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September 10, 2009

In this Issue

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In the News

  • Namelos Editions to Publish Electronic and POD Books
    In January, Stephen Roxburgh started namelos, a consortium of editors, art directors and designers who work with authors to develop projects for placement with publishers. He began the second phase of his company, namelos editions, on Labor Day—"because it’s a lot of work," he said. Namelos editions will publish one-color children’s and YA fiction, nonfiction and poetry in electronic and print-on-demand editions. The company’s tagline... more » » » 
  • Reynolds Book Inspired by Rose Kennedy Moved Up
    With the recent death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Candlewick Press announced that it is moving up the on-sale date for Rose’s Garden, Peter H. Reynolds’s tribute to Kennedy’s mother and to a Boston park named after her, from February 2010 to October 13. The picture book, which tells of a girl named Rose who gathers seeds from around the world and comes to Boston, "poignantly captures my mother’s enduring spirit," wrote the Senator... more » » » 


  • Penguin Young Readers Shares Its New Point of View
    Five backlist novels and two new titles are featured in Point of View, a fall marketing initiative from Penguin Young Readers Group. The campaign, which focuses on literary books with strong, somewhat challenging themes, entails consumer and trade components and aims to connect readers who embraced such novels as Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson to new books with a similar appeal. more » » » 

Blogs

Book News

  • Flux to Issue 40th-Anniversary Edition of Seminal John Donovan Novel
    Released in 1969, John Donovan’s I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip tread on turf previously considered taboo in young adult publishing. Widely regarded as the first YA novel to touch on the topic of homosexuality, the book centers on a 13-year-old whose efforts to cope with his estranged mother lead to a close friendship with another boy. Originally published by Ursula Nordstrom at Harper & Row, I’ll Get There will be reissued in fall 2010 by Flux... more » » » 
  • Candlewick Goes Hi-Tech with DiCamillo
    Kate DiCamillo has come a long way from her debut author tour in 2000, which consisted of only two bookstore appearances in Minnesota: the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, and Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis. While the turnout at both events promoting DiCamillo’s first novel was "nice," the Twin Cities resident recalls, it was only "because my friends all came." This fall, DiCamillo’s publisher is making sure the bestselling author reaches more readers than ever before. more » » » 
  • Ounce, Dice, Trice Times the Charm
    This month, The New York Review of Books is releasing the latest title under its Children's Collection imprint: Alastair Reid's Ounce Dice Trice. Originally published by Little, Brown in 1958, Ounce Dice Trice is an unconventional, exuberant poetry book; it features illustrations by celebrated artist Ben Shahn, and remains the only children's book that Shahn ever illustrated. more » » » 

In the Media

  • From the Guardian:
    J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer: comic book heroines? Yes, it’s true—the two novelists will soon be starring in graphic-novel biographies from Bluewater, new additions to the ongoing Female Force series. The comics are due out in December. more » » » 
  • From the Bookseller:
    Canongate, an adult publisher in the U.K., will publish "a remarkable new piece of fiction" by Philip Pullman, called The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, in which he challenges the events of the Gospels, and puts forward his own "compelling and plausible version," according to Canongate publisher Jamie Byng. more » » » 
  • From the Contra Costa Times:
    Suddenly Maurice Sendak is everywhere: a major Sendak exhibit opened on Tuesday at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, and next month sees the premiere of the long-awaited Spike Jonze film of Where the Wild Things Are. more » » » 
  • From the New York Times:
    PBS’s Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps, the latest version of the animated TV series based on the popular picture books, has been updated, and Angelina’s look has been modernized for a new generation of viewers. more » » » 
  • From the Independent:
    An interview with YA author Meg Rosoff, who candidly admits, "I was born with a big mouth." Her next book, which she is currently working on, imagines God as a 19-year-old boy. more » » » 

In Brief

  • Feiwel’s Friends, Fans and Fireworks
    Macmillan imprint Feiwel & Friends recently held an event with the minor league baseball team, the Staten Island Yankees. F&F authors Jordan Sonnenblick and John Coy signed more than 700 books for young sports fans, and the publisher also sponsored a fireworks show after the game against the Aberdeen IronBirds (the Yankees trounced the IronBirds 12-1)… more » » » 
  • Labor (Day) of Love
    This past weekend, author Fran Cannon Slayton visited the town of Rowlesburg, W.Va., the setting of her new novel When the Whistle Blows (Philomel, June), for its annual Labor Day Ox Roast. During the festival, Slayton signed more than 100 copies of her book. Seen here, Slayton (center) shows off her novel, flanked by her parents, who grew up in Rowlesburg… more » » » 
  • Southern Hospitality
    The fourth annual Decatur Book Festival also took place last weekend, and Atlanta-based children’s publisher Peachtree was out in full force, with a booth set up as a "Book Hospital." Kids who visited the Peachtree booth were able to create new covers for "hurt" books (here, a local firefighter brings books to the Peachtree tent). Kate DiCamillo, Loren Long, Lauren Myracle, Judy Schachner and Jon Scieszka were among the children’s book authors and illustrators who participated… more » » » 
  • 'Hammer' Time
    Author John Claude Bemis and some friends recently put on a show for the town of Hillsborough, S.C., to celebrate his debut novel The Nine Pound Hammer (Random, Aug.), first in the Clockwork Dark trilogy, which follows 12-year-old protagonist Ray as he falls in with a group of sideshow performers who travel a mythical version of America where folklore and tall tales come to life. In keeping with the book’s subject matter, Bemis’s show featured a snake-oil salesman… more » » » 
  • Blank’s Good 'Karma'
    The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City recently played host to a launch event for author Jessica Blank’s second novel, Karma for Beginners, about a 14-year-old girl whose hippie mother drags her off to live on an ashram. The museum hosted a gallery tour for attendees, and Blank read from her novel, answered questions from fans and (seen here) signed copies of the book… more » » » 

Q & A

  • Q & A with Shannon Hale
    Q: What made you decide to write Forest Born?

    A: I really just go where the story takes me. It’s funny—with every one of the Bayern books, I thought each one was a stand-alone. The character of Enna was so different from Ani in Goose Girl, and after writing about Ani who was so quiet, the idea of writing about a character so fiery, so outspoken and dangerous was what attracted me to Enna Burning. more » » » 

 
                                                                         

Featured Reviews

  • Stick Man
    Julia Donaldson, illus. by Axel Scheffler.
    Scholastic/Levine, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-545-15761-2

    Donaldson and Scheffler, the team behind Room on the Broom and The Gruffalo, find a roundabout route to Christmas in this bouncy tale. Stick Man is just that, a brown stick with twig arms and branch legs. His story is delivered in perfect meter: "Stick Man lives in the family tree/ With his Stick Lady Love and their stick children three." One spring day, Stick Man unwillingly joins a dog's game of fetch, is sent downstream by children and woven into a swan's nest. As the seasons change, Stick Man travels farther from home, futilely protesting (in vehement Green Eggs and Ham style), "I'm not a mast for a silly old flag,/ Or a sword for a knight... or a hook for a bag." In his darkest hour, he nearly becomes kindling… more » » » 

  • Devil's Kiss
    Sarwat Chadda. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4231-1999-9

    Chadda's fast-paced debut introduces 15-year-old Billi SanGreal, who is drafted into the modern remnants of the once-great Knights Templar by her fanatical, emotionally distant father, leader of the order (“How was school?” he asks while she's still “covered in slimy gore” after an exorcism). Though skilled in weaponry and educated in obscure religious history, Billi is a poor fit for the Templars: the lone girl in an otherwise all-male organization, of Muslim extraction but surrounded by Christians and lacking the unblinking ruthlessness required by the eternal war between the Knights and the forces of darkness. Nonetheless, she finds herself standing between the Angel of Death… more » » » 








Rights Report

Namrata Tripathi of Atheneum Books for Young Readers has bought world English rights to a collaboration between Judith Viorst (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day) and Lane Smith (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales). They will create a chapter book called Lulu and the Brontosaurus, to be published in September 2010. In the story, a willful girl named Lulu is determined to get a brontosaurus for a birthday present. When her parents try to persuade her that this isn’t a good idea, she storms into the forest, taking matters into her own hands. Smith will provide black-and-white illustrations. Robert Lescher of Lescher & Lescher, for Viorst, and Steven Malk of Writers House, for Smith, were the agents.

Jennifer Besser at Disney Book Group has acquired a three-book series from YA author Maureen Johnson at auction. The series features an American high school student attending a London boarding school for her junior year. A series of murders begins to take place across the city—on the exact dates and in the exact style of Jack the Ripper—and her ties to the killer bring her in contact with a secret paranormal branch of the British police. The first book in the series will be published in summer 2011, with a new book following each subsequent summer. Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary was the agent.

John Rudolph of G.P. Putnam’s Sons has acquired North American rights for picture book author/artist Richard Ungar’s middle-grade debut, Time Snatchers, at auction in a two-book deal. Time Snatchers stars a 14-year-old orphan and conscripted time thief, from 2061 New Beijing, who steals treasures from the past for a mafioso named Uncle. The book is currently planned for fall 2011, and the deal was done by Quinlan Lee and Josh Adams of Adams Literary.

Amanda Bostic at Thomas Nelson has signed bestselling author J.S. Lewis for a new YA series. Lewis is best-known for his Grey Griffins series, a YA fantasy trilogy inspired by Arthurian legends but set in modern-day America; more than 850,000 Grey Griffins books have been sold. His first novel for Nelson will launch the series in January 2011.

Paper Routes Remembered

With this month’s publication of Sue Corbett’s novel The Last Newspaper Boy in America, the author says she’s been surprised at how many people throughout the process have told her, “Oh, I had a paper route!” Here at Bookshelf, we found that interesting, and we’d love to hear from any readers with their own paper route memories. To kick things off, we’ve asked Corbett to share hers. Read more

Mark Your Calendar

The New School in New York City is hosting a series of fall forums on writing for children, hosted by editor Deborah Brodie. The first forum, called “What Reviewers Look For,” takes place on Tuesday, September 15 from 6:30–7:30 p.m. at 66 W. 12th St., Room 510, and features Elizabeth Devereaux, formerly children’s reviews editor at Publishers Weekly. 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.

Contact Us

Dear Bookshelf Readers,
Hope you enjoyed this week's issue. As always, we'd love to hear from you with any comments and suggestions—please drop us a note here.
 
  


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

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