From major ALA awards to keynote speeches to new books, our clients have a lot going on. Here’s their latest news…
AWARDS
A huge congratulations to Lesa Ransome-Cline, whose middle-grade novel FINDING LANGSTON has won the 2019 Scott O’Dell Award and named a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book. The annual Scott O’Dell prize is awarded annually to a distinguished work of historical fiction for young people.
In the award announcement, the committee said of the book, “Cline-Ransome gives weight to the historical elements—the mid-century Great Migration of African Americans to the North, the legendary George Cleveland Hall branch of the Chicago Public Library, and, of course, the work of poet Langston Hughes—but never shifts focus away from the experience of her young protagonist, ‘living up North but missing the South and feeling lonely.’ That experience of cultural transplantation is keenly described and contemporarily relevant, and it makes FINDING LANGSTON a gentle, heartfelt gem.” The Coretta Scott King awards recognize African American authors whose work shows an appreciation for African American culture and universal human values.
Cynthia Leitich Smith‘s latest book, the contemporary young adult novel HEARTS UNBROKEN, has been included in the 2019 Amelia Bloomer List for Young Adult Fiction, an annual list of the best feminist books for young readers from the Feminist Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association. The novel was also chosen as the fall 2018 YA read for the NIEA Book Club by the National Indian Education Association.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
April Henry will deliver the keynote at the Author Luncheon at the Nebraska State Literacy Conference on Feb. 22. Their conference theme is Let Literacy Light the Way.
Clients Javaka Steptoe, Kwame Alexander and Randy Preston will be appearing at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 2-3, 2019.
Don Tate will be a keynote speaker at the Mid South Reading and Writing Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, on March 8-9.
Clients Salina Yoon and Janet Fox will be part of the Denver Children’s Festival of Stories in Denver on Saturday, March 23.
Kwame Alexander launches the paperbacks for his novels CROSSOVER and BOOKED at 4pm on March 5 at a public appearance at Hooray for Books in Alexandria, Virginia.
Bethany Hegedus is appearing at the Alabama Book Festival on April 12-13, including giving a writing workshop.
Author Lindsey Lane will be teaching a Writers’ League of Texas class at St. Edward’s University on Saturday, March 30 from 10:00am-1:00pm on “Crafting Scenes That Go BAM Instead of Blah Blah Blah.” Participants will learn effective use of dialogue; cutting a scene short to increase intrigue; finding the intent of a scene and writing to it; and using character and setting effectively in scene.
Dianne White is on faculty for the Path to Publication online course April 1-6. Dianne will be teaching “Connecting Your Core Message and the School Visit.”
NEW BOOKS
CARTER READS THE NEWSPAPER, written by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by The Booking Biz client Don Tate, was released on Feb 1.
The new picture book written by Sarah Aronson, JUST LIKE RUBE GOLDBERG: THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY OF THE MAN BEHIND THE MACHINES, comes to bookstores on March 12. The book is illustrated by Robert Neubecker.
COVER REVEALS
Adam Lehrhaupt‘s new book CHICKEN IN CHARGE flies into stores on March 5! Here’s the wonderful cover. And the next book in the series, CHICKEN ON A BROOM, lands in stores on July 23.
BOOK SALES
Two more picture books by Adam Lehrhaupt have been acquired: Paula Wiseman at Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster has bought world rights to BOOK’S NEW ADVENTURE, about the wondrous voyages of a book in the library. Rahele Jomepour Bell will illustrate. And Sarah Shumway at Bloomsbury has bought world rights to SLOTH WENT, about a young sloth who heeds the call of adventure (and nature) to boldly and ever so slowly descend from his tree for a special reason. Animator Benson Shum will illustrate. Both books are slated for 2020, SLOTH WENT in the spring and BOOK’S NEW ADVENTURE in the fall.