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.

April 16, 2009
  In The News
More Book News
On the Stage
In the Media
Bestsellers
More News
In Brief
Rights Report
People
New in ShelfTalker


Book News
On the Road
Q&A
Featured Reviews
From the Slush Pile
 
In the News

Dallanegra-Sanger Heading to Macmillan Children's

Joy Dallanegra-Sanger.
Photo: Scott Sanger.

 

Joy Dallanegra-Sanger will join Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group in the newly created role of senior v-p, director of marketing. Dallanegra-Sanger will start at Macmillan on May 4, reporting to Macmillan Children’s president Dan Farley.

Dallanegra-Sanger had previously been v-p, director of field sales for Random House Children’s Books. Earlier positions included associate publisher for trade paperbacks at Doubleday Broadway and other sales and marketing roles at various Random House imprints, as well several positions at Waldenbooks. read more
More News

Children's Book Week Goes Digital


The Children’s Book Council turns to the Web to promote this year's Children’s Book Week, which will take place May 11—17. Here are a few highlights of its virtual campaign, as well as information on some of the planned Children’s Book Week events.

• Children’s Choice Book Awards Widget. To solicit votes for the second annual Children’s Choice Book Awards, the CBC and Every Child a Reader have again teamed up with JacketFlap.com to produce a Children’s Choice Book Awards widget (for those not in the know, a widget is a program embedded into a Web page or blog). Whenever the widget loads, a cover from one of the 30 finalists appears on screen and also links to the Book Week Web site, with further information on the finalists and how to vote (kids can vote until May 3). The CBC hopes that this year’s widget will be as successful as it was last year, when it attracted over 500,000 viewers.
Book News

Flux Holds Steady Through Changes
Llewellyn Worldwide’s YA imprint, Flux, which has published teen fiction for the past three years, is moving in a new direction this fall with the release of its first graphic novel: Black Is for Beginnings (Sept.). The book is a continuation of Laurie Faria Stolarz’s Blue Is for Nightmares series of four novels, the first of which launched the Flux line in 2006.

While the print run for Black Is for Beginnings, which was adapted by comic-book writer Barbara Kesel and illustrated by Janina Gorrissen, has not yet been determined, Flux acquisitions editor Brian Farrey said it will be larger than any previous Flux release (Flux’s initial print runs range from 4,000 to 15,000 copies). read more

More Book News

Mario Lopez to Write a Picture Book
Mario Lopez.

Actor Mario Lopez, host of EXTRA and America’s Best Dance Crew, has become the latest celebrity to pen a children’s book. Along with his sister Marissa Lopez-Wong, he has signed with Celebra Children’s Books, a Penguin imprint, for a picture book called Mud Tacos!, which will be published on October 15. Maryn Roos, who did the artwork for Whoopi Goldberg’s Sugar Plum Ballerinas, will illustrate, and Steve Meltzer, associate publisher and executive managing editor of Dial and Dutton, will edit the book. read more
In Brief

Rolling and Reading at the White House

This past Monday the Obama family hosted its first White House Easter Egg Roll, a tradition that dates back to 1878. An estimated 30,000 families from 45 states turned out for the event, which, in addition to the egg roll and hunt, included basketball, soccer, yoga and other activities as well as reading and music stages. President Obama took a moment to read from Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (click here to watch a video) while Mrs. Obama read from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond.

‘Pure’ Dialogue
Last week WORD bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., held its first YA Not? literary salon for YA writers, editors and other fans of teen literature. Author Terra Elan McVoy and her editor, S&S’s Anica Mrose Rissi, discussed McVoy’s debut novel, Pure (Simon Pulse, Apr.), about a close group of girls whose friendships are tested when one loses her virginity. WORD staffers "live-tweeted" the event on the store’s Twitter stream (Sample tweet: "Terra on collaborative process w/editor: 'I compare the writing of this book to playing an elaborate game of Barbies w/a good friend.' "). Here, McVoy (l.) and Rissi pose with some pink cupcakes made for the occasion.

Teens Flock to Rochester Festival


Growing in size each year, the 2009 Rochester Book Festival in Rochester, N.Y., took place earlier this month, featuring 20 authors including Tim Green, Jenny Han, David Levithan and Sara Zarr. Now in its fourth year, the festival (aka “TBF Live!”) attracted an estimated 2,500 attendees, about 75% of which were teens. The day’s events, held at Nazareth College, included an opening panel, in which all the participating authors answered teens’ questions, and several smaller break-out sessions with the authors. Seen here (l. to r.) are writers Sharon Flake, Cinda Williams Chima, Svetlana Chmakova and Ellen Hopkins.

A Sooner State Celebration


Oklahoma author Tammi Sauer was joined by more than 1,500 preschoolers at the Oklahoma City Zoo last week, as part of the 12th annual Read Across Oklahoma Reading Round-Up. The kids, seen here with Sauer, got into the spirit of things by dressing in their cowboy and cowgirl finest. The event featured a performance of Sauer’s 2005 picture book, Cowboy Camp (Sterling), as well as live music. Event sponsors provided a copy of Cowboy Camp for each of the children in attendance.
Q&A
Margarita Engle
Bookshelf spoke with Margarita Engle about her two recent novels, The Surrender Tree and Tropical Secrets.

Given the recent controversy surrounding the Newbery Medal, do you feel that your winning this award serves as proof that times are changing?

I hope so, and hope that The Surrender Tree didn’t win because of the controversy. I hope they’re not trying just to fill a demand for greater diversity. I would like to think that it’s a genuine interest, that they’re not doing it under pressure.
People


At Random House Children’s Books, Christine Labov has stepped down as director of publicity to spend time with her baby daughter; publicity manager Noreen Marchisi has been promoted to director of publicity. In other news in the department: Kelly Galvin, senior publicist, has been promoted to publicity manager; Dominique Cimina, associate publicist, has been promoted to senior publicist and online media specialist; Meg O'Brien, associate publicist, has been promoted to publicist and online media specialist; and publicity assistants Casey Lloyd, Emily Pourciau and Elizabeth Zajac have been promoted to associate publicists.

At Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Sy Sumg has been named assistant manager of the children’s subsidiary rights group. He previously worked in the sub rights department at Random House Children’s Books.

Also at S&S, Lindsay Winget has joined Atheneum Books for Young Readers as editorial assistant. She had been a literary assistant at the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, and had also interned at Candlewick Press and Abrams Books for Young Readers.
Featured Reviews

Puzzlehead
James Yang. Atheneum, $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4169-0936-1
Taking the idea of "fitting in" literally, Puzzlehead and his friends Mo, Bob, Sue and Stevie use their heads—literally—to figure out how to play. (The whole gang, with oversize heads in unusual geometric shapes, seems to exist in only two dimensions, like paper cutouts.) "Come spin with me, Puzzlehead," cries Bob, whose T-shaped head fits perfectly into a kind of whirligig, which he spins around on. "That will make me too dizzy," Puzzlehead replies glumly. At last Puzzlehead locates a space into which his head fits neatly. Though once installed (upside down), "there was not much to do in his perfect Puzzlehead place." Yan's (the Joey and Jet books) stylish pages are full of typographic whimsy, with dialogue bunched by the heads of the speakers, big capital letters used for emphasis and entire sentences set in curvy lines that match the arc of the action. A clever conclusion brings the whole gang back together and delivers the story's message that—regardless of their shape—a few heads are better than one. Ages 3–6. (Apr.)

Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell in Love
Lauren Tarshis. Dial, $16.99 (176p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3321-3
Tarshis proves she “gets” adolescent female friendships (not to mention seventh grade) in this funny and empathetic follow-up to Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. For the first time, the intensely analytical Emma-Jean has friends among her peers (as she refers to them) and, like them, she is preoccupied with the girl-invite Spring Fling. Emma-Jean considers asking basketball star Will, though they have little in common—he’s been kind to her and causes a "fluttering of her heart." But she ends up sorting out the dance-related woes of fragile Colleen (whose point of view is explored in certain chapters). Fans of the first book will be pleased that the deadpan narration ("as a single cell can reveal the DNA code of an entire organism, the look in Kaitlin’s eyes told Emma-Jean everything she needed to know") and Emma-Jean’s observations are as amusing as ever. ("Adolescent males engage in conspicuous displays to attract the attention of females," is her explanation of cafeteria boisterousness.) Her blossoming appreciation for emotions that logic can’t explain, sympathetic supporting characters and an uplifting finale will warm hearts. Ages 10–14.(May)

Reviews from the April 16 issue of Publishers Weekly.

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

Library Bats Take Flight


Librarians across the nation are on the lookout for bats—three stuffed, plush bats by the names of Green, Red and Blue, to be exact. Following the success of Bats at the Library and Bats at the Beach, Brian Lies is drumming up anticipation for a third volume, Bats at the Ballgame (Houghton, 2010) by sending the three intrepid travelers (equipped with passports) on a whirlwind tour, with the goal of visiting as many libraries as possible, each for two weeks at a time. read more
On the Stage

'Llama Llama'
Now on Stage



The wide-eyed little llama who frets and fusses at lights-out in Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama Red Pajama is now the star of a musical based on that 2005 Viking picture book. Performed by the Penguin Players, a theater troupe cosponsored by the Penguin Group and Dollywood Imagination Playhouse, the adaptation debuted on April 16 at the Nashville Public Library. Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen and more than 1500 children attended the play, which the troupe is now performing at venues across the state through the month of May.
Rights Report


United Artists has acquired rights to The Heartbreakers, a YA novel by Pamela Wells, according to the Hollywood Reporter.The novel, published by Scholastic Point in 2007, will be developed into a girl-oriented project called Rules of Dating for Teenage Girls.
In the Media


From USA Today: Bo, the Portuguese water dog that has just taken up residence in the White House, will star in a picture book, Bo, America’s Commander in Leash (Mascot Books), which is expected to arrive in bookstores next week.


From the Associated Press: The ALA’s annual list of most challenged books has just come out. For the third year in a row, the most challenged book was And Tango Makes Three; the His Dark Materials trilogy, the Gossip Girl series and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian were also high on the list.

From the New York Times: A team of anthropologists is studying (incommunicative) boys to find out what makes them tick, to help Disney create new entertainment for their age bracket.

From The Bookseller: Andersen Press in the U.K. will publish 23 YA titles as e-books this year
Bestsellers

Fiction
April

 
  1. The Graveyard Book. Neil Gaiman.
    HarperCollins, $17.99
    ISBN 978-0-06-053092-1
  2. City of Glass. Cassandra Clare.
    McElderry, $17.99
    ISBN 978-1-416-91430-3
  3. Evermore.
    Alyson Noël.
    St. Martin’s Griffin, paper $9.99
    ISBN 978-0-312-53275-8
  4. Thirteen Reasons Why. Jay Asher.
    Razorbill, $16.99
    ISBN 978-1-595-14171-2
  5. City of Bones. Cassandra Clare.
    McElderry, paper $9.99
    ISBN 978-1-416-95507-8

see full list

New in ShelfTalker


This week in ShelfTalker, Josie sings the praises of electronic catalogs, Elizabeth confesses her love for British audiobook narrators, and Alison returns with her first post as guest blogger. Read what they’re all up to, by clicking 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: [#EmailAddr#]
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