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When the ALA Calls: Stead and Pinkney on Winning the Big Prize
When you win a Newbery or a Caldecott Medal, you find out in a phone call — usually very early in the morning—and then your life is instantly changed. Both Rebecca Stead and Jerry Pinkney got recently that phone call; we spoke with both of them to find out where they were when the phone rang, what their reactions were, and what came next.
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Kaiser Media Report Finds Kids' Book Reading Steady
A report on media usage released Wednesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation found some relatively good news for book publishers, amid findings that generally determined that eight- to 18-year-olds are consuming more digital media than ever. According to the report, called Generation M, total media usage by that age group rose to seven hours and 38 minutes per day in 2009, up from six hours and 21 minutes in the 2004 study...
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Movie Alert: The Lightning Thief
Next month, another wildly popular fantasy series makes the jump from print to the big screen. Following in the footsteps of Harry Potter, Twilight, and the Inheritance Cycle comes The Lightning Thief. Based on the first book in Rick Riordan's bestselling Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the film arrives in movie theaters on February 12, with an all-star cast that includes Pierce Brosman, Steve Coogan, Rosario Dawson, Catherine Keener, and Uma Thurman, with Logan Lerman starring as Percy...
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Katz's Kids: A Career Built on Babies
Cherubic, bright-eyed babies are Karen Katz’s stock in trade — and in mass market as well. Though hers may not be a household name to all, seven million copies of Katz's 40-plus board books and picture books have been sold through both the trade and mass market since her first title, Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale, was published by Henry Holt in 1997. Due this month from Little Simon is a 10th-anniversary oversize edition of Katz’s bestselling book...
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ALA Midwinter Meeting: Let It Snow
Although attendance was up at this year's ALA Midwinter Meeting, held during the Martin Luther King holiday weekend at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, over last year's meeting in Denver — 11,095 compared to 10,220 in 2009 — it was still down compared with the last time it was on the East Coast. The 2008 show in Philadelphia drew 13,601 people. Some attributed the fact that attendance wasn't stronger this year to economics, including cuts in libraries' travel budgets...
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Capstone Partners with SI Kids
Educational publisher Capstone Publishing, based in Minneapolis, has entered into a partnership with sports magazine publisher Sports Illustrated KIDS, to create a line of 82 high-interest nonfiction and fiction sports books for elementary and middle-school readers, beginning this month and going through spring 2012. The line, to be published under the Stone Arch Books and Capstone Press imprints, will include three series, debuting in January...
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Recapping the Holidays: Austerity Mixed with Success
The 2009 holiday season had more than its share of harsh realities, including reduced consumer budgets and cautious or uncertain book buyers. But that didn’t stop independent bookstores from making the best of the holiday season—and in some cases great success—with thanks to Suzanne Collins, handselling, and National Public Radio. Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass., devoted more space to children’s this year...
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Who Will Win the Big Awards? Scanning the Blogs
Ah, January 2010. New year, new decade—and the last chance to lay odds on which books from 2009 will be slapped with the gold and silver seals that come with the annual awarding of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, the Printz Award, and all the other prestigious prizes handed out by the ALA's ASLC and YALSA divisions next Monday. A tour of various book- and librarian-centric Web sites, blogs and listservs turns up countless confident souls eager to champion their favorite titles...
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In Brief: January 14
This week, Rick Riordan's new series, The Kane Chronicles, gets a cover reveal, and Elizabeth Eulberg now wears two hats: publicist for Stephenie Meyer, and YA author.
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Lori Benton Joins Capstone
Lori Benton has been named general manager/publisher of fiction imprints at the children's book publisher Capstone. The move puts Benton in charge of Stone Arch Books and Picture Window Books. Benton was most recently v-p and publisher of Harcourt's children's book division. Capstone's major market is schools and libraries, and Benton will be working to develop more of a trade list for the company...
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An Animated Conversation
For the inexperienced, the prospect of taking a picture book and turning it into a children's TV show may seem like a relatively simple one. But a panel presentation this past Saturday — which explored the process of transforming an (often beloved) children's picture book into a fully imagined and successful television series — proved that to be anything but the case. The panel, entitled "From the Page to the Screen... The Television Screen, That Is"...
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Joy Berry Enterprises Expands, Signs with Perseus Distribution
Perseus Distribution announced yesterday that it would take over sales and distribution for Joy Berry Enterprises, which publishes books by the educator and child development specialist Joy Berry. Berry, who has been published by a range of houses, including Scholastic and Grolier, and boasts more than 85 million books sold, began releasing books via Joy Berry Enterprises in late 2008.
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The Baby-sitters Club to Reconvene
Almost a quarter century ago, middle-grade readers were ushered into the lives of four Connecticut girls whose entrepreneurial spirit led them to start a babysitting business.The stars of Ann M. Martin's The Baby-sitters Club obviously endeared themselves to girls: between 1986 and 2000, Scholastic published 213 novels in the series, which reached an in-print tally of more than 176 million copies. This April, the publisher will release Martin's hardcover prequel to the series...
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Abrams to Publish 'Wimpy Kid' Movie Diary
One of the most anticipated films of 2010—at least on the children's side of things—is the adaptation of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the first book in Jeff Kinney's bestselling series, which arrives in theaters on April 2. To get readers ready, on March 16 Abrams's Amulet Books imprint will publish Kinney's The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary, a behind-the-scenes from the author's perspective, about the moviemaking process.
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Obituary: Talivaldis Stubis
Talivaldis Stubis, the prolific graphic designer and artist, died late last year at the age of 83, after a long battle with amyloidosis. Stubis illustrated nearly two dozen books over his long career, including Sir Alva and the Wicked Wizard by Otto Friedrich, Sam's Place by Lillian Moore, and many by the husband-and-wife team Rose Wyler and Gerald Ames...
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In Brief: January 7
This week, the winner of a Lunch Lady contest is revealed, and a new American Girl character is unveiled.
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RH Children's Signs New Sachar Title
Random House's Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers imprint has acquired a new YA novel by Louis Sachar called The Cardturner. The title, by the Newbery-winning author of Holes, was sold by Ellen Levine at Trident to Delacorte's Beverly Horowitz, and RH is planning a May 11, 2010, publication. The U.S. deal also follows a British acquisition; Sarah Odedina at Bloomsbury Children's Books closed on the U.K. and Commonwealth rights to the book earlier this week
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Katherine Paterson: Madam Ambassador
Today Newbery Medalist Katherine Paterson adds the title of National Ambassador for Young People's Literature to her long list of honors. In a ceremony at the Library of Congress this morning, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington will officially name Paterson — who succeeds the first children's ambassador, Jon Scieszka — to the position.
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Melanie Kroupa to Join Marshall Cavendish
Around this time last year, Melanie Kroupa, who had had her own imprint at FSG Books for Young Readers since 2000, was let go as part of Macmillan’s reorganization of its children’s division. But news came late yesterday that Kroupa will be joining Marshall Cavendish Children's Books as an editor-at-large on January 1, reporting to publisher Margery Cuyler.
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CPSIA Stay on Testing Extended Another Year
On December 17, the Consumer Product Safety Commission voted four to one—with Commissioner Robert Adler voting against—to extend the stay of enforcement on the independent lead testing and certification provisions of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act for one more year. The provisions will go into effect on February 10, 2011.
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