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June 25, 2009

In this Issue

From the Editors

We won't have an issue of Children's Bookshelf next Thursday, in honor of the July Fourth holiday. We'll be back the following week, though, with lots more news about children's books and authors. In the meantime, be sure to follow the postings of our intrepid ShelfTalker bloggers, who share their insights and raise provocative issues about children's books and bookselling today. Read out all their latest posts here, and stop back often. And with summer reading on our minds, check out this story from SLJ, in which a number of children's and YA authors were asked what books were on their own summer reading lists. Their responses were fascinating, and widely varied.

See you in July!

In the News

  • Chicago School Keeps Alexie Novel on Summer Reading List
    Despite public calls to do so from a group of parents, Sherman Alexie’s critically acclaimed YA novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, will not be pulled as required summer reading for 400 incoming freshmen students at Antioch (Ill.) Community High School. In a meeting on Monday night, school district 117 superintendent Jay Sabatino and the seven-member school board voiced their strong support for the book as an educational tool that engages young readers. more » » » 
  • Blue Marble Celebrates 30 Years
    The Blue Marble, a children’s bookstore located in Ft. Thomas, Ky., celebrated its 30th anniversary with an in-store celebration Saturday, June 20. Seventeen local authors and illustrators spent the day mingling with customers. The daylong celebration culminated in a dinner that included the day’s featured authors, past and present store employees, a few sales reps, and friends of the store from the community. more » » » 
  • Licensing Hotline
    Cartoon Network is extending its boy-skewing television franchise The Secret Saturdays into books, through a partnership with Random House Children’s Publishing. The first books will debut later this summer. “Everyone always says boys don’t read,” says Christina Miller, v-p, Cartoon Network Enterprises. “So we asked, how do we get them to read? How do we engage them?” Read on to see many more licensing stories. more » » » 
  • Listening Library Targets Florida Drivers
    Random House Audio/Listening Library is on a mission to raise awareness of audiobooks around Orlando, Fla. Its Listen Up, Florida! regional summer marketing campaign encourages people to listen to audiobooks during their summer vacation drives. Focused in the Orlando Metro area, it began on Memorial Day and will run until Labor Day. more » » » 

Blogs

Book News

  • Spring 2009 Flying Starts
    This spring saw many strong children’s book debuts, but for our semiannual Flying Starts, which highlight standout first books, we narrowed the field to four. The novels we selected feature a girl who embraces science one stifling summer in 1899 Texas; a boy coming of age in rural Oregon against the backdrop of war; a group of delinquent teenage boys investigating the disappearance of a friend; and a family quietly suffering an abusive father.     more » » » 
    It’s the Dog Days of Summer at Square Fish
    Square Fish Books is going to the dogs this season: Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group’s paperback imprint is featuring its six new canine capers in The Dog Days of Summer promotion. The cover of each book displays a crisp, close-up photo of a pooch on its cover, giving the middle-grade novels a uniform look and surefire appeal to young dog devotees. The promotion encompasses five reprints of books originally published by one of the group’s imprints, as well as one Square Fish original. more » » » 
    Putnam to Publish Tale of Pachyderm and Pooch Pals
    An animal odd couple that has captivated the mainstream media and has become a YouTube sensation will soon star in a picture book. In September, Putnam will publish Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends by Carol Buckley, documenting the friendship between an elephant and a stray dog at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. more » » » 
    Makeover Alert: Gossip Girl’s Sporting a New Jacket
    With the third season of the Gossip Girl TV series not starting until September, and with teens ever in need of summer beach reading, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers’ Poppy imprint is promoting its flagship Gossip Girl series with new slipcover jackets for all 12 titles, as well an iPhone book app. The new jackets feature members of the cast in stills taken from the TV show. more » » » 
  • Winning ‘Hunger Games’ Essay Announced
    Scholastic announced today that 17-year-old Kayley Hyde of Seattle has won the publisher’s The Hunger Games essay contest. As grand prize winner, she will receive a trip to New York City, where she will be treated to lunch with author Suzanne Collins. Kaylee will also be given a signed, personalized copy of The Hunger Games, an autographed ARC of Catching Fire, and a collectible “mockingjay” pin. more » » » 

In the Media

  • From the New York Times:
    He may have been hero to a generation, but some of today’s teenagers see Holden Caulfield as a whining preppy, not as a virtuous outcast. more » » » 
    From the Nielsen Company:
    An in-depth report on how teenagers use media—all kinds of media, from television, video games and newspapers to text messaging, Web sites and social networks. more » » » 
    From tomorrowmuseum.com:
    A writer argues that teenagers, who strongly connect with the text in books for several reasons, are better and more passionate readers than adults. Click here to read.

    And the Futurismic site posted a response, taking issue with the assumption that success in marketing YA books is an indicator of the overall health in teen reading, saying, "The pedestal-mounting of YA as the saviour of modern fiction is dangerously misguided." more » » » 

    From the Boston Globe:
    A year after the death of illustrator Tasha Tudor, her four children remain in dispute over the validity of her will, and a court may have to decide her final resting place. more » » » 

  • From USA Today:
    A first look at director Tim Burton’s vision for his Alice in Wonderland movie, starring Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter; which is set for release on March 5, 2010. more » » » 

Q & A

  • Q & A with Sharon M. Draper
    Q: This year marks the 15th anniversary of Tears of the Tiger, your first book. How have things changed for you? 
    A: So much has changed. I’ve learned a great deal about writing and the publishing business. I believe I’m a better writer now than I was when I started. I’m grateful that I had good guidance because you don’t make it in this business without good editors and a lot of support from your publishers. more » » » 

In Brief

  • Toasting Ellen Krieger’s Retirement
    Current and former colleagues from Simon & Schuster came together last Thursday evening to celebrate the retirement of Aladdin associate publisher Ellen Krieger, who retired on June 25 after 15 years with the company. Here, Krieger (center) is joined by Brenda Bowen, Elizabeth Law, Jon Anderson, Bethany Buck and Rubin Pfeffer. more » » » 

    Come Rain or Shine
    Sarah Dessen kicked off a 13-city tour for her ninth novel, Along for the Ride (Viking, June), with a launch party at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, N.C. on June 16. Despite downpours, it was a standing-room-only event, as more than 100 dedicated fans flocked to hear the author read and to have their books signed. The fan shown here with Dessen traveled all the way from Ohio, and others arrived two hours early to claim front-row seats. Other stops on the tour include Raleigh, La Jolla and San Francisco. More information about her tour is available on her Web site. more » » » 



    Santopolo’s New ‘Mystery’ Revealed
    New York City's Books of Wonder was the site of a pub party for author/editor Jill Santopolo, celebrating the release of The Ransom Note Blues (Scholastic/ Orchard), the second book in her Alec Flint Mystery series. By day, Santopolo (l.), pictured here with her agent, Jodi Reamer of Writers House, is an editor at HarperCollins Children's Books. more » » » 
    Brand Smacking New
    Debut author Ginger Rue meets a fan at Books-A-Million in Birmingham, Ala. during her recent tour for Brand-New Emily (Tricycle, June). Via a partnership between Tricycle Press and Bonne Belle's LipSmackers, every reader who purchases Rue's book at her Books-A-Million signings can select a LipSmacker lip gloss. LipSmackers will also be hosting an online contest; more information will be available starting June 27 at the LipSmacker Lounge; Facebook users can follow Rue's book tour on her Facebook page. more » » » 
  • It Comes Naturally
    Author/illustrator James Prosek was a guest at the Smithsonian Institution's third annual Garden Fest, a nature-themed outdoor event for families held in Washington, D.C., on June 13. Prosek signed copies of his latest picture book, Bird, Butterfly, Eel (S&S, Feb.), about the life cycles of these three animals, in the rooftop garden. more » » » 

Featured Reviews

  • Pennies for Elephants
    Lita Judge. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4231-1390-4 As she did in One Thousand Tracings, Judge weaves a compelling tale based on a true, heartwarming incident. In 1914, the children of Boston raised $6,000 to buy three trained elephants for the Franklin Park Zoo. But told through the eyes of siblings (and fund-raisers) Dorothy and Henry, the story expands into an inspired celebration of kid power. From the opening spread, children are at the helm. “Pennies for elephants! Send in your pennies, your nickels, and dimes!” hawks the newspaper boy, capturing the children’s attention, but not the humorously haughty adult passersby. more » » » 
  • starWhen You Reach Me
    Rebecca Stead. Random/Wendy Lamb, $15.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-385-73742-5 Twelve-year-old Miranda, a latchkey kid whose single mother is a law school dropout, narrates this complex novel, a work of science fiction grounded in the nitty-gritty of Manhattan life in the late 1970s. Miranda's story is set in motion by the appearance of cryptic notes that suggest that someone is watching her and that they know things about her life that have not yet happened. She's especially freaked out by one that reads: "I'm coming to save your friend's life, and my own." more » » » 







In the Winners’ Circle


Winners' Circle

The 2009 CILIP Carnegie Medal was awarded posthumously to Siobhan Dowd for Bog Child (David Fickling Books) at a ceremony in London today. Dowd finished Bog Child in 2007, just before her death from cancer. Set in Northern Ireland in 1981 at the height of the Troubles, it tells a story of growing up against a background of sectarian violence. "Siobhan Dowd was a writing phenomenon," said David Fickling, who edited all of Dowd's books. more

Rosemary Sutcliff, author of The Shining Company (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), has won the 1990/2010 Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association. The prize is given to the author of a book for children published originally in English that did not win a major award at the time of its publication 20 years earlier.

People

Patricia Lee Gauch, v-p and editor at large at Philomel Books, will be leaving the company on September 30, to return to writing and lecturing fulltime. She joined Philomel in 1985, and stepped down as publisher and editorial director in 2003. She is also the author of more than 40 picture books and novels. Authors and illustrators she has edited include Eric Carle, Patricia Polacco, T.A. Barron, Ed Young and Satomi Ichikawa. Her books have won three Caldecott Medals and one Caldecott Honor.

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing has three new hires and a promotion. Mary Faria has been hired as director of mass merchandise/dsrm, children's sales, and will join the company on July 6; she had previously worked in sales at HarperCollins, Abrams and Little Brown. Katherine Devendorf has been promoted to associate managing editor; she was formerly senior production editor. Amy Currier and Dayna Evans have been hired as managing editorial assistants; they were both previously S&S interns.

Rights Report

In a global three-book deal, Alessandra Balzer and Donna Bray, co-publishers of the
Balzer + Bray imprint at HarperCollins Children’s Books, and Mario Santos, managing director at HarperCollins Children’s Books in the U.K., have acquired world rights to The Poison Diaries trilogy by Maryrose Wood, based on the concept by The Duchess of Northumberland. The gothic tales of love, revenge and the dangerous world of poisonous plants were inspired by the real Poison Garden, on the grounds of Alnwick Castle in England. Jane Northumberland, who is married to the 12th Duke of Northumberland, is mistress of Alnwick Castle, which is the site used for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.
Zoë Watkins at FourteenFiftyFour Ltd. was the agent for the deal; the first book is scheduled for global publication in summer 2010.

Universal Pictures has bought screen rights to Larry Doyle's forthcoming novel Go Mutants!, with Imagine Entertainment head Brian Grazer set to produce. According to Variety, Go Mutants! is a teen comedy/adventure set in a high school where all of the tropes from classic 1950s alien invasion movies came true. Doyle will finish the novel this summer and will work on the script at the same time; Go Mutants! will be published by HarperCollins next summer.

Andrea Tompa at Candlewick has bought world English rights to Ghetto Cowboy from author-illustrator team Greg Neri and Jesse Joshua Watson, who previously collaborated on Chess Rumble (Lee & Low). The YA novel is based on a real-life community of African-American cowboys in Philadelphia. Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh & Otis was the agent.

Mary Wilcox at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has acquired Wodney Wat's Wobot, sequel to Hooway for Wodney Wat, by Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger, in their 22nd collaboration. In the new story, shy Rodney Rat helps his friends deal with an overbearing classmate, with a little help from his wobot. The picture book is scheduled for fall 2011.

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PW Children's Bookshelf
Editor: Diane Roback
Associate Editor: John Sellers

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