News Briefs: February 3

Al Roker has chosen Tony DiTerlizzi’s middle-grade novel The Search for WondLa (S&S, Sept. 2010) as the 30th pick in the Today Show’s Al’s Book Club for Kids. Roker announced the selection during the show on January 31; the segment on WondLa, according to NBC, should air in mid to late March. The novel centers on a girl, Eva Nine, who leaves the underground sanctuary where she was raised to seek out other humans; the book also makes use of Augmented Reality, which allows readers to unlock maps related to the book on their computers.

A release date hasn’t yet been set, but a few new pieces of information about the forthcoming film, Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer, based on Megan McDonald’s bestselling series of books, have popped up this week. Relativity Media will distribute the film, which was produced by Smokewood Entertainment (the producer of 2009’s Precious). Directed by John Schultz, the film stars Jordana Beatty as Judy Moody (seen here with author McDonald), Parris Mosteller as Stink Moody, and Heather Graham as Aunt Opal. Candlewick has just announced a five-book tie-in program, to be published on May 24, which consists of a novelization, a (Judy-guided) tour of movie-making, and three novels.