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Movie Alert: 'It's Kind of a Funny Story'
Ned Vizzini's critically acclaimed 2006 novel, It's Kind of a Funny Story, hits the big screen next month. The Focus Features film is directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who also co-wrote the screenplay, based on Vizzini's novel. Keir Gilchrist (The United States of Tara) stars in the movie as Craig, a Brooklyn teenager who checks himself into a psychiatric hospital, after having difficulty coping with the stresses of his first year at a competitive high school.
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Candlewick Partners with Toon Books
On October 1, Candlewick Press will launch a Toon Books imprint, a partnership with the already existing Toon Books, a press founded by New Yorker art editor Françoise Mouly in spring 2008 with the mission of getting kids to read using comics.
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Debra Frasier Takes Up Residence at the Minnesota State Fair
The Minnesota State Fair is nicknamed the Great Minnesota Get-Together for good reason: practically every Minnesotan seems to spend a day or two there during its 12-day run (August 26 to September 6 this year), doing such things as gorging themselves on food-on-a-stick, hanging out at the Mighty Midway, and watching a sculptor carve a 90-pound block of butter. Author Debra Frasier went a step beyond the typical Minnesotan fairgoer...
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'Mockingjay' Sells More Than 450,000 Copies in First Week
Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, sold more than 450,000 copies (hardcover and e-book) in its first week on sale in the U.S., its publisher, Scholastic, announced Thursday. The book debuted at number one on both the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists. Scholastic has gone back to press for an additional 400,000 copies, bringing the total number of copies in print for Mockingjay in the U.S. to 1.6 million since its August 24 publication.
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First Second Graphic Novel with Banned Book Theme Appears First on Web, Later in Stores
A book-loving boy from the small Oklahoma town of Americus grapples with the travails of high school and takes a stand when it looks as though his favorite fantasy series, starring a young sorceress who hunts monsters and tyrants, might be banned from the local library. That's the storyline of Americus, written by MK Reed and illustrated by Jonathan Hill, due from Roaring Brook's First Second Books in fall 2011. This graphic novel is making an earlier, serialized appearance on the Web, where new installments have been posted three times a week since early June.
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Digging for Dino Bones: An Author's Summer Research
Earlier this summer, author Michele Torrey got down and dirty (literally) in preparation for her new book, The Case of the Terrible T. Rex, joining the paleontologists of the PaleoWorld Foundation in the Hell Creek Basin of the Montana Badlands for a week-long dinosaur dig.
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In Brief: September 2
In brief this week: schools reading books by Suzanne Selfors and Suzanne Morgan Williams; a celebration of John Claude Bemis's new book; and a tour for Kelly Pulley's new picture book.
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It's a Wonderful (Sales) Life: The Staying Power of 'The Book Thief'
The Book Thief, a novel by Australian author Markus Zusak set in Germany during WWII, was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers to much critical acclaim in March 2006. By early 2007 it had appeared on many Best Books lists and won a Printz Honor. But what has been truly unusual about The Book Thief is that its sales—to adults as well as young readers—have risen steadily since publication. The book is a regular fixture on bestseller lists more than four years later, and it has sold more than 1.5 million copies across print, audio, and e-book formats in North America.
It's a success story that not even Zusak imagined. "I honestly thought it would be my least successful book," he recently told the Palm Beach Post. "I thought, 'A book set in Nazi Germany, narrated by Death, and it's 580 pages long. Who wants to read that?' "
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Cooking the Books with Lidia Bastianich
Lidia Bastianch may be known for her Italian cookbooks and restaurants, but she has another role that she deems just as (if not even more) important: grandmother. Bastianich's five grandchildren will get a pretty cool gift this Christmas, when Running Press Kids publishes Nonna Tell Me a Story: Lidia's Christmas Kitchen.
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'Mockingjay' Lands in Bookstores
From a five-ft. mockingjay and a 17-ft. cornucopia with a four-ft. opening filled with books at Powell’s Books in Portland to seven mockingjays painted on the exterior of The King's English in Salt Lake City, booksellers found unique ways to celebrate Monday's midnight release of the final book in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay.
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A 'Pretty Little Liars' Contest in Maine
Earlier this month, Kenny Brechner was typing titles of the Pretty Little Liars series into the computer at his store, DDG Booksellers in Farmington, Maine. He found himself using those PLL titles conversationally, to answer questions from his staff: "Yes, call Jim Bubier about his book, it would be wicked not to notify him of the delay." Then he had an idea, and the Pretty Little Liars Word Game Contest was born.
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In Brief: August 26
In brief this week: 'The Contemps' launches to promote realistic fiction, Daisy Whitney's pre-pub tour, and author Janet Fox in Yellowstone National Park.
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Countdown to Mockingjay
From a five-ft. mockingjay and a 17-ft. cornucopia that will be filled with crates, survival gear, and books at Powell’s Books in Portland to seven mockingjays painted on the exterior of The King’s English in Salt Lake City, booksellers have been looking for unique ways to celebrate tonight’s midnight release of the final book in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (Scholastic has a 1.2 million copy first printing).
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'Kandide and the Secret of the Mists': From Self-Published Novel to Scholastic Book Fairs
Perhaps the magic that Diana Zimmerman has performed on stage for decades had a subtle influence on her self-published fantasy novel, Kandide and the Secret of the Mists. It has sold 12,000 copies since its publication in 2008, and has recently been signed by Scholastic for a 40,000-copy print run as a featured selection in September with Scholastic Book Club and Book Fairs.
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Two Hopeful Perspectives on Haiti
On January 12, news of Haiti's disastrous earthquake shocked the world. International media and aid workers rushed to the country, as people across the globe witnessed the devastation through television screens and newspapers. Now, several months later, the crisis is being portrayed through a new medium -- children's books.
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In Brief: August 19
In brief this week: 'I Am Number Four' becomes a bestseller; a children's book in outer space; and Hallie Durand's new 'Dessert' book.
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'Brown Bear' and 'Polar Bear' Released in New Format
First released in 1966 by the school division of Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Bill Martin Jr.'s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, illustrated by Eric Carle, was written and published as a beginning reader. After receiving many letters from teachers requesting a trade edition of the book, the publisher released a picture-book version several years later. Sales of that edition soared, and subsequent picture books in the series followed. Now Holt is taking the original book back to its roots, and last month released a My First Reader edition of that title and of Polar Bear.
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Eoin Colfer, in Artemis Rocks!
Irish author Eoin Colfer is headed stateside next month for a high-octane Artemis Rocks! tour in support of Artemis Fowl 7: The Atlantis Complex, the penultimate book in his bestselling fantasy series about the titular boy criminal genius. At each stop, Colfer will take the stage for a talk show-style appearance, during which he’ll perform a monologue and interview none other than Artemis Fowl himself.
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Lerner Lands Unconventional Book from Three YA Authors
YA readers will have an opportunity to learn how authors conceptualize and write fiction, from start to finish, when Lerner Publishing Group releases (in spring 2012) a collection of YA stories written by Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver and Linger), together with her colleagues Brenna Yovanoff (The Replacement, Razorbill, fall 2010) and Tessa Gratton (Blood Magic, Random House, summer 2011).
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In Brief: August 12
In brief this week: the Scholastic Store shows its allegiance to Captain Underpants, Olivia goes to tea, cocktails for the Flappers, Romero Britto at Kidzapalooza, and the fifth season of Curious George on PBS Kids.
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