A Waterstone's children's department in Arndale Centre, Manchester.

This is largely a result of the appointment of Wayne Winstone, formerly children's and non-book director of Ottakar's, as children's category manager, a strategic role from which he is quickly developing and embedding a new children's book policy for Waterstone's. Winstone was a key figure in all the major Ottakar's initiatives, in particular the Ottakar's Children's Book Award, having recognized the importance of finding new authors and promoting them within the stores. Other children's buyers, including picture book buyer Sam Harrison and fiction and reference buyer Claudia Mody, have also moved from Ottakar's to be part of the new Waterstone's team, further strengthening the new strategy.

The result is a strong commitment to children's books in all Waterstone's shops; "we are really looking forward to creating a store where the children’s section is the destination," Winstone said. A high level of autonomy will be given to branches which, according to Winstone, will allow the passion of the individual manager to be expressed.

Winstone presented the new Waterstone's policy to the children's book group of the Publishers Association and the reaction has been almost universally favorable. "It's early days but it looks very positive so far," said Francesca Dow, managing director of Puffin. "Wayne Winstone has made it clear that he intends to make Waterstone's as good as Ottakar's—or better." Ingrid Selberg, publishing director of Simon and Schuster U.K., agreed. "Our fears don't seem to have been realized. The new Waterstone's seems to be embracing a lot of what we liked most about Ottakar's. So far so good."

Only Marlene Johnson, managing director of Hachette Children's Books, sounded a cautionary note. "It is excellent that they are listening to publishers and working closely with them to see how we can sell as many books as possible. But I am bemused by why they felt they had to take away choice from the high street. Keeping both the chains would have given book buyers greater freedom to choose."   read more U.K. stories

Inspired also by her deep love of birds and by readings and discussions about war in her social studies class, the fifth grader immediately began writing the saga that would become Swordbird. And, after finishing the manuscript, was resourceful enough to find a publisher for her fantasy adventure, due out from HarperCollins in February with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Fan began her novel while living near Syracuse, N.Y., where she and her family moved from their native China when the girl was seven, knowing almost no English. She was aware from the start that hers would be a long creative journey. "I knew this wouldn't be easy to write and that it was going to take a long time, because things like peace or freedom cannot be expressed in just a few words, since they are too deep," she says.

American composer and conductor Victoria Bond has set the picture book to music, orchestrating it for a children's choir, with baritone and soprano soloists, percussion (played by members of the choir), and an organ. The music, based on the original Gregorian chant composed by Guido d'Arezzo, will be conducted by Maestro Angelo Mafucci, the artistic director of the Amici del Convitto Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele di Arezzo, and Roth's collaborator on Do Re Mi (Mafucci wrote the foreword).

Selected pieces of Roth's textured, collage-like original art will be hung on the cathedral walls (alongside art by Piero della Francesca), and electronic images from the book will be projected above the choir throughout the performance, visually telling the story of Guido d'Arezzo's life in time with the music.

If the collaborators on this project seem to be oddly connected, it's because they are. It turns out that Roth, Mafucci and Bond all knew (or knew of) each other even before the idea for this event sprouted.    read more