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Namelos Editions to Publish Electronic and POD Books
In January, Stephen Roxburgh started namelos, a consortium of editors, art directors and designers who work with authors to develop projects for placement with publishers. He began the second phase of his company, namelos editions, on Labor Day—"because it’s a lot of work," he said. Namelos editions will publish one-color children’s and YA fiction, nonfiction and poetry in electronic and print-on-demand editions. The company’s tagline...
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Flux to Issue 40th-Anniversary Edition of Seminal John Donovan Novel
Released in 1969, John Donovan’s I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip tread on turf previously considered taboo in young adult publishing. Widely regarded as the first YA novel to touch on the topic of homosexuality, the book centers on a 13-year-old whose efforts to cope with his estranged mother lead to a close friendship with another boy. Originally published by Ursula Nordstrom at Harper & Row, I’ll Get There will be reissued in fall 2010 by Flux...
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Candlewick Goes Hi-Tech with DiCamillo
Kate DiCamillo has come a long way from her debut author tour in 2000, which consisted of only two bookstore appearances in Minnesota: the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, and Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis. While the turnout at both events promoting DiCamillo’s first novel was "nice," the Twin Cities resident recalls, it was only "because my friends all came." This fall, DiCamillo’s publisher is making sure the bestselling author reaches more readers than ever before.
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Reynolds Book Inspired by Rose Kennedy Moved Up
With the recent death of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Candlewick Press announced that it is moving up the on-sale date for Rose’s Garden, Peter H. Reynolds’s tribute to Kennedy’s mother and to a Boston park named after her, from February 2010 to October 13. The picture book, which tells of a girl named Rose who gathers seeds from around the world and comes to Boston, "poignantly captures my mother’s enduring spirit," wrote the Senator...
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Calling All Paperboys and Girls
With this month’s publication of Sue Corbett’s novel The Last Newspaper Boy in America, the author says she’s been surprised at how many people have told her, "Oh, I had a paper route!" Here at Bookshelf we found that interesting, and we’d love to hear from any readers with their own paper route memories. To kick things off, we’ve asked Corbett to share hers.
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Q & A with Shannon Hale
Q: What made you decide to write Forest Born? A: I really just go where the story takes me. It’s funny—with every one of the Bayern books, I thought each one was a stand-alone. The character of Enna was so different from Ani in Goose Girl, and after writing about Ani who was so quiet, the idea of writing about a character so fiery, so outspoken and dangerous was what attracted me to Enna Burning.
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Penguin Young Readers Shares Its New Point of View
Five backlist novels and two new titles are featured in Point of View, a fall marketing initiative from Penguin Young Readers Group. The campaign, which focuses on literary books with strong, somewhat challenging themes, entails consumer and trade components and aims to connect readers who embraced such novels as Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson to new books with a similar appeal.
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Ounce, Dice, Trice Times the Charm
This month, The New York Review of Books is releasing the latest title under its Children’s Collection imprint: Alastair Reid’s Ounce Dice Trice. Originally published by Little, Brown in 1958, Ounce Dice Trice is an unconventional, exuberant poetry book; it features illustrations by celebrated artist Ben Shahn, and is one of just two children’s books ever illustrated by Shahn.
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In Brief: September 10
This week, Feiwel and Friends go to the ballpark, a YA author is feted at her hometown's Labor Day festival, Peachtree sets up a Book Hospital, and Sterling hopes readers will get up and do the Chicken Dance.
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Children's Book Reviews: 9/7/2009
This week's reviews include picture book collaborations betweeen Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, Mem Fox and Leo and Diane Dillon, and Ted and Betsy Lewin; new fiction from Nick Bruel, Avi, Frances Hardinge, Katherine Paterson and Walter Dean Myers; and cookbooks and other food-related titles for gourmands of any age.
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Children's Book Reviews: 8/31/2009
Reviewed this week: picture books from David Ezra Stein, Mac Barnett and Adam Rex, and Jonah Winter and Sean Addy; novels from Lisa Yee, Sid Fleischman, Patrick Ness and Malinda Lo; nonfiction from Candace Fleming and Albert Marrin; and a round-up of spooky Halloween books for kids of any age.
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Spreading the Word: Summer Reading at DDG
Inspired by a summer reading program at the Alphabet Garden in Cheshire, Conn., Kenny Brechner, owner of Devaney Doak and Garrett Booksellers in Farmington, Maine, came up with what he regards as the 18-year-old store’s most successful summer reading program to date. If Goldilocks were testing out a summer reading program, Brechner says, this year’s Spread the Word program would be just right. It captured the attention of both children and parents—and sold books.
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If You Give Fans Some Cheer
Author Laura Numeroff is trying to spread some cheer during these challenging times by bringing people together—publishers, as well as parents and their children. On September 13, Numeroff, whose latest releases are 'Would I Trade My Parents?' and 'What Brothers Do Best/What Sisters Do Best,' is embarking on Laura Numeroff’s Bringing Families Together Tour. Abrams and Chronicle are teaming up to send Numeroff to primarily independent bookstores in two economically stressed Midwestern states....
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A Monster of a Coincidence?
Call it "ologyology": the study of the proliferation of children’s books with titles referencing the study of the supernatural. Candlewick’s Ologies series is perhaps the most prominent example, but this fall will see the arrival of several "ology" titles similar to the Candlewick series in name only. Two of them—'The Monstrumologist' and 'The Monsterologist'—have nearly identical titles, but very different ways of addressing their ghoulish subject matter.
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U.K. Publishers Protest Bologna Curtailment
Representatives from more than 30 publishers, literary agencies and other firms in the U.K. have signed a petition protesting against the shortening of the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Sarah Pakenham of Andersen Press and Margot Edwards of Piccadilly Press organized the petition in dismay both at the reduction of the fair from four days to three and at a failure to introduce a corresponding reduction in fees.
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Leo Lionni’s First Book Turns 50
Five decades ago, graphic artist Leo Lionni was riding on a train with his two young grandchildren. When their behavior turned from angelic to devilish, Lionni took a copy of Life magazine out of his briefcase and ripped out a page featuring a blue, yellow and green design. After tearing the page into small pieces, he used them to tell a story to entertain the rambunctious youngsters. That story became Little Blue and Little Yellow, Lionni’s first picture book...
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Roker Gets ‘Clues’
Thursday morning on The Today Show, Al Roker announced that 39 Clues #5: The Black Circle by Patrick Carman (Scholastic) is the latest pick in his Al’s Book Club. The Black Circle pubbed on August 11. The 39 Clues series, which will consist of 10 books in total, has more than four million copies in English in print. And the 39 Clues online game has drawn more than 580,000 registered users since it launched last September, when the series started.
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One ‘Fantaskey’ Wedding
This week, author Beth Fantaskey sent out wedding invitations. Surprising, since she is, in fact, already married. However, the invitations aren’t for her—they are for the two main characters in her debut novel, Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, published by Harcourt this past February. The invitations are just the first step in a new promotion featured on Fantaskey’s Web site.
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A Tribute to Karla Kuskin
I didn’t know Karla well. I’d read and admired her poetry, but I met her in person only three times, casually, at book-related events. And then, several years ago, I put together my first collection of poems, made some sketches, and had the nerve to send her the dummy, hoping she’d take the time to look it over. She did — it came back weeks later, covered in Post-its. She not only critiqued and revised the poems but also suggested clever changes...
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New Snicket Series in Works
The Series of Unfortunate Events may have came to a close back in 2006, after 13 volumes, but Lemony Snicket and his persona linger on. Snicket and his alter ego, Daniel Handler, have turned their hand to picture books in recent seasons, and now comes word of a new Snicket series. It will be a four-book series for middle-graders, edited by Snicket’s longtime editor, Susan Rich. "I can neither confirm nor deny that I have begun research into a new case," Snicket said in a statement...
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