Browsing the booths at this year’s show, booksellers found plenty of titles to get excited about. “I’m just ecstatic about the children’s books I’ve seen,” said René Kirkpatrick, owner of the recently opened Eagle Harbor Book Co. in Bainbridge Island, Wash., and a longtime children’s bookseller. “It looks like a great fall season. There’s a trend toward more realistic books, and I’m thrilled about how much good middle-grade there is – it’s been so hard to find.”
For Ellen Richmond of Children’s Book Cellar, Waterville, Maine, the highlight of BEA is the educational sessions and other events. “I come here for the intellectual property,” she said. “The most important stuff I carry home is between my ears: the connections and networking with people.”
This year’s show saw the launches of several new ventures and imprints. It was the first BEA for Ravenstone, a children’s imprint from Rebellion Publishing. “We will publish one title per season that we can really get behind and support,” said Ben Smith; their first title is a middle-grade novel from John Carter Cash, Lupus Rex.
Lizzie Skurnick Books, the new YA imprint of Ig Publishing, launches in September with a reissue of Debutante Hill by Lois Duncan, originally published in 1958. The plan is to issue a book a month from a variety of authors, including Ellen Conford, Lila Perl, and M.E. Kerr, a mix of reissues and eventually more originals, including one from Duncan next spring, and one from Perl in fall ’14. The look for the jackets was “sleek classic,” according to Ig co-founder Elizabeth Clementson: a modern take on an older look. When the list was presented for the first time, the reps “went crazy,” said co-founder Robert Lasner. “Bookstores will love this,” they told him. “People are really excited,” Clementson added, “and Lizzie is such a great advocate for the books.”
Author-turned-publisher Marissa Moss was on hand to talk about the debut of Creston Books, a line of illustrated books distributed by Publishers Group West, debuting this fall with four titles. Moss aims to fill a void she sees in New York-centric publishing by embracing an author-centric model for her picture book-focused list. And Akashic Books unveiled its Black Sheep imprint for teens (“reflecting an offbeat sensibility,” according to Ibrahim Ahman). The first two novels are by Akashic authors: Changers, first in a four-book series by T. Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper; and Game World by C.J. Farley, an adventure in a video game that turns into reality. Two Black Sheep books a season are planned.
C&T Publishing was giving the first look at its new Fun Stitch Studio line of sewing and crafting books for readers 8-14; according to publisher Amy Marson, the crafting publisher will issue six titles per year, all written by authors who have directly worked with and taught kids.
YA, Big as Ever
The YA category continues to draw the most attention and buzz. For HarperCollins, Veronica Roth’s Allegiant, which arrives in October with a two-million-copy first printing, is the publisher’s biggest fall YA title, especially with the Divergent movie arriving early next year. S&S was handing out galleys for a highly anticipated novel: The Lord of Opium, (Atheneum), Nancy Farmer’s sequel to The House of the Scorpion; they’ve announced a 500,000-copy first printing. Three Random House authors have new YA trilogies launching this fall. Lauren Kate has Teardrop (Oct.); Brandon Sanderson has Steelheart (Sept.), first in the Reckoners books; and James Dashner has The Eye of Minds (Oct.), kicking off the Mortality Doctrine series.
Other YA titles from big-name authors include Maggie Stiefvater’s second Raven Boys novel, Dream Thieves (Scholastic Press); Holly Black’s The Coldest Girl in Coldtown (Little, Brown’s first vampire novel since Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books); Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin); Lauren Myracle’s The Infinite Moment of Us (Abrams/Amulet). Champion, third in Marie Lu’s Legend trilogy, comes out in November; Penguin had posters and chapter samples, but when Peter Glassman of Books of Wonder stopped by to see about copies, publicity director Shanta Newlin told him, “We haven’t even seen galleys.” S&S was showing the conclusion (though not really) to Neal Shusterman’s Unwind trilogy, called Unsouled; according to publicity director Paul Crichton, the delivered manuscript was so long they decided to split it into two (book three is due in October, with one more to come).
Julie Kagawa was a star at Harlequin Teen, with fans lining up an hour and a half early for her signing of The Eternity Cure, book two in the Blood of Eden series. Kagawa launches a new series in 2014, said Harlequin Teen’s Lisa Wray: “All I can say about it is it takes place in contemporary society, with mythical creatures.” Universal Studios has optioned the first title. Fans lined up an hour beforehand for Sarah J. Maas’s signing of Crown of Midnight (Bloomsbury), her follow-up to Throne of Glass. “BEA staff said it was the longest signing line they’d seen,” said Bloomsbury’s Bridget Hartzler. “With all there is to do here, it says a lot.” Hartzler added that Bloomsbury recently acquired a new Maas series, called A Court of Thorns and Roses.
“Do you mind if I gush quickly about this one?” added Bloomsbury’s Katy Hershberger of Dead Ends by Erin Jade Lange, about a bully and a boy with Down syndrome who become unlikely friends, a book she called “award-worthy.” Wild Cards by Simone Elkeles proved popular at the booth: “Someone stole our last display copy,” said Hershberger, who called Elkeles “one of our biggest authors.” Another important name for the publisher: 2013 Printz winner Nick Lake, whose forthcoming fall book is Hostage Three.
A ticketed signing at Penguin let fans get finished copies of Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave; the publisher held a blogger lunch called Fire and Ice in honor of Richelle Mead’s The Fiery Heart, and Melissa de la Cruz and (her husband) Michael Johnston’s Frozen. The discussion was moderated by Anna Jarzab, author of Tandem (Delacorte) – who also works at Penguin, on social media and digital marketing.
At the signing for Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, authors of December’s These Broken Stars (Hyperion), “The line was so long, they went an hour over,” said Disney’s Lizzy Mason. Other highly anticipated titles from Disney include Ally Carter’s sixth and final Gallagher Girls book, United We Spy; and Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein, a companion to the Printz Honor–winning Code Name Verity.
Some notable YA debuts include Colleen Gleason’s The Clockwork Scarab (Chronicle); A Wounded Name by Dot Hutchison and Sex and Violence by Carrie Mesrobian (both Carolrhoda Lab); Mindy McInnis’s Not a Drop to Drink (which HarperCollins’s Heather Doss described as “Little House on the Prairie meets The Walking Dead”), and The Kingdom of Little Wounds (Candlewick), adult author Susann Cokal’s first book for teens. “The bloggers are all over” All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (Hyperion), said Mason. “It’s a love triangle but you know who she ends up with from the first page there’s no guessing, and no ‘teams.’ ”
Algonquin Young Readers, launching its first list in the fall, had two buzz picks at the show, including debut YA novel If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan. Another title to watch for: Somebody Up There Hates You, Hollis Seamon’s first novel for young adults. Despite a premise that Algonquin’s Kelly Bowen called “a tough sell” (teens in hospice), “It’s the one book that we’ve all talked about the most.” Bowen said she’s been enjoying working on the new young readers list: “The YA authors are excited. They’re not jaded the way adult authors can be.”
HMH’s The Testing, first in Joelle Charbonneau’s new trilogy, is out June 4; finished copies were given out on Power Reader Day. Thanks to an accelerated publishing schedule, Charbonneau signed galleys of book two, Independent Study, which publishes next January (book three, Graduation Day, follows in June 2014). And booth visitors who said the word “knight” received a copy of The Carpet People by new-to-HMH author Terry Pratchett; the publisher had spread the word via Twitter.
At Macmillan, YA highlights included two realistic standalone titles: Tumble & Fall (FSG) by Alexandra Coutts (at the booth giveaway, “a hundred galleys were gone in seven minutes,” Macmillan’s Molly Brouillette said) and This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales (“a lot of readers have likened its dry humor to the TV show Girls”). YA readers are also awaiting R.L. Stine’s A Midsummer Night’s Scream (Feiwel and Friends) and From Norvelt to Nowhere (FSG), Jack Gantos’s follow-up to Dead End in Norvelt. Gantos was on hand for a signing, but only a five-chapter blad was available.
Running Press is starting to publish “more and more YA,” according to Perseus v-p and marketing director Allison Devlin. “The reception for our YA list has been tremendous, and the list is growing.” Two of the highlights, according to Seta Zink: Dare Me by Eric Devine (“our second book with him”), due in October; and Broken by Elizabeth Pulford, a New Zealand import with graphic novel elements.
First Second graphic novels Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang and Battling Boy by Paul Pope were attention-getters: “I’ve gotten more questions about Battling Boy than any other First Second title,” Brouillette said. The genre as a whole is earning more recognition, added Gina Gagliano of First Second: “The fact that libraries and booksellers are really getting behind comics is a game-changer.” Other notable comics included March: Book One (Top Shelf), first in a graphic novel trilogy from Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, with illustrations by Nate Powell; an adaptation of Joseph Joffo’s autobiographical novel A Bag of Marbles, illustrated by Vincent Bailly (Lerner/Graphic Universe); Jane, Fox and Me (Groundwood), a story about bullying from playwright Fanny Britt and illustrator Isabell Arsenault; and Blue Angel (Arsenal Pulp), recently adapted into the film Blue Is the Warmest Color, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Meanwhile, Deborah Bass at Amazon Children’s Publishing said that the Skyscape imprint will be publishing New Adult titles in addition to YA, beginning with new paperback editions of Rebecca Donovan’s previously self-published Reason to Breathe and Barely Breathing; a new book from Donovan, Out of Breath, follows in July, as does another new adult novel, Left Drowning by Jessica Park.
More and More Middle-Grade
On the middle-grade front, Kate DiCamillo’s Flora & Ulysses was in the spotlight at Candlewick, and the author took the stage Friday afternoon; on Saturday, the publisher brought Stephan Pastis to the show, in support of his second Timmy Failure book, Now Look What You’ve Done. Kevin Henkes, who writes both picture books and novels for Greenwillow, has a new project due in September, The Year of Billy Miller, described by HarperCollins’s Sandee Roston as a “younger, Clementine-ish book that’s very accessible to younger readers.” James Patterson is launching his third middle-grade series in September with Treasure Hunters. “Middle-grade is [Patterson’s] sweet spot,” said Little, Brown’s Melanie Chang. “He’s found an incredible readership that loves his stories.”
Patterson will be in good company this fall with the eighth Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, due in November, as well as new titles from Rick Riordan, with The House of Hades (Disney-Hyperion) joining his Heroes of Olympus series; Lemony Snicket, back with a second All the Wrong Questions title (Little, Brown); Tom Angleberger, whose The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppet (Amulet) joins his Origami Yoda series in August; and The Abominables, a posthumously published final novel from Eva Ibbotson, which Amulet will publish in October.
Susan Cooper returns with Ghost Hawk in August; “it’s the best thing she’s written since The Dark Is Rising,” said S&S BFYR publisher Justin Chanda. Back at HarperCollins, Neil Gaiman’s Fortunately, the Milk is another middle-grade highlight, joined by new books from Stefan Bachmann (The Whatnot, his sequel to The Peculiar) and Peter Lerangis (Lost in Babylon, second in his Seven Wonders series), as well as one of the show’s middle-grade buzz titles, the first book in Caroline Carlson’s Very Honorable League of Pirates series. And Newbery Medalist Cynthia Voigt joins the Knopf list with Mister Max, first in a mystery-adventure trilogy called The Book of Lost Things (Sept.).
An Algonquin middle-grade title that Bowen predicted “will find its audience”: Three-Ring Rascals: The Show Must Go On, by prolific sibling team Kate and M. Sarah Klise, who “do hundreds of events a year.” To showcase Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea by Lisa Martin, illustrated by Valerie Martin (her aunt), Algonquin is looking at nontraditional venues, such as nautical museums.
Gugor, a 3-D animated character created by special effects studio Framestore for middle-grade title The Creature Department by Paul Weston, interacted with convention-goers as they passed by the Penguin booth. Adam Gidwitz signed paperback copies of A Tale Dark and Grimm for an eager audience; The Grimm Conclusion (Dutton) is out in November. And Penguin had two middle-grade buzz picks this year: Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan and The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward. “This fall is absurdly large,” said Penguin’s Newlin.
Big news at Scholastic included the launch of the new multiplatform Spirit Animals series, which kicks off in September with Wild Born by Brandon Mull. The publisher is also republishing Captain Underpants in full-color paper-over-board editions. Publicity v-p Tracy van Straaten said they had been surprised by the demand for hardcover editions of the books, but it’s because of how heavily reread the books are. Van Straaten also reported that Scholastic sales reps are excited about a new George Lucas–approved book: Star Wars: Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown, a heavily illustrated title for younger readers from the creator of Darth Vader and Son and Vader’s Little Princess.
Catherine Jinks’s How to Catch a Bogle was among the talked-about titles at the HMH booth. “She’s done some YA, but I like her middle-grade,” said executive publicity director Karen Walsh, calling it “funny and quirky.” The publisher will bring the Australian author over in September, along with Jasper Fforde, who’ll come from the U.K. to support The Song of the Quarkbeast; a “draw your own quarkbeast” contest is touted in the ARC, with the winning illustration to be featured in the paperback edition. Catherine Gilbert Murdock will round out the touring trio, for her new novel Heaven Is Paved with Oreos.
On Friday, Little, Brown and Mattel announced a new series, Ever After High, with author Shannon Hale contributing the first book, Storybook of Legends, which will explain the back-stories of the Ever After High characters, who are descended from classic fairy tale characters. The book will go on sale October 8.
Middle-grade standouts at Disney include the launch of Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood & Co. series: The Screaming Staircase. “He’s very big with librarians,” said Mason. “The Bartimaeus series taught kids how to read footnotes.” Another in that category: Tesla’s Attic, first in a new series by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman (“Tesla’s hot – who knew?” said Mason, referencing Quirk’s Nick and Tesla’s High-Voltage Danger Lab).
Orca’s experimental Seven series, which came out last October and featured seven simultaneously published books written by seven authors, was so successful that a new series of seven books is now underway, starring the same characters and written by the same authors, according to publisher Andrew Wooldridge. And a new series, Orca Limelights, aimed at readers 11–14 but not hi-lo, will feature books about the performing arts, including theater, ballet, music, and even the circus – “for the Glee audience,” Wooldridge commented.
On display at Andrews McMeel was a book starring a new character, Desmond Pucket, “our big thing for fall,” said Shelly Barkes. Written by Mark Tatulli, it’s the first illustrated novel in the AMP! Comics for Kids line, about a boy who aspires to be a special effects wizard. There’s also a collection by Stephan Pastis called Beginning Pearls, a starting-off place for readers too young for Pastis’s syndicated comic Pearls Before Swine.
Prominent Picture Books
A few celebrity picture books attracted attention at the show, as they tend to do. Julianne Moore was autographing copies of My Mommy Is a Foreigner, But Not to Me (Aug.), illustrated by Meilo So (Chronicle). Meanwhile, actor Jim Carrey has just signed with Perseus Distribution for a self-published picture book called How Roland Rolls, illustrated by Rob Nason; his new company, Some Kind of Garden, will release the book on Sept. 23. And Regnery Kids is publishing I Believe in Genevieve, a picture book by weight-loss maven Jenny Craig in September.
Suzanne Collins’s Year of the Jungle, illustrated by James Proimos, was perhaps the most prominent picture book at the Scholastic booth (Collins spoke at an event at Scholastic’s headquarters on Thursday night), while Little, Brown was looking forward to The Tortoise & the Hare, another “nearly wordless” story from Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney, as well as Peter Brown’s Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. And David Wiesner’s Mr. Wuffles (Clarion) was attracting a lot of attention: “People were saying, ‘This is vintage Wiesner,’ ” said Walsh.
Picture book highlights from Random House included Snowflakes Fall, a tribute to the community of Newtown, Ct., from longtime friends Patricia MacLachlan and Steven Kellogg (Random, Oct.); Dream Animals: A Bedtime Journey by Emily Martin, in which dream animals take kids away to their dreams, from the popular Etsy artist (Random, Oct.); and Daisy Gets Lost, a sequel to Chris Raschka’s Caldecott Medal–winning A Ball for Daisy (Schwartz & Wade, Oct.).
For S&S, Click, Clack, Moo creators Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin, have a Halloween addition to their series: Click, Clack, Boo!: A Tricky Treat (Atheneum, Aug.); Patricia Polacco has a prequel to The Keeping Quilt, called The Blessing Cup (S&S/Wiseman, Aug.); and astronaut Mark Kelly follows up his bestselling Mousetronaut with Mousetronaut Goes to Mars (S&S/Wiseman, Oct.).
Picture book talk at Disney begins with two letters: “M-O” as in Willems, at BEA to promote the 10th anniversary edition of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, as well as the 19th and 20th Elephant & Piggie books. The next Pigeon title, coming in April 2014, was announced during the show: The Pigeon Needs a Bath!
Big draws at Penguin included The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt; illustrator Oliver Jeffers was on hand for a ticketed signing. Another crowd gathered for John Bemelmans Marciano, who signed Madeline and the Old House in Paris for two hours.
In August, Groundwood Books will release Read Me a Story, Stella, Mary-Louise Gay’s first new Stella title in four years; sales of the books have topped two million internationally. American Girl unveiled Bitty Baby, a new series for the company’s youngest readers yet (3+), written by Newbery Honor author Kirby Larson and illustrated by Sue Cornelison. The first four books debut in September.
Over at Workman, Selina Meere said, “Sandra Boynton’s Frog Trouble is definitely our big children’s book.” The book/CD combo features a dozen original country tunes, sung by Alison Krauss, Dwight Yokum, Fountains of Wayne, and other big-name musicians. Another standout: Chip Kidd’s Go, which uses some of his iconic book covers to teach young people about graphic design. And Rufus Butler Seder’s Scanimation books are always a draw: “It’s a whole category in our catalog,” Meere said. The newest, Santa!, will be out in late August. Barney Saltzberg, who had a hit with Beautiful Oops!, has a forthcoming companion of sorts, A Little Bit of Oomph!
I See Kitty by Yasmin Surovec (who founded the blog Cat vs. Human) was a picture-book crowd-pleaser at the Macmillan booth; other anticipated titles include Nancy Tillman’s I’d Know You Anywhere My Love and Bully by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. At Amazon Children’s Publishing, fans lined up to have posters signed by Bill Thompson, with artwork from his new picture book Fossil, a companion to Chalk.
Sterling’s lead picture books for fall were Rufus Goes to School by Kim T. Griswell, illus. by Valeri Gorbachev; and If It’s Snowy and You Know It, Clap Your Paws by Kim Norman, illus. by Liza Woodruff, a sequel to Ten on the Sled. At Charlesbridge, a picture book highlight was Frosty the Snowman by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins, out in November from the Peter Yarrow imprint at Imagine!, which includes a CD with Kenny Loggins singing. Preorders are so high they already went back to print for a total of 60,000 so far, according to Donna Spurlock. And Sourcebooks Jabberwocky was featuring The Snatchabook by Helen Docherty, illus. by Thomas Docherty (the publisher gave away a mockup of the book and a tote with art from the book) and It’s About a Little Bird by actress Jessica Lange, which she wrote for her two granddaughters.
At Creative Editions, there was a new picture book by R.O. Blechman, The One and Only 1 2 3 Book (Sept.) “We have an ongoing relationship with him,” said Anna Erickson, v-p for retail sales. “He did Franklin the Fly for us years ago, and has been looking for another one to do with us. She also gave word of a new venture for the company: A Number of Animals Nesting Blocks, 10 counting nesting blocks decorated with prints from Christopher Wormell’s A Number of Animals. “They just shipped a month ago and we hit all our sales targets,” Erickson said.
Nonfiction News
In nonfiction, notable titles included Tundra’s Legends, Icons, & Rebels: Music That Changed the World by Robbie Robertson (of the rock group The Band), Jim Guerinot, Jared Levine, and Sebastian Robertson; as well as “The President Has Been Shot!” by James L. Swanson (Scholastic), timed to the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. S&S foresees a lot of attention for The Boy on the Wooden Box (Atheneum, Aug.), a Holocaust memoir by Leon Leyson, who was one of the youngest survivors on Oskar Schindler’s list, and who died just after submitting his manuscript. All three books are aimed at middle-grade readers.
Macmillan’s Molly Brouillette said Bedtime Math, which encourages families to treat math problems as bedtime stories, was a big hit. Of author Laura Overdeck, she said, “She was here for two and a half hours answering questions – she actually taught one lady long division.”
At Boyds Mills, two nonfiction titles were prominent. Their lead title for fall is Call of the Klondike by David Meissner and Kim Richardson (Calkins Creek), which editorial director Mary-Alice Moore described as a nonfiction adventure story along the lines of Hatchet. Another highlight for the publisher is Anubis Speaks by Vicky Alvear Shecter, illus. by Antoine Revoy. First in a planned series, it’s about the Egyptian god of the dead.
Highlights from Smaller Houses
“It’s a sloth winning a shopping spree – who can’t relate to that?” asked Sam Riley at McSweeney’s, of J. Otto Siebold’s Lost Sloth, out in June from the publisher’s McMullens children’s imprint. The author, she said, knows indie music darling Frank Black of The Pixies, and a trailer will feature the musician reading Siebold’s picture book. Other big books for the imprint include Michelle Tea’s YA novel Mermaid in Chelsea Creek and a new translation, with new art, of Momo by Michael Ende, due in August. Ende is better known here as the author of The Neverending Story, Riley said, but Momo, originally published a few years earlier, made Ende’s name in his native Germany.
The New York Review Children’s Collection is reprinting Junket Is Nice, the 1933 debut of Pat the Bunny author Dorothy Kunhardt, at the end of June; Kunhardt’s Now Open the Box follows in September.
Soho Teen’s Game of Thrones-esque fantasy, Relic by Heather Terrell, features illustrations by Ricardo Cortés (Go the F**k to Sleep) and, said Daniel Ehrenhaft, a Common Core educators’ guide suggesting nonfiction books with similar themes – “How do we create history?” A healthy line formed for Elizabeth Kiem’s signing for her debut, Dancer Daughter Traitor Spy, a Cold War–era story about a ballerina forced to defect from Moscow to Brooklyn (and featuring an eye-catching, black-and-white photo accented by a hot-pink tutu).
Continuing its relatively new YA line, Merit Press will release Twigs (Sept.) by Alison Ashley Formento, about a girl who faces up to enormous personal challenges. An April title, The After Girls by Leah Konen – about the aftermath of a teen’s suicide – also garnered interest at the show, according to publisher Karen Cooper. Over at Flux, The Truth About You & Me by Amanda Grace is a big fall title, out in September; it’ll be joined by a pair of debuts: David Lomax’s thriller Backward Glass and Sometimes Never, Sometimes Always by Elissa Janine Hoole, which the author wrote when she was 19.
Simply Read’s Dimiter Savoff had plenty of good news. He said that since his company’s move to Ingram in fall 2012, sales have doubled. At the show, the Cozy Classics line – board book versions of canonical titles with needle-felted illustrations – drew notice; the new War and Peace and Les Misérables were featured that week in People magazine.
Peachtree has a new slogan – “Little Things Make a Big Difference” – and it’s inspired by a September picture book, The King of Little Things by Bil Lepp, illus. by Daniel T. Wenzel, about a king who rules over a kingdom of small but important things. Also from Peachtree: Darling, the first in a historically based middle-grade series called Dog Chronicles by Alison Hart, illustrated by Michael G. Montgomery.
Abbeville is going after what children’s editor Cynthia Vance Abrams described as an underserved market for picture books about only children with Sometimes One Is Just Right by Gayle Burne, illus. by Mary Haverfield (the duo’s previous book, Sometimes It’s Grandmas and Grandpas, had a similarly targeted niche: kids being raised by grandparents). Among the fall titles from Holiday House are pair of middle-grade debuts: The Misadventures of the Magician’s Dog by Frances Sacket and Whistle in the Dark by Susan Hill Long. Capstone is publishing the first new addition in a few years to Kate McMullan’s Myth-o-Mania books, Hit the Road, Helen!, having relaunched the series two years ago.
Albert Whitman is continuing Hilary McKay’s Lulu series with Lulu and the Cat in the Bag, as well as launching a new chapter book series from Gary Urey and Ethan Long, beginning with Super Schnoz and the Gates of Smell. North-South’s big picture books include You’re a Rude Pig, Berte by Claudia Boldt and The Fox in the Library by Lorenz Pauli, illus. by Kathren Scharer. Fox is an import from Germany, where it is a bestseller, said North-South’s Heather Lennon.
Sleeping Bear will release its first Hanukkah title this year: Boris and Stella and the Perfect Gift, a twist on O’Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” according to Audrey Mitnick. Kane Miller is adding onto its Anna Hibiscus series with Splash, Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke, illus. by Lauren Tobia, and kicking off the Phoenix Files series with Arrival by Chris Morphew, which pubs in July. Meanwhile, Tiger Tales is in expansion mode, adding book-and-puzzle sets, anthologies, and 8x8 paperbacks while growing their picture book list as well.
In general, publishers appeared happy with the show. Both Little, Brown’s Melanie Chang and Candlewick’s Jennifer Roberts reported good traffic, including “ a lot of bloggers,” according to Chang. Little, Brown increased the number of giveaways for the show’s consumer day on Saturday. “We haven’t had any dud days or dud times,” said Roberts at Candlewick. “We’ve given away a lot of galleys and had great meetings with retailers.”
