Hopping Around the U.S. on Tour

Spring is here, andflowers are blooming, eggs are getting dye jobs, and rabbits are popping up everywhere—especially on Kevin Henkes’s tour for his new picture book, Little White Rabbit (Greenwillow, Jan.). On April 13, Henkes spoke to students from Menchaca Elementary School in Austin; he also visited New Jersey, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, and made an appearance at the recent Texas Library Association conference. Henkes also has a forthcoming middle-grade novel this season, Junonia (Greenwillow, May), and he will be one of the speakers at the Children’s Book and Author Breakfast at BEA.

Holmes on (Military) Homes

Author Sara Lewis Holmes recently visited the Arlington Public Library in Arlington, Va., as part of the recent Arlington Reads program. This year’s theme was “The Soldier’s Story: Serving Country and Community.” Holmes discussed the advantages and difficulties of being part of a military family, as well as her 2009 novel Operation Yes (Scholastic/Levine), about a sixth-grade class on an Air Force base. When she asked the assembled kids how many of them knew someone in the military, the answer can be seen in this photo. Watch video from Holmes’s presentation on her blog.

A Digital ‘Shout’-Out

In an age of blog tours and e-book signings, why not a digital launch party? Using Facebook and Skype, author Jeanette Larson partnered with TeachingBooks.net, a site that provides access to multimedia about children’s books, to organize an online launch event for Denise Fleming’s new picture book, Shout! Shout It Out! (Holt, Mar.), a noisy guide to colors, animals, numbers, and more. Word of the event, which took place late last month, spread via Facebook; Skype was used to create a conference call among participants; and Fleming used images on her Web site to discuss her book.

Launching ‘The Vespertine’

Devotees of historical fiction—and a few YA authors—turned out for a recent launch event for Saundra Mitchell’s The Vespertine (Harcourt, Mar.), a story of romance and prophetic visions set in 1889 Baltimore. The launch party was held at Bookmamas in Indianapolis; seen here, l. to r. are writer Kay Cassidy (The Cinderella Society), Teryn (a fan), Alina B. Klein (author of a forthcoming novel with namelos), Saundra Mitchell, Mandi (a fan), and writer Christine Johnson (Claire de Lune).

Chima Visits TLA

The Texas Library Association’s annual conference took place April 12 to 15 in Austin, and author Cinda Williams Chima was on hand to sign advance copies of The Gray Wolf Throne (Disney-Hyperion, Aug.), the third of four books in Chima’s Seven Realms series, which follows the adventures of street thief Han and princess Raisa, heir to the throne of the Fells. Here, Chima and a group of fans show off copies of that book and its predecessor, The Exiled Queen (2010).