In addition to some upcoming books to help cope with young sons, parents will also have two larger discussions on parenting and education come 1998. For a reported $500,000 advance, Bantam publisher Irwyn Applebaum has acquired a book by John Stanford, the Persian Gulf War major-general (and a friend and colleague of Colin Powell) who in 1995 became schools superintendent in Seattle, the first African-American to do so. According to a July 24 Seattle Times report, Stanford is tentatively calling this book Love 'em and Lead 'em. It will be a how-to manual for educators and others trying to improve their schools, as Stanford has done using some military-derived discipline and training methods. Bantam was one of three finalists for the book, which was shopped by agent Jim Levine of James Levine Communications Inc., with a 1998 publication planned.
And at Houghton Mifflin, leading African American writer and activist Cornel West (Race Matters) and white feminist and National Parenting Foundation founder Sylvia Hewlett (When the Bough Breaks), who together created a Task Force on Parent Empowerment in 1996, will collaborate on a book to address what they call "the war against parents."
Their book will be "a parental call to arms to renew our society's commitment to the welfare of its children." Houghton executive v-p Wendy Strothman, who published Race Matters while at Beacon Press, plans for the book to be the house's lead nonfiction title for spring 1998. Executive editor Steve Fraser will serve as editor of the book. West was represented by agent Gloria Loomis and Hewlett was represented by agent Molly Friedrich.
