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Something Old, Something New
In Chicken Little, a March picture book from Roaring Brook’s Neal Porter imprint, Rebecca Emberley’s text puts a new spin on an old tale. The book’s art, which she created with her father Ed Emberley, likewise represent a mingling of old and new.
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Bestselling British Series Arrives in U.S.
His name says it all. Horrid Henry schemes to trick the tooth fairy into leaving him money when hasn’t lost a tooth and causes his cousin’s groom to fly head-first into the wedding cake. American kids will finally have a chance to meet this merry mischief maker—whose books have sold more than 12 million copies in the U.K. alone —when Sourcebooks’ Jabberwocky imprint releases four Horrid Henry paperbacks next month.
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Haller Moves to Penguin Young Readers
Jennifer Haller, v-p and associate publisher of the children’s book group at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, is moving to Penguin Young Readers Group as v-p and associate publisher, effective March 26.
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Children's Book Reviews: Week of 3/9/2009
Picture Books Just Like a Baby Juanita Havill , illus. by Christine Davenier. Chronicle , $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8118-5026-1 The collaborators behind I Heard It from Alice Zucchini offer a warmhearted story about a family with big plans for a little newborn. Davenier's luminous watercolors and vivid characterizations are the main draw; she portrays a large, loving and highly expressive fami...
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Can You Bully a Wimpy Kid?
These days in children's books, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is the It series. Abrams has more than 15 million copies in print of the four existing titles. Fox is holding open casting for a movie version, which has been fast-tracked for a fall release. And last week two Wimpy Kid books were nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award.
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Bluebird Works Takes Off
Editor Kara LaReau has struck out on her own, and has announced the formation of Bluebird Works, offering creative services that include freelance writing and editing, manuscript reviewing and talent scouting to publishers, authors and agents.
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Orson Scott Card Signs with Simon Pulse
Simon Pulse senior editor Anica Rissi has acquired world English rights to the first three books in a new fantasy series by Orson Scott Card written specifically for a YA audience.
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Janetta Otter-Barry to Start Own List
Janetta Otter-Barry, editorial director of Frances Lincoln Children’s Books in the U.K., will set up her own list beginning next month, under the Frances Lincoln umbrella.
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Licensing Hotline: March 2009
It’s not often that an author’s first children’s book comes to market accompanied by a range of licensed products, but that’s the case with artist Alex Beard’s The Jungle Grapevine, one of the lead fall titles from Abrams Books for Young Readers.
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Moving On Up: 'Need' by Carrie Jones
To fans of Twilight, and other novels in the growing paranormal romantic suspense genre, this premise will sound familiar. A moody teenage girl moves to a new, remote town to live with a relative. She soon has a crew of fascinating—and fascinated—admirers. So goes the set-up of Need by Carrie Jones, which Bloomsbury published in December, and which has 55,000 copies in print.
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A Lion of a Tale from Delacorte
In a video clip that has been viewed on YouTube (in several versions) by more than 10 million people, a lion emerges from the African wilderness to embrace—literally—two men standing in a clearing. Those men, Anthony “Ace” Bourke and John Rendall, chronicle the events leading up to that encounter in Christian the Lion, a Delacorte release with a March 10 laydown.
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Rodeen Literary Open for Business
Children’s book agent Paul Rodeen, who learned his craft as assistant to George Nicholson at Sterling Lord Literistic for three years, before opening an SLL Chicago satellite office four years ago, has opened his own literary agency. Rodeen Literary Management, headquartered in Chicago, will represent both veteran and aspiring children’s book authors and illustrators.
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Children’s Book Publishing in Asia
Taking the pulse of the children’s book market in Asia is no easy task. For a start, this is a huge territory with varying tastes for originals, translations, picture books and YA titles. In general, picture books remain the region’s most popular exports. YA titles are starting to shine, with no better example than Nahoko Uehashi’s Moribito series, winner of the 2008 Mildred L.
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Children's Book Reviews: Week of 3/2/2009
Picture Books Bad Frogs Thacher Hurd . Candlewick , $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-3253-3 Hurd’s artwork is as exuberant as ever—his portraits of mischief-making amphibians have a ripped-from-the-easel sense of fun, with colors that look like they dried only minutes before readers opened the book.
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Comics Grow at Graphic Universe
Originally launched in 2006 to produce comics under the Lerner Publishing Group's Carolrhoda Books imprint, Lerner Graphic Universe has grown into its own imprint, adding more titles and series and even making a foray into the international market by licensing and translating a French-language graphic novel series.
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CBC Reveals ‘Children’s Choice’ Finalists
They’re back: the Children’s Book Council has unveiled the finalists for the second-annual Children’s Choice Book Awards. Nearly 15,000 children cast their votes in six categories—four based on age group, as well as author and illustrator of the year.
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The Buzz About Accord’s AniMotion Series
There’s significant movement—on-page and in sales—at Denver-based Accord Publishing, a division of Andrews McMeel. In Bee & Me, an October 2008 release written by Elle J. Mcguinness and illustrated by Heather Brown, a bumblebee appears to fly, thanks to a moving-image technique the publisher calls AniMotion.
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First Books About First Dog
While President Barack Obama’s election-night speech electrified millions all over the world, the newly elected president’s public promise that evening to his two daughters—that they could get a puppy to live with them in the White House—has captured the imaginations of three children’s publishers.
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Q & A with Susan Patron
Children's Bookshelf spoke with Susan Patron about her new novel, Lucky Breaks (Atheneum, Mar.).
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Toy Fair: Back to Basics
The number of exhibitors at last week’s New York International Toy Fair was down from years past—less than 30 booths featured publishers or authors, for example, compared to the typical 40 to 45—and traffic was light. Many publishers said they had a productive show, however, noting that attendees were serious about writing orders.
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