In Brief: May 19

Author Sarah Dessen is currently on the road for her 10th novel, What Happened to Goodbye (Viking), in which teenage Mclean reinvents herself as she moves around the country with her father. The book went on sale May 10 with a 500,000-copy first printing, and Dessen celebrated the book’s release with a launch event at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham, N.C. Here, Dessen (lower r.) is joined by the more than 375 fans who turned out for her event at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Ill. Dessen has also visited bookstores in Colorado, Utah, and Nebraska, and she is scheduled to make stops in Texas, New York, and Maryland, in addition to more indies in her home state of North Carolina.

Several authors were honored at the 2011 Forest of Reading Awards in Toronto last week during the Festival of Trees. Kevin Sylvester (seen here) accepted a Silver Birch Award for his novel Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders (Key Porter); additional Silver Birch Awards were given to Valerie Wyatt and Fred Rix for How to Build Your Own Country and Ashley Spires for Binky the Space Cat (both Kids Can). The awards are a partnership between the Ontario Library Association and Toronto’s Authors at Harbourfront Centre. The Festival of Trees is Canada’s largest children’s literary event, which welcomes more than 8,000 readers annually. Click here for a full list of winners. Photo: Eyal Marantenboim for readings.org.

This past Sunday, three authors with musically themed books participated in an event entitled “For the Love of Music and Books,” held at the Ethos Music Center in Portland, Ore. Seen here, l. to r., Rosanne Parry (Second Fiddle; Random), Elizabeth Rusch (For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart, illustrated by Lou Fancher and Steve Johnson; Tricycle) and Virginia Euwer Wolff (The Mozart Season; Square Fish) read from their books; the event also featured a performance by the Portland Symphonic Girlchoir and singer Tasha Miller. A portion of the book sales at the event were donated to the music center, which began operation in 1998 in response to budget cuts to music education in schools.

Mothers, sons, and daughters came out to Books of Wonder in New York City on Mother’s Day to listen to a trio of authors read from, discuss, and sign copies of their latest books, as well as take questions from the audience. Seen here, l. to r., are authors Gary Schmidt (Okay for Now; Clarion), Mary-Rose Wood (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Hidden Gallery; HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray), and Barry Hoffman (The Shamra Chronicles: Chaos Unleashed; Gauntlet Press/Edge Books).