Children's Bookshelf
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August 27, 2009

In This Issue

In the News

  • U.K. Publishers Protest Bologna Curtailment
    Representatives from more than 30 publishers, literary agencies and other firms in the U.K. have signed a petition protesting against the shortening of the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Sarah Pakenham of Andersen Press and Margot Edwards of Piccadilly Press organized the petition in dismay both at the reduction of the fair from four days to three and at a failure to introduce a corresponding reduction in fees. more » » » 
  • Saturday in the Park with Cassie
    Last Saturday afternoon’s gray skies deterred no one: 300 eager fans flocked to New York City’s Bryant Park to hear Cassandra Clare discuss her Mortal Instruments series. And Clare gave news of several forthcoming projects, including a new book in the Mortal Instruments series, the creation of a prequel series and a movie adaptation of her books. more » » » 


  • A Month-Long Birthday Celebration for Roald Dahl
    Penguin Young Readers Group is gearing up to celebrate Roald Dahl Month in September, marking the author’s 93rd birthday and heralding the forthcoming Twentieth Century Fox film based on Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, slated for release on November 13. The publisher will issue three tie-ins to this stop-motion movie. which features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson. more » » » 
  • Spreading the Word: Summer Reading at DDG
    Inspired by a summer reading program at the Alphabet Garden in Cheshire, Conn., Kenny Brechner, owner of Devaney Doak and Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, came up with what he regards as the 18-year-old store’s most successful summer reading program to date. If Goldilocks were testing out a summer reading program, Brechner says, this year’s Spread the Word program would be just right. It captured the attention of both children and parents—and sold books. more » » » 
  • Roker Gets ‘Clues’
    This morning on The Today Show, Al Roker announced that 39 Clues #5: The Black Circle by Patrick Carman (Scholastic) is the latest pick in his Al’s Book Club. The Black Circle pubbed on August 11. The 39 Clues series, which will consist of 10 books in total, has more than four million copies in English in print. And the 39 Clues online game has drawn more than 580,000 registered users since it launched last September, when the series started. more » » » 

Blogs

Book News

  • New Snicket Series in Works
    The Series of Unfortunate Events may have came to a close back in 2006, after 13 volumes, but Lemony Snicket and his persona linger on. Snicket and his alter ego, Daniel Handler, have turned their hand to picture books in recent seasons, and now comes word of a new Snicket series. It will be a four-book series for middle-graders, edited by Snicket’s longtime editor, Susan Rich. "I can neither confirm nor deny that I have begun research into a new case," Snicket said in a statement... more » » » 
  • Leo Lionni’s First Book Turns 50
    Five decades ago, graphic artist Leo Lionni was riding on a train with his two young grandchildren. When their behavior turned from angelic to devilish, Lionni took a copy of Life magazine out of his briefcase and ripped out a page featuring a blue, yellow and green design. After tearing the page into small pieces, he used them to tell a story to entertain the rambunctious youngsters. That story became Little Blue and Little Yellow, Lionni’s first picture book... more » » » 
  • A Monster of a Coincidence?
    Call it "ologyology": the study of the proliferation of children’s books with titles referencing the study of the supernatural. Candlewick’s Ologies series is perhaps the most prominent example, but this fall will see the arrival of several "ology" titles similar to the Candlewick series in name only. Two of them—'The Monstrumologist' and 'The Monsterologist'—have nearly identical titles, but very different ways of addressing their ghoulish subject matter. more » » » 
  • If You Give Fans Some Cheer
    Author Laura Numeroff is trying to spread some cheer during these challenging times by bringing people together—publishers, as well as parents and their children. On September 13, Numeroff, whose latest releases are 'Would I Trade My Parents?' and 'What Brothers Do Best/What Sisters Do Best,' is embarking on Laura Numeroff’s Bringing Families Together Tour. Abrams and Chronicle are teaming up to send Numeroff to primarily independent bookstores in two economically stressed Midwestern states.... more » » » 
  • One ‘Fantaskey’ Wedding
    This week, author Beth Fantaskey sent out wedding invitations. Surprising, since she is, in fact, already married. However, the invitations aren’t for her—they are for the two main characters in her debut novel, Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, published by Harcourt this past February. The invitations are just the first step in a new promotion featured on Fantaskey’s Web site. more » » » 

In the Media

  • From the Times of London:
    Former Children’s Laureate Anne Fine decries the "gritty realism" of modern children's books, which she says offer no hope for their protagonists, and have depressing endings that do little to inspire. more » » » 
  • From the Bookseller:
    A children’s publisher has launched Europe’s first children’s picture book on an iPhone; the app can be downloaded in the U.K. for 59p. more » » » 
  • From the Daily Mail:
    Masquerade creator Kit Williams was reunited with the amulet he buried 30 years ago, as part of the international treasure hunt he created in his bestselling book. more » » » 
  • From National Public Radio:
    Religious scholars, who once condemned the Harry Potter books for glorifying witchcraft, now say the books follow the gospels and use Christian imagery. more » » » 
  • From School Library Journal:
    SLJ spoke with novelist Terry Pratchett about why he often features children as his main characters, and how his work has changed since his diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer's. more » » » 

Obituary

  • Karla Kuskin, 1932–2009
    Author and illustrator Karla Kuskin died on August 20, at the age of 77. Her career as an author spanned half a century, with her first book, 'Roar and More,' published by Harper & Row in 1956. Since then, Kuskin wrote more than 50 books for children, most often in rhymed verse, including 'The Philharmonic Gets Dressed'; 'Soap Soup'; 'In the Middle of the Trees'; and 'Moon, Have You  Met My Mother?' HarperCollins will publish her book 'A Boy Had a Mother Who Bought Him a Hat' in March 2010.  more » » » 
  • A Tribute to Karla, by Jon Agee
    I didn’t know Karla well. I’d read and admired her poetry, but I met her in person only three times, casually, at book-related events. And then, several years ago, I put together my first collection of poems, made some sketches, and had the nerve to send her the dummy, hoping she’d take the time to look it over. She did – it came back weeks later, covered in Post-its. She not only critiqued and revised the poems but also suggested clever changes... more » » » 

Collaborations

  • A Crowning Achievement
    Florence Parry Heide published her first picture book in 1967. At the time, she was looking for a creative outlet as the youngest of her five children headed off to school. To date, Heide has more than 80 titles for children to her credit. One of her best-known works, The Shrinking of Treehorn, illustrated by Edward Gorey, struck a chord with both readers and critics. But Treehorn also found a huge fan in one young illustrator, Lane Smith. more » » » 

Featured Reviews

  • All the World
    Liz Garton Scanlon, illus. by Marla Frazee. S&S/Beach Lane, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8580-8
    Tackling a topic no smaller than the world itself, Scanlon (A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toes) and Frazee (A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever) invite children to explore a variety of its settings, starting with a beach where a young interracial family plays: "A moat to dig, a shell to keep/ All the world is wide and deep." Tucked into a corner of the scene is a farmer's market, which becomes the focus of a subsequent spread (“Tomato blossom, fruit so red/ All the world’s a garden bed”). This clever linking of Frazee’s blithesome watercolor and pencil-streaked illustrations echoes the book’s larger goal: to show the world’s connectivity. The lively verse… more » » » 
  • Purple Heart
    Patricia McCormick. HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray, $16.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-06-173090-0
    In this suspenseful psychological thriller, 18-year-old Matt Duffy, a private with memory problems following a traumatic brain injury, receives the Purple Heart in Iraq and gradually unravels the contradictory events that led to the honor. McCormick (Sold) sharply draws the culture of the Green Zone hospital, the camaraderie of the enlisted men and (via phone calls and letters) the gulf between life at home versus on the front. Friendship, bravado and juvenile antics counteract the soldiers' guilt, paranoia and unease around Iraqis (" 'Enemy' was the official term. 'Insurgents' was okay, too. Everybody called them hajis, though"). Strong characters heighten the drama… more » » » 

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What Are You Reading?

Throughout August we've been featuring kids across the country, talking about the books they're reading this summer.

Tricia O'Connor, age 17

I read Julie and Julia. I thought it was better than the movie, but I liked them both. I was kind of mad though to find out afterwards that Julie supposedly cheated on her husband and got divorced. Earlier this summer I re-read all four Twilight books. I watched the Twilight movie which made me want to read the first book again—and then I just had to go through the other three. Click here to read more from Tricia and her siblings.

Rights Report

Liz Szabla at Feiwel & Friends has bought new works by husband and wife Julie Halpern and Matthew Cordell. Halpern’s YA novel, Don’t Stop Now, is about a teenage girl and her frustratingly platonic male friend who follow random clues on a road trip to find their friend after she fakes her own kidnapping. Cordell’s picture book Another Brother tells the story of a young sheep who must adjust to having siblings when his parents bring home not just one but 12 little brothers. Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio did both deals.

Donna Bray at Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins acquired two middle-grade novels by author Tricia Springstubb at auction. The first, with the working title Fox Heart, tells of 11-year-old Moe Wren and the summer that her neighborhood and family change forever. Tentative pub date is fall 2010. Sarah Davies at the Greenhouse Literary Agency did the deal for U.S. and Canadian rights.

Daniel Ehrenhaft at Sourcebooks bought Rock God: The Legend of B.J. Levine by Barnabas Miller, first in a middle-grade series: an adventure with a musical component to it. Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh & Otis was the agent for North American rights.

Susan Chang of Tor has bought Kiki Hamilton’s debut novel The Faerie Ring, a YA urban fantasy set in Victorian London, in which an orphaned pickpocket steals a ring that binds the courts of England and faerie in peace, and must find a way to return it to the Queen. Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary was the agent; a pub date has not been set.

People

Lydah Pyles has joined Penguin Young Readers Group as national account manager for Amazon, Costco and BJs. Most recently she was a national account manager at Simon & Schuster.

Lea Yancey has joined Chronicle Children’s Books as marketing coordinator. She was formerly assistant sales manager at Ten Speed Press, and before that spent six years at Chronicle in its customer service department.

In the Winners' Circle

The Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year Awards were announced on August 20. Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia won Older Book of the Year, and Bob Graham’s How to Heal a Broken Wing won Early Childhood Book of the Year, among the five categories. For a complete list of all winners and honor books, click here.

Mark Your Calendar

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., will honor former New York Times children's books editor Eden Ross Lipson on Saturday, October 3. Leonard S. Marcus will moderate a panel discussion about her contributions to children's literature, and Mordicai Gerstein will sign copies of Lipson's picture book, Applesauce Season (Roaring Brook, Aug.), which he illustrated. Lipson had been helping to coordinate an exhibit at the museum called "The Silent Cat," and her selection of books for the exhibit will be on display. A bus excursion is being coordinated from New York City; for registration or further information, contact Ann Rea via email or call 413-658-1155.
 


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

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