In Brief: June 17

ROR’s Million-Book Summer

In conjunction with United We Serve's Let’s Read. Let’s Move. initiative, Reach Out and Read has developed the Summer of a Million Books campaign, to get a million new books into the hands of children between Father’s Day and Labor Day. Last year ROR’s 26,500 participating medical providers served 3.9 million children and families at 4,500 hospitals, clinics, and pediatric practices. To reach its new goal, ROR pediatricians will have to hand out more than 18,500 books to kids daily. ROR is asking people to donate books and sponsor children through its virtual book drive or to organize a book drive. Here, Dr. Sean Palfrey shares a book with a family at Boston Medical Center in Boston, Mass.

On Sunday, June 6, sisters Courtney and Alyssa Sheinmel shared the launch party spotlight, celebrating the release of their new novels at Books of Wonder in New York City. Courtney’s Sincerely (S&S, June) is her third middle-grade novel, while Alyssa’s YA novel The Beautiful Between (Knopf, May) is her first book. Here, Alyssa (l.) and Courtney show off a cake that featured an icing image of themselves as children.

Mary Downing Hahn has written her share of spooky stories, including her Edgar Award-winning Closed for the Season (Clarion, 2009), a middle-grade mystery that features a deserted amusement park. But she loved art before becoming a writer (she’d originally planned to be an illustrator), and here, Hahn takes a break from writing to paint, while visiting Provence, France—no ghost, ghouls, or gravestones in sight. Photo: Laurent Mounier.

Author Sara Shepard, whose Pretty Little Liars series recently made the jump to TV on ABC Family, will make a cameo on the show. Shepard is scheduled to appear in the seventh episode (airing July 20 at 8PM ET) as a substitute teacher at Rosewood High. According to Zap2It.com’s Andrea Reiher, the script calls for Shepard to have a friendly encounter with one of the four main characters who are students the school. Wonder what “A” will have to say about that? Lucy Hale, who plays Aria on the show, is also a fan of the books, telling Reiher, “When I got involved in the show, I went and bought all of [the books]. I’m now on the seventh one... I can’t stop reading them. They’re addictive.” Photo: Daniel Snyder.