Random House Preview: Notes From the Inside

Last Thursday I hauled my exhausted carcass from my bed at the ungodly hour of 7:15 (on days that I work 12-8 I usually get to sleep in a little) and high-tailed it over to the Random House building on Broadway for their Librarian and Reviewer Presentation: Fall 2007. You know, every publisher's preview has something to recommend it. Little Brown may wipe the floor with everyone else foodwise (and they do) but Random House wins for frequency. Every single season they pull out all the stops for a fabulous production. It's like watching a show. You plunk your tookus down in a seat and stare as imprint after imprint parades onto the stage to present a Powerpoint of upcoming books and titles. I've come to terms with knowing that of the books I think look fabulous I will probably never see them until they come out in stores. Lackaday.

First up was a bit of a surprise. A new imprint called Robin Corey Books presented by a Robin Corey (coincidence, no?). She's starting off nice with a new Sandra Boynton called What's Wrong, Little Pookie? Otherwise she hasn't quite found her core author/illustrators yet. The bulk of good books coming out this year, hands down, goes to good old Schwartz & Wade. Sometimes I'm not entirely taken with the seasonal selection of S&W, but this particular list seemed especially choice. First of all, the author of the book Riding in Cars with Boys has a picture book. I'll rephrase that. The author of Riding in Cars with Boys has a picture book and it looks fabulous. For Mary and the Mouse, The Mouse and Mary the illustrator is Barbara McClintock, which was quite a "get" right there. The book parallels the lives of two girls, one human and one a mouse, as they live near one another without knowledge of one another. Their daughters, however, meet near the end and a friendship blooms as a result. Ms. Schwartz (Ms. Wade was elsewhere) compared it to The Borrowers and there's some legitimacy there. Not the least of which is the fact that Ms. McClintock's style is not too different from that of Borrowers illustrators, Beth and Joe Krush. The book also apparently proves that there is a picture book trend this year concerning mice who go to college.

S&W also got their hands on a new Ana Juan. The author's unknown to me (Monique De Varennes, anyone?) but the feel and illustrations of The Jewel Box Ballerinas is typically gorgeous stuff.

There was also a book called Waking Up Wendell by April Stevens that is illustrated by everyone's favorite Tad Hills of Duck and Goose fame. Two points recommend themselves with this book. 1) The endpapers have a dreamy distance to them typical of his other work. 2) There's a scene where (I think) the cat is slamming itself against the family's bedroom door in an effort to get in. You see everyone in bed and as they look around in confusion while the words, "WACK-SLAM! WACK-SLAM! WACK-SLAM!" are punctuated overhead. My old cat used to do this. And I can attest that the sound was exactly the same.

Wendy Lamb then came up to talk about her own imprint's books. The term, "Volcanoes, vampires, and love," summed up her titles this season. First book, Night of the Howling Dogs, almost wins my award for Best Powerpoint Byline: "From a Scott O'Dell Award winning author, it's just another camping trip - until the tsunami." Oh, Graham. Somehow Mr. Salisbury could make you seriously believe that Hawaii was the most dangerous place on earth. If the Japanese aren't bombing you one moment, you're suffering earthquakes AND tsunamis the next.

Good news on the fantasy front. Peter Dickinson (Eva) at the grand old age of eighty has written a sequel to The Ropemaker. It's a 512 page sequel entitled Angel Isle (British cover featured here) and takes place 200 years after the first book.

Moving on, I came to the conclusion that Random House gets 30-some new editors every season. Why else would I not recognize these people? Well the Random House Golden Books division was mighty pleased to present a new Leonard Marcus title, I can tell you. It was described as the third in Leonard's series on the history of picture books. The first was Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon. The second Dear Genius: The Collected Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. And now he's created Golden Legacy which looks at, "How Golden Books won children's hearts, changed publishing forever, and became an American icon along the way." Veeery informative stuff. Mr. Marcus himself came to the podium and explained how the idea behind Golden Books in the midst of the Depression was to create affordable children's books for all. Many of the artists who worked on the books had fled Europe during the war. . . . or they fled Disney studios. Ho ho. Leonard went on to call the clever marketing of the books in drugstores as "democratizing". Businesses today should latch onto that lingo themselves. Some mention was made of the library community "vilifying" the books, though I can attest that NYPL is purchasing collected editions of the titles these days. Sidenote That I Didn't Know: Simon and Schuster were young Jews in the 30s who couldn't get jobs so they started their own company.

I got a bit distracted after this by, of all things, Happy Healthy Monsters: Grover's Guide to Good Eating. On the cover is Grover in his standard waiter gear with the now ubiquitous Elmo at his side. It got me to thinking. The cover just proves that even when a book references a classic Grover sketch, he just can't hold his own without Elmo anymore. What if they were writing The Monster at the End of This Book today? Would someone force the author to smuggle in some horrid red monster at some point? Oog.

We looked at some of the standard series titles, including a new Magic Tree House Research Guide called Polar Bears & the Arctic. After mentioning that polar bears eat more humans than any other animal, one of the editors said offhand, "The perfect book for your collection if you want to see an 8-year-old cry". Good sense of humor, those editors.

A big deal was made about a new fantasy series in town, and at first I wasn't interested. Read the byline: "When Max has a cryptic vision he learns that destiny has great plans for him." *yawn* Oh, and the name is The Hound of Rowan (The Tapestry Trilogy #1). *double yawn* Then they started to describe it and it got kind of interesting. Author Henry H. Neff quit his high-powered job to become a high school teacher (!?) and wrote this book on top of all that. He also illustrated it and his illustrations actually look cool. But then I got thrown back to my yawns when I heard that it was set in a school like Harry Potter and worked in Celtic mythology. BUT, and here's the kicker, this is a book where the hero is not "The Chosen One". That would be his roommate. Our hero is, in fact, a kind of bodyguard instead. And that is why I may actually wish to read this book.

About this time editor Alice Jonaitis mistook The Awful Truth for Ball of Fire but allayed the error by talking up Dinosaurs by Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. Why should you care about yet another dinosaur book? Well I don't suppose you're hoping to find the penultimate dinosaur title for your collection, are you? This book has the most up-to-date information and covers (according to them) every conceivable topics regarding dinos. I was actually kind of excited to hear about this one.

No Castles Here by A.C.E. Bauer was another title I didn't much care to read at first (byline: "The story of a boy, a book, and believing . . .") but was described nicely in person. Set in Camden, N.J. (which according to the main character is the armpit of the nation), this is a title for the 9 to 13-year-old crowd in which a kid gets a Big Brother. A gay Big Brother, who the kid really likes but is worried that the bullies at school will find out about. No Castles Here looks as if it might have a lot to say about race and sexuality. We'll see if that's actually the case. I was pleased to discover later that A.C.E. Bauer is a Class of Y2Ker. Well done there.

Alongside The Wednesday Wars we've another Shakespeare-inspired boy book coming out this year. Jake Wizner's, Spanking Shakespeare was described to us as written by an author who could be, "the love child of Judy Blume and Woody Allen". Chew on that image in your mind for a while and then get back to me.

I was delighted to see The Listening Library folks troop up to the stage next. This is what separates Random House from other publishers. Because they let Listening Library do the spiel you get to hear about books from a wide wide array of other publishers. So check out what's coming out soon!

• I Am Not Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos. I simply couldn't be more excited.
  
• Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke. Looks like The Princess Knight gone novel-length.
• Garden of Eve by K.L. Going. A dead mom, but I like the author a lot and this one sounds really good.
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - Yay, hometown hero!
  
• Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine
• Who Discovered America? by Russell Freedman
  

The Bantam Delacorte Dell Young Reader group came up just about the time I realized that my gift bag contained chocolate. Some smart pookie had wrapped milk chocolate bars in advertisements for Libba Bray's upcoming The Sweet Far Thing. When I looked back up it was just a sea of plunging necklines. The Bantam ladies have it going on, it seems.

Delightfully enough, Judy Blume as a new early chapter book out. A sequel to The Pain and the Great One, we now have Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One. This book has been paired with James Stevenson for the illustrations which is both a simple idea and a great one. And the gift bag, to my delight, actually had a copy of this in it. Score! Lucy Rose: Working Myself to Pieces and Bits by Katy Kelly is also coming out soon. So why the heck isn't Adam Rex doing the illustrations? He did the first two Lucy Rose books and then, suddenly and without warning, they've hired Peter Ferguson. I got nothing against Mr. F, but it seems a very odd switcheroo.

Bantam next had a hard time convincing the dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkers that a book about rats was viable kiddie fare. For my part, Vasco, Leader of the Tribe by Anne-Laure Bondoux looked good if a bit familiar. Vasco = Rasco anyone? I was also a little surprised at the speed with which Kiss My Book by Jamie Michaels has come out. The premise is basically the Kaavya Viswanathan Story from her point of view. Actually, it makes for a fabulous YA novel. I can't blame Michaels for going there. I'm just a little awed at how quickly it's coming out, that's all.

And I'm actually kind of tentatively excited, against my will no less, by Grimpow: The Invisible Road by Rafael Abalos. The Templar Knights have never really appeared in a big-time fantasy novel. Surprising, when you think about it. I liked the idea of tying them into the Philosopher's Stone and I had high hopes for this book. Then the editor introducing it invoked the name of Eragon not once but TWICE. The kicker? When she said it was, "Part DaVinci Code and part Eragon". These sweet editors need to start adjusting their descriptions of these books for their librarian audiences. That kind of talk probably gets corporate bookstores and fellow publishers all hot and bothered, but you could actually see the audience cringe as they heard the dreaded "E" word invoked repeatedly.

Now I'm not usually lured by teen novels but when an editor described Before I Die by Jenny Downham as, "one of the most accurate views of what it feels like to fall in love as a teen," I was hooked. It's a dead heroine book (terminal disease, no less) but I couldn't quite tear myself away from that description. Next, without ever invoking the name of Rainbow Fish (branch #2 on the Triumvirate of Mediocrity), Leo Lionni's, Tico and the Golden Wings sounds at the outset like Pfister's original inspiration. Bird gets golden wings. Bird give away golden feathers. The difference is that when Tico gives away his feathers (ala Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince more than anything else) the ending makes it very clear that though he now looks the same as everyone else, his experiences have made him different on the inside. Reprints of this book have made Tico's wings look a dull yellow. Random House, then, is going to use golden foil to make the books as shiny and enticing as it was when it was first published. And since the word of the day in the marketing departments is "Shiny Shiny!" this manages to be both a good publicity stunt and entirely faithful to the original publication of this classic work. Janet Schulman's a smartie.

A Song in Bethlehem by Marni McGee is another nativity story, albeit a whitey white white one. The next Max & Pinky book is coming out (The Adventures of Max & Pinky: Superheroes by Maxwell Eaton) and I am horribly excited about it. I love those books! I was happy to see a mention of Sue Stauffacher's Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson. Unfortunately, since I've already reviewed the book, I could tell that they somehow failed to put the coolest paintings from its pages (illustrated by Greg Couch) in the Powerpoint slideshow. Tsk tsk tsk.

The upcoming reprint of Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree was just a delight to me. Look at that cover. They don't hardly make 'em like that no more. Some mention was made of the fact that Ray Bradbury was once friends with Chuck Jones and that they made a movie together. If anyone has any additional information on this, I'd like to hear it.

Edward Bloor has a new novel coming out called Taken. It does the idea of a "near future" right by placing its events squarely in 2035. That's the way you do it. None of this silly 2011 crap. The future should be within our lifetime but far enough away that when child readers reach it they are no longer children.

Finally, to round out the presentations, author Jerry Spinelli came up to the podium to speak. He called everyone "Bookies" and spoke about his Love, Stargirl, which is due on shelves this coming August. Spinelli, it soon became clear, is a natural born public speaker. He seems so laid back, but give him a question with a little bite to it and watch him tuck in. It was odd seeing him so soon after reviewing his other book out this year with Little Brown, Eggs. Still, he's was a good "get". Everyone, I think it is fair to say, had a remarkable time. So! Awards!

Some Good Covers: My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick - The byline read like a zombie novel but the title is just another vampire book. Why are there not any great YA zombie books? I'd show you the American cover but they haven't posted it online yet. Bother.

No Castles Here by A.C.E. Bauer. Actually, this is unfair. You really have to see the full cover, front and back, to appreciate it.


Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac - Listening Library introduced this one.



Worst Covers: A Bridge to the Stars by Henning Mankell. One of the editors loved it too. The problem is that it's sporting an adult font for the author and title and if it's "A magical mystery that leaves readers spellbound," then why not make it look less dreamy and more exciting? The American cover is not yet available for viewing online. Hopefully there is time to change their minds about it.

Most Familiar Cover: Wow. This here is a Lisa Yee lookalike. I didn't even know they made Lisa Yee lookalikes. Let's play a fun game now. Which one of these covers isn't a book by Lisa Yee. Look carefully now...







Did you find it?

Best Celebrity Lookalike On a Cover: With One Trick Pony by Daniella Brodsky (it's, oddly enough, Chocolat for teens via coffee) we have an Anne Hathaway impersonator.
They were selling this book by telling us that 75% of teens report daily coffee consumption. Really? Really really?



Best Phrase: Of illustrator Greg Newbold it was said that the artist, "Gives good Santa".

Worst Phrase: Ironically it was for the same book (The Barnyard Night Before Christmas) which some ill-advised editor mentioned had equal doses of, "hilarity and heart". *shudder*

Most Enjoyable Powerpoint By-line: I can't help it. I loved the one for Louise Plummer's Finding Daddy: "Mira opens a Pandora's box from the past and unleashes a horror of a daddy." So wrong it's right? Or just wrong?

Best Use of the Term [Blank] Meets [Blank]: I was a little disappointed this season. Last time I went to a RH preview they were pulling out the "meets" like it was nobody's business. They closest they got this time was a half-hearted "The Devil Wears Prada meets Ugly Betty". Which is to say... Ugly Betty. It was meant to describe Susanna Sees Stars by Mary Hogan. FYI.

Best Description of a Book: I'm not biased. Karen Breen herself said he was a remarkable speaker. Yes, Jack Linkey (or whatever his name is) described When Randolph Turned Rotten by Charise Mericle Harper so well that if they'd been selling copies before us I think every person there would have bought themselves a few. It looks great, sounds great, reads great, and is great. I. Want. This. Book.

Random House Summer 2007 Preview

I think that last Wednesday I attended my third or fourth Random House presentation for librarians and reviewers. I'm beginning to get a real feel for these things now. I know to expect bagels, so when RH throws in a muffin or two I coo with pleasure. I know that there will be lots of gorgeous books, but that I may have to pluck out the Middle Grade from the Teen. I know that the goodie bags are forever o'erflowing. And I know that I should try to corner my favorite editors when I get a chance (though I always forget to... sorry, Jim).

But best of all, I'm starting to remember the names of some of these people. Schwartz & Wade are relatively easy when you consider that one is named Schwartz and one is named Wade (though they pulled a third person onto the stage with them this season, so I guess I'll have to refer to that person as "ampersand").

Anywho, I'm working off my notes taken during the Powerpoint sessions. We'll see how well I remember what occurred.

First of all, they're reprinting an old Golden Book title by Hilary Knight called The Circus Is Coming. Its Editor, Schuyler Hooke, was looking particularly dashing this day in a snazzy tie that displayed that old ultra-weird Milton Bradley board game Operation. Remember that game? Where the only thing you could ever get without setting off the buzzer was the Charley Horse, because it was easy to grab its little leg? And if you tilted the board then all the tiny pieces suddenly would get shifted about and you'd have to shake the game until they were set right again. Man, that was a weird creation.

Okay. Lost my train of thought.. uh... right! The Circus Is Coming! Well, Mr. Knight (who is STILL alive as it happens) had the original art from the 1979 book just sitting about somewhere, and they're going to reprint it all beautiful and colorful and with an additional spread that couldn't make it into the original publication. The spread is a tribute to South America and it was when I was looking at a large slide of it that I realized something. Scrotums be damned, people, have you ever seen Hilary Knight draw sexy ladies before? I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if Mr. Knight ever wanted a second career as a pin-up artiste, he already has a leg up. These women are literally draped all over the place from scene to scene. Actually, the guys aren't too shabby either. There was one well-muscled fellow in a one-piece leopard skin outfit that was all kinds of cute. Hot men of children's literature indeed.

The editors, I should mention, were very amused by the whole scrotum debate. The introduction to Isobelle Carmody's Magic Night began with the statement, "This is the haunting and compelling story of a cat and its scrotum." Not true, but a good line nonetheless.

They're re-illustrating The Ear Book by Al Perkins with pictures by cartoonist Henry Payne. Not entirely certain how I feel about that. And we learned that the son of P.D. Eastman is Peter Anthony Eastman who's coming out with Fred and Ted Like To Fly. Huh. Camp Babymouse is coming in May and a source at Comic Con this week-end told me that the one after that may involve ice skating.

Then Schwartz & Wade came on and got very matter-of-fact due to a Chris Raschka book written for seriously ill children. I know, I know. A skeptical eye is needed regarding such things, but I daresay this is a Raschka book I actually like quite a lot. His style, as with the 2006 Caldecott, was a bit loosey-goosey for my tastes. With The Purple Balloon, however, he's limited himself and gone all subtle. I liked it, and I'm not usually a fan of "message" books. This one deserves a gander.

The number one book this imprint is putting out that I want to see, however, is Clara and Senor Frog by Campbell Geeslin. I don't know who illustrator Ryan Sanchez is but I love love love the art in this book. With oodles of references to Diego Rivera, it's got a cool magical realism feel to it that's just sublime. I was less excited by Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little initially because I view Stuart with the same eye as the first children's librarian of New York Public Library, Miss Anne Carroll Moore. She didn't like it. Nor do I. Moxy, as it happens, ends up liking the book by the end which made me a little sad. When I was in third grade my teacher read Stuart Little aloud to us in class and when she got to the end I was furious. What kind of an ending was THAT? Anyway, Schwartz and Wade kind of turned me around on this book. First of all, it's a novel but it's illustrated with photos. Cool, huh? The images of Moxy? That's Lee Wade's daughter. The dog in the book? Schwartz's dog. And the mean mom? Anne Schwartz herself, in the flesh.

By the way, is there a connection between Random House and Hyperion that I don't know about? Both houses are putting out Ratatouille books in tandem with the upcoming Pixar movie. Then at one point they were presenting How Many Seeds In a Pumpkin? which is written by Margaret McNamara who is actually Hyperion editor Brenda Bowen. And finally they compared Moxy Maxwell to Sara Pennypacker's Clementine, which another Hyperion title. Me so confused.

Next we had Beverly Horowitz and Her Fabulous Seven. Seven beautiful editors all came up to present Bantam Delacorte Dell Young Reader books. I was sad to learn that the new series Indie Kidd by Karen McCombie is not a reference to Indie Rock. More's the pity. The Scary States of America by Michael Teitelbaum just looked like so much fun. They're not even putting it out in hardcover, but I don't care. It is, in the words of Stephanie Lane, a "legend-based road trip of terror." In it you learn "Fifty weird and terrifying stories based on true events." When I was a kid, this totally would have been the book for me.

In an odd twist, they're re-releasing Patricia MacLachlan's novels Baby and Journey in a single package and they're keeping the original Baby cover. I'm not entirely certain why this is. It's a nice cover image, but it doesn't really appeal to kids.

Then came a bunch of teen lit. We'll skip that. Not my bag, baby. Oh. Except for maybe Barbara Hall's The Noah Confessions. Hall is the former writer/director of Northern Exposure. Suh-weet! Plus I liked the by-line, "The crimes of the past need not ruin the future."

My loyalty, however, lies with fantasy. We got free copies of Michael Scott's The Alchemyst: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. Every year a publisher banks everything on a fantasy title and this, apparently, is Random House's. They've already bought all six books in the series (bearing names like Magician, Sorceress, and Necromancer). It's a big old gamble and it sounds as if the books are pushing the old "eternal life = a good thing" idea. I was particularly proud of the attendee who was able to point out that the name Michael Scott must be a pseudonym since Michael Scot was once a great alchemist of the past. Nice catch fellow librarian/reviewer.

Listening Library got to speak for a while about their upcoming audio titles. And oddly, they started telling us about books from other publishers. Check out this cool cover coming from Laurie Halse Anderson:


What's so neat about this is that this is a Viking title. So Random House didn't seem to mind someone pitching other publishers at THEIR Summer Preview! Extra points to RH then. I've never seen another publisher do anything similar. In addition to Twisted we heard about Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks via Harcourt (this books seems to be going through several covers), Dragonsdale by Salamanda Drake (Eragon meets Stable Club, so help us God), and Marvelous World - Vol. 1 Marvelous Effect by Troy Cle. A fantasy with black characters in it? We haven't seen one of those in 20 years or so, I'd wager. In spite of the fact that the nice Listening Library lady actually said that people were calling this the "black Harry Potter" and used the term "urban" twice, I want to give this a read. The author self-published it originally, and then Simon & Schuster picked it up. The great surprise of the evening was a new Deborah Wiles book entitled Aurora County All-Stars. It involves a pug named Eudora Welty. What more do you need to know?

Best of all are these enhanced CDs they're going to start creating to accompany non-fiction audio books. In a pack of audio CDs, the last one with be a CD-ROM. You pop it in and suddenly you see all the photos from the book with annotations. You can even zoom in on the pics to catch little details you might miss in the book itself. So so cool. They showed some images from Secrets of a Civil War Submarine that really popped off the page.

Then Wendy Lamb stepped up to the plate. She talked up author Karen Day's Tall Tales so well that I actually got excited about a title that might not normally appeal to me. Lamb's smart too. She used phrases like, "small subtle turns that are earned," to lure librarians in. Rebecca Stead's First Light looks pretty good too. Unfortunately, I think Ms. Stead has tried to send me her book (she's a Class of 2K7er) about three times and I STILL have never received it. The only thing I can think is that the mailman has been pilfering them to read on his own instead. Lucky mailman.

The David Fickling Books/ Knopf/ Crown Books imprint people came up and we got a glimpse at the very fun Uneversaurus (pronounced you-never-saurus) by Aidan Potts. It's a whole new kinda dinosaur book with eye-popping illustrations (and a flashy pop-eyed cover) to wow the best of them. I'm excited about it. It's a new dino approach, which I appreciate. Then they showed us Into the Woods by Lyn Gardner which may have been up for a Cybil this year, considering it came out in Britain in '06. This book wraps up a mighty odd trend I've been noticing. Has anyone else spotted the huge numbers of Rapunzel books out this year? Into the Woods is about a daughter of Rapunzel. In the Wild (different book) is about a daughter of Rapunzel. And then there's Letters From Rapunzel, which is on my To Be Read shelf right now. Weird, huh?

Kat Got Your Tongue by Lee Weatherly is YA but I love the premise. 13-year-old Kat wakes up without her memory and finds that she's been a total jerk in the past. High concept? You betcha. I love me my high concept books.

Moving on, the queen of the inner lives of inanimate objects has a new book out. Ginger Bear by Mini Grey shows how one gingerbread bear manages to avoid the fate of being eaten. And there is a moment of post-doggy gingerbread carnage the likes of which have never been seen in a picture book before. Fantastic stuff. Equally fantastic is Kevin Hawkes' The Wicked Big Toddlah. This is the first book Mr. Hawkes has written AND illustrated in years and it shows. Set in Maine the idea is not too dissimilar from Ross MacDonald's Bad Baby, but I'd totally buy this one to complement the other.

Scribble by Deborah Freedman goes all fourth wall on us with realistic drawings interacting with their creations in ways Harold and his purple crayon could only have hoped for. Whale by David Lucas is cool simply because I'm luvin' me my Lucas. And they even managed to sell me on the idea of reprinting Nicolas, Where Have You Been? by Leo Lionni. When Janet Schulman (The Reissue Queen) explained the plot, I understood why she said this book has a message more important today than ever. Plus you can never go wrong by reprinting Lionni.

The Story of Charles Atlas: Strong Man by Meghan McCarthy marked the second appearance of a guy wearing a leopard-print one-piece bathing suit in one day. Awesome. The book looks fabulous, humorous, and other "ous"es as well. RH paired it will Michael Townsend's Billy Tartle In Say Cheese!. I liked the alternative comix look of the book, but the story remains to be seen. I do give the author points, though, for having a website called www.mikeisgreathelikeschocolatecake.com.

And look what's coming out on December 7th, just in time for the movie!


It's an omnibus. Three in one. We are going to give the cover artist the benefit of the doubt and pretend that the woman featured here is Mrs. Coulter or a witch and not a 31-year-old Lyra.

Finally, the best was saved for last. For who should be the guest speaker at this event but a first time novelist of unassailable pedigree. Yes indeedy it was

ROBIN BRANDE!

You may remember Robin from her website. She's prone to sending out delicious chocolates at a moment's notice and now she has her very first YA novel out. Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature (I can't find a cover online anywhere, so you're going to have to trust me when I say that it's cute) sounds delicious. Ms. Brande, looking elegant in her extremely cool glasses and suit, explained how she researched the topic, putting her lawyer background to good use. We were then treated to a rip-roaring story of how Ms. Brande was once kicked out of her evangelical high school church group. It's a magnificent tale. It involves hypnosis and possession. You simply must ask her to tell it sometime. All in all, it was a great way to cap off the day. I need to read her book.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for. The first... the foremost... the finest...

RANDOM HOUSE PREVIEW AWARDS SPECIAL

Why not have some fun with it? Especially when they put on QUITE a good show.
*ahem*

BEST PRESENTER OF THE TITLES HE/SHE EDITED: CECILE GOYETTE!
I don't pay much attention to YA titles by and large, but editor Cecile Goyette of the Knopf Books for Young Readers imprint really knows how to sell a book. Take, for example, Last Dance At the Frosty Queen by Richard Uhlig. In spite of its deathly dull cover featuring a frosted ice cream cone made out of neon lights and the non-descript byline, "Small town, big entanglements, one life-changing girl," Ms. Goyette took her mike and said to the gathered crowd, "I have two novels to tell you about. Here's the one with all the sex." By the time she was done I suddenly found myself wanting to read a YA novel (something I try not to do, under normal circumstances). The fact that she used the term, "Our time of scrotal consternation," and then moved on to The Confessional by J.L. Powers with a slick, "Okay, and now one that only has a lot of violence and profanity, and that's it!" tipped her over the top for me. Ms. Goyette, you may present YA novels to me any old day of the week.

MOST INTERESTING POWERPOINT VS. BOOK DESCREPANCY: I don't wish to be snarky (at least, not right now) but I was a little fascinated by this mix-up between the Powerpoint and the book being discussed. The Secret of the Painted House by Marion Dane Bauer is a new Stepping Stone Book that looks pretty darn swell. No doubt this is helped in part by illustrator Leonid Gore. Classy roots, no? But oddly enough the listed illustrator on the Powerpoint was Tristan Elwell, which was cool cause I like Mr. Elwell (he once stopped by my library to chat). But I couldn't figure out how his name got in there. A mystery.

BEST COVER - MIDDLE GRADE: I almost caved and gave it to Moxy Maxwell for sentimental reasons, but the real winner this season goes to N.D. Wilson's upcoming Leepike Ridge. This title could go any which way, but after a glance at the cover all you're gonna want to do is read it. The sense of vertigo you get from the image is intense and will draw all kinds of readers in, boys and girls. Well chosen. Unfortunately, I can't find an image of it to place here. You'll have to take my word on this one.

BEST COVER - YA: I said it before (Spring 2007 Round-Up) and I'll say it again. Marissa Walsh's cover for A Field Guide To High School is magnificent. Whatta cover. Maybe it won't appeal to teens the way it appeals to me, but this puppy has everything, to my eyes. It's fun, and silly, with a the mix of archaic high school images from the 50s combined with creepy crawlies. And again, I can't find an image to put here.

BEST DISEMBODIED FEMALE AWARD: A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry. Yes, the good news is that they're rereleasing Lois Lowry's old classic text. The bad news? Somebody got a good strong wiff of Katherine Paterson's Bread and Roses, Too cover and thought, "Hey! Why not do the same, only show the torso of someone carrying flowers rather than bread?" Check 'em out:


Off with their heads!

MOST INTERESTING COVER CHOICE: That would have to go to Sonia Levitin's Strange Relations. Here's the cover:

... and here's the description of the book:

A summer in paradise. That's all Marne wants. That's all she can think of when she asks her parents permission to spend the summer in Hawaii with Aunt Carole and her family.

But Marne quickly realizes her visit isn't going to be just about learning to surf and morning runs along the beach, despite the cute surfer boy she keeps bumping into. For one thing, Aunt Carole isn't even Aunt Carole anymore—she's Aunt Chaya, married to a Chasidic rabbi and deeply rooted in her religious community. Nothing could be more foreign to Marne, and fitting into this new culture—and house full of kids—is a challenge. But as she settles into her newfound family's daily routine, she begins to think about spirituality, identity, and finding a place in the world in a way she never has before.

This rich novel is a window into a different life and gets to the very heart of faith, identity, and family ties.

Looks like they didn't get much farther than the first sentence when they designed this puppy. The book sounds cool, though.

BEST [BLANK] MEETS [BLANK] DESCRIPTION: We have a three-way tie on this one. Delacorte had to present its chick lit, so they got all creative on us and began tossing things together. The Celebutantes: On the Avenue by Anthony Pagliarulo is basically Paris Hilton meets Nancy Drew (they didn't describe it this way, obviously) but only if you turned Paris into triplets named (and I am not making this up) Madison, Park, and Lexington. This book also chops off the cover girl's head, which I didn't actually mind. Prom Dates From Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore was more Veronica Mars meets Buffy meets Nancy Drew. The only problem is that the premise (demons attack prom) was EXACTLY from a Buffy episode, so I'm afraid it loses points on originality. No, the best of the three really had to be fellow chop-the-head-off-on-the-cover title What If ... You Broke All the Rules by Liz Ruckdeschel and Sara James. It's Choose Your Own Adventure meets chick lit. I'm SOLD! No, seriously. I am. I love Choose Your Own Adventure books. I doubt, however, that the kids in this book are going to die with the same frequency of the original series. More's the pity.

BEST IMPRINT: This isn't very fair, but it's how I feel. David Fickling Books gets two big big thumbs up from me. Granted, they only presented three books, but each one wanted to own immediately, if not sooner.

But really, isn't everyone a winner? If Sunday night's Oscars taught us anything, they taught us that.

Does Siding With the Fish Make Me a Bad Person?

This morning I'm off to a Random House preview of... Summer books I think. It's too early in the year for Fall previews, right? Must be summer. I'll recap it sometime in the next few days, regardless.

At any rate, the last time I was at the Random House librarian preview I was munching bagels and watching them present the upcoming Annotated Cat In the Hat, edited by Philip Nel (official HMOCL numero uno). Now Newsweek has done a piece on the book and it is most certainly worth your time. Even if you don't consider yourself a Seuss aficionado, click on Images 1 through 5 at the top of the screen to see some of the good doctor's before and after sketches. That's worth the price of admission right there.