exotic setting.
Junior's confiding, often hilarious, sometimes frighteningly affectless narrative is enhanced by Ellen Forney's cartoon illustrations, which capture him, his family, and friends with economy and wit. Though they love him, his parents "are drunks… but they aren't mean." His best friend, Rowdy, "the toughest kid on the rez," was born "born mad…. And hasn't changed much." As Vonnegut said, "So it goes."
In the classic tradition, the questing hero is challenged: at home, on the rez, on the road, at school, on the basketball court. Poverty plus alcohol have poisoned the tribe. Violence is random, death is a hideous commonplace, and there's room for riffs on love, longing and masturbation.
The classic structure of the novel allows so much drama, so much trauma, so many incidents to be both absorbing and believable for young readers coming of age around the country in cities and suburbs, settings far, far from the rez. And, by the way, the hopeful, not hokey, ending is just right.
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Memory Lane |
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Valerie Lewis, co-owner of Hicklebee's in San Jose, Calif., recalls a favorite convention moment.
When Hicklebee's first opened in 1979, my partners and I knew nothing about the business of selling books. As a matter of fact, our first orders were the result of our sitting around my kitchen table with a stack of children's books. We'd open them up, search out the name of the publisher and their location—usually New York. We'd then look for the contact information for their phone number, call, introduce ourselves and request a catalog. After a while reps began to call on us. We were two years into it before we discovered there was such a thing as distributors.
It was at our first ABA that we discovered other children's-only stores existed, although not many. It was there too that I attended my first children's breakfast. The banquet room filled and I wondered who all these people were, when Bob Hale walked up to the podium, paused, swept the room with his eyes, and said with great pride, "Good morning, I'm Bob Hale and I am a bookseller."
I remember our excitement. We were a part of this world.
Years later as the enthusiasm about children's bookselling swelled, we used the annual convention to exchange ideas as we pushed the edges in creative survival. And for many years it was Bob Hale who greeted us on that first day of the convention with,
"Good morning, I am a bookseller." The audience would break into applause—the loudest from booksellers, who sat taller in their seats. It was our moment, in the midst of the insanity of our chosen profession.
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Rights Report |
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Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy, an April novel from HarperCollins, has been sold to the movies. Warner Bros. has purchased film rights to the entire projected nine-book series. Peter Czernin and Graham Broadbent of U.K. Blueprint Pictures will produce, and Landy, who has written several horror movies, will write the adaptation.
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In the Media |
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From Variety: A promotional reel from the Golden Compass movie was shown to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival as part of a "global marketing kickoff." Director Chris Weitz said he was under contract for the second and third parts of the trilogy, if those move ahead; the script for The Subtle Knife is currently being written. |
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From USA Today: Mikhail Baryshnikov's first picture book, Because, with Vladimir Radunsky, pubs this month, and USA Today's Bob Minzesheimer spoke with the dancer and choreographer. |
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From Newsweek: S&S recently reissued Judy Blume's Forever, and Newsweek ran a Q&A with Blume for the occasion. |
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From the Associated Press: A profile of Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne. |
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From the Guardian: More coverage of the controversy surrounding And Tango Makes Three, the picture book about the baby penguin with two fathers.
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New On ShelfTalker |
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This week Alison blogs about her bookstore's wildly successful evening with Rick Riordan, and the cross-country tour that a local YA novelist will be chronicling on NPR. Check it out here.
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Contact Us |
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Dear Bookshelf Readers,
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Hope you enjoyed this week's issue. We'd
love to hear from you with any comments and suggestions—drop us a note here.
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