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A Crowning Achievement
Florence Parry Heide published her first picture book in 1967. At the time, she was looking for a creative outlet as the youngest of her five children headed off to school. To date, Heide has more than 80 titles for children to her credit. One of her best-known works, The Shrinking of Treehorn, illustrated by Edward Gorey, struck a chord with both readers and critics. But Treehorn also found a huge fan in one young illustrator, Lane Smith.
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Karla Kuskin, 1932—2009
Author and illustrator Karla Kuskin died on August 20, at the age of 77. Her career as an author spanned half a century, with her first book, 'Roar and More,' published by Harper & Row in 1956. Since then, Kuskin wrote more than 50 books for children, most often in rhymed verse, including 'The Philharmonic Gets Dressed'; 'Soap Soup'; 'In the Middle of the Trees'; and 'Moon, Have You Met My Mother?' HarperCollins will publish her book 'A Boy Had a Mother Who Bought Him a Hat' in March 2010.
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A Month-Long Birthday Celebration for Roald Dahl
Penguin Young Readers Group is gearing up to celebrate Roald Dahl Month in September, marking the author’s 93rd birthday and heralding the forthcoming Twentieth Century Fox film based on Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, slated for release on November 13. The publisher will issue three tie-ins to this stop-motion movie. which features the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson.
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Saturday in the Park with Cassie
Last Saturday afternoon’s gray skies deterred no one: 300 eager fans flocked to New York City’s Bryant Park to hear Cassandra Clare discuss her Mortal Instruments series. And Clare gave news of several forthcoming projects, including a new book in the Mortal Instruments series, the creation of a prequel series and a movie adaptation of her books.
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E-Books Go Interactive
"We're really going after the kids' space in a big way,” said Josh Koppel, co-founder of ScrollMotion, the iPhone book-app developer, which will launch a new kids' e-book reader app this fall that will bring enhanced picture books to the iPhone. The company has already gone after the adult market, bringing many frontlist titles to the iPhone. Now ScrollMotion is making a big push into the YA and children's market.
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Children's Book Reviews: 8/24/2009
This week's reviews include a new picture books from Tomie dePaola, Nonny Hogrogian, Toni and Slade Morrison, and Danielle Steel; fiction from John Feinstein, Scott Westerfeld, Patricia McCormick and Justine Larbalestier; and a round-up of concept books.
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Counting Down to 'Catching Fire'
The yearlong Catching Fire countdown will finally end on September 1, the laydown date for the second installment of the Hunger Games trilogy. With a first printing of 350,000 copies, Suzanne Collins’s dystopian tale is the first big children’s book of the fall. Jeff Kinney’s new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book may be bigger in terms of print run, as is Kate DiCamillo’s The Magician’s Elephant. But the buzz about the Hunger Games sequel is louder.
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Licensing Hotline: August 2009
Scholastic has acquired the license for Angel Cat Sugar, a Japanese property from the mind of Hello Kitty creator Yuko Shimizu. Two books for girls 4—8 will launch in the school market this fall, followed by two more in the trade starting in January 2010. See more licensing stories, including news of a new Nickelodeon series, Richard Scarry’s Busytown characters on TV, and a new Angelina Ballerina show on PBS.
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Q & A with Loren Long
Q: Your new picture book, Otis, has a classic, playful feel. What inspired the look of this art?
A: Well, to back up a bit, The Little Engine That Could marked a new direction for me, from the standpoint that this was the first book where I was obviously digging into a tried and true classic. I’m very proud of the books I did beforehand, but The Little Engine That Could opened up a new world for me. -
In Brief: August 20
This week, Tilbury House starts a promotion for its Tarra and Bella books, 'Shiver' gets a cake for its release, Horrid Harry hoofs it Stateside, and 10 debut novelists meet up to talk shop.
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Galley Talk: ‘Once Was Lost’ by Sara Zarr
Jennifer Laughran of Books Inc. in San Francisco talks about a favorite fall galley.
With a Mom in rehab, and a pastor Dad who knows a lot more about shepherding his congregation than taking care of his own family, Samara feels like her whole world is falling apart. When a girl in her town is kidnapped, Sam latches on to the case as a way to feel useful and a part of something bigger than herself, but nobody in town is beyond suspicion, even the people that Sam trusts most. -
New Edition (and Content) for ‘Light in the Attic’
First published in 1981, Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic was the first children’s book to reach the New York Times bestseller list, where it appeared a total of 182 weeks. Next month, HarperCollins will release A Light in the Attic:Special Edition, which contains 12 previously unpublished poems and 10 new drawings by the author, who died in 1999. To help promote this new edition...
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Author Irene Smalls Adds Exercise to Reading
Concerned about declining reading skills and expanding waistlines for young people—nearly a third of U.S. children between the ages of 2 and 19 are overweight, according to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation—Boston author and storyteller Irene Smalls is looking to tackle both with Literacise, a children’s program that combines literacy and exercise. "Putting the mind and body together you get more learning and greater health," Smalls says.
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Children's Book Reviews: 8/17/2009
Reviewed this week: picture books from Loren Long, Charise Myracle Harper, Florence Parry Heide and Lane Smith, and Lauren Child; new fiction from Neil Gaiman, Kate DiCamillo and Gennifer Choldenko; and a round-up of titles about children's authors past and present, fit for kids, adults and even scholars.
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Ripple Connects Families with Recorded Children's Books
The Internet does nothing if not connect people, and Colorado-based Ripple has created a platform that uses the Internet to transport the intimate experience of reading a book to a child across long distances. Basically, Ripple is a Web-based audio recorder and player that also displays the pages of children's books. The idea is that a traveling parent, a long-distance grandparent, or a deployed soldier, for instance, could record the text of a children's book and then send a file...
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SCBWI's Annual Conference: Illuminating the Children’s Book Market
More than 1,100 people gathered at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles this past weekend for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators 38th annual summer conference. "This is a record-breaking level of attendance," said SCBWI president and co-founder Stephen Mooser. "Despite the recession, artists and writers realize the worth in being here. The children’s book field is a very supportive, sharing community."
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Page to Screen: Smith-Ready's YA Series and an L.A. Teen's Debut
This week in Page to Screen—PW's weekly column tracking film rights circulating and sold in Hollywood—Curtis Brown moves on Jeri Smith-Ready book, and Gotham shops an L.A.-teen-turned-Harvard-undergrad's novel.
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Q & A with Jane Smiley
Q: You obviously love horses. Is this the kind of book that you would have liked to have read as a child?
A: Well, it's more or less the kind of book I did read. When I was a child in 1960 - I was 10 and 11 that year - there were plenty of horse book series. I loved them all and read them all. I read the Black Stallion series, and other Walter Farley books. I also read Nancy Drew and other series. That was what kids' literature was back then. -
Movie Alert: 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'
Based on Judi and Ron Barrett’s picture book of the same name, an animated film adaptation of 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' hits theaters September 18. The story is set in the town of Chewandswallow (renamed Swallow Falls in the film), which is plagued by food and beverages that rain down from the sky on a daily basis. The film features the voices of Anna Faris and Bill Hader in the lead roles of weathergirl Sam Sparks and luckless inventor Flint Lockwood.
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McGuirk Dishes Up New Picture Book with Four Seasons Restaurateur
Dog may be man’s best friend, but for children’s book author/illustrator Leslie McGuirk, he doubles as her artistic muse. In her latest title, Wiggens Learns His Manners at the Four Seasons Restaurant (Candlewick, Aug.), the Vero Beach, Fla.-based writer, best known for her Tucker series of picture books, pays tribute to her canine companions once again.
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