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In the News
 YA or Not YA?: 'Stitches' Gets NBA Nomination
Yesterday, the National Book Award finalists were announced; in the Young People's Literature category, the finalists are Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman (Holt); Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (FSG); Stitches by David Small (Norton); Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor (Scholastic/Levine); and Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia (HarperTeen). The inclusion of David Small's graphic novel memoir has led to some debate along with the usual congratulations. more » » »
 Kids’ Books in the NAIBAhood
Children's books shared the stage with adult titles at the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association conference earlier this month. Longtime Baltimore institution The Children's Bookstore was one of several stops on a DIY bookstore tour that preceded the official opening of the conference, which began with a dinner with children's author Laurie Halse Anderson and adult author Paul Rudnick. Sporting a blue IndieBound T-shirt, Anderson thanked booksellers for fighting the good fight for shopping local. more » » »
 NAIBA’s Tween Reader Panel
At a panel on tween readers held at the recent New Atlantic Booksellers Association fall conference, Association of Booksellers for Children executive director Kristen McLean, who got her start selling toys, observed that 15 years ago, the toy business changed its definition of "kids" from age 12 to age eight. Around the same time, she said, publishers and booksellers began breaking out middle-grade fiction... more » » »
 Laughter Sets the Scene at NCIBA Children’s Author Breakfast
At a breakfast that was more stand-up comedy than standard presentation, authors James Dashner (l.), Nancy Farmer and Berkeley Breathed charmed the sold-out crowd gathered for the Children’s Author Breakfast at the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association annual trade show in Oakland on October 10. Award-winning YA author Nancy Farmer began her talk with a humorous, detailed description of her recent eye surgery... more » » »
 Going Crazy for a Caterpillar
Viewers of NBC’s Today Show last Thursday morning saw Eric Carle read his now-classic picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was all part of the fourth annual Read for the Record Day, a campaign to bring preschool kids together to read the same picture book. Two nonprofit groups—Jumpstart and the Pearson Foundation—run the event to promote reading among low-income preschoolers. more » » »
Blogs
- ShelfTalker: A Children's Bookseller's Blog
Elizabeth Bluemle, Co-owner, Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, Vt.
Halloween Treats
Halloween is almost upon us, and we thought we'd share with you several new titles and a few perennial favorites to get kids of all ages in the mood for the spooky holiday that comes with candy. ...
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- A Fuse #8 Production
Elizabeth Bird, Children's Librarian, Children's Center at 42nd Street
Leave 'em in Stitches: Thoughts on the 2009 National Book Award nominees
Well the big news of yesterday (I'm usually 24-hours behind when it comes to this kind of thing) was the recently posted NBA nominees, particularly those in the youth portion. Take a gander: ...
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- Good Comics for Kids
Lori Henderson, ,
AA Picks Index July-September 2009
It was a summer of fun reading with all the comics, graphic novels and manga coming out for kids this quarter. From superheroes of all sizes and shapes to graphic adaptations of old and new favo...
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Book News
 A Closer Look at Disney Digital Books
Late last month, Disney Publishing Worldwide unveiled the launch of Disney Digital Books, and further details were announced during Disney’s presentation to the media on October 8. An online library of more than 500 classic and contemporary titles, Disney Digital Books was designed around three key components: an Interactive Reader, Look and Listen, and a Story Builder, which lets kids create their own books. Because Disney owns its own content... more » » »
 Workman Trots Out New Scanimation Books
When Rufus Butler Seder's Gallop!, featuring Seder's Scanimation technology, hit the scene back in 2007, readers responded. Gallop! landed at the top of bestseller lists and stores had trouble keeping it in stock. That book was followed in 2008 by a sports-themed sequel, Swing!, and Workman has just released a third book, Waddle!, as well as a Spanish-language edition of Gallop! called ¡Al Galope! more » » »
 Scholastic Adds Novel Dimension to Book Cover
An ominous-looking character pops—literally—from the front of Malice, Chris Wooding’s YA novel about London teens who get trapped in a world that exists inside a horrifying comic book. Published this month by Scholastic Press, this paper-over-board volume has a cover that features a 3-D, molded plastic figure and display type, which presented design and production crews with challenges they’d never before encountered. more » » »
 Cruising Maine's Waterways to Launch The Circus Ship
In suitably seafaring fashion, Chris Van Dusen set sail last week to promote The Circus Ship, his September picture book from Candlewick, which is loosely based on a true maritime story that has intrigued residents of coastal Maine for many generations. The Circus Ship was inspired by the tale of the Royal Tar, a steamship carrying circus animals and a brass band that set off from New Brunswick in 1836, bound for Portland and Boston... more » » »
In the Media
- From the New York Times Book Review:
Writer Bruce Handy wonders whether adapting Maurice Sendak's 338-word Where the Wild Things Are into a full-length movie was necessary or even advisable. more » » »
- From the New Yorker:
Parents today are "confrontation-averse," posits a New Yorker writer, and the "escalation" of emotions is considered a mark of failure, so more parents are turning to the reading of picture books as a way to teach discipline and other lessons. more » » »
- From the Associated Press:
In a story occasioned by this past Monday's holiday, the AP says that many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean, including the suffering of indigenous populations. more » » »
- From the O.C. Register:
Alice Provensen, who picked up a Carle Honors Award last month at the age of 91, says she still has books to illustrate and stories to tell. more » » »
Q & A
 Q & A with Elizabeth Partridge
Q: Had you been contemplating a book on the Civil Rights Movement before you saw photographer Matt Herron’s photos? You credit him with jumpstarting the book.
A: No, I had not had the least inkling to do a book on the Civil Rights Movement. And then I ran into Matt’s Web site. I fell in love with his photos, 100 percent in love with what he had done on the march, and I just wanted to get those photos out there. more » » »
In Brief
 The Force Is Strong at This Store
Last Saturday, Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, Calif., held a party to celebrate the release of LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary (DK, Oct.), a photographic guide to the many Star Wars–themed LEGO sets that have been manufactured over the past 10 years. The store invited fans to dress up in LEGO and/or Star Wars costumes for a costume contest, held a raffle and offered a LEGO building station… more » » »
 Willems on the Web
More than 200 schools and libraries participated in a live simulcast last week with children's author Mo Willems. Kids around the country tuned in as Willems answered questions, did some sketching and read from his latest books: Big Frog Can't Fit In and the new Elephant and Piggie book, Pigs Make Me Sneeze! Willems, who (as seen here on-screen) dressed up for the occasion… more » » »
 A Busy Night at Hicklebee's
Hicklebee's in San Jose, Calif., recently hosted 150 teachers for an "Educator Night," and several children's book authors came out to discuss their latest books. Seen here, l. to r., are Natasha Wing (An Eye for Color: The Story of Josef Albers), Alex Beard (The Jungle Grapevine), Sarah Klise (Little Rabbit and the Night Mare),Teri Sloat (There Was an Old Man Who Painted the Sky), owner Valerie Lewis, Betsy Franco (Pond Circle) and Kristin Venuti (Leaving the Bellweathers). more » » »
 Scholastic's (Second) Webcast with Whoopi
Scholastic is holding a second online webcast for its multiplatform 39 Clues series. Whoopi Goldberg, who hosted the first webcast last year, will return for this one, entitled "The 39 Clues: Advanced Agent Training," which will take place on Monday, November 2. Goldberg will speak with all five authors of the series: Rick Riordan, Gordon Korman, Peter Lerangis, Jude Watson and Patrick Carman... more » » »
Featured Reviews
  The Dinosaur Tamer
Carol Greathouse, illus. by John Shroades. Dutton, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-525-47866-9
Greathouse and Shroades's rollicking debut, set "back when the old, old West was still as green as a bristlecone pine and cowboys were as common as warts on a Stegosaurus," introduces pint-sized cowboy Rocky who "teethed on a Deinonychus femur and used an Ankylosaurus tail as a rattle" and specializes in taming dinos of all sizes. Though the book is full of delightful hyperbole and outlandish claims, both author and artist sprinkle it with authentic dinosaur names and features; Shroades uses a palette of fantastical colors for his dinos, as when Rocky ropes a purple and blue stegosaurus "at ninety paces while wearin' a blindfold and eatin' a prickly pear." But trouble surfaces with the arrival of T. Rex… more » » »
 Hush, Hush
Becca Fitzpatrick. Simon & Schuster, $17.99 (400p) ISBN 978-1-4169-8941-7
Fitzpatrick debuts with a gripping chiller where humans become pawns in the hands of fallen angels. Nora Grey is assigned a new partner in her sophomore biology class. Her instincts tell her Patch is trouble, and she doesn't like the way he is already inside her head ("Part of me wanted to run away from him screaming, Fire! A more reckless part was tempted to see how close I could get without... combusting"). Soon she is questioning her sanity—she is attacked by a masked figure that smashes her car window, but later the glass is intact. And the same figure ransacks her bedroom, but everything is in place when the police arrive. The violence and danger escalate… more » » »
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Galley Talk
Angela K. Sherrill of 57th Street Books in Chicago talks about a favorite 2010 galley. For me, there's something of Mark Twain in Dr. Cuthbert Soup's upcoming middle-grade novel, A Whole Nother Story (Bloomsbury, Jan. 2010), a winking satire that grabs readers and pulls them along a swiftly narrated adventure. The action follows Mr. Cheeseman and his three unique and savvy children... Read moreRights Report
Kristin Daly at HarperCollins's Balzer & Bray imprint has bought two books at auction from debut author Crystal Allen for six figures. In the first book, a middle-grade novel called How Lamar's Bad Prank Won a Bubba Sized Trophy, a 13-year-old African-American boy named Lamar Washington is the "maddest, baddest most spectacular bowler ever at Striker's Bowling Paradise." But Lamar doesn't have game, and vows to spend the summer changing his image from dud to stud. Lamar pubs in spring/summer 2011. Jennifer Rofé at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency did the deal for world rights.
Stephanie Elliott at Delacorte Books has acquired North American rights to two YA novels by Amber Kizer. The first, an untitled companion novel to the recently published Meridian, will publish in August 2011. The second, Echoes of 1492, in which a lethal pandemic strikes the United States, leaving 16-year old Nadia and her 12-year-old brother to find a future in an unfamiliar world, will publish in August 2012. Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio was the agent.
CBS Films is developing a teen-targeted comedy titled Freaky Monday, according to Variety. It's based on a sequel to Freaky Friday that came out this past May, which was cowritten by Mary Rodgers and Heather Hach. In the story, a smart yet insecure girl winds up swapping bodies with her English teacher. In the Winners Circle
Exposure by Mal Peet, a modern-day retelling of Othello, in which the Moor of Venice and his wife are transformed into the South American equivalent of David and Victoria Beckham, has won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The prize is the only children's award in the U.K. judged by children's authors.
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 features Newbery Medalist Richard Peck, and takes place on Tuesday, November 3 from 6:30–7:30 p.m. at 66 W. 12th St., Room 510. 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.
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