‘Looks’ Takes a Look at Teenage Body Image

Madeleine George’s debut novel centers on two teens who could not look more different from one another: obese Meghan and hauntingly thin Aimee. Looks, which explores the ways girls—on both extremes of the weight spectrum—use food and their bodies to express their isolation and loneliness, will be published by Viking in June. Yet it was George’s work in the theater that caught the attention of senior editor Joy Peskin.

Patterson Aplenty

There's no stopping James Patterson—his appeal, that is. Even when the megaselling thriller writer with a record 39 New York Times bestsellers to his credit is writing for a narrower audience—in this case young adults—his readership has proven so loyal that the YA designation is almost meaningless.

Children's Book Reviews: Week of 5/5/2008

Picture Books Sergio Makes a Splash! Edel Rodriguez . Little, Brown , $15.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-316-06616-7 Sergio the penguin isn't afraid of all water—just “the very deep kind.” But with the help of floaties, a snorkel, a life preserver, he discovers that taking the plunge isn't so bad after all.

Q & A with Kevin Henkes

Caldecott Medalist and Newbery Honor author Kevin Henkes spoke with Bookshelf about his new novel, Bird Lake Moon, and how writing novels is different from writing picture books

In the Studio with Matthew Van Fleet

Bookshelf visited with author/illustrator Matthew Van Fleet at his home in Chappaqua, N.Y., to see his studio and to hear about his new book, Alphabet.

New Myers Novel Spotlights Iraq War

Two-time Newbery Honor author Walter Dean Myers has a deeply personal connection to the subject of his latest novel, Sunrise Over Fallujah, narrated by a teenage soldier deployed to Iraq. Next month, Scholastic will release the novel with a 50,000-copy print run, as well as a 20th anniversary paperback edition of Fallen Angels, set in the battlefield jungles of Vietnam.

Barefoot in Manhattan

In a move that could push Barefoot Books further up Inc. magazine’s list of the top 5,000 fastest-growing private businesses (which it made for the first time last year), the Cambridge, Mass./Bath, England, children’s book publisher has reached an agreement with FAO Schwarz to create a dedicated Barefoot Books boutique in FAO’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Children's Book Reviews: Week of 4/21/2008

Belgium-Based Clavis Makes American Debut

Philippe Werck launched Clavis Publishing in Belgium back in 1984, and his company currently releases more than 180 Dutch-language titles annually. Now Clavis has opened its doors in this country with the establishment of a Manhattan office and the spring launch of its first 10 English-language titles.

Truth Imitates Fiction for Bloomsbury Novel

In what Bloomsbury’s director of publicity, Deb Shapiro, calls “eerily fortuitous” timing, just as Cecilia Galante, the author of The Patron Saint of Butterflies (Apr.), was preparing for the last bookstore event on the first leg of her author tour, the news broke that a judge had ordered the removal of 400 children from a compound that housed the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, a polygamous religious cult, in Eldorado, Texas.

Rowling and RDR Meet in Court

Having filed suit against Muskegon, Mich.-based publisher RDR Books last fall, J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. saw their case tried in federal court this week. The trial centered around RDR’s intended publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon by Steven Vander Ark, based on Vander Ark’s Web site of the same name, which included an alphabetical listing of and details about all of the characters, spells, places and creatures in Rowling’s Harry Potter universe.

Rowling Trial Wraps Up on Day Three

Despite Judge Robert P. Patterson’s calling the lawsuit a “so-called three-day trial" at one point during Tuesday’s proceedings, on Wednesday the remaining witnesses took the stand—including J.K. Rowling once more—and closing arguments were delivered in Rowling and Warner Brothers’ trial vs. RDR Books.

Time Books Releases Diary of 'Polish Anne Frank'

Time Inc. Home Entertainment has collaborated with Yad Vashem Publications in producing Rutka’s Notebook: A Voice from the Holocaust by Rutka Laskier. Rutka was a Jewish teenager incarcerated with her family in the Bedzin ghetto in southern Poland, and later killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1943. Her diary is being released in the U.S. with a 55,000-copy initial first print run on May 2

Day Two Brings Fresh Drama at Rowling Trial

As new witnesses took the stand on the second day of the Rowling/Warner Brothers trial against RDR Books, discussion moved to the usefulness of the Harry Potter Lexicon, the potential advantages of its being first to market, and the degree to which the book might affect sales of Rowling’s own long-planned Potter encyclopedia.

Marvel, Harper Debut Spidey Kids' Books

Marvel Comics and HarperCollins Children's Books are teaming up to launch a reading program based around Marvel's popular character Spider-Man. The new line, called simply, Spider-Man, will release its first titles in winter 2009; it will focus on a variety of children's formats, including beginning readers, story books, chapter books, phonics sets and novelty publications.

Weak Dollar Makes For Tricky Show

The weak dollar was a key factor at this year's Bologna Fair, as American publishers found the market tough for buying, but great for selling. Francesca Dow at Puffin said, “The state of the dollar certainly makes buying anything from Europe even tougher.” On the other hand, as Chris Boral of Chronicle Books put it, “It did seem like there were a lot of shoppers, and we were t...

News Briefs: Bray, Balzer form HarperCollins Imprint

Summer: Breaking Records?

Indiana Jones! Batman! The Mummy! Need we say more: it's summer at the movies, and box-office hordes will be more congested than the lines at Disney. The aforementioned heroes are alive and kicking (well, one's only kicking), and Hollywood moguls are hoping they'll shatter the 2007 numbers, when the total gross from May 1 through August 26 was a whopping $4.

Children's Book Reviews: Week of 4/14/2008

Picture Books Willow Buds: The Tale of Toad and Badger Mary Jane Begin . Little, Brown , $14.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-316-01352-9 Begin, who illustrated Chronicle’s 2002 edition of The Wind in the Willows, invades that classic to produce a new series, billed as “friendship stories inspired by The Wind in the Willows”; she rewinds Kenneth Grahame’s narrative chronology and ...

Wrapping Up Bologna

The state of the U.S. economy hung over this year’s Bologna Fair, as American publishers found the market tough for buying, but great for selling. Despite the sunshine and a busy schedule, Francesca Dow, managing director at Puffin, said, “The underlying mood felt quite sober. The state of the U.S. dollar certainly makes buying anything from Europe even tougher.”