In Brief: January 26

Last Thursday, Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman visited WORD Bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., to discuss their YA novel Why We Broke Up (Little, Brown; Dec.), a book-length breakup letter from a girl to her ex-boyfriend, illustrated with paintings by Kalman. It was an SRO crowd at the store, and that crowd included author Jon Scieszka (center), seen here breaking up the two collaborators. In the past week, Handler and Kalman have made appearances in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Illinois, with future events scheduled for Michigan, Texas, California, and Washington state.

Some of the lucky attendees at Chronicle’s cocktail party last Friday night at ALA Midwinter got more than a preview of some of the publisher’s forthcoming books—some walked away with artwork from artists, including Sylvia Long, Calef Brown, Sophie Blackall, and Christopher Silas Neal. Chronicle held a raffle at the cocktail party, with winners receiving a piece of original art on display at the event. Here, winner Edie Ching (l.) shows off her prize—a Calef Brown illustration from His Shoes Were Far Too Tight—with help from Kim Lauber.

Just in time for the Chinese New Year, author/illustrator Grace Lin had a launch party for Dumpling Days (Little, Brown, Jan.), which stars Pacy, the heroine of The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat. More than 100 people braved the snow to attend last Saturday’s book launch, held at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass. Lin discussed the new book and also gave away goodie bags that included handmade “Pocket Pacys” (handmade figurines in the likeness of Pacy from the books) and recipe cards. Additional photos from the event are available on Lin’s blog.

Between Winter Institute 7 in New Orleans and the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in Dallas, several authors have been heading south for the winter—at least temporarily. Among them were Silas House and Neela Vaswani, co-authors of Same Sun Here (Candlewick, Feb.), in which an Indian girl in New York City corresponds with her pen pal, a boy in Kentucky coal country. Here, the authors flank Candlewick publisher Karen Lotz at Wi7 before hopping in a plane to attend ALA.

On Wednesday, debut author/illustrator Monica Carnesi marked the two-year anniversary of the rescue of a dog from an ice floe in the Baltic Sea by a research vessel. The rescue is the subject of Carnesi’s new picture book Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic (Penguin/Paulsen, Jan.). The book’s editor, Nancy Paulsen; designer, Marikka Tamura; and art director, Cecilia Yung, as well as Carnesi’s agent, Teresa Kietlinski, were among those who turned out for a reading and signing at the Vine Street location of the Free Library in Philadelphia. Carnesi (l.) is seen here with Paulsen. Photo: Teresa Kietlinski.