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AFCC: New Festival Highlights Children's Content from Asia
The inaugural Asian Festival of Children's Content www.afcc.com.sg came to a close on May 9. More than 600 authors, illustrators, publishers, retailers, distributors, rights agencies and media professionals converged at The Arts House in Singapore to listen to 70 speakers from 15 countries including the US, UK, Canada, France, New Zealand and Australia discuss materials for children and how Asian content can get greater attention internationally.
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Latest CPSIA Hearing Leaves Publishers Empty
A Congressional hearing last Thursday on a possible amendment to the CPSIA did not address the needs of the book publishing industry. Although the AAP's Alan Adler said the association is glad the Congress is willing to re-examine the issue, the proposed amendment does not address the industry's concerns.
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People: May 6
There are a number of promotions and new hires this week. Kathy Dawson was promoted to associate publisher and editorial director at Dial; at Scholastic, Stacy Lellos is now v-p, trade marketing, and Rachel Coun has been promoted to executive director, hardcover marketing; Geof Smith was made executive editor at Random House Children's Books; and Alexandra Penfold has been promoted to editor for the Paula Wiseman imprint at Simon and Schuster.
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Scholastic Summer Challenge Launches with Live Game Show
Do you know what object Laura treasures most in Little House in the Big Woods? The name of Phileas Fogg’s French valet in Around the World in 80 Days? Or who Mary Anne’s boyfriend was in the Baby-sitters Club series?* Well, the ecstatic New York City fourth- and fifth-graders who packed Scholastic’s auditorium certainly did, when the publisher hosted its second annual Ultimate Author Showdown last Friday afternoon. Luckily, the authors competing on stage did, too—mostly.
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PEN World Voices 2010: Children's Authors on Culture and Identity
Identity and influence were the main topics of conversation for a group of children's book authors at a panel entitled "A Gathering of Voices," held last Thursday during the sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature in New York City. Moderated by Elizabeth Bird, NYPL senior children's librarian and Fuse #8 blogger, the panel featured authors David Almond, Francisco X. Stork, Janne Teller, and author/illustrator Ed Young, all of whom also appeared on other panels during the festival.
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Kids + Summer = Movies
Kids' publishers gear up for the summer movie season: A roundup of this summer's movie tie-in books for kids and teens.
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Beyond Comic Books: Marvel Inks Kids' Book Deals
Marvel Entertainment, the publisher of such popular superhero characters as Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Hulk, has inked separate deals to launch a children's book publishing program at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and to expand its publishing partnership with Bendon Publishing in Ashland, Ohio. Both programs feature Marvel characters in a variety of trade books aimed at kids that include novels, early readers, and pop-up books as well as story, activity, and board books.
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In Brief: April 29
This week: an appearance for Earth Day, a novel about the childhood of Pablo Neruda, and a picture book reissued from 1972.
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L.A. Times Festival: Reading 'Tween the Lines
In a room packed with eager and passionate young fans clamoring to hear some of their favorite writers, YA authors D.J. MacHale, Gordon Korman, and Pseudonymous Bosch were introduced to thunderous applause last Saturday at a Los Angeles Times Festival of Books panel called Young Adult Fiction: 'Tween the Lines. Neal Shusterman, author of such novels as Unwind, Everlost, and Downsiders, moderated the panel. kicking off the conversation by asking the panelists to describe their latest books.
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L.A. Times Festival: Feeding the Imagination
Humor and charming revelations were the highlights of the hour, when children's authors and illustrators Kadir Nelson, Pam Munoz Ryan, and David Shannon shared the stage last Saturday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books for a lively panel called Children's Books: Feeding the Imagination. Sonja Bolle, children's book columnist for the Times, moderated a discussion that was frequently interrupted by bursts of laughter from the audience as the panelists teased and cajoled one another into disclosing the inspirations for their bestselling picture books and the childhood experiences that led them to become illustrators and authors.
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Children's Books in Full Force at L.A. Times Festival
More than 130,000 book-lovers came out over two days to celebrate books and reading at the 2010 Los Angeles Festival of Books, held this past weekend on the campus of UCLA. For those who couldn't make it, here's a visual tour of the happenings, and the many children's book authors and illustrators in attendance.
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New and Familiar Events Headline Children's Book Week
Observed since 1919, Children's Book Week will be celebrated this year on May 10-16. Administrated by Every Child a Reader and sponsored by the Children's Book Council, 2010's CBW includes several brand-new events and initiatives as well as the third annual Children's Choice Book Awards Gala, at which this year's awards will be presented. We've got an extensive preview of some of the week's highlights.
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Newtonville to Close Children's Store
Yes, Newtonville Books in Newton, Mass., is shuttering its five-year-old connected children's bookstore, the Lizard's Tale, and selling down its inventory with a week-long 40% off sale that begins on Saturday. But that's the only similarity to other stories about children's bookstore closings. For one thing, the store hasn't lost money. In fact, according to co-owner Jaime Clarke, sales have increased at Newtonville for each of the past three years that he and his wife, Mary Cotton, have owned it. Plus this story has a happy ending. Cotton and Clarke haven't aren't abandoning children's books. They are reintegrating them into Newtonville's inventory. As for the space occupied by the Lizard's Tale, it will become a Used Book Annex at the beginning of next month.
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Facts and Figures 2009: Meyer's Reign Continues
The Stephenie Meyer juggernaut continues. Though the queen of the vampire novel didn't release any new books in 2009, demand was still enormous, fueled by the New Moon film and the DVD release of 2008's Twilight. Combining the various hardcover, paperback, and movie tie-in editions, Meyer sold just under 26.
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Lee & Low Gets New Imprint
Independent children's book publisher Lee & Low will launch a new imprint, Tu Books, in fall 2011. Tu Books will publish multicultural science fiction and fantasy for middle-grade and teen audiences. "Increasing our offerings in both the MG and YA markets is something Lee & Low has wanted to do for some time," said Lee & Low publisher Jason Low. "Our customers have asked for books for older readers with the same emphasis on cultural diversity that we have applied to our picture books."
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Lerner Moves into YA Market with Carolrhoda Lab
Lerner Publishing Group has announced that the Minneapolis-based children's book publisher will launch Carolrhoda Lab, a new line of fiction for YA readers. A total of four titles will be released during Carolrhoda Lab's debut season this fall. Carolrhoda editor Andrew Karre will acquire and edit six to eight Carolrhoda Lab titles each year. Lindsay Matvik, Lerner's senior publicist, said that Karre's expertise in YA fiction provided the impetus for the company to more aggressively target the YA market than it had previously.
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Harper Debuts Writing Site for Teens
Monday marked the official launch of inkpop, an interactive writing platform and community for teenagers created by HarperTeen. Inkpop serves as an online community for young writers; the publisher calls inkpop the "anchor" of its digital strategy for the teen market. "As with all of our online consumer programs, the concept of community-building is aligned with our ongoing corporate digital marketing efforts to cultivate a two-way dialogue with our readers," said Susan Katz...
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The 2009 Cuffies
For our annual “Off the Cuff” awards, we asked booksellers around the country for their picks in a variety of categories. The winners (and selected comments) appear below. Favorite Picture Book of the Year The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (“a masterpiece”) Honorable mention: Otis by Loren Long Favorite Middle Grade Novel of the Year When You Reach Me by Rebecca...
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CPSC Report to Congress Recommends CPSIA Exclusion for Books
On January 15, the Consumer Product Safety Commission responded to a directive from Congress to deliver a report outlining what it sees as the problems with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and offering suggestions for revisions. As reported earlier, the request was part of last year’s Consolidated Appropriations Act. The report acknowledges, among several other points, the challenges faced by libraries and used booksellers...
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CPSIA Timeline
Want to catch up on PW's CPSIA coverage? Here are some highlights to date.
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