The Bologna Fair opened its doors on Monday, flags flying. Photo: Graham Marks

At the fair, from the American point of view, it was great to be selling, not so easy to be buying. "To buy a picture book, it would have to be irresistible," said Holiday House's Julie Amper. "Our stuff is cheap to everyone else," said Orange Avenue publisher Hallie Warshaw. "The Europeans are very happy that our dollar is weak." Handprint Books’ Christopher Franceschelli said, "For selling books, I say ‘Thank you, George Bush’ every day. But I would not want to be a European rights director selling to the U.S. right now."

Linda Summers, associate publisher (rights) at Random House U.K, reported that the most difficult area is on the novelty end, "where your margins are lower anyway, and prices are higher. If we’re publishing a novelty book at £12.99, that’s $26, but everyone [in the U.S.] wants to keep it at $19.99. It’s very tough."

Summers said she still can sell a picture book into the U.S., if it’s something truly special. "But everyone’s market is decreasing, so the quantities are lower, the publisher’s price remains the same, and the exchange rate is challenging."   

Riordan gave news of Percy Jackson and more.

Riordan isn’t writing the entire series; Scholastic hired him to oversee the story arc, and to write the first volume, Maze of Bones. The rest of the books will be written by other writers. Riordan’s agent, Nancy Gallt of the Nancy Gallt Literary Agency, believes Riordan was the perfect person for the project because "he's a gamer himself. And his son is a reluctant reader. He wanted to get the kids who are into gaming to get into reading. It’s a double obsession perfectly satisfied."

Also in Bologna, Hyperion held a press conference to reveal the first printing for the fourth Percy Jackson book, The Battle of the Labyrinth, which pubs on May 6—one million copies. ("Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a thing," Riordan told PW.) Hyperion also announced more projects with Riordan: a new fantasy adventure series as well as two books about Camp Half Blood, "which will continue our relationship well into the future," said Jonathan Yaged, v-p and U.S. publisher of the Disney Book Group.   

Gossip Girl creator Cecily von Ziegesar. Photo: Roger Hagadone.

With the exception of the gossipy blogger who gives the series its name, the cast of this and subsequent volumes in the spin-off is all-new, though the setting remains the same. Exactly the same. The Carlyles—teen triplets who relocate to Manhattan from Nantucket—move into the very Fifth Avenue penthouse that Gossip Girl star Blair Waldorf’s family has vacated. They attend the same exclusive private schools as did the characters from the original arc and move in the same privileged social circles.

"My publisher and I wanted to continue Gossip Girl, but the last novel took the characters to the end of the summer after senior year and they were all going off to different parts of the country," von Ziegesar says. "With all of them scattered, I thought it was more logical to follow a new group of characters, newcomers to the city who land in the same Upper East Side playground."   

John Keller: former LB children's publisher and current author.

Keller asked his agent not to send the story, which is loosely based on a tale his father used to tell, to Little, Brown, because he didn’t want to put his old friends there in an awkward position. "If they didn’t like it," he says, "I’d be hurt. And if they did take it, I’d wonder." But then Harcourt, which snapped up the book, ended up being integrated into Houghton Mifflin a few months before the book landed. And two of Keller’s longtime Little, Brown colleagues—Betsy Groban, now senior v-p, publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Book Group, and Linda Magram, v-p, marketing director—became his contacts.

For them, The Rubber-Legged Ducky is one of the bigger surprises to come out of the integration. "Having his book on our list has been wonderful," says Groban, who refers to Keller as "a close colleague and an even closer friend." Magram says that, for her, part of the pleasure is being able to hear his booming voice when she reads the book. Plus, working together, she adds, "gives all of us a chance to do a little reminiscing."   

A Galaxy of Clone Wars Books 

The forthcoming Star Wars-based 3D-animated franchise Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be supported by a full line of licensed publishing for all ages. “This is the first time we’re going out with a concerted effort for kids,” said Carol Roeder, Lucasfilm’s director of publishing. She notes there will be significant interest among adult fans, although the main target is ages 6-12.

Clone Wars, which takes place between Episodes II and III of the films, will premiere as a Warner Bros. theatrical film in August, followed by a weekly half-hour series on Cartoon Network in the fall. It will feature well-known characters such as Obi-Wan, Anakin and Yoda, as well as new ones, including a female, Padawan Ahsoka.

Grosset & Dunlap will be the primary licensee for children’s formats including junior novelizations, 8x8s, readers, movie photo books and activity books, starting with movie tie-ins this summer—the on-sale date for all books and merchandise is July 26—followed by TV-based titles in the fall. Other juvenile licensees include DK for sticker books, Visual Guides and DK Readers and Dalmatian for coloring and activity books. For older readers, Random House’s Del Rey imprint will publish one movie and four TV novelizations, and Dark Horse will release monthly comics and digest-size graphic novels. An “Art Of” title is expected as well. Meanwhile, classic Star Wars publishing will continue; Scholastic will introduce a new series next year.

Mark Teague, drawing Ike LaRue on his recent West Coast tour.

Wow. Mark Teague attracts quite a crowd.

By the time my five-year-old daughter, Coco, and I arrive at Alameda, Calif.’s Books Inc. on a sunny Saturday morning—a few minutes before the event is set to start—there are about 75 kids, parents and other fans raring to find out about the latest installment in his Dear Mrs. LaRue series, LaRue for Mayor: Letters from the Campaign Trail (Scholastic Press, Mar.). The store manager has to go rustle up some more chairs for us.

Teague seems unfazed when he walks out to so many eager faces and quickly reveals that he is a pro at handling the masses. Instead of reading the whole book, he outlines the story of his canine protagonist’s candidacy, pointing out the places sure to get the kids giggling, such as when the campaign crew puts an endorsement sticker on a cat. He then shows them how to sketch Ike La Rue, including details like the heart-shaped pendent he always wears around his red collar. This makes Coco shout out in delight, “It looks just like him!”