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Granted we are currently IN the Spring of 2012 so this is probably less of a preview and more of a . . . uh . . . here and now discourse.  But by my reckoning Blue Apple Books is one of those smaller pubs that don’t get a lot of airplay next to the big boys.  So with this, the last of the spring previews (I’ve a Summer one already ready and waiting) let’s tip our hat to the spate of books you may not hear about here or there, you may not hear about anywhere.

When you open a Blue Apple Books catalog you usually find a letter at the front from its publisher, the author Harriet Ziefert.  In this most recent catalog the letter begins with a selection of sentences from various unsolicited manuscripts Blue Apple has received.  My favorites included, “I feel this book would be a great fit for Albert Whitman” and “I believe the subject matter and themes of this book fit with the mission and vision of Charlesbridge Books.”  I suspect that Albert Whitman and Charlesbridge get similar letters addressed to Blue Apple.  Ziefert then turns these into an explanation of what they look for in manuscripts, which would actually make for rather good reading for all up and coming author/illustrators.  Ziefert includes twenty different questions like “What will linger after the last page is read and the book is closed?” and “Can it be read on several levels?  Does it add up to more than its words?” amongst others.  All legitimate questions that are worth considering by everyone from review committees to materials specialists.  In this case it’s how Blue Apple is trying to build its brand.

Now the first book on this list has already been explained at length on this site.  I reviewed Lucy Rescued by Harriet Ziefert just last month, but I never really gave you the story behind the book.  Harriet herself is not a dog person but her brother’s canine companion has a tendency to collect beanie babies.  The dog has ten and each night will take all ten upstairs.  In the event that one is missing nobody in the family, canine or otherwise, gets any sleep.  Using this as an inspiration, Ziefert came up with this book.  I should also note that the dog therapy you see in this title was well researched.  Easy to do here in town.  I suspect that New York has more than its own fair share of doggie psychiatrists.

The Bear Underwear books by Todd H. Doodler are pretty standard fare.  You’ve got your bear.  He’s got his underwear.  End of story.  I was amused, though, by Bear’s Underwear Mystery, partly because as you can see by the cover, it’s a touch risqué.  I keep hearing that classic stripper tune with the trombones whenever I look at it.  The latest has tabs and numbers and counting and a small mystery.  It’s also in a 7 X 8 inch board book format.  Board books fare very well in my libraries these days, so there you go.

If y

There are many reasons to love Little, Brown but at the moment the company has my heart because their last librarian preview consisted of less than thirty books in total.  And when you’re dealing with less than thirty books, typing up what they have is much easier on the old post-natal still-carpal-tunnely digits.  So it was that we hopped on over to The Yale Club (conveniently located a mere 2.5 blocks from my workplace), sat down to tiny sandwiches involving salmon, brie, and what looked suspiciously like apple slices, and listened to the upcoming roster of what can only be deemed “goodies”.  Goodies ah-plenty, goodies galore.

But before all of that, there were several other things to check out.  Unlike some publishers, LB & Co. isn’t afraid to display around the room art from books that due out in the distant future.  In this way I saw art from the fall 2012 Julie Andrews Edwards / Emma Walton Hamilton number Celebrate the Seasons: A Collection of Poems and Songs, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman.  I also saw art from September 2012’s Ten Tiny Toes by Todd Tarpley, illustrated by Marc Brown.  There was other art as well, but I don’t want to give away what those books were quite yet.

And then there were the special guests to contend with.  Guests, yes.  Plural.  Sometimes Little, Brown will manage to snag one of their biggies as they hop through town.  In the past Darren Shan would come early on, for example.  This time it was an author I’d been hoping to see at a preview for some time.  Really, ever since I heard that he and his editor were now part of the LB&Co family.

If you read my Video Sundays then you may have seen that Mr. Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) was on Rachel Maddow’s program last month.  Before he spoke with her, though, he took some time to pop over to The Yale Club to read us a selection from his YA novel Why We Broke Up.  It was good.  I’ve seen him talk about the book several times now and with him there’s not that horrible repetition there that you sometimes get when an author clings to a set script and refuses to deviate from it so much as a word.  Well played, sir.  Well played.

All right.  Now the books.  First up, a lady who had never done one of these previews before but was just ducky:

Pam Gruber
(Some discussion was made as to whether or not she has the same name as the woman who played Mindy in Mork & Mindy, but it was determined that we were thinking of Pam Dawber).

And we begin today with the award for Best Authorial Name.  And no, this is not a pseudonym.  Galaxy Craze (I’m just going to sit here and savor that name for a while before I write anything else . . . annnnnnd, we’re done) is a former actress who may or may not be the offspring of English hippie parents.  You may have seen her in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives.  With her name on the cover like that, I suspect that some kids may mistake her moniker for the book’s title, but that’s fine with me since “Galaxy Craze” would make an awesome title too.  So here we have a book that combines two passions that, to the best of my knowledge, have

Fun Fact: Librarian previews done in the presence of small attention seeking babies yield surprisingly drool-soaked notes.  Not so drool-soaked that a person couldn’t decipher them later, but wet with the moisture of someone else’s mouth just the same.

Still and all, the good people of Lerner Publishing Group (Lindsay Matvick and Terri Reden if you want to get specific) weren’t exactly unaware of the effects babies have on one’s output.  Hence the tardiness of this post, I suppose.  They sat down with me at my favorite local chocolate cafe (Lily O’Brien’s, in case you ever want to meet with me too) and showed me what the Spring 2012 season has to offer.  Everything from real world alien investigations to real world stories about never forgotten Harlem bookstores.  2012 is shaping to be a heckuva year.

First up, the Tana Hoban of the 21st century.  At least that’s how I dub British crafty blogger Jane Brocket.  Color photography may date to a certain extent, but Tana Hoban’s books still circulate like nobody’s business.  Like Hoban, Brocket has an eye for concepts and she complements each one with lush photography.  Her newest is Spotty, Stripy, Swirly: What Are Patterns? Pretty self-explanatory, except that I wonder if the title is slightly different overseas.  They’ve a rather different view of the term “spotty” if my Harry Potter has taught me anything.

First came joeys.  Then larvae.  Now Bridget Heos is back with Stephane Jorisch (a fellow you may now know best from the Betty Bunny books) for What to Expect When You’re Expecting Hatchlings: A Guide for Crocodilian Parents (and Curious Kids).  The book covers facts about crocs and their offspring.  Makes me wonder if Ms. Heos will start covering some of those animals we get requests for all the time like bats or sharks.  Shark Week is every week in the public library.  Note, by the way, that there is (or will be) free material on the Lerner website to accompany this book.

Lerner has some similarities to those publishers that just crank out titles covering subjects that kids are assigned in schools all the time.  The difference is that their series titles tend to be pretty good.  Recently they started putting out a series that covers different breeds of dogs and cats. I sort of assumed that was the end of it and that we wouldn’t hear any more.  Not at all!  Behold the new “My Favorite Horses” series.  Covering American Quarter Horses, Appaloosas, Lipizzans (like in The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson!), Morgan Horses, and Shetland Ponies (no Assateagues?), the books discuss everything from breed history to info on riding and owning your own horse.  Consider purchasing for the ho

At last!  The season for previews has begun yet again!  And as of right now I am (checks watch) four previews behind.

Yipes!

Guess we better get started then.  If you want to read a recap of this same preview done already (and on time) though, check out this Early Word post by Lisa Von Drasek.

This Fall I’ve been hurry scurrying to each preview in a whirlwind gust of bad timing.  Either I’m entering late or I’m leaving early.  The Penguin preview was no exception.  With only a little time to spare before I conducted that day’s storytimes at my own branch, I burst in, grabbed a muffin, hit a chair, hyperventilated for precisely 3.8 seconds, and then ZOUNDS!  We were off!!

First up . . .

Grosset & Dunlap

Who surprised me by being the first imprint of the day (a fact that got me in trouble later, but the less said about that the better).  I had little time to be surprised when I saw which editor would be speaking to my table.  It was Editorial Assistant Karl Jones.  I may have seen Mr. Jones around and about before.  He’s been with Penguin little over a year, after all.  At this time, however, all I could see was the man’s mustache.  It was, to be blunt, epic.  I’m a huge mustache fan over here.  If I had my way every man I know would sport a handlebar (and maybe a monocle too, if I’m pushing my luck).  Though not precisely a handlebar, the mustache of Mr. Jones kept me thoroughly enthralled for the better part of his presentation.  Fortunately I had the wherewithal to keep notes all the while.

If the kids in your library system are anything like my own then there’s just something about that Who Was? series that makes them happy.  I don’t know if it’s the bobblehead portraits on the covers, the reading level, or the interior illustrations but the kiddos are kooky for these things.  Looking at the full list of subjects I see that they’ve covered almost all the bio basics.  Seems the only folks left at this point that get regularly assigned are Helen Keller and Matthew Henson.  At least three titles in 2012 are coming out in Spanish this April (Martin Luther King, Jr., Sacagawea, and a Thomas Edison that out of the corner of my eye keeps looking like James Dean).  This January Babe Ruth is joining the ranks in Who Was Babe Ruth? by Joan Holub.  Cover illustrator Nancy Harrison has really gone to town too.  The man’s multiple chins are on full display.  I suspect my Yankee loving patrons (this is New York after all) will snap it up right quick.

I’ve a girl in the children’s bookgroup I run who only wants to read books of the girly girl persuasion.  If it’s got a cheerleader on the cover, she’s interested.  As a result, I try my darndest to steer her towards similar books that have a little more meat and a little less glitter.  Elizabeth Cody Kimmel is now coming out with a series in the vein of Luv Ya Bunches or The Babysitters Club that follows four new friends as they work together on a school magazine.  The series is called Forever Four and the first two books in the series should be out this January.

10 Comments on Librarian Preview: Penguin Young Readers Group (Spring 2012), last added: 11/3/2011