This week, Nic Stone represents Wakanda; Candy J. Cooper and Marc Aronson make a splash; Brian Weisfeld turns a sour situation into a sweet opportunity; and Amanda Sellet celebrates her launch in some good company.
Wakanda Forever
Last Friday, May 22, Nic Stone took to Zoom to discuss her Black Panther-based series starter Shuri (Scholastic) with New York Public Library host Ricci Yuhico, managing librarian of young adult services. Projecting a Zoom background of Wakanda, Stone was well-prepared for the occasion, donning the full look of a member of the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’s all-female special forces. More than 200 people were in virtual attendance; guests logging in after the event reached full capacity were redirected to the YouTube Live simulcast.
Fighting for Flint
Pulitzer Prize finalist Candy J. Cooper (top l.) and writer-editor Marc Aronson (top r.) launched their nonfiction YA book, Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation (Bloomsbury) via Zoom last Tuesday, May 19. The authors shared a toast and spoke about the book, which compiles interviews with Flint residents and extensive research into legal records and news accounts to reveal the racism and systematic failings that caused the Flint water crisis. In attendance were Cooper and Aronson’s editor Susan Dobinick, their agent Erin Cox, and their family, friends, and Flint connections.
Squeeze the Day
As part of the sixth annual Bay Area Book Festival, Brian Weisfeld (The Startup Squad series, with Nicole C. Kear, Imprint) showed YouTube viewers how to make lemonade, sharing businesses children can partake in while sheltering in place. In lieu of its usual indoor-outdoor programming in downtown Berkeley, Calif., the Bay Area Book Festival, in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle, created an online manifestation, the Bay Area Book Festival #UNBOUND Virtual Series.
Far from Prose-aic
To celebrate her debut, By the Book: A Novel of Prose and Cons (HMH), Amanda Sellet paid homage to actor John Krasinski’s popular YouTube series Some Good News with Some Book News, a 13-minute video launch party. Pictured here, Sellet (l.) interviews her teenage daughter. The collaborative effort with Sellet’s friends and loved ones—including a New York Philharmonic horn player, an award-winning actress, teenagers, and a bulldog book critic (below)—also featured a shot-by-shot recreation of the Masterpiece Theatre introduction, a Jane Austen love song performed on the ukulele, and more.
