A quartet of well-known authors is soon to publish books based on their own lives—and each has a distinctive story to tell.
Not surprisingly, art is the key component (literally and thematically) of two-time Caldecott Medalist Peter Sís's The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. Farrar, Straus & Giroux's Frances Foster Books imprint will release this graphic memoir in September with a 75,000-copy first printing. Sís documents his experience as a youngster living in Russian-occupied Czechoslovakia during the Cold War, when the Communist government controlled virtually every aspect of life, including artistic expression. The author, who has lived in the U.S. since 1984, explains that his own children inspired him to recreate his childhood in this book. “Children in this country and in Europe have little appreciation for the significance of the Berlin Wall and what it meant to those who lived behind it,” he says. “So I had to draw it.”
Also reaching into his childhood to shape his latest book—and first work for children—is Frank McCourt, whose Angela and the Baby Jesus will be released by Simon & Schuster in November with a 300,000-copy first printing. Featuring art by Raul Colón, this picture book depicts McCourt's mother as a child, often cold and hungry herself, who feels sorry for the baby Jesus in his crib at the local church and takes him in. An adult version of the story, illustrated by Loren Long, will be published the same month under the Scribner imprint. The author will embark on a six-city tour to promote the books.
Native American author Sherman Alexie drew from his adolescence to write his first book for young adults, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Illustrated by Ellen Forney, the novel is due from Little, Brown in September with a 100,000-copy first printing. The plot, which centers on a budding cartoonist who leaves the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school, closely parallels Alexie's own teenage years. Little, Brown has produced a discussion guide to the novel and is sending Alexie on a tour that will encompass at least 12 cities.
Naomi Shihab Nye, whose earlier published work includes poetry collections, novels and a picture book, has compiled stories and essays about her automobile travels in I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?, a September title from Greenwillow. Playing on the book's travel theme in its marketing initiative, the publisher will leave galleys in taxis, trains and buses, sending the book on its own journey to—ideally—find appreciative readers.
