Welcome to our fall 2011 children's announcements issue, in which we're looking both forward and back. In our features section, two developers discuss the path to market for new apps; pioneering indie booksellers reflect on their heyday; industry veterans share stories about memorable figures from publishing's past; and Kadir Nelson talks about the challenges of his new project, Heart and Soul. Then there's the heart of the matter: our comprehensive listings, offering a broad picture of what publishers are offering now through December. The past-meets-present theme continues there, with highly anticipated offerings from titans like Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, and William Joyce, as well as the likes of Christopher Paolini, Brian Selznick, Laini Taylor, and Jack Gantos. And don't forget to check out our exclusive sneak preview of spring 2012 titles.
About Our Cover Artist
It all started with a drawing of a pirate. Asked to do one by his eight-year-old nephew, advertising art director Tom Lichtenheld had such fun with it that he went ahead and created a 24-page book about pirates. He then sent it around to publishers, "for about three years," until Simon & Schuster picked it up, launching his career in children's books. When Duck! Rabbit!, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, became a bestseller in 2009, he made the leap, and now works on picture books fulltime.
Lichtenheld's books abound in visual and verbal play; fans of his work won't be surprised that a childhood favorite was William Steig's letter-puzzle book C D B!, a book that he says had a great impact on him. "I've always liked playing with language."
Asked to compare art direction to children's book creation, Lichtenheld says he finds them very similar. "In both advertising and children's books you're communicating with people at the level of a third-grader. And children's books are more fun, because they're not sponsored."
In all he has 12 picture books in print, with several more in the pipeline, including this fall's E-Mergency (which tells of the mayhem that results when the letter E goes out of commission, and other letters must step in to take E's place). The new work is packed with jokes, puns, and wordplay; like his previous books, "it's about seeing things in more than one way."
—Diane Roback
Click the links below to read our complete Fall 2011 Children's Announcements. The listings are separated into six parts by publisher:
A-C
