Simon and Schuster Fall Preview

This morning was the Fall Preview hosted by Simon & Schuster School/Library marketing.  We each received a bound presentation “booklet” (TOME) — it was huge and heavy with glassy full color pages…

Here are just some highlights — mostly books I’m interested in reading and purchasing for my Middle School Library:

The Boy on the Wooden Box is a memoir by Leon Leyson who was one of the youngest children on Schindler’s list.

It has been five years since the last Click Clack book was out.  This time it is Halloween themed.  Click Clack Boo with a twist ending.  Although I will not buy it for my library, this presentation definitely brings back fond memories.

Mischievians is a new wacky book by William Joyce — with illustrations echoing those in A Day with Wilbur Robinson.

One thick galley that we all received was the final book in the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, in which the now sixty-year-old Alice recalls all the years in between that last Alice book (Always Alice).  After 28 books (including the 3 prequels,) we are finally going to find out the entire life of Alice (college, marriage, kids, etc. etc.)  And the book is called Now I’ll Tell You Everything.  We were told that Naylor has been writing and updating the book for fifteen years and kept the manuscript in a safe … In case she had any mishaps, it could still be published according to the most recent events in the newest Alice to date.  I have a personal relationship with this series because, believe it or not, Alice McKinley has served as my daughter’s (now 14) confidant since she was 10 or so and she has gleaned kindness, appreciation of others, tenacity, and many other positive outlooks on life through the advice from Alice.  I feel indebted to Ms Naylor and can’t wait to share this final title with my daughter!

Thrice Told Tales by Catherine Lewis is a fun and inventive book of advice to writers with very witty illustrations!

Brian Floca (Moonshot, Lightship) has yet another book out called Locomotive — and has already received 4 starred reviews.

The room exploded into loud cheers when we saw the projected cover for The Lord of Opium — the surprising (dan long awaited?) sequel (after 11 years) of Nancy Farmer’s highly decorated, still widely read and loved, The House of the Scorpion.

Anyone with a wicked sense of humor and enjoys some meta-fiction exploration will definitely fall for Battle Bunny: a great, funky, new book by the naughty Jon Scieszka and his partners in crime Mac Barnett and illustrator Matthew Myers.  This touches on the youth current mash-up culture (sampling? anyone?) and what it says about pent-up or liberated creativity. It was revealed that The Birthday Bunny (the “fake” original, goody goody picture book) was originally illustrated with massive oil paintings reproduced for the book.  Can’t wait to hear more people’s reaction to it.  (We had fun sharing the galley with some middle grade kids!)


Fans of The Monstrumologist books will be thrilled to know that a fourth and final title is soon to come out, called: The Final Descent.


Octavia Spencer, Oscar winning actress, has created a series for middle grade readers, Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective.  The first is The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit. Although the main character is a white girl, at least, judging from the cover, there are non-white supporting characters in the book.

Friday Never Leaving by Vikki Wakefield sounds really great and disturbing.  This is an import from Australia and has already garnered many honors and awards overseas.

Susan Cooper’s new book Ghost Hawk is coming out soon and it already received starred reviews.

The Shadowhunter’s Codex is a fun gift book beautifully designed and illustrated for fans of Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series..

Patricia Polacco wrote and illustrated a companion story to the excellent The Keeping Quilt .. The Blessing Cup – quarter of a century later.

I can’t be more excited about the newly illustrated version of Cynthia Rylant’s God Went to Beauty School.  It is now called God Got a Dog with illustration by Marla Frazee.  I took home the F&G that was in the very full goody bag — in each of the accompanying illustrated, God takes on a different form – God is white, God is black, God is Asian, and God is male or female, and God is old or young.  These are wonderful poems that should be shared again to a new group of young readers and with the new illustrations, the message is even more clear: (whether you believe in any specific religion) that God can be found everywhere and in each and every one of us.