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It’s a new year but the librarian previews just ah-keep on coming.  Generally you’ll read my previews of “The Big Six/Five” (they haven’t really gone down to a proper five yet, but it’s coming).  My heart always belongs to the little guys, though.  The folks who aren’t necessarily located in NYC.  Folks like Chronicle Books, located more in the San Francisco area part of the country.  If Candlewick is the publisher of books that are gorgeous in a classical sense then Chronicle is her mod younger sister.  Here are some of the treats we’ll be seeing pouring out of that particular co. soon.

Star Wars Epic Yarns by Jack and Holman Wang

A New Hope (9781452133935)

The Empire Strikes Back (9781452134994)

Return of the Jedi (9781452135007)

A little context might be in order here.  Since we’re already on the topic of small publishers, are any of you familiar with Simply Read Books?  That’s a small company that cares so much about children’s literature that they pay extra money so that the glue in the bindings of their books smells better.  I am not making that up.  Simply Read was plugging along for a while when they hit upon Jack & Holman Wang.  The result was their remarkable Cozy Classics series of board books.  We’ve seen plenty of tongue-in-cheek board book editions of stories like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice but the Cozy Classics excelled by being the most beautiful and meticulous out there.  Jack and Holman’s attention to detail is paramount.  They care as much about the simplified language as they do the natural lighting in a given scene.  Now Chronicle has lured them over to their team so as to present all three of the original Star Wars films in the same kind of format.  As you can see they are felt (felt droids!) and incredibly fun.  We were told that the only digital aspects you’ll find in these photographs are the light sabers.  Other than that, it’s all natural, baby.  You know you want one.  Or three.

You know, the most consistent surprise I found during this preview was how many familiar names I was already a fan of (the aforementioned Wangs, Mark Siegel, Amy June Bates, etc.) started cropping up as part of the Chronicle roster.  I love learning about new folks, but there’s something infinitely comforting about finding someone you already love in a new location (so to speak).

Polar Bear’s Underwear by Tupera Tupera (9781452141992)

If your first thought upon seeing this was to think of the Blue Apple Books series Bear In Underwear by Todd Doodler, you aren’t alone.  However, aside from the obvious similarities of ursine undies, Tupera’s book goes in a different direction.  Translated from what I believe was the original Japanese, in this book a polar bear’s underwear has gone AWOL.  Various pairs are located but each belongs to a different animal.  The zebra’s have colorful stripes, the butterfly’s are tiny, etc.  In the end this is less “Bear In Underwear” and more “I Want My Underwear Back” (should Jon Klassen be looking for a sequel to his smash hit, I think we’ve found a winner).  There’s even an “underwear bellyband” that has to be removed from the cover so as to open the book (thereby rendering our titular hero naked as the day he was born).

Interstellar Cinderella (9781452125329)

Anyone out there a fan of Cinder by Marissa Meyer?  Then consider this Cinder for the 4-7 year-old set.  Written in rhyming text this colorful concoction stars a parts-loving Cinderella.  Thanks to her fairy bot mother she goes off and ends up becoming not the prince’s paramour but his mechanic.  Love it, love it.

Rude Cakes by Rowboat Watkins (9781452138510)

I don’t want to shock you folks, but the truth about Rowboat Watkins?  That’s not his real name.  I know, I know, I was as dismayed as the rest of you when I heard.  Living as we do in a world where names like Robert Quackenbush, Mary Quattlebaum, Sara Pennypacker, and even the occasional Betsy Bird proliferate, you kind of hope for the best when you run across a guy with a name you can’t say three times fast.  Alas, tis not to be.  A former Sendak fellow (how many were there in the end, I wonder?) this book features pastry without manners.  A perfect pairing with Scholastic’s recent Please, Mr. Panda, in this tale a cake has to learn a thing or two about being a bit of a boor.

Sea Bones by Bob Barner (9781452125008)

First off, love that cover.  It makes me feel as though someone should seriously consider doing a Halloween ocean tale.  In any case, bone-obsessed Bob Barner is back.  You loved his Dem Bones and thrilled to his Dinosaur Bones.  Now check out this remarkably effective little nonfiction title for younger readers.  Note the infographic feel and how it incorporates older and younger texts.  Behold the underwater informational chart!  And see this picture up above of the different parts of the fish.  Am I crazy or shouldn’t this be a poster?  I would hang it up.  Yup yup.

Beach House by Deanna Caswell, illustrated by Amy June Bates (9781452124087)

Ah.  The beach.  It lends itself to lovely art, does it not?  It’s never too soon to start mooning over the seaside.  Indeed here in the cold of January it’s sounding particularly nice.  Using lots of oranges and reds, Bates brings to life Caswell’s rhyming text.  There are lots of nice little details as well, like hanging towels up on a clothesline to dry.  This is why we have watercolors, folks.

How to Read a Story by Kate Messner, illustrated by Mark Siegel (9781452112336)

It’s unfortunate that even at as big a scan as this, you can’t quite make out the covers of the books surrounding the boy on the book jacket here.  If you could, you’d be able to see how Mark Siegel has cleverly worked in a wide array of picture books, both classic and contemporary, into his art.  Pairing two of my favorite children’s book creators together, this is a kind of picture book guidebook on . . . well, you read the title.  It sort of reminds me of the text for How to Train a Train, honestly.  Fun stuff.

Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer, illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown (9781452111902)

Slowly, ever so slowly, we’re moving away from the books in which having two dads or two moms is the sole point of the title.  Still, it’s good to remember that there are a LOT of kinds of tales we’ve not seen before.  This book serves more as a story about how there are many different kinds of families out there.  When Stella’s class has a Mother’s Day celebration she’s a bit out to sea.  After all, she has two daddies.  So how can she invite them to the party?  It’s a good little tolerance-based tale.

Pool by JiHyeon Lee (9781452142944)

Wordless is the name of the game here.  Beautiful might be the other word that comes to mind.  From Korean born JiHyeon Lee comes a story of what happens to two kids when they meet at an incredibly crowded pool.  Contrasting the nightmarishly crowded pool with a kind of beautiful chaos and underwater adventures, this is one of the riskier and more interesting picture book debuts of 2015.

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal (9781452119366)

Rejoice, oh ye fans of Messner and Neal’s Over and Under the Snow.  They’re baaaaaack!  And this time they’re looking at spring springing.  What’s in the dirt?  What’s hidden on the underside of the leaves?  It’s a tiny little world out there and this looks like a perfect recommendation for any teacher searching for new nonfiction spring-based picture books.

A Nest Is Noisy by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long (9781452127132)

Speaking of delightful returns, Aston & Long are back with the fifth book in their natural-objects/critters-have-adjectives series (I mean what would you call it?).  If you already loved An Egg Is Quiet, A Seed Is Sleepy, A Butterfly Is Patient, and A Rock Is Lively then check out the latest.  As with their other books, the duo upset expectations from the get go.  You thought this would just cover bird nests?  Think again, my friend.  Everything from tiny bees to orangutans are on display here.

The Land of Lines by Victor Hussenot (9781452142821)

Because you just cannot have enough wordless books in a given year.  The format may be picture book sized but the interiors are pretty darn graphic novelly.  Originally French, this philosophical wordless picture book uses just blue and red with the occasional dash of yellow along the way.  It sort of reminds me of that old PBS show Secret City, where you’d be shown how to draw in much the same way.

Farewell Floppy by Benjamin Chaud (9781452137346)

Chronicle previews happen in NYC in a restaurant.  That’s just how they do.  And on this particular day the table of attendees got into a big debate about this book.  Created by the remarkable Benjamin Chaud (see my post You Know Him. You Just Don’t Know You Know Him) this tale features a boy who decides to abandon his rabbit Floppy in the woods.  Why?  Well, the kid is growing up and he’s fairly certain that having a bunny for a best friend keeps you from maturing properly.  Trouble is, while losing Floppy might be hard, finding him again once he’s been successfully “set free” is even harder.  The debate at my table?  Is Floppy a real rabbit or a stuffed one?  You’ll have to read it yourself to be the judge of that.

Bigfoot Is Missing by J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt, illustrated by MinaLima (9781452118956)

As the art here shows, the interesting thing about this Lewis/Nesbitt pairing (both have been Children’s Poet Laureates with Nesbitt currently holding the title) is that it’s poetry.  Cryptid poetry!  With the rather lovely art of Miraphora (best first name ever?) Mina and Eduardo Limo at play (put them together and they become MinaLima) we see poems here disguised as street signs, milk cartons, graffiti, newspaper headlines, etc.  I’m always on the lookout for new poetry books.  This fits the bill.

The Water and the Wild by K.E. Ormsbee (9781452113869)

Chronicle specializes in picture books, generally.  So when they decide to invest in a work of middle grade fiction, they do so with their heart and soul.  This book is being sold as for fans of A Wrinkle in Time and The Wizard of Oz.  A lone girl must find a cure for her best friend’s rare illness.  It requires going through a door in an apple tree and discovering her roots (ha ha) along the way.  This is a debut for Ormsbee, so let’s keep an eye on it, please.

Boats Go by Steve Light (9781452129006)

One word: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

And that’s all she wrote, folks.  Now to go tackle the seven OTHER previews I have waiting in the wings presumably *gulp* before summer.

Many thanks to Chronicle for presenting us this list.

Oh, it’s a big one.  A big honking preview, this is.  Yes indeed, folks, Harper Collins is in town and they’ve a mess of good looking books just aching to arrive on your shelves.  Now the last time I attending a preview for HC I was massively pregnant with back pain to match.  This time around, in comparison, I was positively lithe, leaping from table to table as the editors showed us their pretty baubles.  Here then is an encapsulation of some of the goodies that will be hitting shelves nationwide fairly soon.  To wit:

Table One

At these librarian previews we the MLIS degree holders move from table to table, where each imprint gets its own say.  With Table One we began with Greenwillow and a season that’s going to feel a little distant to us for a while:

Finding Spring by Carin Berger (97800622510193)

Cute, right?  In this story a bear is searching for spring.  So what does he find instead?  Snow.  Lots of it.  Done in Berger’s customary collage style, this is one artistic little book that rewards close reading.  Note, for example, that the snowflakes and flowers see in these pages are held in place by tiny pins.  Sort of gives the whole book a three-dimensional feel.  Gorgeous.

For a closer look at the interior art, stop on by Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast for a sneak peek.

Red by Michael Hall (9780062252074)

I actually already talked a bit about this one back during the last Harper Collins preview, but I like it so very much that I’ll mention it again.  To wit, snarky faceless crayons populate a book where a blue crayon is mislabeled as red.  A pencil tells the tale (as you might imagine).  I’m already imagining a LOT of applications for this as a gift book.  It sells itself.

Touch the Brightest Star by Christie Matheson (9780062274472)

Since the popularity of Press Here by Herve Tullet, a load of different interactive picture books have swamped the market.  The best of these do more than simply tout their interactive elements, though.  And those that have a purpose above and beyond the directives aimed at child readers tend to be worth seeking out.  In Matheson’s latest, kids are encouraged to embrace the dark rather than fear it. Touch the firefly and watch it glow on the next page.  That sort of thing.  It’s interactive bedtime fare and even includes some night sky info as well.  Matheson first started these series of sorts with Tap the Magic Tree.  The plans for the third book in the works?  Planting a seed.  Awwww, yeah.

Backyard Witch: Sadie’s Story by Christine Heppermann, ill. Deborah Marcero (9780062338389)

That’s clever.  They were pitching this early chapter title as something to hand to the Ivy & Bean lovers of the world.  Of course it has magic in it, but that’s okay.  If author Christine Heppermann’s name sounds familiar that may be because she was recently responsible for the very YA Poisoned Apples this year. Switching gears a tad, she is now coming out with a story of Sadie.  When her two best friends go on vacation without her, she’s none too pleased.  A trip to her play house leads to the discovery of a Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle type witch.  She’s asked to help find the witch’s friends.  One is a bird (a yellow warbler) who was turned avian by mistake.  And since I’m always desperate for early readers, I’m excited to give this one a go.

Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly (9780062238610)

Oo. This one sounds exciting.  Written by an author who was born in the Philippines and moved to Louisiana, the book features a Filipino girl dealing with growing up.  The girls at school are no longer nice and her mom runs her home as if she’s still in the Philippines.  She would prefer to learn the guitar and emulate her favorite artist – George Harrison.  Sounds good.

Anyone but Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp (9780062364340)

Note, if you will, the tiny skulls on the cover.  From what I could gather then it was a kind of Amelia Bedelia by way of Downton Abbey in a Tim Burton-like book with a Lemony Snicketesque plot.  Got that?  In this story the titular Ivy must deliver a diamond to a girl on her birthday.

Waiting by Kevin Henkes (9780062368430)

I have excellent news.  I’ve seen the Caldecott winner of 2016.  You see?  I just saved you an entire year’s work.  Slap your hands together, folks, because your work is done.  Yes, Kevin Henkes has a new picture book coming out and it is absolutely fascinating.  The toys on the cover are, you see, waiting.  Based on Kevin’s kids’ own toys, the story takes place at a single setting: the window.  And you would be amazed how much drama can be derived from such a location.  Beautiful beautiful beautiful  . . . and not out until September 2015.  Sorry, guys.

The Doldrums by Nicholas Gannon (9780062320940)

What you’re seeing here isn’t the cover so much as an example of some of the full-color art found in this title.  Three kids (Archer, Adelaide, and Oliver) are waiting for an adventure.  Their intent?  To find Archer’s grandparents, last seen on an iceberg.  Add in a pinch of a Hitchcockian flavor and maybe a little Wes Anderson and you’ve got yourself a fascinating little number.

Table Two

Ding!  Moving on.

Bunnies by Kevan Atteberry (9780062307835)

I’m always on the lookout for that rarest of rare beasts: The very young readaloud picture book.  And in this story you will find precisely that.  Not too dissimilar from Bob Shea’s 2014 title Don’t Play With Your Food, the story centers on a monster with a serious bunny obsession.  They appear.  They disappear.  They don’t seem to care that all he wants in the whole entire world is just to see them.  Awww.

Teddy Mars Book #1: Almost a World Record Breaker by Molly B. Burnham, ill. Trevor Spencer (9780062278104)

Teacher debut alert!  There are many things I could tell you about this book, but I think I’m just going to leave you will the first line (which may be slightly paraphrased, so forgive me if it’s not 100% accurate): “The day my brother crawled into the catbox I knew my life would never be the same.”

What This Story Needs Is a Pig in a Wig by Emma J. Virjan (9780062327246)

I’m also always on the lookout for picture books with very simple texts.  When the Geisel Award goes to picture books, I stand up and cheer.  Seems to me that this book, described as containing a text, “where every single word is important,” fits the bill. The plot is simple.  There is a pig.  Too many animals jump into her boat.  Hijinks ensue.

Stick Dog Dreams of Ice Cream by Tom Watson (9780062278074)

Were you aware that Stick Dog started as an app?  Not I, said the fly.  Now on his third book, the eternally hungry hero continues to lure in readers not yet ready for Wimpy Kid, looking for something with slightly more text than Bad Kitty.  And the good news?  Stick Cat is on the horizon.  Woohoo!

Little Miss, Big Sis by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, ill. Peter H. Reynolds (9780062302038)

Last seen in the book Plant a Kiss, two siblings return to the picture book stage.  Clever in its simplicity (and how has no one ever thought to write a title like this one before?) the book contains a young but very funny text.  And since funny is at a premium these days, this is a book I’ll be looking to read.

Lazy Dave by Peter Jarvis (9780062355980)

One namer children’s authors are not unheard of (Avi, anyone?).  And like all one namers, Jarvis actually has two.  His name is Peter Jarvis and in 2015 he’ll be debuting with a story of a girl an her dog.  The girl in question loves the dog but is perturbed by the fact that he’s so ding dang lazy.  Truth is, the dog gets up to a LOT of adventures.  He just happens to experience them through sleepwalking.  Certainly this will pair well with that recent TOON book Tippy and the Night Parade, that’s for sure.  Look for Jarvis to come out with Forgetful Fred at some point as well.

Table Three

Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai (9780062229182)

I covered this book briefly in my last Harper Collins preview, but it’s just so nice I’ll cover it twice.  Coming from the author of Inside Out and Back Again, this book is Thanhha Lai’s first title since she won her Newbery Honor.  No pressure or anything.  Fortunately it looks as though she’s not let the win go to her head.  Like her last book, this story also features a child of Vietnamese parents, but there the similarities pretty much stop.  Writing in prose, in this contemporary novel a girl lives in Orange County with her family and grandmother.  When her grandma discovers that there may be new information about her husband, who disappeared during the Vietnam War, our heroine finds herself forced to go along.  Inspired by family history it’s getting starred reviews left and right.  Better check it out then.

Ferals by Jacob Grey (9780062321039)

10 points to the author and publisher for not naming this book “Crow Boy”.  The temptation to do so must have been extreme.  I mean, c’mon.  “Raised by crows”?  Writes itself.  Described to us as “Batman meets The Graveyard Book” (surprised they didn’t reference the film The Crow as well) the story stars a boy named Caw.  He has the ability to speak to crows, which marks him as a “feral”.  Now the most evil feral, a fellow known as the Spinning Man, is returning.  Beware the spiders, folks.

The Last Dragon Charmer #1: Villain Keeper (9780062308436)

Here’s a term you may never hear again, but that just sounds interesting: Reverse portal fantasy. Know what it is?  Well, the plot of this book might give you a hint.  In this story a prince wants to slay a dragon.  Pretty standard stuff.  Or at least it would be if the prince wasn’t mysteriously sent to Asheville, NC.  Number of dragons in Asheville?  Zero.  Or so you might think . . . They said this would be a good complementary title to The Hero’s Guide for Saving Your Kingdom.  Absolutely.

Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams-Garcia (9780062215871)

It’s here!  It’s here!  It’s almost here!  In April or so we’ll be seeing the third and final volume in the Rita Williams-Garcia series that began with One Crazy Summer. I thoroughly approve of the clothes featured on the cover here (the bell bottoms on book #2 still rankle).  In this book the girls take a bus to visit Big Ma in the family home.  The time period is Summer 1969.  The place?  Alabama.  And the three find out pretty quickly that they are not exactly in the best possible time and place to be chanting Black Power slogans.  The editor, Rosemary Brosnan, said in all seriousness that it’s the best of the three.

Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly, ill. Skottie Young (9780062272713)

They say it’s Frankenstein meets the Brothers Grimm but I suspect there might be a bit of Monster High stuck in there on the side.  Meet our heroine.  She has the eyes of a cat, the wings of a raven, and she has one purpose in life: To rescue girls under the spell of an evil wizard.  Simple, right?  But when you’re a monster you have to learn that sometimes there are things and people out there even more monstrous than you.

Endangered by Lamar Giles (9780062297563)

Yep.  This one’s a YA novel but I’m highlighting it because it’s one of the very rare titles with a contemporary African-American girl on the cover.  Little wonder.  It’s by #WeNeedDiverseBooks fellow Lamar Giles.  Well played.

Table 4

Meet the Dullards by Sara Pennypacker, ill. Daniel Salmieri (978006198563)

Now again, we talked about this book before, but there’s a lot to love here.  Salmieri, man.  That kid’s going places.  It hurts matters not a jot that his Dragons Love Tacos is on the New York Times bestseller list every week right now (sidenote: the best Dragons Love Tacos video of all time is here).  In this book long time pro Pennypacker pairs with Salmieri to present what may be the greatest childhood metaphor of all time.  Mom and Dad are dull.  Proudly so, and like all good parents they are attempting to inculcate their children in the wide and wonderful world of blahness.  Trouble is, the kids are dangerously attracted to activities more interesting than watching paint dry.  The description? “The Stupids with boring people”.  Nice.

Cat and Bunny by Mary Lundquist (9780062287809)

Doesn’t look like much from the cover, does it?  But doggone it if this isn’t one of the cleverer little books coming out right now.  A debut, the book features a large menagerie (for lack of a better word) of kids in animal costumes.  In this book, a topic horribly familiar to many a kiddo is tackled: Sharing your best friend.  Quail, you see, wants to play with Bunny but Cat is NOT down with that plan.  Understanding ensues.  Talk about a topic parents ask for that we hardly have any books to cover!!  Note: My table insisted that the endpapers be turned into a poster someday.

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson (9780062298898)

Kadir continues with the cute.  Picasso had his Blue Period.  Kadir has his Cute Period.  Described as “intense”, in this book a mouse and a rabbit plant a seed.  What ensues is a tale of selfishness, kindness, karma, and consequences.

First Snow by Peter McCarty (9780062189967)

Okay.  So we need diverse books, right?  Absolutely.  But don’t we also need diverse animal stories?  Is there any reason why animals can’t be diverse as well?  Peter McCarty has always been remarkably good in this arena.  Now he continues his series of books starring familiar characters.  He began with Henry In Love, continued with Chloe, and now we have First Snow.  Pedro is from South America and has come to spend time with his cousins in the north.  When they learn that he has no experience with snow they insist that he join in the fun.  He takes some convincing, of course.  Snow is, and it’s hard to argue with this, cold.  Fortunately a sledding mishap ends with the unintentional consequence of Pedro suddenly loving the white, fluffy, and (yes) cold stuff.  Great great great.

Every Little Bit of You is Yummy! by Tim Harrington (9780062328168)

Like a lot of librarians I’m always on the lookout for good picture book readalouds.  Did you see Jbrary’s 2014 Favourite Storytime Picture Books?  That’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about.  So I was intrigued by what Harrington is doing here.  Like a kind of follow-up to Eric Carle’s From Head to Toe, the book is interactive with a song online to boot.

Masterminds by Gordon Korman (9780062299963)

The heart wants what it wants.  And what my heart wants right now is for 2015 to arrive so that I can finally pick this book up and read it.  For whatever reason, Gordon Korman has managed to pen a book that pushes all my buttons.  As a kid I would have been all over this thing.  You see, in this book a group of kiddos live in a kind of Pleasantville-ish town.  They’re good kids too.  Then one day a kid bicycles to the town limits and pretty quickly they discover that nothing they know is the truth.  They’re a sociological experiment in the making and their purpose has yet to reveal itself.

The Girl in the Torch by Rob Sharenow (9780062227959)

Here in New York we children’s librarians keep one eye peeled at all times for NYC-related children’s book fare.  Happily there’s a bloody ton of it out there.  Case in point, a book they’re calling “Hugo Cabret meets True Grit“.  While on Ellis Island a girl’s mother dies in quarantine.  So what’s a daughter to do?  With the prospect of deportation looming, our heroine does what any forward thinking young woman would.  She decides to live in the torch of The Statue of Liberty.  Tackling big themes like what it means to be “American”, this just sounds fun.

Joey and Johnny, the Ninjas: Get Mooned by Kevin Serwacki, ill. Chris Pallace (9780062299338)

Speaking of fun: Ninjas!  Ninjas make everything better.  The first in a four book series, imagine if Roald Dahl wrote a story about a ninja school and it was then animated by the creators of Adventure Time.  That’s what you’ll get in this book of two competing ninja schools.  Apparently the book tackles the tricky issue of taking the easy way out of things.  With ninjas.  Did I mention that part before?

Moonpenny Island by Tricia Springstubb (9780062112934)

Gilbert Ford.  I hope he’s very rich by now.  Periodically middle grade book covers go through phases.  There was the Brett Hardinger phase for a while, and before that the C.F. Payne phase.  Now it’s all Gilbert Ford all the way.  He started out luring in the kiddos with the Pseudonymous Bosch “Secret” series, and cemented his reign with the Newbery Honor book Three Times Lucky.  There’s just something appealing about his style.  Now he’s done the cover for the latest Tricia Springstubb novel.  This book is about seeing things for the first time.  It’s also about a mom who leaves to take care of grandma, themes of evolution, and a load of trilobites (note the cover).

The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson (9780062338143)

Hard to tell.  Is this a Dan Santat cover?  Sure looks like one.  In any case, the author of the delightful Sidekicked is back, but not with any superhero tales this time.  Nope, this is a story of Colm.  He’s a peasant who, quite frankly is fed up with being a peasant.  After picking the wrong pocket (to put it mildly) Colm’s given a choice.  He could be done away with in a suitably medieval manner or he can become a member of low born adventurers.  He chooses the latter and is enthralled, until he realizes that there are problem with this particular group.

Omega City by Diana Peterfreund (9780062310859)

Strap in, folks.  We’re clearly in adventure mode now.  I don’t know about you but I’ve noticed a significant uptick in the number of books described using Goonies as a reference.  They called the Little, Brown & Co. book If You Find This by Matthew Baker as “Goonies meets Holes“.  Now Harper Collins is calling Omega City “Goonies meets City of Ember“.  After a girl’s father loses his job she follows clues left by a diary and finds an underground bunker.  It’s first in a three book series and promises action.  Just so long as it doesn’t reference Omega Man in any way (it’s the title that made me think of it) we’re cool.

The Arctic Code by Matthew J. Kirby (978006224873)

That Matthew Kirby.  He just can’t keep away from ice.  First it was the remarkable Icefall.  Now he has a new three book series set in the near future.  Earth has succumbed to a new Ice Age.  Meanwhile our hero’s mother is in the Arctic doing some kind of work there.  When she disappears after sending a cryptic message, her daughter Eleanor goes to find her.  Apparently the book asks the rather difficult question, if we can’t save everyone on earth, who do we save and why?  Sounds like it would pair well with the Rebecca Stead debut novel First Light.

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ill. Gris Grimly (9780062293756)

Cool . . . and YA.  Doggone it.  Yes, the wonderful Gris Grimly is back and this time he’s chosen to illustrate the debut of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous hero.  In color no less!  Now when I saw what book it was I admit I was a bit incredulous.  Anyone who has read this knows that there is a LONG section dedicated to a subplot involving Mormons in America.  I asked and yes indeed.  The Mormons made it into this book intact.  Fascinating.

Table 5

Picture Perfect #1: Bending Over Backwards by Cari Simmons (9780062310224)

Someday an enterprising librarian in a small system will create stickers that say “snark free” or “mean girl free” and put them on certain titles in their collection.  I know that when I was a kid I would have vastly preferred those kinds of books.  Those stickers would actually apply pretty well to this new series by Cari Simmons.  Each story is a standalone but they all have one thing in common: What happens when you realize that you and your longtime best friend are two VERY different people?  They said it was for the Mix / Candy Apple readers.  I say it’s also for the fans of The Kind of Friends We Used to Be and the upcoming Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson.

Archie Greene and the Magician’s Secret by D.D. Everest (9780062312112)

Kids, here’s some safe advice.  Should you receive an ancient book for your birthday, just put that sucker down.  You don’t want to know what it’s going to get you into.  In the case of Archie Greene, such a book helps him to discover that he’s a Flame Keeper, charged to find and preserve magical books.  Mind you, occasionally there are books where characters pop out of their pages.  Just consider that one of the hazards of the job.

The Fog Diver by Joel Ross (9780062352934)

Adventure! Pirates! Airships! Slum kids who’s made themselves a kind of patched together family.  In the future we live in the sky.  Why?  Because a deadly fog is on the ground, of course.  The worse news?  It’s rising.  For that reason we’re all living on the mountaintops these days.  The wealthy are the uppermost while fog divers scavenge below.  Our heroes must save their guardian and to do so they must go on a journey.  Amongst them is a boy who can survive the fog so, naturally, the bad guy wants him.  This will be the first of two books in the series.

The Keepers: The Box and the Dragonfly (9780062275820)

And this one will be the first of four books.  I’ve written about this before, actually.  In this book a boy meets a group called “The Keepers” and is given a box that shows the future.  Only thing is, this isn’t a fantasy.  Nope.  It’s a highly developed science fiction title where all the “magical” elements are based on theoretical physics.

Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall (9780062293992)

My resident science fiction expert librarian (see: Views from the Tesseract) assures me that this book is excellent.  In it, Earth is at war with aliens so the kids are evacuating to Mars.  Our heroine arrives there and next thing you know all the adults have disappeared.  So the kids, the robots, and an alien (!) team up.  They described this one as Pixar-esque with plenty of humor.  And the name of the sequel?  Space Hostages.  Awesome.

And that’s that!  All that remains is to look at the . . .

Best Meets

You know, sometimes in my quieter moments I look back and think about my favorite bizarre “meets” overheard at a preview.  It didn’t even use the word “meets”, but the implication was clear.  The name of the book has long since faded from my mind but the description . . . ah, the description is forever.  “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . . . on MARS!”  Still the best.  In the meantime, these are pretty good too:

“The Monkey’s Paw meets E. Lockhardt meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” – The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman

“X-Men meets Game of Thrones” – The Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Recently I had the pleasure of attending the AAP Tri-State Book Buzz for Children’s and Teen Librarians here in NYC.  This is an event where a whole heaping helpful of publishers gather together to do a kind of massive librarian preview for folks like myself.  It’s a mix of big folks (Macmillan, Random House, etc.) and smaller houses you might not hear from otherwise.  With that in mind, I’ve either already attended or am about to attend some of the big guys, so I’ll leave them off of this particular preview.  Additionally, I had a meeting in the morning of the Book Buzz day so those publishers who just happened to present anything prior to 1 p.m. pretty much fell off of my radar.  Sorry, guys!

Even though I only spent a small portion of my time at the Book Buzz I’m just going to highlight the books that caught my particular attention.  Because honestly there were some truly interesting titles on display.  Here’s just a small sampling of what I happened to see. First up:

Sourcebooks 

 Changes: A Child’s First Poetry Collection by Charlotte Zolotow, ill. Tiphanie Beeke (9781492601685)

This year (2014) I had a great deal of difficulty finding good poetry books.  Honestly, at times it felt like I was pulling teeth to find anything halfway decent.  This shouldn’t be so hard!  So I was keeping a very sharp eye out for anything verse-like.  I was quickly rewarded by this, the first collection of ALL of Zolotow’s seasonal poetry.  You remember Ms. Zolotow, yes?  Worked under Ursula Nordstrom?  Mother of Crescent Dragonwagon?  Yep, well I’ve always been a fan of her book Seasons as illustrated by Erik Blegvad so this is just a natural follow-up.  It’s coming out in the same year when she would have celebrated her 100^th birthday. If the illustrator (Tiphanie Beeke) looks somewhat familiar that may be because she was behind that rather lovely little book Fletcher and the Falling Leaves which came out a couple years ago.

Fairy Tale Reform School: Flunked by Jen Calonita (9781492601562)

On the middle grade side of things we have Fairy Tale Reform School: Flunked by Jen Calonita.  Written by the author of  the YA novel Secrets of my Hollywood Life the premise behind this one is that when a villain is vanquished in a tale it’s time for them to go to reform school.  Our heroine is a normal girl who lives in a shoe with her siblings and is so poor that she’s forced to steal.  One thing leads to another and the next thing she knows she’s in a reform school where all the teachers are former villains.  Kinda writes itself, right?

This Book is Gay by James Dawson (9781492617822)

I don’t cover YA usually but for this book I shall make an exception. It was a little bit difficult to parse but insofar as I could tell this appears to be a handbook for dealing with sexual identity.  It’s a YA nonfiction title with a forward is by David Levithan and it’s full of sketches, illustrations, and jokes.  As they say, it’s for anyone exploring their own identity.

National Geographic Kids

Why’d They Wear That? by Sarah Albee (forward by Tim Gunn) (9781426319204)

Now see, the reason I like National Geographic Kids is that they’re reliable.  Take Why’d They Wear That?, for example.  You know what you’re getting here, even if you don’t know the details.  Mind you, the details are where all the good stuff is.  Chronicling the history of the world through the lens of fashion, the book covers everything from the Syrian warriors who rode into battle in fishnets to an Archbishop of Canterbury who wore a hair shirt so full of bugs that they left his body and flew into the cold when he was assassinated.  From togas to mini skirts, this book talks about clothing and explains why folks wore one thing or another with plenty of historical context.

Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey (9781426315190)

I think I heard about this book a little while ago and got very excited . . . until I realized that it wasn’t coming out until 2015.  Fortunately that year is breathing down our neck and so tis nigh! Nigh, I say, nigh!  From her childhood in WWII England to the jungles of Gombe this book covers everything Jane related.  Riveting and full of images (including the photography of Michael Neugebauer) this has lots of great content from the field.  It’s the most up-to-date title out there for kids.  At least for an older readership.

Dirtmeister’s Nitty Gritty: Planet Earth by Steve Tomecek (9781426319037)

Steve Tomecek, the Executive Director and founder of Science Plus, Inc., and Digger his prairie dog sidekick talk all about dirt.  Or, put another cuter way, dish the dirt on dirt.  Tomecek had a New York Kids show on WNYC radio in New York City for eight years so he’s old school.  In his book, Fred Harper from Marvel illustrates multiple peppy comic book sections that start off each chapter.  Inside you’ll find DIY experiments, facts, and science bios along with lots of STEM connections.  Happy science stuff.

How to Speak Cat by Aline Alexander Newman and NPR’s Dr. Gary Weitzman (President of the San Diego Animal Humane Society) (9781426318634)

This would be a companion to the previously published How to Speak Dog.  The dog vs. cat voice in my head wonders which of the two books will sell better.  In any case in this tome you get, amongst other things, an explanation of what the 30 different cat poses mean.  Lots of expert cat training advice is in this one as well.

1000 Facts About the Bible (9781426318665)

You don’t have to be a library in a religious community to appreciate what National Geographic is going for here.  Big and small pieces of information give some great background.  Little facts include the tidbit that David was crowned with a 75-pound crown and, elsewhere, that the blue of the robes mentioned in the text came from sea snails.  Easy to understand words are helped in no small part by the Biblical scholars who were consulted.  Naturally this makes me wonder how long it took them to write the darn thing.  My suspicion: quite a while.

Maddeningly they also teased us with Fall 2015 titles as well.  With that in mind look for . . .

Book of Nature Poetry edited by J. Patrick Lewis

Treasury of Norse Mythology by Donna Jo Napoli

Welcome to Mars by Buzz Aldrin

At this point in the proceedings, mention was made of a magazine I’d not heard of before.  It’s not like I’ve been following the periodical trends for teens and pre-teens since I was one myself.  So to hear that there’s a publication out there called Justine that contains “more teen book reviews than any other magazine” . . . well that’s just downright cool it is. Voila:

Quirk Books

Based out of Philly. A quarter of this little publisher’s output consists of books for kids.  I often say that small publishers just need one book to sustain them for life.  Well Quirk produced Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children so I’d say they’re pretty much good to go.  For, like, ever.  Most of their children’s books coming out in 2015 are just sequels, but there was one adult title that actually caught my eye.

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix (9781322126760)

A classic horror novel set in a Swedish furniture store, written like an IKEA catalog.

Sterling

Next up, Chris Vaccari, a man clever enough to name drop his local library branch (Kips Bay).  Chris thrives in a BookBuzz atmosphere.  He is calm.  He is at ease.  And yet, all at the same time, he is capable of packing in loads of information about the books Sterling is producing soon.  Case in point:

Good Question: History Series: Did Christopher Columbus Really Discover America? by Emma Carlson Berne (9781454912590)

This is a series that dare to question history.  Particularly useful when we’re talking about that ever so controversial Italian Columbus.

Little Traveler series – How Tiger Says Thank You (9781454914976), How Penguin Says Please (9781454914969) by Abigail Samoun, illustrated by Sarah Watts

These are the latest two books in this series to come out.  I should note though that my librarians are BIG fans of these books.  They’re finding them easy to hand sell and really filling a need for those parents that wish to get their small children interested in other languages.

ABC Universe – done in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History (9781454914099)

Just consider it an oversized board book for the budding little astronomers in your life.

I’m Not Reading by Jonathan Allen(978-1910126240)

Man. Way back at the beginning of my blogging career, around 2006 I reviewed the Jonathan Allen baby owl book I’m Not Cute.  It’s nice to see the series not only still kicking around but upgrading to a whole new board book form.

Ally-Saurus by Richard Torrey (9781454911791)

Who says only boys get to love dinosaurs?  Yet when Ally starts school she finds she’s the only girl there who’s into dinosaurs.  She is subsequently snubbed by princess lovers (and on this, the 10^th anniversary of Mean Girls).  I know I’ll be looking forward to this.

A Dozen Cousins by Lori Houran, ill. Sam Usher (9781454910626)

The plot is simple: one girl has a dozen boy cousins.  She loves them but they sure do bug the heck out of her.  Nice and multicultural, this is utterly pleasant (and more interesting than a lot of the other “big family” tales out there).

North/South

The Birthday Cake: The Adventures of Pettson and Findus by Sven Nordquist (978-0735842038)

I believe this is a reprint of an older title.  In it, Pettson is a forgetful farmer and his neighbor gives him a kitten named Findus.  So he reads the kitten so much that the cat starts to talk.  In this book it’s Findus’s birthday (which somehow happens more than once in a year).  The dilemma?  Our intrepid heroes need flour for a cake.  To get the flour they need a bike, to fix a tower they need to get into the shed, to get into the shed they need a ladder to get to the sunroof, and so on and such.  Phil Pullman did the blurb for the books and said that it has a folktale feel.  Noted.

Mr. Squirrel and the Moon by Sebastian Meschenmoser (978-0735841567)

If you buy nothing else I mention to you today, buy this.  Show some of the art.  On the endpages you see a boy with his father and one of the man’s wheels of cheese is rolling down the hill and flies into the sky.  Later, a squirrel wonders how the moon got into his tree.  Worried that someone will think he’s the thief he tries to roll it off the tree.  The cheese next gets stuck on a hedgehog and a goat gets stuck in it.  The art is the real lure here.  A-maze-ing.

The Bernadette Watts Collection: Stories and Fairy Tales by Bernadette Watts (978-0735842120)

Turns out, Ms. Watts is beloved in Europe.  They just call her Bernadette there.  In this book you will find thirty-eight timeless tales with an Eric Carle forward.  The result is a book containing pitch perfect, sumptuous backgrounds.

Perseus Books Groups (Running Press Kids)

Go, Pea, Go! by Joe Moshier and Chris Sonnenburg (978-0762456789)

I’ll give ‘em this.  I have never seen a potty book that used peas in some manner.  This book features one such rhyming pea.  He is told by his family to go.  See the world.  A potty chart and stickers are part of the ensemble.

Butterfly Park by Elly Mackay (978-0762453399)

A paper cut artist takes it to the next level.  In this story a girl moves next to a butterfly park and then goes and sees that there aren’t any there.  She then gets the community together to plant the plants that attract butterflies.

My Life in Dioramas by Tara Altebrando (978-0762456819)

In this tale a 12-year-old girl’s family is selling their red barn home.  She’s against this move so she creates dioramas of each room to best preserve her memories.  She also tries to throw a wrench in the works to prevent the sales.  One color illustrated dioramas for each chapter.  Essentially, it’s all about moving forward.

And that was that.  Phew!  I can’t imagine how tricky it would be to organize such a thing.  Many thanks to the folks who presented.  I’ve high hopes for these books.

*sniff sniff*

Smell that?  That’s the smell of Fall 2014, my friends.  Yes yes, I know you thought we’ve only just turned the corner into spring, but we’ve no time for that now.  The future is where it’s at, babies!  And right now the future is all about the fall/winter/spring books.  Such was my thinking when sitting down at the latest Little, Brown & Co. librarian preview.  After informing my unfortunate table that my pregnant self was going to drink ALL the water placed there so they should be warned (and I would’ve gotten away with it too had it not been for those meddling / remarkably attentive waiters too) we got ready for a day of books, editors, and super secret special guests.  Oh, and peanut butter cookies.  For some reason they were serving the best peanut butter cookies I’ve ever eaten in my life.  No idea what was in those things.  Crack cocaine would be my best bet.

By the way, before I begin with my recap, a word to the wise.  If you are an author or illustrator and you ever say something nice about your publishing company or editor, be warned that it is entirely possible that this information will be recited loud and wide at a librarian preview in New York City for the various assembled librarians to hear and digest. Just FYI.

And we’re off!

Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar by Keith Richards, illustrated by Theodora Richards

First off, a celebrity picture book that by all rights shouldn’t work.  And yet . . . okay, let’s face facts.  Nine times out of ten when a celebrity suddenly decides to write a picture book for children it’s awful.  That’s just how the universe works.  The subpar words are paired alongside a decent illustrator who needs to make some quick cash and then loads and loads of the doggone books sell.  We’ve seen it a million times before.  And even worse?  When the celebrity walks in with a friend and wants THEM to do the art (see: I Am a Rainbow by Dolly Parton).  So what are we supposed to do when the enterprise actually works?

Here’s what happened.  Keith Richards wanted to write a picture book.  Sounds ludicrous, right?  And worse, he wanted his own daughter to do the art.  So you’re thinking about the train wreck this will be and then you see the book.  Editor Megan Tingley pointed out that Little, Brown isn’t exactly a celebrity picture book publisher but that this book actually appealed to them for a number of reasons.  As Theodora (the daughter) has “the inside track on all things Keith” she was uniquely positioned to work with him.  The book itself is actually just based on his own life and story, so it’s not one of those didactic slogs through “lessons” and “morality”.  Just a small, still story about a boy and his grandfather and finding something he loved.  And the craziest thing is that the art is good.  I mean really good.  Like this Theodora Richards person should be doing other books without her father involved good.  Whodathunkit?

Diamond Boy by Michael Williams

Generally speaking I sort of eschew YA recaps in this previews, since that’s not really my bag.  I will make the occasional exception here and there, however, and this book fits the bill.  Much of that has to do with the book jacket itself.  With art from illustrator Edel Rodriguez, it reminds me of nothing so much as one of those old timey paperback mystery novels where innocuous objects form skulls.  This particular book was written by the Managing Director of the Capetown Opera.  Williams, however, is also a human rights activist, and this book looks closely at the blood diamond industry.  Keep an eye peeled for it, then.

The Nuts: Bedtime at the Nut House by Eric Litwin, illustrated by Scott Magoon

Switching gears possibly as far as those gears can conceivably be switched, we come across a familiar name.  Which is to say, the name “Eric Litwin” will certainly be ringing bells for a few of you out there.  Does the name “Pete the Cat” mean anything to you?  Well, then you know Litwin.  Having moved on from the sneakered kitty (the illustrator seems to be the one behind the books these days) rhymesmith Litwin finds himself at a brand new publishing house with a brand new series under his belt.  Apparently selling 1.8 millions copies of Pete can’t keep a good man down.  Much like Pete, this book has an accompanying song that you can download.  In the tale Mama Nut wants to get the little nuts off to bed.  Their thoughts on the matter are not all that positive, though.  As editor Connie Hsu put it at one point, “Nuts are the new legume.”  I’m not entirely certain what that means but I liked it as a capper.  Multitalented Scott Magoon is behind the art as well, so that’s nice.  He’s good people.

Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was getting the world to regularly pronounce the name Psudonymous Bosch.  So I don’t have a book jacket for this particular title, and that is because the one that you’ll find online right now isn’t the final.  In fact, with its 9/16/14 release date, I don’t think it has a final jacket at all.  Ah well.  The important thing to know is that Bosch, the fellow behind that massively successful Secret Series, has started a new series entirely.  In this book 13-year-old Clay is given an assignment to fill a journal with information on Shakespeare’s classic play The Tempest.  Clay’s magician brother disappeared years ago, causing Clay to hate the stuff.  Then, somewhere in the course of his adventures, he’s sent to a discipline camp on an island with an active volcano, an abandoned mansion, and multiple llamas (each kid gets his or her own).  Add in the fact that one kid’s a kleptomaniac, another an anarchist, and another a gambler and you get a sense of the book.  The meets?  “A middle grade LOST meets The Tempest with some Lord of the Flies.”  Nice.

The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh

First of all, just take in that cover for a moment.  That is a pie made entirely out of Twinkies.  And depending on how you view the immortal apocalyptic-defying food (question: Is there a YA dystopian novel out there anywhere where they devour Twinkies?) that’s either a good or a bad thing.  The image, for the record, is by the author herself.  This little book actually isn’t due onto shelves until February 10, 2015, but no harm in letting you know about it a touch early.  In this story two sisters live together in a trailer park.  When one of them wins a million dollar recipe contest it’s time for them to reinvent themselves.  I think editor Alvina Ling described this book as being about “food that pretends it’s something it’s not,” which is a great line in and of itself.

A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell

Anyone who saw my recent review of The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires knows that I’ve a weakness for books that acknowledge the beauty of clutter, mess, and messing up.  Well, Patrick McDonnell is back and he’s tackling the same dang thing it seems, though his focus is a bit more on helping kids move beyond mere frustration.  After having wowed the world with Me . . . Jane he scales back his seriousness with something a little more along the lines of his Krazy Kat influences.  With mixed-media (!) we watch as a jelly and peanut butter sandwich’s remains start to “destroy” a character’s story.  Think “Duck Amuck”.  The trick to the book is of course the fact that by the end the character has learned that it’s okay if your story is a bit messed up.  For my part, I’m pretty sure this book is going to be embraced by librarians doing introductory welcome to the library readings for kids on how to treat their books.  McDonnell may be talking about ideas like the use of frustration, but for we the librarians the lesson is clear: Don’t Eat When You Read!

Pirate, Viking & Scientist by Jared Chapman

So, y’know.  Right there.  Awesome.  The premise of this little picture book is so charming that one is inclined to just love it on sight.  Drawn in a kind of Brian Biggs-type style (or Hanna-Barbera, if you prefer) the plot follows a little boy scientist and his two best buddies.  One is a pirate and one is a viking.  You would think the three would be besties for all time, but it turns out that the viking LOATHES the pirate and the pirate simply cannot STAND the viking.  The scientist, true to his nature, sets up a series of scientific experiences to prove that these two can become friends.  So, basically, this is a book about utilizing the scientific method.  A lot of hypotheses go down in the course of this story and there’s even a little Venn diagram on the title page and graph paper used in the backgrounds.  We’re always looking for fictional scientific tie-ins in our picture books.  Seems to me like this is an excellent case of problem solved!

Kenny Wright, Superhero by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Cory Thomas

Promoting a James Patterson book is sort of a moot point.  It’s like watching a Coca-Cola commercial.  You half wonder why anyone bothers since the product is so ubiquitous.  But since we’ve just seen the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign take off like wildfire, I can’t help but think it’s a good thing when hugely popular authors write books starring African-American boys like Kenny here.  Filled with comic panel sequences, the book concerns young Kenny Wright and his dreams of transforming himself into the superhero Stainless Steel.  Patterson, for the record, has another work of fiction coming out just prior to Kenny (who isn’t on shelves until March 16, 2015) called House of Robots: My Brother the Robot.  That book stars a boy who appears to have the name Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez.  A Latino boy character?  Could be the case.

If You Find This by Matthew Baker

“Goonies meets Holes” (which I briefly misheard as “Grease meets Holes” so somebody get on THAT book stat).  With the recent announcement that there really and truly is going to be a Goonies 2 there’s really never been a better time to invoke its name in the cause of children’s literature.  Basically what we’re looking at here is a big adventure story without any magic but plenty of smuggler’s tunnels to make up for the fact.  Nicolas’s dad has lost his job so the family must leave their current house.  Which wouldn’t be a huge problem except that Nicholas’s dead brother’s tree, planted in his memory, is currently in the backyard.  Meanwhile, the boy’s now senile grandfather is saying he buried some priceless heirlooms and made a map of where to find them.  So really, when you think about it, what choice does Nicholas have except to break his grandpa out of a nursing home with his two best friends?  In an interesting twist, musical dynamic notations appear throughout the text above certain words, reflecting how Nicholas sees the world.  These may or may not prove distracting to readers.  It’ll be interesting to see the kid reactions to this, but don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.  This book isn’t slated for release until March 17, 2015.

The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Shane W. Evans

And now the book that I am most excited to read next.  Because, quite frankly, Sudanese children’s literature isn’t exactly cropping up on my shelves every day.  In this book our heroine, Amira, is growing up in war-torn Sudan.  She loves her sheep and her dad but when she and the family are forced to flee she ends up in a refugee champ.  The trauma of the event causes her to lose her voice, but with the help of some paper and a pencil she’s improves.  Inspired by true stories, Ms. Pinkney interviewed countless Sudanese refugees to get Amira’s voice right.  It’s a verse novel well.  As for the art by Shane W. Evans, it’s mostly spot illustrations, which is a form that’s new to him.  The greatest selling point in some ways is the fact that the book is capable of making the horrors of war accessible to young readers.  And as editor Kate Sullivan said of the art, Shane was her first, second, and third choice.

The Map to Everywhere by Carrie Ryan and John Parke Davis

You must forgive me for not recognizing Ms. Ryan’s name at first.  When you work almost exclusively in the world of children’s literature, the big YA names sort of pass you by at times.  When folks started mentioning that this book was by a married team where we’ve all heard of the wife but maybe not so much the husband, I just assumed she was a celebrity of some sort.  Took me a while to realize we were talking about the woman behind The Forest of Hands and Teeth.  Now I was initially very excited to see this book because the art is clearly by one of my favorite new illustrators, one Mr. Todd Harris.  Those of you who have seen his work on The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom and its subsequent sequels will understand my cheer.  In this dual perspective book, a girl gets caught up in something called The Pirate Stream.  Meeting an orphan by the name of Finn, the two form a bond.  You see, usually no one can remember meeting Finn five minutes after they’ve done so.  The girl, it seems, is an exception.  On the ship The Enterprising Kraken (which is a GREAT name right there) all the girl wants is to get home and all Finn wants is his mom.  So really, it’s just natural that they’d pair with a crazy wizard and a sailor.  They described it as Terry Pratchettesque and future installments are indeed in the works.

Love, Lucy by April Lindner

I won’t say much about this YA novel except for this fact: It’s an update of E.M. Forester’s A Room With a View.  What more do you need to know?

Finally, all that was left was to reveal the super secret guest of the day.  You never really know with a Little, Brown preview whom you might get at any given time.  Sometimes it’s someone local like a Peter Brown and sometimes it’s someone from overseas like Darren Shan.  In this case, we had a guest who was not local in the least.  One that turned down a Creative Director job at Google to continue doing what he loves most – making children’s books.  You hear that and you suddenly realize who it might be.  I’ve only ever known one person to turn down Google and that was none other than the inestimable Dan Santat.  And sure as shooting, twas he!  In town, he was, to celebrate his latest picture book Beekle.  From him we heard that the book is almost a kind of metaphor for the birth of Santat’s own son.  At the same time, the book really would work well for those kids going to a new school, wondering if they’ll find the right person to be their friend.  I hadn’t looked at the book in that way before, but it made a lot of sense when I did.

In other news, it appears that Mr. Santat is working on a book right now called Are We There Yet? about a kid so bored on a road trip that he actually manages to make time go backwards.  Love that idea.

And in case you missed Beekle’s trailer, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

That’s all she wrote, folks.  Thanks to the good folks of Little, Brown for hosting us.