In Brief: April 12

During the annual White House Easter Egg Roll celebration on Monday, April 9, Sasha and Malia Obama took turns reading the Caldecott-winning A Sick Day for Amos McGee in front of the crowd assembled on the South Lawn. Afterward, their father gave an appropriately animated narration of Where the Wild Things Are, soliciting responses from his young audience. As the reader-in-chief exclaimed during his presentation, “Let the wild rumpus begin!”

Last Saturday at Chicago’s Jean Albano Gallery, Jules Feiffer signed copies of The Phantom Tollbooth to commemorate the book’s recent 50th anniversary. The gallery, which represents the illustrator’s original artwork, has released a limited-edition Tollbooth print, and coupled the book signing with an exhibit of Feiffer’s drawings, illustrations, and cartoons. Also last week, on April 5, Feiffer received the 2012 John Fischetti Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Columbia College Chicago to honor outstanding achievement in editorial cartooning. Pictured here: Feiffer and gallery owner Jean Albano.

To find a narrator for the app version of Hervé Tullet’s bestselling picture book, Press Here, Chronicle children’s publishing director Ginee Seo didn’t have to look far: Drake Brooks, her son, provided the voiceover. A video trailer offers a preview of the app, which includes 15 open-ended activities created from winking, blinking, multiplying, and colliding dots. Press Here: The App is available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

Middle-grade author Emily Ecton (Project Jackalope) doesn’t just pen books for tweens; she’s also a writer/producer for Chicago-based NPR quiz show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! On April 5, local bookseller Becky Anderson, owner of Anderson’s Books, attended a taping at the Chase Auditorium and stayed for a meet-and-greet afterward. Pictured (l. to r.): Peter Sagal, Wait Wait’s host; Ecton; and Anderson.