This week, a YA character inspires publishing staffers to flaunt it; publishers make their marks; and fans see the launch of a high-seas adventure.
Dumplin’ Divas
HarperCollins Children’s Books staff celebrated Dumplin’ Day on September 15, to honor the release of Julie Murphy’s Dumplin.’ The division-wide crew dressed in red like the book’s heroine, who challenges conventional ideas about body image by entering a beauty pageant, and struck the character’s signature pose (#DumplinPose). Among those pictured are (second row, from l.): Kate Jackson, senior v-p/associate publisher/editor-in-chief; Suzanne Murphy, president and publisher; Alessandra Balzer, v-p and co-publisher, Balzer + Bray and Dumplin’ editor; and Donna Bray, v-p and co-publisher, Balzer + Bray.
On the Dot
Members of the Candlewick staff gathered in their Somerville, Mass., office on September 15 to observe International Dot Day, which celebrates Peter H. Reynolds’s 2003 Candlewick book The Dot, about a girl whose teacher challenges her to “make her mark.” The idea for Dot Day was hatched by teacher T.J. Shay from Traer, Iowa, who read the book to his class in 2009 as a way to encourage readers to express their own creativity. Since, teachers and students from around the world (the book has been published in multiple languages) have taken part in making creative, dot-centric projects on Dot Day.
No Author Is an Island
Fans gathered at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, Tenn., on September 3 to celebrate the release of Barry Wolverton’s middle-grade novel, The Vanishing Island (Harper/Walden Pond), a fantasy-adventure story and the first in the Chronicles of the Black Tulip series. After reading to the crowd, Wolverton signed books for guests.
