In Brief: April 26

This past Tuesday night, Scholastic threw a party to mark longtime book editor Michael di Capua’s 50th year in publishing, and his 25th with his own imprint. A wide range of guests, representing many stages of di Capua’s professional life, attended, including Jules Feiffer, Tony Kushner, Roger Straus, Tor Seidler, Jean Marcellino, Ian Falconer, Stephen Roxburgh, Gail Hochman, Bridget Marmion, Jonathan Yaged, and Lynn Goldberg. Seen here, di Capua greets his assistants past and present: (from l.) Emellia Zamani, Adam Rau, di Capua, and Wes Adams.

At the Missouri Association of School Librarians annual conference on April 23, Peg Kehret was honored with the 2011 Mark Twain Award – her third – for Stolen Children. That same evening, Kirby Larson accepted the 2011 Show Me award for Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival on behalf of her co-author, Mary Nethery, and their illustrator, Jean Cassels. At the end of the presentations, the committees announced the 2012 award winners: Kehret won the Mark Twain for Runaway Twin, and Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine and a Miracle, co-written by Nethery and Larson, won the Show Me Award. The occasion marked the first time in MASL history that the awards have been won back-to-back.

Gary Paulsen’s latest novel, Crush, includes a shout-out to students at St. Philips Academy in Newark, N.J., and their lower school librarian. Paulsen had donated the right to name a character in an upcoming novel to a fundraising auction to benefit Gilda’s Club. Betsy Buell, a volunteer who serves as the lower school librarian at St. Philips Academy, was the highest bidder. She then asked students at her school to name the character. Paulsen ended up creating two characters – a boy that the students named JC, and a girl named after Buell. Paulsen dedicated the book to the students, Buell, and Gilda’s Club. The signed dedication page from the manuscript, as well as a book cover, is now on display in the St Philips library. Seen here, Buell shows off the dedication to fourth graders.

On Monday, April 24, Chris Van Allsburg visited the winner of last fall’s The Chronicles of Harris Burdick window display contest: Tattered Corners in Meadville, Pa. Some 1500 people attended the author talk and book signing, and preparations for Allsburg’s visit were a town-wide affair. The bookshop partnered with local schools on a story-writing contest; kids helped out on the window display; and seven locations around town hid images of Fritz, the dog in all of Van Allsburg’s books, in their windows. Residents who found every Fritz were entered to win a signed copy of the book.

On April 25, Temple Grandin and author Sy Montgomery did a joint event at Grandin’s former elementary school –Dedham Country Day School in Dedham, Mass. –to promote Montgomery’s new biography, Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World. More than 300 people, including eight of Grandin’s former elementary school classmates, attended the event. The pair have one more joint appearance: Monday, May 7 at the 86th St. Barnes and Noble in NYC.

New England booksellers gathered with authors at NEIBA's All About the Books! Program in Medford, Mass., on April 25. NECBA co-chairs Ellen Richmond (l.) of Children's Book Cellar in Waterville, Maine, and Jan Hall (r.) of Partners Village in Westport, Mass., joined Andrew Clements, author of Because Your Mommy Loves You, at lunch.