In Brief: October 21

Sarah Dessen Hits the Racetrack (Sorta)

Here’s just about the last place you'd expect to see one of Sarah Dessen's books: on the hood of a racecar. The author decided to "think outside the box in terms of marketing" and sponsored her friend Evan’s BMW, which he races competitively. Says Dessen, "Normally drivers go with auto companies or parts manufacturers, but I thought it would be great to put a little pink out on the track. Mostly I just love the idea of my covers reaching a whole new audience." Dessen's next book, What Happened to Goodbye?, is due from Viking next May.

This past Saturday, a sculpture honoring professor and children’s book author Coleen C. Salley, who died in 2008, was unveiled in Storyland, part of City Park in Salley's native New Orleans. The sculpture features Salley sitting on a park bench along with Epossumondas, the star of her picture books. Several storytellers read from Salley's books during the unveiling, which was attended by Salley’s daughter, Genevieve Athens (seen here), as well as Janet Stevens, who illustrated Salley's picture books, and who signed and gave away copies of the Epossumondas books donated by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Halloween is fast approaching, and author Tonya Hurley helped residents of Kew Gardens, N.Y., get in the spirit by participating in a Halloween festival held this past weekend at the Queens neighborhood’s Maple Grove Cemetery. Joined by her daughter, Isabelle, Tonya read from ghostgirl: Lovesick (Little, Brown, July), the third book in her ghostgirl series, and signed copies, which were provided by Barnes & Noble. The event, organized by the Friends of Maple Grove, also featured games, crafts, face painting, and a costume parade.

Visitors to Chicago's Pritzker Park this past weekend probably noticed the giant eyeball sculpture on display. Yet that wasn't the strangest sight, as the park was also home to a costumed "dance-battle" inside a geodesic dome, an event set up by author James Kennedy, based on a scene from his 2008 novel The Order of Odd-Fish, which Random House released in paperback earlier this year. This was Kennedy’s third domed dance party this year (hey, if you have a geodesic dome on hand...); here, a participant dressed as the Lovecraft monster Cthulhu shows his stuff.

Four authors—Kathryn Lasky, Francisco X. Stork, Kristin Cashore, and Noni Carter—took part in the second annual Boston Book Festival this past weekend. The writers spoke on a well-attended panel called "It Books: Four YA Writers Discuss What’s Hot and What’s Not," hosted by Sarah Sogigian, advisor for youth services at the Massachusetts Library System. Here (front to back), Stork, Lasky, Cashore, and Carter sign copies of books for attendees following the panel.