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Walden Media, the production studio behind The Chronicles of Narnia, isn’t letting the dismal economy slow down its growing presence in both the movie and publishing industries. Next month Walden starts filming Beezus and Ramona, with Joey King playing Ramona and Disney star Selena Gomez as Beezus, the pest’s older sister. It’s also developing the third installment of The Chronicles of Narnia and the movie version of Ingrid Law’s 2009 Newbery Honor book Savvy. And in early 2010, Walden and HarperCollins will co-publish the first three titles for a new HC imprint called Walden Pond Press.
This week Walden signed Mary McAveney, previously v-p of marketing for Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, as “publishing amplification advisor.” Her job: to build buzz for Walden’s books and films. She will work closely with the marketing and publicity teams for Walden’s films and all of its book titles.
Traffic was fairly light this
year, at the Javits Center.
This week’s New York International Toy Fair saw fewer exhibitors and lighter traffic than in years past, but many publishers said they had had a productive show. “There are far fewer tire-kickers, so to speak,” said Sharon Winningham, v-p sales and marketing at School Zone. Since the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act went into effect earlier this month, the topic was widely discussed and debated throughout the show, with confusion about compliance still widespread. Few licensed toys were in evidence this year, but book-based properties had a relatively high profile. Look for a full report in next week’s Children’s Bookshelf.
Even More News
Children’s Authors Drawn into Dubai Controversy
According to the Bookseller, author Anthony Horowitz has joined a growing chorus of protest over the decision by the Emirates Airline International Festival to prevent Geraldine Bedell’s novel The Gulf Between Us to be launched at the fair, because of a gay character. Horowitz has written to fair director Isobel Abulhoul to say he cannot be associated with a literary festival that opposes freedom of speech, but has not yet decided if he will not attend. Canadian author Margaret Atwood has already bowed out of the fair, which opens February 26. And the Guardian reports that author/illustrator Lauren Child, who has just taken on new role as a UNESCO Artist for Peace, is also reconsidering her attendance.
Book News
Dial Hails the Return of 'Ladybug Girl'
Ladybug Girl evidently spoke to the inner superhero in young readers after this Dial picture book reached store shelves last March. Written by husband-and-wife collaborators David Soman and Jacky Davis and illustrated by Soman, the book centers on a child who transforms herself into adventure-seeking Ladybug Girl after her brother announces she’s too little to play with him. The book spent 22 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold 120,000 copies. In a new follow-up tale, Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy, this imaginative gal acquires a sidekick.
The couple’s own daughter Lucy, now seven, inspired the character of Ladybug Girl when she was a toddler. Soman recalls a day when Lucy decided to dress up in “one of her crazy costumes,” in this case ladybug regalia—complete with wings, antennae, a tutu and boots. “It was over the top,” says her father. “Jacky said, ‘Oh look, it’s Ladybug Girl!’ We looked at each other and knew we had something there.”
PW’s spring children’s announcements issue came out this week. Here, we reprint a feature from that issue.
Frances Foster.
Frances Foster
In 1955 I was two years out of college and newly arrived in New York. After the exciting uncertainties of living and teaching English at a tiny language school in Rome, I was ready to settle down with a “real” job. I wanted to work in publishing, especially children's books, and had decided to explore opportunities with Harper & Row, Viking, Harcourt Brace and Scribner's.
But where to start? Common sense told me that making an appointment would be a sensible first step, but when I was browsing in Scribner's Bookstore and learned that the publishing house occupied the eight floors above it, I decided to forget formalities; I would start right then and there. So I told the elevator operator—yes, elevators all had operators in those days—that I wanted to see Alice Dalgliesh (the founding editor of Scribner's Children's Books).
Authors mingle with customers
for Kids Heart Authors Day at
Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Mass.
This past February 14, 172 children’s book authors and illustrators drove as much as two hours each way to read and sign books as part of Kids Heart Authors Day, a literary Valentine to 43 independent booksellers in New England.
Thanks to Mitali Perkins, author of Secret Keeper (Delacorte), who first suggested the idea on Twitter in early December, and publicity guru Deborah Sloan of Deborah Sloan and Company, the day was a big success. One bookseller, Ellen Richmond of Children’s Book Cellar in Waterville, Me., was so eager to participate that despite being forced by illness to close her store for most of the week leading up to it, she persuaded family and friends to re-open the store for Kids Heart Authors Day.
Last Friday, Al Roker chose The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown) as the latest title in his Al’s Book Clubfeature on The Today Show. He revealed the book during a Today Show visit from Kadir Nelson, who illustrated Roker’s previous selection, Change Has Come.
Myers and Co. Launch ‘Second Chances’
Author Walter Dean Myers has joined forces with AdLit.org, the National Education Association and the National Council of Teachers of English for a new initiative called “Second Chances,” which is reaching out to parents, teachers and others who have an influence on the lives of children and teens. As part of the program, an excerpt from Myers’s novel Dope Sick (HarperCollins, Feb.) is available through February 24 on the AdLit Web site, while offers additional resources as well. Earlier this week, Myers participated in an online webinar hosted by NCTE with teachers, librarians and others nationwide tuning in.
Carman Casts a Wide ‘Net’
Given the multimedia nature of Patrick Carman’s Skeleton Creek (the new mystery series uses both novels and Web videos), it’s fitting that the author’s appearance last Friday at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Wash., was broadcast online on the Skeleton Creek channel on video Web site Mogulus. Here, Carman chats with some area fans (the camera in the lower right was used for the broadcast). Carman estimates that around 100 fans from across the country tuned in to watch the event. Future webcasts include an interview with Jeffrey Townsend, who directs the Skeleton Creek videos, on February 23 at 4:30 PM PST and a later interview with Carman.
If You Give an Author a Big Mac...
Author Laura Numeroff got a roadside surprise while in Tupelo, Miss., for a recent school visit: a local McDonald’s was promoting her appearance at the school on its message board. “I was speechless. I just couldn’t believe it!” says Numeroff of the experience. “And, then I had Chicken Nuggets!”
Q&A
Lisa Yee
Bookshelf spoke with Lisa Yee about her new novel, Absolutely Maybe (Scholastic/Levine, Feb.).
After writing several novels for middle-school readers, what made you decide to write a book for an older audience?
I was totally unconscious of doing it. I had signed a contract for a middle-school book, Charm School Drop-Out, about a girl whose mother tries to turn her into a charm-school queen, but the book I ended up writing turned out to be something very different. When my agent, Jodi Reamer, read it, she called me immediately and said, “This isn’t the book you signed the contract for!” Then I went into a panic, thinking, “Oh, no! Am I going to get fired?”
Doreen Rappaport, illus. by Gary Kelley. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-7868-5141-6
Rappaport’s spare text and Kelley’s handsome paintings, evocative of WPA murals, reclaim the legendary first lady’s story for the younger set, revealing the person behind the icon. Writing in clipped, one-or-two-sentence paragraphs that have the feel of blank verse, Rappaport is vivid and frank about Eleanor’s unhappy childhood and overbearing mother-in-law (“Sara told Eleanor what clothes to buy and what food to serve.... She even chose their furniture”), although she demurs when it comes to the Roosevelts’ own marital problems. Each spread is anchored by a quote from Eleanor herself, set in large type to convey her voice, growing sense of confidence and moral conviction (the opening endpapers read, “Do something every day that scares you,” setting a powerful tone from the outset). Kelley’s muted palette conveys the gravity of the times and provides a striking visual counterpoint to his dramatic, strongly geometric compositions. Even if readers have little sense of history, they will close the book understanding that it was America’s great fortune to have Eleanor’s life coincide with some of its darkest hours. Ages 5–8. (Feb.)
Sophomore Switch
Abby McDonald. Candlewick, $17.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-7636-3936-5
First-time novelist McDonald skewers college life in this comic novel that has an uptight Oxford student switching places with a University of California party girl. Both are eager to flee their home campuses: Tasha is trying to dodge publicity surrounding her hot-tub antics with a TV star (aka “Tubgate”), and Emily has just been dumped (“As much as I—and my liberated, post-third-wave feminist self—hate to admit it.... This is all because of Sebastian”). A global exchange program seems the perfect escape, but creates more problems than it solves. While Emily has trouble loosening up in Santa Barbara (she had intended to spend the semester at Harvard), Tasha struggles to convince her peers and professor that she has a functional brain. McDonald plays with stereotypical images of Americans and Brits, painting both in broad strokes, but also challenges standard definitions of feminism. Though the protagonists’ traumas, romantic interests and growing self-awareness are perhaps too neatly paralleled, the characters’ strong personalities and the book’s easy sense of humor will keep readers entertained. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)
Reviews from the February 16 issue of Publishers Weekly.
Laura Leonard of Hillsdale Public Library in Hillsdale, N.J., talks about a spring title.
Emily, a soon-to-be high school senior living in suburan, upper-middle-class New Jersey, decides to broaden her horizons by enrolling in a summer art program at a college in nearby Philadelphia. Initially Emily struggles to fit in with the other students, acknowledge her artistic talent, and balance her new friends with those who she has known for years. She is dazed by the clothes, hairstyles, and attitudes sported by her fellow art students. The individualism they exhibit is a stark contrast to her friends at home, who tend to shop at the same stores in the mall, snack at the same restuarants, and generally try to blend in. In order for her to fit in with this new crowd she will have to begin the sometimes painful journey of self-discovery that adolescents must bear.
Former Golden Books editorial director and author Sharon Shavers Gayle has joined Mary Jack Wald Associates as an agent. Among her first clients are Denise Lewis Patrick, Gregg Loomis, and John Peel.
Obituaries
Jean Srnecz
Jean Srnecz, a 33-year veteran of Baker & Taylor and most recently senior v-p of merchandising, died last Thursday in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo. Srnecz, who was traveling to visit family, was a highly regarded and well-known member of the publishing world. “She was the face of B&T to the publishing industry,” said company president Arnie Wight. Srnecz joined B&T in 1975 as a children’s book buyer after spending three years in retail. See a longer obituary here.
In the Winners' Circle
The winners of the 2008-9Cybils (The Children’s and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards) have been announced. They include The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale in Graphic Novels, and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart in YA Fiction. For a list of all 11 winners, visit the Cybils blog.
The 40th NAACP Image Awards were given out last Thursday night. Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Simon & Schuster) won for Outstanding Literary Work—Children, Letters to a Young Sister: Define Your Destiny by Hill Harper (Gotham Books) won for Outstanding Literary Work—Youth/Teens, and Hip Hop Speaks to Children, edited by Nikki Giovanni (Sourcebooks/
Jabberwocky) won for Outstanding Literary Work—Poetry, the first time that a book for children has won in this category.
Stian Hole and Shadra Stickland have been named the winners of the 2009 Ezra Jack Keats Book Awards by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and the New York Public Library. The awards, now in their 18th year, honor new authors and illustrators of children’s books. Hole won the New Author Award for Garmann’s Summer (Eerdmans), and Strickland won the New Illustrator Award for her artwork in Bird, written by Zetta Elliott (Lee & Low). They will receive their awards and a $1,000 prize in a ceremony in New York City on April 30.
Michelle Harrison has been awarded the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize in the U.K. for The Thirteen Treasures (Simon & Schuster), the story of a girl who can see fairies, and who tries to solve a mystery that has haunted her family for generations. Harrison will receive a £5,000 prize and the bookstore chain will support the title throughout the year. Little, Brown will publish the book in the U.S. in spring 2010. For more information, click here.
In the Media
From the Australian: The U.K. has one. So does the U.S. And now it’s Australia’s turn: a children’s laureate to champion reading among kids will be appointed under a new alliance of authors, teachers, librarians, publishers, booksellers and arts administrators.
From CNN.com: Five generations of Kunhardts, including Pat the Bunny creator Dorothy Kunhardt, have been instrumental in preserving some of the most valuable photographs and memorabilia of Abraham Lincoln.
Last Friday, Al Roker chose The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown) as the latest title in his 
Author Walter Dean Myers has joined forces with AdLit.org, the National Education Association and the National Council of Teachers of English for a new initiative called “Second Chances,” which is reaching out to parents, teachers and others who have an influence on the lives of children and teens. As part of the program, an excerpt from Myers’s novel Dope Sick (HarperCollins, Feb.) is available through February 24 on the 
Eleanor, Quiet No More
