Trouble viewing this email? Click here.
To ensure our emails reach your inbox, add ChildrensBookshelf@email.publishersweekly.com to your address book.
Click here to learn how.

March 19, 2009
To Our Readers
Book News
Checking In
Recommended Reading
In the Winner's Circle
New in Shelftalker
From the Slush Pile
In the News
More Book News
On the Scene
People
Mark Your Calendar
Bestsellers

More News
In Brief
Rights Report
In the Media
Featured Reviews
Contact Us


 
To Our Readers
 
The Bologna Book Fair kicks off next Monday. And we’ll have a blog to cover it! You can read all the news and tidbits from the fair on our Bologna by Day and Night blog, written by fair veteran Craig Virden. Click here to read Craig’s first installment, and keep checking back daily, as he keeps us up to date on what’s going on in the aisles and behind the scenes.
In the News

CPSIA Update: Book Community Calmer and Compliant, But Still Confused
 
A little over a month after the first key provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act went into effect, things have calmed down significantly. New and used booksellers, libraries and publishers continue to lobby Congress and the Consumer Products Safety Council for an exemption for books, and they are still confused about many of the Act’s provisions. In the meantime, however, they have taken steps to comply.

"We certainly aren’t in the same kind of turmoil we were before the February 10 deadline," says Leah King, quality assurance specialist at book-and-toy cataloger Chinaberry.

Shortly before February 10, the CPSC issued a statement that while both new and old books had to comply with the law’s limits on lead and phthalates, it would not enforce the law for ordinary books printed after 1985—with the caveat that states’ Attorneys General also have the power to enforce. This, along with the growing body of test evidence finding children’s books to be safe, and the fact that many publishers are testing their books and certifying their safety even though not required to, has eased the book community’s fears. read more
More News


Harlequin Targets Teens
 
Harlequin is set to broaden its presence in the young adult market. Harlequin Teen, a fiction line, debuts in August with Rachel Vincent’s My Soul to Take, the first installment of the Soul Screamers series. Another paranormal tale, Intertwined by Gena Showalter, is rolling off press in September. The imprint will initially consist of trade paperbacks, hardcovers and digital publications, and it will encompass a spectrum of genres including fantasy, contemporary, historical, science fiction and—no surprise—romance.

Harlequin, which in 2007 launched Kimani Tru, a line targeting African-American teens, considered creating a YA program close to a decade ago, according to Margaret O’Neill Marbury, the company’s editorial director of single title imprints. "We at that time decided to remain focused on adult fiction and our core business," she explains. "But we feel that now is the right time to start a YA program."read more

Book News

Chronicle Trots Out New Horse Series
Two horse-loving best friends from an Australian bush town star in Chronicle’s Horse Crazy series by Alison Lester, launched this month with The Silver Horse Switch and The Circus Horse. Originally published by Allen & Unwin in Lester’s native Australia under the title of Bonnie and Sam, the series marks a double departure for the author: these are her debut early chapter books and the first books she wrote that she did not also illustrate. Fellow Aussie Roland Harvey created the full-color art for the series, which continues in fall 2009 with The Sea Rescue and The Royal Show.

Trained as an art teacher, Lester spent some five years illustrating books by other authors before striking out on her own with 1985’s Clive Eats Alligators. She has since written and illustrated about two dozen picture books, among them Imagine, Magic Beach and Are We There Yet?, as well as two middle-grade novels, The Quicksand Pony and The Snow Pony. read more
More Book News

‘Mother Goose’ Comes Home to Roost at Heyday
 
"Jack Be Nimble" as Mark Twain’s famous jumping frog? "Mary, Mary, quite contrary?" as a red fox tending a mission’s garden? These are just two of 26 Californian interpretations of Mother Goose rhymes that appear in Mother Goose in California (Apr.) by Fresno Bee staff artist Doug Hansen, new from Berkeley, Calif.-based Heyday Books.

In addition to introducing classic Mother Goose rhymes, the picture book doubles as an abecedarian and as a guide to native California plants and animals, which appear on every page. The rhymes play out in settings that include the Golden Gate Bridge, Hearst Castle, Yosemite National Park and Joshua Tree National Park; Hansen gives readers a "guided tour" of the species and landmarks that appear in his illustrations in the book’s endnotes. read more
In Brief

20 Years, 20 Million Books

Twenty years ago this month, Boston pediatricians Barry Zuckerman and Robert Needlman started handing out books at well-baby checkups. Since then Reach Out and Read, the nonprofit organization they founded to provide books for at-risk children between the ages of six months and five years, has given away more than 20 million books as part of its Rx for reading readiness. Working with publishing partners ranging from Scholastic to NBN to Charlesbridge, the Boston-based nonprofit has found a cost-effective solution to getting books into the hands of children at or near the poverty line —only $8 per child per year. Here, Dr. Sean Palfrey shares a book with a young patient at Boston Medical Center.

Scholastic Throws a Pajama Party

Last week, Scholastic hosted a live webcast entitled "Allie Finkle’s Super Sleepover," which featured author Meg Cabot and actress/comedian Caroline Rhea. The webcast was in support of the latest title in Cabot’s Allie Finkle’s Rules for Girls series, Best Friends and Drama Queens (Mar.). Rhea interviewed Cabot about her writing, and they announced the top 10 reader-submitted rules that were part of an Allie Finkle-themed contest with Girl’s Life magazine—all while dressed in pajamas and sitting on a pair of puffy twin beds. Video of the webcast is available on Scholastic’s Web site, where kids ages eight to 14 also can enter a sweepstakes for a chance at winning a new bedroom set, as featured in the webcast, and a signed set of Allie Finkle books.

What a Deal(ey)!
During a spate of school visits earlier this month, author Erin Dealey got a pleasant surprise when she stopped by Upland Christian Elementary School in Upland, Calif.: the school’s parent group had purchased a paperback copy of Dealey’s 2002 picture book Goldie Locks Has Chicken Pox, illustrated by Hanako Wakiyama (Atheneum), for each student and teacher. Dealey, who received the books the night before her appearance, signed each of the copies (more than 200 in total). Here the author (l.) poses with a classroom of kids showing off their new books.

Duking It Out at ‘SLJ’
Over at our sister magazine, School Library Journal, they’re waging a book war. Lois Lowry, Jon Scieszka, Linda Sue Park and John Green are among the many authors who will be judging SLJ’s first annual Battle of the (Kids’) Books contest. The competition launches the week of April 13, with the first of four elimination rounds, starting with 16 of last year’s best books for young people.
Recommended Reading

One of our favorite teen media sites, Ypulse, has a recurring feature in which it asks high school and college students about the last five things they have read. The responses are always diverse and illuminating. Here’s a sample:
  Name: Daniella
Age: 16
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ

1. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien: They forced me to read it at school, even though I am enjoying it. It is much more interesting than I thought.
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare: It was for independent reading at school, because they made us pick a classic.
3. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: My teacher recommended it and I loved it, so…
4. Specials by Scott Westerfeld: Because I couldn't find Pretties at the library and I loved Uglies.
5. Lucky by Alice Sebold: Just for fun. I read The Lovely Bones and loved it, and this is by the same author.

Want to read more? Click here.
People


Barry Goldblatt Literary has tripled in size, with the hiring of two new agents: Joe Monti and Beth Fleisher. Monti was most recently director of paperbacks at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and was the children's fiction buyer at Barnes and Noble for more than 10 years. Fleisher worked at Berkley, focusing on fantasy and science fiction, and then worked as a consultant providing a range of services for prose, comics, and graphic novels. "I’m thrilled to be growing the agency," Goldblatt said. "At a time when there’s a lot of doom and gloom out there, I’m optimistic about the future."


Mary Ann Zissimos has joined Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books as publicist. She previously worked at Penguin and Random House. Laura Mihalick has been promoted to marketing and publicity coordinator. She was formerly an assistant. Erica Perl has been hired as editor at large, working from her home in Washington, D.C., acquiring books for preschool readers; she is also the author of this season’s Chicken Butt!, illustrated by Henry Cole.


Daniel Ehrenhaft has joined Sourcebooks as a middle grade and YA acquisitions editor in the New York office. He was previously with Alloy Entertainment.
In the Winners' Circle


Though the National Book Critics Circle does not include children’s books in its annual awards, last Thursday night the NBCC gave its 2008 prize for best work of criticism to Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History: Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter by Seth Lerer (University of Chicago Press).


The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced next Tuesday, March 24. Six candidates from the U.S. have been nominated: Maira Kalman, Russell Hoban, Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers, Peter Sís and Gary Soto. Previous American recipients are Maurice Sendak and Katherine Paterson.
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, an introduction to children’s book contracts, takes place Tuesday, April 21 from 6:30–7:30 p.m. and features Sean Fodera, associate director of contracts at Macmillan. 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

City I Love
Lee Bennett Hopkins, illus. by Marcellus Hall. Abrams, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8109-8327-4
This joyful poetry collection celebrating urban life combines Hopkins’s (Behind the Museum Door) affectionate odes (a mix of previously published and new poems) with Hall’s (Because You Are My Baby) engaging watercolors, which widen the book’s perspective by presenting images of famous cities all over the world. The captivating visual story line features an appealing, insouciant brown dog who travels the world with his backpack and a bluebird. Whether trudging through waist-deep snow in Moscow or riding on a crowded subway in Mexico City, both characters model the reader’s wonder at the variety of costumes, music, people and sights found across the globe. Hopkins’s reflective and sometimes humorous poems move through diverse aspects of life in the city—from skyscrapers (workers "balance on beams/ dangle on derricks/ glide on girders/ sway on concrete slabs") and crowded subways to negotiating the weather ("You stand/ on a corner/ shouting:/ ‘Taxi!’/ ‘Taxi!’/ knowing/ deep/ inside/ taxi cabs/ never/ stop/ on/ rainy/ days"). Hopkins grounds the book with heartwarming particularities while Hall’s lively paintings conjure a world that should intrigue young travelers. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)

The Problem with the Puddles
Kate Feiffer, illus. by Tricia Tusa. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99 (208p) ISBN 978-1-4169-4961-9
This capricious novel marks Feiffer’s (President Pennybaker) move into middle-grade fiction, in a story about a family that, for some reason, attracts clouds (“It was as if the cloud suddenly forgot it was heading to a hurricane in Florida or an important blizzard in Canada”). Additionally, the Puddle parents disagree on everything: one of their children is called Baby because they couldn’t choose a name. And since the couple squabbled over a breed, the Puddles have two dogs—both named Sally. Alternating between the perspectives of the two- and four-legged family members, the story reveals what happens when the Puddles inadvertently leave “the Sallys” behind at the end of a long vacation in the country. The kid-friendly humor (“Just like meat loaf is like a loaf of meat, a conundrum is like a drum of conun,” one of the Sallys “explains,” as the dogs consider what to do), the full cast of eccentric characters and Tusa’s (Fred Stays with Me!) lively b&w spot art should readily win fans for the Puddle family. Ages 8–12. (Feb.)

Reviews from the March 16 issue of Publishers Weekly.

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

Picture Book Bestsellers
March

  1. Gallop! Rufus Butler Seder.
    Workman, $12.95
    ISBN 978-0-7611-4763-3
  2. Swing! Rufus Butler Seder.
    Workman, $12.95
    ISBN 978-0-7611-5127-2
  3. The House in the Night. Susan Marie Swanson, illus. by Beth Krommes. Houghton, $17 ISBN 978-0-618-86244-3
  4. The Composer Is Dead. Lemony Snicket, illus. by Carson Ellis, music by Nathaniel Stookey. HarperCollins, $17.99
    ISBN 978-0-06-123627-3
  5. Cat. Matthew Van Fleet, photographs by Brian Stanton. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99
    ISBN 978-1-416-97800-8

see full list
Checking In


Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo’s eagerly awaited new novel, The Magician’s Elephant (Candlewick, Sept.), illustrated by Yoko Tanaka, continues to move forward. This week Candlewick revealed the cover art and announced a hefty first printing of 500,000 copies for the 208-page fable, in which a boy who learns from a fortuneteller that not only is his sister alive but an elephant will take him to her.

As part of the promotion, says Laura Rivas, manager of marketing, publicity and events at Candlewick, the company created a widget of the first chapter of The Magician’s Elephant, which booksellers can place on their Web sites. In addition, the company is planning its most extensive tour yet for DiCamillo. read more
On the Scene

Queens of the Castle

The week before St. Patrick’s Day, 10 YA writers descended on a castle in Ireland, never to be heard from again. Well, that might have been the result had the trip taken place in one of their novels, but in reality, the authors worked on their novels, took day trips in the surrounding area and made "huge tureens of soup," according to Irish author Sarah Rees Brennan (The Demon’s Lexicon), who helped organize the writing retreat—which did indeed take place in a castle. read more
Rights Report


Paula Wiseman Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, has signed up a publishing program of picture books and books for older readers from Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison and her son Slade Morrison. The first book, Peeny-Butter Fudge, will be illustrated by Joe Cepeda. Its story, which was inspired by Morrison’s own grandchildren, tells what really happens when Mom goes out one day and leaves Nana in charge. It pubs on September 9.


Running Press has inked a deal with Cathy’s Book author, Jordan Weisman, for two multiplatform YA book series. The first series, Nanovor, will pair a story about high schoolers who discover a violent ancient life form with a game series developed for a handheld device. The second series, Lost Souls, about a boy trying to stave off Armegeddon, will be packaged with a gameboard and game pieces, matched to an online game. To read more, click here.


Lionsgate has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film version of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Collins will adapt the screenplay, and Nina Jacobson will produce through Color Force. The futuristic YA novel has been a bestseller since its September 2008 publication.


Nancy Conescu at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has bought world rights to the sequel to Martha Doesn’t Say Sorry, Martha Doesn’t Share by Samantha Berger, illustrated by Bruce Whatley. The story follows Martha the otter as she discovers that her favorite word is "mine." LB will publish in fall 2010.


Correction: In last week’s Rights Report, the wrong agent was attributed to a deal. Rebecca Sherman of Writers House represented Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney for their two-book deal with Liza Baker at Little, Brown.
 
In the Media


From UPI: According to a financial disclosure report, President Obama secured a $500,000 advance for an abridged, middle-grade version of his Dreams from My Father from Crown Publishing, shortly before his inauguration. The deal had been in the pipeline for weeks, according to the White House, and the Federal Election Commission does not have a rule that would bar Obama from signing book deals while in the White House.


From Comedy Central: Author Neil Gaiman visited The Colbert Report this past Monday, and talked about his Newbery Medal win for The Graveyard Book. Much like Sherman Alexie’s appearance on the show last October, Gaiman gave as good as he got during the interview with host Stephen Colbert. Watch the clip here.


From Newsweek: The Very Hungry Caterpillar turns 40 this year, and Eric Carle’s now-classic picture book has sold 29 million copies. Newsweek spoke to its creator about the caterpillar’s metamorphosis.


From the Guardian: Attendees of a test screening of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last week voiced unhappiness with several elements, including the emphasis on romance, a changed ending, and the disappearance of several key characters.


From CNN: A look at how a children’s book becomes a classic.


From the Christian Science Monitor: An in-depth story on the success of Barefoot Books.
New in ShelfTalker


This week Alison speculates on what she’d have done if she’d bought Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (think rehirings and book parties), shows some of “the most interesting bookstores in the world,” and gives video links to a bookseller’s hilarious rants about difficult customers. Check out all her latest posts here.
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

From the Slush Pile

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

 
Children’s Bookshelf from Publishers Weekly
Editor: Diane Roback
Associate Editor: John Sellers
Email: childrensbooks@reedbusiness.com
Contact your PW sales rep for advertising opportunities.

If your links aren't working, you can view this newsletter by copying and pasting the following URL into your browser: publishersweekly.com/eNewsletter/CA6640049/2788.html

To see past issues, click here

TO UNSUBSCRIBE
You are currently registered to receive Children’s Bookshelf at: [Ashley.Walker@ReedBusiness.com]
Unsubscribe here.

TO SUBSCRIBE
Sign up for Children’s Bookshelf
Subscribe to Publishers Weekly magazine

VIEW OUR UPDATED PRIVACY POLICY
Click here

QUESTIONS?
If you need further assistance with your newsletter subscription, please contact our Online Support Staff.
Send editorial questions about this newsletter to: childrensbooks@reedbusiness.com.
RBInteractive: onlineads@reedbusiness.com, (888) 7RBI-WEB.

PRIVACY MANAGER: privacymanager@reedbusiness.com
Reed Business Information 2000 Clearwater Drive Oak Brook, IL 60523
© 2009 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

* These reviews and articles are accessible to subscribers only.
Advertisements