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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

A publisher is like a delicate cheese. Each one has their own flavor. Their own specific style and substance. After years of watching one publisher or another, you get a sense of what they do and do not like. In some big publishers like Candlewick or Chronicle you detect a kind of personality. Slightly smaller pubs, however, are generally better known for cultivating their lists with a closer hand. Blue Apple Books, for example, displays this in various ways. If you get your paws on their Fall 2011 catalog you will find a nifty section at the start that discusses how author and publisher and Blue Apple President Harriet Ziefert started the company in 2005. It then highlights various titles on the Blue Apple list for each of the intervening years.  Using one’s own catalog as a more than just the usual meet n’ great is unusual.  I like it.  I wish I saw it more.

I sat down with Harriet and Elliot Kreloff (the Associate Publisher and Art Director) for lunch the other day in the Bryant Park Grill, where I remain convinced that Julie & Julia filmed the “Cobb salad” scene. In this far more intimate setting than the usual librarian previews I attend, I got a firsthand look at what 2011 has been offered, is offering, and is about to offer.

Let’s talk spring first.

Spring 2011

When graphic designers are allowed to make children’s books, the hair on the back of my neck starts to rise. A well-designed picture book can either be over the moon gorgeous or so self-involved that no self-respecting child will give it so much as a second glance. Back in 2009 the duo of Sharon Werner and Sarah Forss hedged far further into the former rather than the latter category with Alphabeasties and Other Amazing Types. Now they have returned. In Bugs by the Numbers we see an array of insects represented by numbers. These numbers, however, aren’t arbitrary. Each one corresponds to some kind of fascinating fact about the insect in question. For example, images of leaping fleas are composed of the number 150. That’s how many times a flea can jump its own height. These facts have also been vetted by someone in the Harvard University Museum, so no worries there. Boy, it would have come in awfully handy yesterday when fifty first graders descended on my library, desperately seeking any and all bug/insect books we had on hand. Awfully handy.

My sudden interest in board books has felt strange to me. To go from .003% interest to 110% is enough to give a gal whiplash. New as I am to the world of board books, I take what I am given with great interest, and not a little trepidation. That’s when I sort of met the DwellStudio line. Producing books like Good Morning, Toucan and Goodnight, Owl, the books are these strange, beautiful, somewhat iconic but very simple looks at saying good morning and saying goodnight. There are flaps to be lifted and monkeys to find. I shall have to test these out thoroughly when the ti

Once you get into the swing of these librarian previews, they start to come easier to the old typing fingers.  For Spring 2011 I’ve mostly been keeping to the publishers with smaller print runs until now.  Candlewick.  Chronicle.  Lerner.  Harper Collins sort of marks the first foray into the big leagues.  Each table took thirty minutes apiece to present books, so I’ve had to make some judicious pruning.  For the most part, I won’t be discussing YA (no huge surprise there).  However, I should also note that I had to skip out before the end of the presentations this particular day.  That may affect what I report on as well.

Knowing, as I did, that I would have to flee I took it upon myself to start at the Greenwillow table.  And why not?  Greenwillow is a superb place to begin any round-up.  Presided over by Steve Geck, Virginia Duncan, and Martha Mihalick, I got a full roster of upcoming goodies.

First up, Henkes.  Lots of luscious Henkes.  I was perusing my own library’s picture book shelves the other day and discovered to my horror that we are bereft of Henkes!  Quick inspection revealed a veritable treasure trove of Henkes in our overflow, but for a brief second there it seemed as though he was entirely checked out.  The solution to such a skull-numbing proposition?  Buy more Henkes, I guess.  Now recently the man has been indulging in a new and very distinctive style.  If you’ve seen Old Bear, A Good Day, or My Garden then this style is familiar to you.  Unlike the Lilly books these images have grown big and full, the colors falling into varieties of greens and purples.  Little White Rabbit, his latest picture book, is no exception to this.  Think of it as Runaway Bunny but without the creepiness factor (oh yeah, I said it!).

Not that this is the only 2011 Henkes offering, of course.  Some of you may recall that the man has a penchant for middle grade novel writing as well.  Here’s a question: Do any of you find it really hard to weed older Kevin Henkes novels?  Books like Sun & Spoon don’t fly off my shelves, yet I can’t bring myself to weed them because . . . well . . . because they’re friggin’ Kevin Henkes, for crying out loud!  His latest doesn’t look like a shelf-sitter, though, and maybe that’s due partly to the name.  Like Olive’s Ocean, Junonia is another sea-related bit of Henkes fare.  It’s a little younger than his previous Newbery Honor winning book, concentrating on a nine-year-old about to turn ten.  The title is taken from a distinctive and very rare shell (though if you Google it you’ll find it’s also the name of a plus-sized women’s store).  The interior illustrations he includes will be blue.  Cool.

10 Comments on Librarian Preview: Harper Collins (Spring 2011), last added: 11/19/2010