Feiwel’s Friends, Fans and Fireworks
Macmillan imprint Feiwel & Friends recently held an event with the minor league baseball team, the Staten Island Yankees. F&F authors Jordan Sonnenblick and John Coy signed more than 700 books for young sports fans, and the publisher also sponsored a fireworks show after the game against the Aberdeen IronBirds (the Yankees trounced the IronBirds 12-1). Here, Coy (second from l.) and Sonnerblick (back r.) show some team spirit with Yankees mascot Scooter the Cow, Paul and Lisa Von Drasek, and several enthusiastic baseball-lovers. Photo: Tak Mihara.
Labor (Day) of Love
This past weekend, author Fran Cannon Slayton visited the town of Rowlesburg, W.Va., the setting of her new novel When the Whistle Blows (Philomel, June), for its annual Labor Day Ox Roast. During the festival, Slayton signed more than 100 copies of her book, with proceeds benefiting the Rowlesburg Revitalization Committee, a group dedicated to bringing attention and business to the small Appalachian town. Seen here, Slayton (center) shows off her novel, flanked by her parents, who grew up in Rowlesburg (the photo is taken in her parents’ first-grade classroom), her daughter and several residents.
Southern Hospitality
The fourth annual Decatur (Ga.) Book Festival also took place last weekend, and Atlanta-based children’s publisher Peachtree was out in full force, with a booth set up as a “Book Hospital.” Kids who visited the Peachtree booth were able to create new covers for “hurt” books (here, a local firefighter brings books to the Peachtree tent). Kate DiCamillo, Loren Long, Lauren Myracle, Judy Schachner and Jon Scieszka were among the children’s book authors and illustrators who participated in this year’s festival.
‘Hammer’ Time
Author John Claude Bemis and friends recently put on a show for the town of Hillsborough, S.C. to celebrate his debut novel The Nine Pound Hammer (Random, Aug.), first in the Clockwork Dark trilogy, which follows 12-year-old protagonist Ray as he falls in with a group of sideshow performers who travel a mythical version of America where folklore and tall tales come to life. In keeping with the book’s subject matter, Bemis’s show featured a snake-oil salesman, live music by the author and a performance by local middle-schoolers, seen here with Bemis, who reenacted the story of John Henry.
Blank’s Good ‘Karma’
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City recently played host to a launch event for author Jessica Blank’s second novel, Karma for Beginners (Disney-Hyperion, Aug.), about a 14-year-old girl whose hippie mother drags her off to live on an ashram. The museum hosted a gallery tour for attendees, and Blank read from her novel, answered questions from fans and (seen here) signed copies of the book. Blank, who is also an actress and playwright, has more than just a new book on her plate: “Aftermath,” a play she is directing and co-wrote with her husband, Erik Jensen, opens September 15 at New York Theatre Workshop.
