Latest News in Children's Book Publishing

March 2013

Book Expo America (BEA) Announces 2013

BEA has announced the books to be featured on the convention's three "buzz" book panels for adult, young adult, and middle grade books. Convention will take place at the end of May 2013.  During the Children’s Book and Author Breakfast, Octavia Spencer will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Rick Riordan, Mary Pope Osborn, and Veronica Roth will also be at this event.

Children's Book & Author Breakfast

8:00 am - 9:30 am
Special Events Hall

Octavia Spencer Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective: The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (October 15, 2013)	Mary Pope Osborne Magic Tricks from the Tree House Random House Books for Young Readers (July 23, 2013) - - - - - - - - - Magic Tree House #50: Hurry Up, Houdini! Random House Books for Young Readers (July 23, 2013)	Rick Riordan The Heroes of Olympus, Book Four: The House of Hades Disney-Hyperion (October 8, 2013)	Veronica Roth Divergent: Book III Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books (Fall 2013)

BUZZ BOOKS!!

Adult
All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood by Jennifer Senior (Ecco, January 2014)
Knocking on Heavens Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death by Katy Butler (Scribner, September)
Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink (Crown, August)
The Affairs of Others: A Novel by Amy Grace Loyd (Picador, August)
Hitler's Furies: German Women in the Nazi Killing Fields by Wendy Lower (HMH, October)
The Facades by Eric Lundgren (Overlook, September)

Young Adult
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin's Griffin, September)
Tandem by Anna Jarzab (Delacorte, October)
All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (Hyperion, September)
Entangled by Amy Rose Capetta (HMH Children's, October)
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan (Algonquin Books for Young Readers, August)

Middle Grade
A Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot by Caroline   Carlson (HarperCollins, September)
Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Dial, September)
The Fantastic Family Whipple by Matthew Ward (Razorbill, August)
Nick and Tesla's High-Voltage Danger Lab by Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith (Quirk, November)
The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick (Algonquin Books for Young Readers, August)

Awards

Finalists announced for the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.  The winner will be announced on March 19, and the 33rd Annual PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction Ceremony & Dinner will be held on Saturday, May 4 at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living American citizens.^[1] The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up receives US $5000.The finalists are:

Amelia Gray, Threats (Farrar, Straus)
Laird Hunt, Kind One (Coffee House Press)
T. Geronimo Johnson, Hold it 'Til It Hurts (Coffee House Press)
Thomas Mallon, Watergate (Pantheon)
Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club (Cinco Puntos Press)

Barnes & Noble also announced the winners of their annual Discover Awards:

Fiction: Amanda Coplin, The Orchardist (Harper)
Nonfiction: Cheryl Strayed, Wild (Knopf)

People

Simon and Schuster UK Children's has appointed Elv Moody as the new editorial director for children's fiction, starting in early June. She is currently editorial director at Puffin UK.

At HMH Children's, Mary Wilcox has been promoted to the newly-created position of vp, editor in chief.  In addition,  Adah Nuchi has been promoted to associate editor.

News from Writers House:

Writers House announced that Geri Thoma and Lisa DiMona have joined the agency. “Thoma, who joins on March 18, was previously partner at Markson Thoma, while DiMona, who will start on April 8, was founder and sole proprietor of Lark Productions, a literary agency and book development company established in 1998. "We are delighted that Geri and Lisa are joining our growing team of agents. Their expertise in nonfiction will complement our list and enlarge the scope of the agency," said Writers House chairman Amy Berkower in a statement. In addition, Stephen Barr was recently promoted to senior agent, while Brianne Johnson moves up to agent”.

Business:

The Wallstreet Journal reveals that Len Riggio plans to buy Barnes and Noble.  Per the Journal, Riggo, "notified the board...he plans to propose to purchase all of the assets of the retail business"--comprising the BN superstores, and the BN.com web site. "Riggio plans to make the proposal in order to facilitate the company's evaluation of its previously announced review of strategic options for the separation of its investment in Nook Media."