Kids' Stores Grow Up

The 1970s and '80s saw a burgeoning of children's specialty bookstores. Many started small. In fact, the first location for Booktenders Secret Garden in Doylestown, Pa., was so tiny that author/illustrator Stephen Kellogg dubbed it “the enchanted closet,” recalls owner Ellen Mager. She bought the store, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, after it had been open only...

Kensington Grows Its Children's Offerings

With the addition of three imprints in two years, Kensington Publishing is working to expand its presence in the children’s market.

Handprint to Become Chronicle Imprint

Chronicle Books has acquired Handprint Books, and the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based children’s book publisher will become a Chronicle imprint beginning with its fall 2008 list.

Licensing Hotline: May 2008

There’s plenty of licensing news this month: Grosset & Dunlap signs a license for a new literacy-based PBS series, Harper signs up for the horse-themed property Bella Sara, Hawk’s Nest wins a Major League Baseball license, Brighter Minds acquires two new properties, and Todd Parr creates an Olympic-themed book for Hilton Hotels.

Spreading Sunshine

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has officially declared May 5—12 to be Project Sunshine Week, in honor of the 10-year-old nonprofit organization that connects hospitalized children worldwide with visiting volunteers, celebrities and others. And one of the group’s new programs, the Project Sunshine Book Club, has close connections to children’s book publishing.

Ten Years of Children's Books at Sleeping Bear

Sleeping Bear Press, which launched in 1994 as a publisher of regional titles and began publishing children’s books exclusively in 1998, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first children’s release this year.

Running Press Kids: Five Years Out of the Gate

On its fifth anniversary, Running Press Kids is celebrating its successes in several genres relatively new to its list, including young adult fiction and licensed series. The imprint’s annual output has increased considerably over the past two years, growing from 30 to 50 titles. To mark its five-year milestone, the publisher is giving the list an updated look, creating five new logos to delineate the categories of books that comprise the list.

Looking Back: The 1974 Macmillan Massacre

Janet Schulman, currently an editor-at-large at Random House, was publisher of children’s books at Random House and Knopf, and marketing director at Macmillan before that. Here she recounts a tumultuous chapter in children’s book publishing that coincided with the legal battle for women’s rights in publishing in general.

Facts and Figures 2007: Farewell to Harry

“I shall not look upon his like again,” said Hamlet of his departed father, a sentiment that children (and adults) all over the world might express about the end of the Harry Potter saga. Publishers and especially booksellers would surely concur. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final volume in J.

Roaring Brook Adds David Macaulay Imprint

Roaring Brook Press has signed a deal with author David Macaulay establishing a new imprint, David Macaulay Studio, which will launch in 2011.

Zondervan Enters YA Market

Zondervan, the evangelical Christian unit of HarperCollins, has announced its entrée into the YA market. The house plans to publish 10 titles per year, with the first books coming this spring. Established authors Melody Carlson, Bryan Davis and Bill Myers will launch the line.

The 2007 Cuffies

For our annual “Off the Cuff” awards, we canvassed retailers around the country. The winners of our poll (and selected bookseller comments) appear below. Favorite Picture Book of the Year Toy Boat by Randall de Sève, illustrated by Loren Long (“a beautiful and timeless new classic”) Favorite Middle Grade Novel The Wednesday Wars by Gary D.

Roaring Brook Moving in New Directions

Soon after marking its fifth anniversary, Roaring Brook Press has more news to report. The house is gearing up to welcome a new executive editor, Nancy Mercado, on December 3. Deirdre Langeland came on board last March to head up the Flash Point nonfiction imprint. And Roaring Brook publisher Simon Boughton has taken on responsibility for Kingfisher’s U.S. operations.

Lorraine to Retire from Houghton

Children's book editor and publisher Walter Lorraine will retire at the end of the year, following a 55-year career in children’s books with Houghton Mifflin.

Writing for a Younger Audience

Adult authors writing for children is nothing new these days, as the likes of Alice Hoffman, Joyce Carol Oates and James Patterson can now be seen scattered throughout the kids' department, but this spring there are a few new entries into the market.

Facts and Figures 2006: Lemony Endings, Sweet

For Lemony Snicket and HarperCollins, The End is here—the end, that is, of an extraordinary run that began back in 1999 with The Bad Beginning.

Bloomsbury USA Children's Books Turns Five

In May 2002, the newly launched American children's division of U.K.-based Bloomsbury, under the editorial direction of Victoria Wells Arms, published its first list of 20 titles. Almost five years later, Bloomsbury USA Children's Books has grown significantly in annual output and sales, and has established its own editorial identity on these shores. Arms, who stepped down last fall to spend more time with her toddler twins, is now editor-at-large for the imprint. At the helm is Melanie Cecka, publishing director of Bloomsbury USA Children's Books and Walker Books for Young Readers, who arrived at Bloomsbury in 2004 as executive editor after 10 years at Viking Children's Books.

The 2006 Cuffies

Children's booksellers choose their favorite (and not-so-favorite) books of the year.

Q&A with Robin Adelson

Weddings and Funerals and Everywhere in Between

We asked editors to tell us the strangest place they were ever pitched a children's book, and collected their stories.