In Brief: February 24

Booktenders’ Secret Garden Children’s Bookstore and Gallery in Doylestown, Pa., celebrated 28 years in the children’s book business on Saturday, February 12, with an in-store party. The combination anniversary/Valentine’s Day party featured appearances by several children’s book authors and illustrators; here, l. to r., are Judith Schachner (the SkippyJon Jones series), Kathleen Van Cleve (Drizzle), Lee Harper (Looking for the Easy Life), Booktenders owner Ellen Mager, and spouses and children’s book mainstays Eileen and Jerry Spinelli.

“Weird Al” Yankovic, the comic musician turned children’s book author, visited Whale of a Tale Children’s Bookshoppe in Irvine, Calif., last week to promote his first picture book, When I Grow Up (Harper, Feb.). In attendance was nine-year-old Steven Armstrong of Long Beach, who showed his devotion to Yankovic by arriving decked out in “Weird Al”-style hair, glasses, and even an accordion. Yankovic has made national media appearances in support of the book, along with events in and around New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Photo: SarahBardowell.com

The eponymous star of Stephen Savage’s new picture book, Where’s Walrus? (Scholastic Press, Feb.), spends the book hiding from a zookeeper in hot pursuit. But at the launch party for the book, held last week at Scholastic’s New York City headquarters, there was no missing him. Several standees of Walrus in his many disguises were on display, as were Walrus cookies, and Savage’s sketches and notes for the book. Savage discussed making the book, and fans got to take home Polaroid photos of themselves posing with Walrus. Seen here, l. to r., are Scholastic’s Ken Geist, David Saylor, Walrus, and Savage.

Author Devon Kinch has been busy promoting her first book, Pretty Penny Sets Up Shop (Random, Dec.), a picture book that follows the title character’s adventures in earning, saving, and spending money (PW’s review called it “an honest acknowledgment of the centrality of money in the lives of many young girls, and an attempt to tame and direct it”). Kinch did a blog tour in support of the book and (seen here) recently made an appearance at Visitation Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she read the book and answered students’ questions.

First-time author/illustrator Elizabeth Schoonmaker recently stopped by Colgate Bookstore in Hamilton, N.Y., to promote her picture book Square Cat (Aladdin, Jan.), about Eula, a cat whose squarish figure causes problems—she’s prone to tipping over, certain outfits are very unflattering, and she feels like the odd cat out among her rounder friends. At the event, children created their own Square Cat costumes and illustrated their own versions of Eula. Schoonmaker also discussed her path to working in children’s books and signed copies of the book; the bookstore provided a “square meal” for attendees.