Kelly Barrales-Saylor will jump from Sourcebooks to be the new editorial director at Albert Whitman & Company. She will start on May 21st.
Barrales-Saylor began as an editorial intern at Sourcebooks’ Sphinx Publishing imprint. She helped launch two of the company’s children’s books imprints, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky and Sourcebooks Fire.
Barrales-Saylor had this statement in the release: “Joining such an amazing team is a dream come true. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to publish books that empower children and make a difference in their lives.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Kristin Ostby will join Albert Whitman & Company as a senior editor.
Previously, Ostby served as an editor at the Penguin Young Readers Group. She worked on the Mad Libs series and licensed books from Nickelodeon, Disney, and DreamWorks.
After leaving Penguin, she worked with a number of publishers as a freelance editor based in Chicago.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Newbery Award winner Patricia MacLachlan (pictured, via) has signed up with Albert Whitman & Company to write a prequel for Gertrude Chandler Warner‘s popular kidlit series, The Boxcar Children.
The not-yet-titled project will be released in September 2012 for the 70-year anniversary of the book’s debut. An eBook version will be published simultaneously from Open Road Integrated Media.
MacLane gave this quote in the press release: “Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny are kind to one another and embody the true sense of family. They are resourceful and positive. I find them both true children and true heroes at the same time. It occurs to me that perhaps their parents were the same. I’m looking forward to exploring that idea and more.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Those of you who work in a school or public library likely know that in between the back-to-school and Halloween book seasons lies yet another season known as “Apple Book Time.” It’s a time of cooler but still pleasant weather, local apple festivals, and field trips to orchards.
The subject of apples encompasses so many different topics and disciplines—seasons, holidays, science, even American history—that it’s really no wonder that there are so many apple books out there. There just might be as many apple books in print as there are apple varieties. (And there’s a lot of those, if this list is any indication.) But they’re all different, and every time we’ve published an apple book, we’ve fallen in love with apples all over again.
Is there a perfect apple variety to go with every apple book? (You know, the way one pairs wine with meals?) We think so. Here’s our most recent bushel of apple books, with our apple recommendations:
An Apple for Harriet Tubman by Glennette Tilley Turner, illustrated by Susan Keeter, is a Lady because Harriet Tubman was a true lady. But I also chose this apple because it’s a variety that goes back centuries—showing that is has a strong will, like Harriet—and because it is recommended for a home garden—and that’s what Harriet did when she had her own land. She planted apple trees, so that she could have all the apples she wanted.
Apple Countdown by Joan Holub, illustrated by Jan Smith is a Wealthy because you really need your math skills when you’re wealthy! Actually, the wealthy apple has a long lasting blooming season—much like human beings—and is considered great dessert fare—like a good book.
Apples Here! by Will Hubbell is a Honeycrisp. it’s a very sweet and lovely book for bedtime. It also works especially nicely as a late-Fall, early Winter bedtime book with references to both Hanukkah and Christmas—and this is also the best time for eating Honeycrisps.
Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Stor
By Kristie Leung
One of the events leading up to each year’s Beijing International Book Fair is the Beijing International Publishing Forum. The theme for this year was Global Publishing Cooperation and China’s Market Opportunities. What made this year more special for us is that our president, John, was invited to speak at one of the three branch forums focusing on children’s books.
Click to view slideshow.
The morning started out as a few government officials delivered their speeches. The grand ballroom at the Beijing Radisson was filled with press and many others attending the book fair. Topics covered included everything from the direction Chinese publishing is heading to the hottest topics in digital content.
After lunch we broke into three different branch forums with special topics of interest: Trade, Children, and Science & Education. John was the first to speak, and together with guest speakers from China, Italy, UK, and Taiwan, he presented an overview of how the world of children’s book publishing and discussed how cooperation with the Chinese market comes in to play. The best part for us was that we had so many people coming up to our booth to check out our titles and, of course, compliment John on his speech.
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Welcome to the new Albert Whitman & Company blog. We are dedicated to serving the interests of the children’s book publishing community, including librarians, teachers, parents, publishers, authors, and illustrators. In addition to news and updates, every week we will feature the following series.
AWCo Author Podcasts
Audio interviews with our authors and illustrators
From the Archives
A nostalgic look back into the vault of AWCo classics
Classroom Connection (Beginning August 2010)
Educational resources, news, and information especially for educators
Today we leave you with a photo of our new VP of Publishing, Josalyn Moran, and a few of our authors at this year’s ALA conference.
(Left to right) Alison Formento (This Tree Counts), Josalyn Moran, Margaret Read MacDonald (How Many Donkeys?), Dori Butler (Buddy Files), Margaret Coffee, Catherine Stier (If I Ran for President)
