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January 17, 2008

In The News
More Book News
Second Chances
Featured Reviews
New in ShelfTalker
About Our Newsletter More News
In Brief
Q&A
In the Media
Contact Us

Book News
Moving On Up
People
Bestsellers
From the Slush Pile

In the News

A Talk with the Newbery and Caldecott Winners

The winners, on the
Today Show: Brian Selznick
(The Invention of Hugo Cabret);
Laura Amy Schlitz (Good Masters!
Sweet Ladies!); Dr. Loriene Roy
(ALA president); and host Ann Curry.

This past Monday at 7:30 a.m., just four hours after finding out that he’d won the Caldecott Medal, Brian Selznick boarded a plane in San Diego, headed for New York City. Unable to concentrate, Selznick watched his seatmate pull a few folded sheets of paper out of her bag. He recognized the ASLC seal, and realized she was reading the press release for that morning's awards. Compelled to remark on the coincidence, Selznick asked her, "Excuse me, are you a librarian?" "No, she replied, "I work for PBS." She then explained that these big children's awards had been announced earlier in the day. Selznick’s response: "I know—I won one!"

For an interview with the newly minted Caldecott Medalist, as well as Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz, click here.

Booksellers React to Top Children's Prizes
The results are in, and this year's roster of awards yielded a number of surprises. Children's booksellers shared their thoughts on the winners named in Monday's announcements.

Several praised the Caldecott committee for "pushing the envelope" by awarding the medal for the year's most distinguished picture book to The Invention of Hugo Cabret, an 533-page illustrated novel—it's the first time that the Caldecott has ever been given to a novel. Elizabeth Bluemle, co-owner of Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., predicted, "There will be a lot of discussion as to whether it's a true Caldecott winner. It's not a picture book in the way that we like to think of a picture book, but the argument can be made that it works as a picture book, in that the words and art work together. It does break new ground in how a book is made, and I think it's great that it was recognized."

For more discussion by booksellers, click here.

More News

IDW Launches Hollywood-Heavy Kids' Imprint

Graphic novel, horror and sci-fi publisher IDW is going after younger readers with a new division and imprint dedicated to kids. The publisher’s new imprint, Worthwhile Books, will be housed under the equally new Jonas Publishing division. Mining a first-look deal with U.K. children’s publisher Meadowside Books, Worthwhile will, in addition to releasing a number of original titles, publish about 10 Meadowside books annually. For its own list, v-p and creative director Rob Kurtz, whose background is in TV and film, said the goal is to cull projects from comedy writers working in Hollywood.

Noting that many of the authors already on Meadowside’s first list are working comedy writers—collective credits include TV and film properties like The Simpsons, Rugrats and Shrek 2—Kurtz said that, in general, he’s looking for projects from these creative types, hoping to “mine the children’s book part of their souls.”

read more

Book News

Knopf Announces Title, New Pub Date for Paolini's Latest

Knopf Books for Young Readers has revealed the name and cover of the third title in Christopher Paolini's Inheritance series. The book, called Brisingr, will have a first printing of 2.5 million, which is the largest initial print run to date for the Random House Children's Books division. The title itself is an Old Norse word for "fire," and is the first word in that language that Eragon hears. As with the previous books in the series, the book's cover was illustrated by John Jude Palencar.

Brisingr had been scheduled for release on September 23, 2008, but will now go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on September 20. "After the initial announcement of Book Three's release, we received an outpouring of requests from booksellers hoping to host midnight launch parties," said Nancy Hinkel, publishing director at Knopf Books for Young Readers. "We have responded to their enthusiasm by advancing the date, and we know fans will welcome the opportunity to celebrate the publication together."

Random House's Listening Library division will publish the title simultaneously as an audiobook. Paolini's first two books, Eragon and Eldest, have sold 12.5 million copies worldwide. —John Sellers

More Book News

A Tasty Promotion for Spiderwick

Simon and Schuster has partnered with General Mills for a 10 million-box, five-brand cereal promotion tied to the Spiderwick Chronicles. Running from January 1 to March 1, the promotion’s timing is tied to the Spiderwick film being released in February. But its focus is entirely on the books. In fact, when the two companies started talking about the partnership, the film was optioned but didn’t have a green light, so it wasn’t a factor in the deal, according to Laura Ferguson, S&S director of premiums, CDP and corporate sales.

Specially marked boxes of Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, Reese’s Puffs, Cookie Crisps and Honey Nut Cheerios will include one of three collectible books based on the second title in the Spiderwick series, The Seeing Stone. The three will be evenly distributed among the 10 million boxes, with each store receiving some of each title. The cover is visible through a clear window in each box.

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In Brief

S.C. Librarian Wins a Visit from Ambassador Scieszka

Photo: Michael McClure

This past weekend at the ALA midwinter meeting in Philadelphia, librarians had the opportunity to enter a contest, with a library visit from Jon Scieszka, the newly appointed national ambassador for young people's literature, as the prize. Here, Michelle Bayuk from the Children's Book Council and John Cole from the Library of Congress prepare to draw the winning business card, which belonged to Janet P. Sarratt, a retired middle-school librarian from Gaffney, S.C.

Clarion Goes to Bat for Park

Also at ALA, Team Clarion was out in full force. Here, staffers show off baseball shirts and
caps to celebrate Linda Sue Park's forthcoming novel, Keeping Score (Mar.). The lineup consisted of (l. to r.) editor Jennifer Wingertzahn, v-p and publisher Dinah Stevenson, marketing manager Marjorie Naughton, publicist Jenny Groves and editor Marcia Leonard.

S&S, Ball State Launch Webcast Partnership

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., will partner to bring S&S authors and illustrators to more than 30,000 schools across the nation via live Web broadcasts as part of the MyVisit Virtual Author Series. The 45-minute broadcasts will consist of an author presentation and reading, followed by a Q&A with students. Curriculum suggestions and classroom activities will be made available to participating classrooms in advance of the broadcasts, and Booksource will supply books. MyVisit will kick off with author Andrew Clements on March 18. Additional information is available at the MyVisit Web site.

Q&A

Meg Cabot

Bookshelf talked with Meg Cabot about Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls (Scholastic Press), her first book for middle-grade readers.

The heroine of your new book, Allie Finkle, is moving into an old house that’s going to need a lot of work. Does this storyline stem from having finished remodeling your house in Key West?

Ha! Finished! I am living a nightmare because now we’re remodeling the kitchen. And we switched all the phones when we realized we had to have a phone with a landline that would work in case of a hurricane because, of course, if you lose power, the cordless ones don’t work. So the phones are only working intermittently now. But, no, it’s based on my experience growing up. My parents, really my mom, at some point became obsessed with wanting to live in an old house. When did This Old House come on the air? She loves PBS. She might have gotten the fever from that
read more

Featured Reviews

Drive

Nathan Clement. Front Street, $16.95 ISBN 978-1-59078-517-1
Clement makes a noteworthy picture book debut with this day-in-the-life story of a trucker, as told through the eyes and succinct words of his young son. Aficionados of the truck genre won't find any big surprises here in terms of the shape of the story—Daddy is a skilled, unfailingly polite and conscientious driver. "Daddy's on time," notes the boy after his father is shown taking a coffee break at a truck stop, "because there is more work to do," and while Daddy is up before dawn, he makes it back home in time to play a sunset game of backyard ball. It's Clement's visual storytelling that sets this book apart, and gives many of the images all the power of a six-cylinder 16.1-liter diesel engine. Working in big, streamlined shapes; flat, bright colors; and shiny, airbrushed-like surfaces, he evokes a deco-esque world where the combustion engine reigns supreme and humans and trucks are closely related species. Unusual and often cinematic perspectives—a thigh-high view of Daddy gripping the gear shift, a bumper's-eye view of a traffic jam—plunge readers into the action, and give the compositions a red-blooded energy. Some kids may still find the pictures a bit chilly, especially as the face of Daddy and other people are never seen. But most will take one look at his awesome truck, his strong hands and his beefy physique, and see all the makings of a hero. Ages 2-8. (Feb.)

Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for
True Blue Love

Patricia Martin, illus. by Marc Boutavant. Random/
Schwartz & Wade, $15.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-375-84016-6
Lulu Atlantis from Sweet Pea Lane, with a baby brother and a dad off saving extinct animals like the Double-Eyed Fig Parrot, confides her troubles to her best friend, Harry. So what if Harry is a talking spider in a top hat whom no one else can see? He offers good advice, reminding a skeptical Lulu that "to find True Blue Love, you would not have to search beyond your own backyard." It's no surprise that the adventures in these four linked stories leave Lulu with the realization that she is already enmeshed in everyday scrumptious love—the fun percolates within Martin's (Travels with Rainie Marie) flavorful storytelling. Lulu, responding to the arrival of the baby, takes Harry and runs away. In a woods "as bleak as a midwinter midnight," they encounter a skunk who calls Lulu "kiddo" and "girlie"; when she asks for advice, he says, "I'm a skunk, not a magician, I don't got all the answers"—then tells her precisely what to do. Subsequent run-ins involve three gangster bakers (Scarecrow, Lefty-Righty Louie and Jimmy Creamcheese) and Princess Fancy the diabolical cat. Martin winningly deviates from the narrative with descriptive interjections: "Please understand, Farmer Wallenhaupt's Frog Pond was not a pond as most people imagine a pond to be. It was filled with silver water whose droplets slid about like mercury." The scenarios are whimsical; the emotions run true. Ages 7-11. (Jan.)

Reviews from the January 14 issue of Publishers Weekly.

see all of this week's reviews
including our web exclusive Annex *

Bestsellers

Fiction Bestsellers
January 2008

Eclipse. Stephenie Meyer. Little, Brown/Tingley, $18.99 ISBN 978-0-316-16020-9

New Moon. Stephenie Meyer. Little, Brown/Tingley, $18.99 ISBN 978-0-316-16019-3

Twilight. Stephenie Meyer. Little, Brown/Tingley, paper $9.99 ISBN 978-0-316-01584-4

Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Jeff Kinney. Abrams/Amulet, $12.95 ISBN 978-0-8109-9313-6

The Sweet Far Thing. Libba Bray. Delacorte, $17.99 ISBN 978-0-385-73030-3
find out more...

see full list
see more bestseller lists

Moving On Up

Spy High
Sure, teen secret agents James Bond and Alex Rider have generated a lot of heat in the book market in the past couple of years. But the spy game is hardly just a guy game. Cammie Morgan, a star pupil at boarding school cum spy-training center Gallagher Academy, is a character with a series on the rise. She made her butt-kicking debut in I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter (Hyperion, 2006). Cammie’s second action-filled adventure, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy bowed last October with a first printing of 75,000 copies. To date, combined sales of both books (including I’d Tell You’s paperback edition) have topped 300,000 copies; film rights to I’d Tell You have been optioned by Walden Media.

“My daughter is 12 ½ and the perfect age for these books,” says Becky Smith, manager of Town Crier Bookstore in Emporia, Kans. “She likes that Cammie is a strong, smart girl still interested in boys, but not ga-ga over them. She’s a kind of 007 for girls.”

read more

Second Chances

A New Day for
the Melendys
During its first two seasons, the Square Fish imprint at Macmillan has highlighted backlist authors and series from the company’s various children’s book imprints. As PW previously reported, in 2007 Square Fish reissued books by Natalie Babbitt and Madeleine L’Engle. Now, four titles by Newbery Medalist (for Thimble Summer) Elizabeth Enright return this month on Square Fish’s winter list as the Melendy Quartet.

For Square Fish publisher Jean Feiwel, reissuing Enright’s books was an easy decision. “In [looking through] Holt’s backlist, Enright is one of the key authors, one of the cherries on their cake,” she says. “I knew pretty much from the beginning that she would be on the ’08 list.” Enright also illustrated the books, and her original line art remains in the new Square Fish editions; the cover art is by Tricia Tusa, which first appeared on Holt’s hardcover reissues in 2002, along with a unifying band to mark them as a series.

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People

Jennifer Haller has been named v-p and associate publisher of Harcourt Children's Books, an imprint of the new Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group. Haller was previously v-p of sales and marketing for Harcourt Children's Books.

Howard Reeves has been promoted to senior v-p, publisher of Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books. He was previously v-p, publisher.

In the Media

There was some good media coverage of the Newbery/Caldecott announcement this week.

USA Today's reporter commented on the "passion for the past" reflected in the choices of both top awards.
read more

The Washington Post spoke with both winners and said their books "broke the mold" in being selected.
read more

National Public Radio interviewed the newly minted Medalists.
read more

And Laura Amy Schlitz's hometown paper, the Baltimore Sun, called her selection a "fairy tale come true."
read more

New in ShelfTalker

This week Alison praises the winners of (and the editors for) the Newbery and Caldecott Medals. And she posts some awards of her own: the Morris Medals. Check it out here.

Bestsellers

Behind the Bestsellers

As author Libba Bray told Bookshelf a few months ago, after turning in her first draft of The Sweet Far Thing, she got a 12-page revision letter from editor Wendy Loggia, and realized she had to completely rewrite her novel. Random House created an office for Bray to keep her on schedule, and she turned in a second (900-page) draft four months later. Asked if she'd ever write another trilogy, Bray responded, "I would never rule it out, but right now it's like asking a woman who's just given birth when she's going to have her next baby."

Click here to read Tales from the Slush Pile from the beginning