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February 26, 2009

In The News
Book News
Moving On Up
Rights Report
In the Media
Contact Us

More News
More Book News
People
Q&A
New in Shelftalker
From the Slush Pile

Even More News
In Brief
Mark Your Calendar
Featured Reviews
Bestsellers

In the News

Toy Fair: Back to Basics

Toy Fair attendance was lighter this year
(though Barbie had her usual place in
the spotlight).

The number of exhibitors at last week’s New York International Toy Fair was down from years past—less than 30 booths featured publishers or authors, for example, compared to the typical 40 to 45—and traffic was light.
Many publishers said they had a productive show, however, noting that attendees were serious about writing orders. "There are far fewer tire-kickers, so to speak," said Sharon Winningham, v-p sales and marketing at School Zone. "We’re really impressed with the quality of the buyers," added Barbara Lonnborg, director of Boys Town Press, a first-time exhibitor showing its initial children’s title, a hybrid book/scrapbook.

Not all publishers were happy, however. In fact, at least two leading mass market publishers are considering scaling way back next year, or not exhibiting at all. read more

More News

Bloggers Bristle, Scholastic Bends

Who would think a motorized toothbrush head would generate a publishing controversy?
It started at the New York Toy Fair last week, when Scholastic’s Klutz division unveiled Invasion of the Bristlebots, a March 2009 book packaged with two tiny toothbrush robots. Bloggers at the fair noticed that the book failed to credit Lenore Edman and her husband, Windell Oskay, with popularizing and naming the Bristlebot. read more

Even More News

CBC Reveals ‘Children’s Choice’ Finalists

They’re back: the Children’s Book Council has unveiled the finalists for the second-annual Children’s Choice Book Awards. Nearly 15,000 children cast their votes in six categories—four based on age group, as well as author and illustrator of the year.
As last year, the winners will be announced at the Children’s Choice Book Awards Gala on May 12, during Children’s Book Week. Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, will reprise his role as host of the gala, during which the second annual Impact Award will be given—this year to Whoopi Goldberg. From March 16 through May 3, kids can vote for their favorite books and authors at their schools, libraries and bookstores, as well as at BookWeekOnline.com.

Click here for a full list of finalists.

Book News

First Books About First Dog

While President Barack Obama’s election-night speech electrified millions all over the world, the newly elected president’s public promise that evening to his two daughters—that they could get a puppy to live with them in the White House—has captured the imaginations of three children’s publishers. Simon & Schuster, Walker Books for Young Readers and Sleeping Bear Press are racing against the clock to get their drop-in title into bookstores, and to do so before the Obamas actually select their new pet. The publishers may just come under the wire, as, according to an interview with the First Lady in the current issue of People, the Obamas intend to adopt their pet sometime in April. read more

More Book News

New Imprints Stake a Claim

PW’s spring children’s announcements issue came out last week. Here, we reprint a feature from that issue.

Lately, the word of the day in publishing has been "reduction," be it in head counts or acquisitions. And while several children's imprints have been lost in recent months due to restructuring, retirements, etc., 2009 will see the arrival of a new children's publisher Egmont USA, as well as a number of new imprints. We spoke with those helming three nascent imprints: Beach Lane Books, Templar Books, and Balzer & Bray. read more

In Brief

Dial Z for Zusak

Three years after its initial publication, The Book Thief, Markus Zusak’s Printz Award-winning novel set in WWII Germany (Knopf, 2006), remains a strong seller. According to the publisher, the book’s success (with nearly 900,000 copies sold to date) is partly due to its popularity with book clubs. To bolster book club enthusiasm for The Book Thief, this week Random House launched a contest in which clubs can enter for a chance to speak with the Australian author by phone or by Skype. Participants are asked to explain “in 100 words or less why your book club is the perfect group of readers for Markus Zusak to speak with.” Entries will be accepted through March 31; official rules and the contest application are available at Random House’s Web site.

TV Debut for Frank’s ‘America’

This Saturday night at 9 PM, E.R. Frank’s YA novel America (S&S/Atheneum) makes its way to the small screen, in a Lifetime original movie of the same name produced by and starring Rosie O’Donnell. The story follows the struggles of 17-year-old America, who was separated from his crack addict mother as a child and raised in the foster care system. (In a starred review, PW called it "a powerful story of forgiveness both of oneself and of others.") O’Donnell plays America’s therapist in the movie; the teenager is played by Philip Johnson, making his acting debut. Click here to watch a preview of the film.

Memorial Scholarship to Honor Librarians

Random House Children’s Books has created an annual memorial scholarship in a tribute to Connecticut librarians Kate McClelland and Kathy Krascniewicz, who died in a traffic accident following last month’s ALA Midwinter conference. The Kate McClelland and Kathy Krasniewicz Memorial Scholarship will send one librarian to his or her first ALA Annual Conference each year, starting in 2010. For a new librarian to be considered, established librarians will write essays about the librarian they wish to nominate. "We think this pays tribute to the way Kate mentored Kathy throughout her career, and the many young librarians they both mentored over the years," said Adrienne Waintraub, director of school and library marketing at RHCB. Submission guidelines have not been finalized yet.

Q&A

Susan Patron

Bookshelf spoke with Susan Patron about her new novel, Lucky Breaks (Atheneum, Mar.).

In what ways has your life changed since winning the Newbery?

Where to start? Okay, here’s one example that’s like a little miracle to me: my first novel, Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe (Orchard) came out in 1993 and was an ALA Notable, got starred reviews, generated mail from kids, but it went out of print in a few years. After [I won the Newbery], Atheneum bought the rights for a paperback reissue with new art. Then, this very morning [Monday, February 23], an Israeli publisher made an offer to publish Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe in Hebrew. So [before the Newbery] I was a midlist author and had gotten used to that sad, frustrating, and common experience of seeing my work just disappear—my four picture books had also all gone out of print. Now I get to envision eight-year-olds once again reading my first novel, and some of them will be reading it in Hebrew. This just fills me with gratitude. read more

Mark Your Calendar

The New School in New York City is hosting a series of forums on writing for children, hosted by editor Deborah Brodie. The next forum, on the topic of getting published, takes place Tuesday, March 31 from 6:30–7:30 p.m. and features Alvina Ling (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), Ben Tomek (Reader’s Digest Children’s Publishing) and Anna Olswanger (Liza Dawson Associates). Tickets cost $5 and can be ordered from the New School by calling 212-229-5488. For more information about the series, call 212-229-5611.

Featured Reviews

Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy

David Soman and Jacky Davis. Dial, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3339-8
What’s a superhero without a sidekick? Lulu, star of last year’s Ladybug Girl, meets her friend Sam at the playground, but before they can join forces, they must first agree on what to play—a sequence handled with understanding and gentle humor. At one point, Lulu hits on the idea of using the seesaw: "She runs over and sits down on one side of the seesaw and waits. And waits. Sam just stands there, not getting on." Ultimately, intrigued by Lulu’s suggestion of a game involving superpowers, Sam becomes Bumblebee Boy, with his striped shirt and a stick for a stinger. Together they battle the Mean Robot (tire swing) that threatens to "crush the playground" ("Ladybug Girl grabs on, and jumps on top of its head! Bumblebee Boy stings it with his stinger again and again") and attract some new heroes, too. Soman’s pen-and-ink characters are remarkably emotive—this is a story that delights in children’s enthusiastic imaginations. Also noteworthy is the team’s pacing: there’s no dead air, and all the action plays naturally. A favorite series in the making. Ages 3–5. (Mar.)

Melonhead

Katy Kelly, illus. by Gillian Johnson. Delacorte, $12.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-385-73409-7
Kelly, author of Lucy Rose: Here’s the Thing About Me and its sequels, launches an appealing, boy-centric series starring Lucy Rose’s friend, Adam Melon (dubbed Melonhead). The hyperkinetic nine-year-old’s knack for finding trouble surfaces immediately, when his foot gets stuck in a tree and he must be rescued by firefighters ("My mom said my shoe is ruined. I told her, ‘Not to me.’ I nailed it to the wall over my bed so I will always have the memory"). Though Melonhead’s subsequent conundrums are (slightly) less dramatic, they are no less engaging or energetic. Adam’s goofy sense of humor and his comic interactions with his parents, teachers and best friend Sam (the two are amateur inventors) are just right for the target audience. "I love the feeling of having a pet in the house," he says of the snake he’s hiding from his parents. "Two pets, actually, even though as soon as Cobra has his next lunch, I’ll be back to one." The book has an excellent shot at winning over reluctant readers. Final art not seen byPW. Ages 9–12. (Mar.)

Reviews from the February 23 issue of Publishers Weekly.

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

Bestsellers

Series and Tie-ins
February

Twilight saga.
Stephenie Meyer.
Little, Brown/Tingley

Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Jeff Kinney.
Abrams/Amulet

House of Night.
PC Cast and Kristin Cast.
St. Martin’s Griffin

Clique.
Lisi Harrison.
Little, Brown/Poppy

Coraline.
Neil Gaiman.
HarperCollins

see full list

Moving On Up

There’s significant movement—on-page and in sales—at Denver-based Accord Publishing, a division of Andrews McMeel. In Bee & Me,an October 2008 release written by Elle J. Mcguinness and illustrated by Heather Brown, a bumblebee appears to fly, thanks to a moving-image technique the publisher calls AniMotion. Featuring additional animated images and an environment-themed story about a boy who overcomes his fear of bees after meeting a talking bumblebee, the book has taken flight. Accord has sold 150,000 copies and has just returned to press for an additional 50,000. read more

People

Mimi Kayden, a longtime marketing director for several publishing houses, has announced her retirement. Kayden began her career at Harper & Row, and moved to Dutton and Penguin. In recent years she has been a consultant for HarperCollins and North-South Books. Kayden, who plans to attend ALA this summer, can be reached here.

Rights Report

Summit Entertainment is going ahead with the filming of Eclipse, the third movie in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Eclipse is scheduled for release on June 30, 2010; a director has not yet been announced. Meanwhile, book two in the series, New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz, will be released on November 20, 2009.

Liz Szabla at Feiwel & Friends pre-empted North American rights to The Cake Princess, a debut YA novel by Mar’ce Merrell. In this modern-day fairytale, a teenager discovers the complex chemistry of cakes and friendship with the help of virtual fairy godmother Nigella Lawson. Publication is scheduled for fall 2011. Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio was the agent.

Wesley Adams at Farrar, Straus & Giroux has acquired North American rights to Lisa Graff’s Sophie Simon Solves Them All, first in a chapter-book series about an eight-year-old girl genius who devises clever solutions to her classmates’ problems. Graff is the author of two middle-grade novels, The Thing About Georgie and The Life And Crimes Of Bernetta Wallflower. The deal was done by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media.

Alisha Niehaus at Dial Books for Young Readers bought Jandy Nelson’s YA debut, The Sky Is Everywhere, at auction. The novel tells the story of Lennie, a 17-year-old bookworm and band geek who has spent her life in her older sister Bailey’s shadow; when Bailey dies suddenly, Lennie finds herself in the middle of a love triangle with Bailey’s boyfriend and the new boy in town. Tentative pub date is spring 2010; Nelson is a literary agent at Manus & Associates. Emily van Beek at Pippin Properties sold North American rights in a two-book deal.

Kurt Hassler at Yen Press has signed animator James Burks for his first graphic novel, Gabby and Gator. The book tells of the unlikely friendship between a feisty but mute young environmentalist and the troublemaking, dog-and-cat–eating alligator that terrorizes her neighborhood. This is Yen Press’s first acquisition in the children’s graphic novel market; pub date is 2010. Kelly Sonnack at Sandra Dijkstra sold world English rights.

In the Media

From Vanity Fair: In the “all in good fun” department, VF’s David Friend has “uncovered” the talking points for five picture books believed to have been drafted by Condoleezza Rice and her agent.

read more

From the Columbus Dispatch: A state representative in Ohio has introduced (for the third time) a bill to have Ohio native Robert McCloskey named as Ohio’s state children’s author. The bill also aims to have McCloskey’s 1939 picture book Lentil, whose illustrations depict the author’s hometown of Hamilton, as the state’s children’s book.

read more

From Playbill.com: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, the 1989 picture book by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, is coming to London’s West End this summer as a stage adaptation. According to press materials, the production is being billed as a "celebration of play."

read more

New in ShelfTalker

Alison displays two of her now-famous "bookish birdhouses," which she made to thank two co-workers, and she muses on the multitude of spring picture books featuring… butts. read more

Contact Us

Dear Bookshelf Readers,

Hope you enjoyed this week's issue. We'd
love to hear from you with any comments and suggestions—drop us a note here.

—The Editors

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