The year is starting off bright for our clients, with awards and lots of new books to look forward to.
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
Congratulations to Erica S. Perl for winning the 2018 National Jewish Book Award for Children’s Literature with her middle grade novel ALL THREE STOOGES! This book is not about the Three Stooges. It’s about Noah and Dash, two seventh graders who are best friends and comedy junkies. That is, they were best friends, until Dash’s father died suddenly and Dash shut Noah out. Noah deserved it, according to Noa, the girl who, annoyingly, shares both his name and his bar mitzvah day.
The 2018 Nerdy Book Club Award: Poetry and Novels in Verse goes to our client Kwame Alexander for REBOUND.
Ammi-Joan Paquette and Laurie Ann Thompson won the 2018 Long Form Non-Fiction Nerdy Book Club Award for their TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES. This second book in the series was also named a finalist for the 2018 Middle Grade Nonfiction CYBILS Award!
BOOK AWARD VOTING FOR STATE LISTS
It’s book voting time for state lists! Our client Caroline Starr Rose has shared links to many state lists on her blog. Nominate your favorite books today!
NEW BOOKS
Don Tate‘s newest book, CARTER READS THE NEWSPAPER, will be on shelves on Feb. 1. Illustrated by Don and written by award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson, the first picture book biography of Carter G. Woodson talks about “the importance of pursuing curiosity and encouraging a hunger for knowledge of stories and histories that have not been told,” according to publisher Peachtree. It tells how Carter, the son of two formerly enslaved people ten years after the end of the Civil War, read the newspaper to his father every day. Later he read and researched new stories for workers in the coal mines. All this was the beginning of the creation of Black History Month. Shelf Awareness called the book, “Exemplary…. This inspiring picture book combines a rich but focused text with clear, expressive mixed-media illustrations.” The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books wrote, “This will be a go-to title for Black History Month.”
Also on Feb. 1, two of our clients will celebrate the release of their new book LET ‘ER BUCK! GEORGE FLETCHER, THE PEOPLE’S CHAMPION, written by acclaimed author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by Caldecott Honoree Gordon C. James. The picture book biography tells the true tale of a cowboy’s epic rodeo ride. In 1911, three men were in the final round of the famed Pendleton Round-Up. One was white, one was Indian, and one was black. When the judges declared the white man the winner, the audience was outraged. They named black cowboy George Fletcher the “people’s champion” and took up a collection, ultimately giving Fletcher far more than the value of the prize that went to the official winner. Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson tells the story of Fletcher’s unlikely triumph with a western flair that will delight kids—and adults—who love true stories, unlikely heroes, and cowboy tales.
COVER REVEAL
Kwame Alexander revealed the cover for his new picture book HOW TO READ A BOOK on Publishers Weekly. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet, the book began as one of three poems Kwame wrote for World Read Aloud Day. This one wasn’t chosen, but Kwame sent it to a librarian friend and it wound up on a poster for National Library Week. Kwame loved it so much, he decided to expand the poem further, and in June, the longer poem will be released by HarperCollins as HOW TO READ A BOOK.
ACQUISITIONS
Christy Ottaviano at Macmillan/Ottaviano has acquired world rights to two young adult novels by April Henry. The first book, PLAYING WITH FIRE, is a teen-vs.-nature thriller inspired by Oregon’s Eagle Creek Fire. Release is scheduled for 2020. The second book, EYES OF THE FOREST, is a mystery with a triple twist pitched as Games of Thrones meets Misery. This one will come out in 2021.