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Fox's youth-oriented cabler FXX will launch a late-night animation block next month with ADHD.

Outspoken Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly will be the voice for his upcoming audiobook edition of Killing Patton, the fourth book in his bestselling history series which he wrote in collaboration with Martin Dugard.

Macmillan Audio, the audiobook publisher revealed that O’Reilly was in the studio to record his book this week. The audiobook and print edition of the title comes out on September 23, 2014. O’Reilly’s other audiobooks in the series have done well in the past. Killing Lincoln, was the top selling audiobook in the world in 2011; Killing Kennedy was the top selling audiobook in the world in 2012 and Killing Jesus was the top selling audiobook in the world in 2013.

“We are thrilled to have Bill O’Reilly back in the studio recording Killing Patton,” stated  Mary Beth Roche, President and Publisher of Macmillan Audio. ”His powerful narration and this fascinating topic are sure to be another bestselling combination.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

In the same week a Bill O’Reilly made headlines with a highly rated National Geographic adaptation of Killing Lincoln, the Fox News host has revealed his next book.

Our sibling blog TVNewser has the complete story:

How do you follow up two New York Times best-sellers about the assassination of beloved U.S. Presidents? How about a book about the assassination of Jesus himself? Fox News host Bill O’Reilly‘s next book will be Killing Jesus, which “will tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth as a beloved and controversial young revolutionary brutally killed by Roman soldiers,” according to the publisher. The book will be co-written by Martin Dugard, who also co-wrote O’Reilly’s last two books Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

3.4 million people watched the National Geographic Channel’s adaptation of Bill O’Reilly‘s Killing Lincoln over the weekend.

Our sibling blog TVNewser had all the details:

The 8pmET airing drew a 2.6 rating, tied for second-best ever for the channel. In the A25-54 demo, the 2-hour film drew a 1.1, more than 175% higher than the channel’s 8–10 p.m average so far this year. NatGeo has already announced it is producing a factual drama based on O’Reilly’s best-selling “Killing Kennedy.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The New York Times will divide its Children’s Bestsellers list for chapter books, creating separate middle grade and YA lists. NYT editor Pamela Paul announced the news last night on Twitter. We’ve embedded her three tweets below.

The newly formed middle grade and young adult lists will account for both eBook and print book sales. However, the picture books list will continue to exclusively spotlight on hardcover titles. What do you think?

The Fault in Our Stars author John Green offered this comment on his tumblr page: “In news that only matters to publishing nerds, the New York Times has changed its bestseller lists to become format neutral (so it counts e-book sales and doesn’t distinguish between hardcover and paperback)…Those of you who follow my tumblr closely may know that for many weeks, I have been chasing Bill O’Reilly and promising to destroy him. But now we have been placed on DIFFERENT LISTS.” (via Publishers Weekly)

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Best Selling Kids’ Books & New Releases

By Bianca Schulze, The Children’s Book Review
Published: December 1, 2012

Here’s the scoop on the most popular destinations on The Children’s Book Review and the most coveted new releases and bestsellers.

20 of the Best Kids Christmas Books

Oliver Jeffers on Writing, Illustrating, and Bookmaking

Christmas Board Books for Babies and Toddlers

How Picture Books Play a Role in a Child’s Development

20 Sites to Improve Your Child’s Literacy

THE NEW RELEASES

The most coveted books that release this month:

Pandora the Curious (Goddess Girls)

By Joan Holub & Suzanne Williams

Ages 8-12

Huggy Kissy

By Leslie Patricelli

Ages 1-3

The Twilight Saga White Collection

By Stephenie Meyer

Ages 14 and up

The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers Book 5: Trust No One

By Linda Sue Park

Ages 9-12

Deadly Little Lessons

By Laurie Faria Stolarz

Ages 12-17

THE BEST SELLERS

The best selling children’s books this month:

PICTURE BOOKS

This Is Not My Hat

by Jon Klassen

Ages 4-8

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas

By Eric Litwin

Ages 4-8

Llama Llama Time to Share

By Anna Dewdney

Ages 3-5

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

By Sherri Duskey Rinker (Author), Tom Lichtenheld (Illustrator)

Ages 4-8

Olivia and the Fairy Princesses

by Ian Falconer

(Ages 3-7)

_______

CHAPTER BOOKS

“Who Could That Be at This Hour?”

By Lemony Snicket

Ages 9-12

LEGO Ninjago: Character Encyclopedia

by DK Publishing

Ages 6-12

Lincoln’s Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever

by Bill O’Reilly

Ages 10-15

Wonder

by R.J. Palacio

Ages 8-12

Insurgent (Divergent)

by Veronica Roth

Ages 14 and up

_______

PAPERBACK BOOKS

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

Ages 14 and up

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

Ages 14 and up

The Book Thief

by Markus Zusak

Ages 14 and up

Thirteen Reasons Why

by Jay Asher

Ages 12 and up

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

Ages 12 and up

_______

SERIES BOOKS

Hunger Games Trilogy

By Suzanne Collins

Ages 12 and up

Dork Diaries

By Rachel Renee Russell

Ages 9-12

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

By Jeff Kinney

Ages 9 to 12

The Heroes of Olympus: The Demigod Diaries

by Rick Riordan

(Ages 10-14)

Matched Trilogy

By Ally Condie

Ages 14-17

This information was gathered from the New York Times Best Sellers list, which reflects the sales of books from books sold nationwide, including independent and chain stores. It is correct at the time of publication and presented in random order. Visit: www.nytimes.com.

Original article: Best Kids Stories – December 2013

©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.

Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at Obama’s health care debacle. See his previous OUPblogs here.

As the wise saying goes “if you’ve nothing good to say, don’t say anything.” But President Barack Obama went ahead anyway with a prime time press conference, and as Bill O’Reilly was right to observe on Wednesday night - he said practically nothing specific about what the shape of the health-care bill would look like and viewers were left scratching their heads.

President Obama wanted to let Congress take ownership of the bill, rather than hand them a fait accompli (as Hillary Clinton did back in 1993/4), I hear Democrats chant in his defense. But if Obama wants to stay on the side-lines, then he should do so consistently. Either be genuinely deferential to Congress and stay out of the picture until a consensus emerges, or take complete ownership of the agenda - don’t try to do both. Yet the president is back in the limelight doing prime-time press conferences, and attending town hall meetings in Cleveland and such. Obama should decide which way he wants to go. If he is the salesman-in-chief, then he has to have something to sell, if not his consumers would be left completely befuddled as to why he’s putting on a show for no particular reason at all.

Liberals are mad that Obama didn’t throw a few more punches at Republicans. I think many are unwilling to admit the more pointed fact that he just didn’t do a very good job at all, because he didn’t have much to say.

So Wednesday’s press conference was a squandered opportunity. We are not in 2008 anymore when Barack Obama would announce that he is giving a speech and the whole world would stop to listen. The clock is ticking on his presidential luster, and the next time he says “hey, listen to me,” it’s going to be that much harder.

Let us be clear why health-care reform has stalled, at least till the Fall. Because the Congress, and in particular the Senate Finance Committee could not agree on a way forward. I don’t see why the President and his advisers thought that a prime time press conference last Wednesday night would have gotten things moving. In fact it probably achieved the exact opposite, when we heard on Thursday morning from Senator Harry Reid that a Senate vote before the August recess would not be possible. The president’s time would have been better spent persuading his former colleagues up on the hill in private conversations to compromise on a bill. When they’ve got a bill and all/most are united, then go out and do the media blitzkrieg, by all means. Wednesday night just wasn’t the time for that.

So it looks like the Permanent Campaign is back. The President has chosen to go back to campaign mode, selling himself. Because without a specific plan to sell, all his public appearances amount to going public for the sake of going public. This strategy belies a serious misunderstanding of American politics. Personal approval ratings do not translate to public support for specific policy proposals (not that they were forthcoming) - the president should have known this by now. They barely even translate into congressional support for presidential policies.

This error - of going public with nothing specific to sell - was compounded, and probably encouraged, by a complete underestimation of the push back from the conservative wing of the Demcoratic party (the “Blue Dogs”) worried about spiraling deficits. These were the people Obama should have been talking to. And given he’s still out town hall-ing and speechifying, I’m not sure he fully understands what came over him.

To make matters worse, Obama had to pour fuel over the fire of the Henry Louis Gates controversy during the press conference, accusing the Cambridge police of of a “stupid” arrest when he had incomplete possession of the facts. Have something to say about anything all the time has become the rhetorical ethic of the modern presidency. Obama’s observance of this ethic was a disastrous distraction to what little point he had to make at his press conference. The news cycles are now spending more time covering the Gates controversy than they are covering the health-care debate.

I’m afraid to say - though this is water under the bridge - that Hillary Clinton would have known better. This week, for the first time in his fledgling presidency, Obama looked like a total novice in Washington. His 4th press conference was a waste of time, and probably the first time since Obama broke onto the national scene in 2004 that his rhetorical wizardry had fallen so flatly on death ears. He seems to have bought the bad conventional advice - whenever you’re in trouble, just go out and give a speech - wholesale. The president should take heed:

1. The public is less attentive between election years and he must have something meaningful to say if he wants to keep their attention.
2. Especially on a complex issue like health-care where there are too many details to cover, the media is much more likely to jump at an opportunity to take the path of least resistance to cover something juicier, like Henry Louis Gates and racial profiling.
2. Just because the public (still) loves Obama doesn’t mean that they will love what he is doing as president (and not as presidential candidate).
3. It is often more important to talk to members of Congress - the people who actually pass legislation - than to deliver speeches around the nation where the only tangible return of applause is a fleeting sense of psychic gratification that one is loved.

President Obama, it’s crunch time. Stop yakking.

Oh My--Self-Published Picture Book Down with the P-O-T...

Take a look at this disturbingly hilarious (hilariously disturbing?) post on Galley Cat about a self-published picture book called It's Just a Plant (which I'm not linking to. OK yes I am--because you can click through and read this fine piece of literature ***), "an illustrated children's book about marijuana" that is "a book for parents who want to educate their children about the complexities of pot in a thoughtful, fact-oriented manner."

The commentary about the book from the former publisher of High Time magazine is, well, commentary from the former publisher of High Times. Dude.

*** in English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish or Thai. I kid you not. And don't miss the reviews (one of which calls the author "the Dr. Seuss of pot") from the likes of Entertainment Weekly, Bill O'Reilly, and David Crosby.

Lilibeth, our beagle, just crossed over the rainbow bridge. She was the model of perseverence and survival. A shelter adoptee, we only had a rough estimate of her age when we adopted her. If we calculate our math correctly, she was sixteen years. Not a small feat for a girl who had a rough start and survived several near-miss tragedies in her lifetime. She lived large, which has cost her a painful back and severe arthritis that required bi-weekly trips to the accupuncturist, and yet, her spirit was still strong, although her body wasn’t always willing. While she was here, she taught us valuable lessons.

What Lilibeth taught me:
*If you get stuck in a position you can’t get out of, it is perfectly respectable and expected to ask for help, even if you are strong and capable.
*Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want and need. If you are ignored, shout! Continue to shout even louder until you are answered and acknowledged.
*Never lose your appetite for life.
*Expect good treatment and your needs to be heard. You are worth it.
*Even if you fall, get right back up and keep going. You’ll eventually get to the destination you want to go to.
*Be there for those you love. It’s always good to give them a kiss every now and then to show your appreciation.
*Don’t let anyone take what is yours. Give that person a good shout of warning!
*Don’t fight change. Adapt and learn.
*Always have something to cuddle. Life can be hard without it.
(copyright R. Hall, 2007) from my November newsletter