Though Marciano is best known for carrying on the Madeline legacy created his grandfather, Ludwig Bemelmans, he puts his brush aside to write a middle school novel about a “truly horrible boy” in The 9 Lives of Alexander Baddenfield (October). Says editor Sharyn November, “The evil text and art by Sophie Blackall play off each other. It has a bit of Charles Addams.”

Humorous for entirely different reasons, the title of the day had to be Why Dogs Eat Poop (October), by Francesca Gould and David Haviland, a nonfiction tome all about the gross-but-true things you never knew about animals. Believe it or not, the book will help meet Common Core State Standards.

In the same vein, Penguin has created a comprehensive Nonfiction Guide [PDF], a guide to its popular nonfiction titles grouped into overlapping grade bands: K–4, 4–8, and 7 and up. The books are organized thematically by science, history, and social studies, and each grade band has an associated text set, with nonfiction and historical fiction titles surrounding one specific topic: Art & Artists (K–4), Heroes (4–8), and the Civil Rights Movement (7 and up). There is also an author study on Jean Fritz.

Also in October—just in time for National Bullying Prevention Month—is the debut of Until It Hurts to Stop, Jennifer R. Hubbard’s (@JennRHubbard) novel that examines the lasting effects of bullying. Penguin has also created materials on this important topic: the Pledge to Play Nice kit.

The program, which is geared for grades PreK–3, contains a poster with activities aligned to Common Core State Standards, along with a pledge (created by Llama Llama author and illustrator Anna Dewdney), and stickers and certificates for pledge takers.

On a lighter note, food will take center stage this fall in two celebrity books. Haylie Duff’s (@HaylieK) The Real Girls Kitchen (October) aims to help young girls become foodies, while the first book in the “Recipe for Adventure” series by Giada De Laurentis, Naples, is a story centered around a Pizzafest.

Raccoons also like pizza, and in the Secret Pizza Party (September) by Adam Rubin, illustrated Daniel Salmieri (@rubinsalmieri), readers can follow a raccoon on his quest for his favorite food. And perhaps the most famous raccoon of all kidlit, Rascal, is turning 50 this year; in celebration of the event, a special anniversary edition of the Sterling North book will be released.

New titles are also on the horizon from even more familiar names, like Eric Carle’s Friends (November) and QB1 from Mike Lupica, which drops in September just in time for football season.

QB1, which has been described as “Friday Night Lights meets the Manning brothers,” also marks the launch of Penguin’s “Read to the End Zone” sweepstakes. Kids at schools and libraries will be encouraged to read as many Lupica books that they can, with each book counting as 10 yards. Once kids “reach the end zone,” they can enter the sweepstakes for a chance to win a Penguin-sponsored Superbowl party for their classroom or library, and a Skype visit with Mike Lupica the week before the big game in January. The contest will run from September to December.

Fall also marks the end of some best-selling series, such as Anthony Horowitz’s final Alex Rider book, Russian Roulette: Story of an Assassin, and Adam Gidwitz’s finale to his fairy tale series, The Grimm Conclusion. Both books will be available in October. Meanwhile, fans of Marie Lu’s (@Marie_Lu) “Legend” series will get closure to her trilogy with Champion, set for November.

In September, we also see the start of a new series:  T.A. Barron—known as the “Merlin Man” because of his best-selling Merlin series—will debut his take on a new myth with Atlantis Rising.

Penguin also has the holidays covered. Beginning with Ten Orange Pumpkins (September), a new counting book by Stephen Savage (@savageartist) for Halloween, followed up in October with Loren Long’s An Otis Christmas and Jon Agee’s Little Santa, the story of Santa as a youth.

Groundhog Weather School and the reissue of the updated The Buck Stops Here: The Presidents of the United States will both be popular in February and year round.  The updates for The Buck Stops Here were done by the 94-year-old Alice Provensen.

The reissue of Jack: The Early Years of John F. Kennedy will also be a welcome addition in 2014 for marking the fiftieth anniversary of the president’s assassination.

And on a personal note, as a resident of the Hudson Valley, I am always attuned to books set in upstate New York.  Ones to watch for this fall include Printz Award winner Meg Rosoff’s Picture Me Gone  (October), which features a girl and her father traveling from London to New York State to find a missing friend, while Carol Goodman’s Blythewood is set against historical events at a 1911 Hudson Valley boarding school, where mysterious happenings are afoot.

I also plan to add these titles to my nightstand:

The Creature Department (November) by Robert Paul Weston. Razorbill has teamed up with Framestore, an animation company, to create the creatures from the book so that they, as well as the author, will be available for classroom Skype visits. See the animated book cover here.

The Girl Who Heard Colors (September) by Mary Harris, illustrated by Brantley-Newton, is a picture book that introduces the five senses and synesthesia, an ability to perceive one sense with another. Lady Gaga, Duke Ellington, and Jimi Hendrix all have been synesthetes.

The Fantastic Family Whipple (August) by Matthew Ward. This debut middle grade story is about a boy who has to deal with menacing clowns while trying to find a world record to break.

Brotherhood by A.B. Westrick (@ABWestrick) is a middle grade story set during the reconstruction era that has two brothers involved with the KKK during its formation.

Closing the event, Julie Berry (@JulieBerryBooks), gave an emotional reading—due to the love she has for the character, she told the crowd—of a passage from her new book, All the Truth That’s in Me (September). The YA novel tells the story of Judith, a young girl in colonial times who becomes speechless after a horrifying trauma.

First up this season was the Penguin Young Readers Group summer preview, which took place in New York City last week. There, we met a sneaker-wearing gorilla, crayons on strike, and an invisible boy, and learned that C. Alexander London’s “Accidental Adventures” series will come to an end in July with We Sled with Dragons (Puffin). However, London will reappear under the name Alex London with Proxy (Philomel), a new science fiction novel in the vain of The Whipping Boy in which rich boy Knox and his proxy/scapegoat Syd buck the system on a not-so-accidental adventure. We were also clued in that Rick Yancey’s dystopian novel The 5^th Wave (Putnam) is off to a three-star start before its May release.

On the sequel front, Maile Meloy will be following up on her fantasy middle-grade novel The Apothecary (Putnam, 2011) with The Apprentices (Putnam), which is set for a June release. And did you know that Neal Shusterman takes cruises so that he can peacefully write? That must have been his inspiration for bringing Antsy and the other cast of characters aboard a cruise ship in Ship Out of Luck (Dutton), his follow-up to The Schwa Was Here (Dutton, 2004), also out in June. And Gennifer Choldenko will end her “Alcatraz” trilogy with Al Capone Does My Homework (Dial), due out in August.

Penguin also has some fun picture books in store. In June, the aforementioned gorilla gives Amelia and other young readers some tantrum tips in No Fits, Nilson! (Dial), a hilarious preschool title by Zachariah Ohora. In July, Duncan has to appease his striking art supplies in The Day the Crayons Quit (Philomel), written by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. The letters written by the crayons during their “strike” will make this title one to definitely consider for meeting Common Core requirements.

And in August, we will see Jackie Woodson and James Ransome collaborate on This Is the Rope (Nancy Paulsen), in which the story of the Great Migration is told through the legacy of a piece of rope. Also of note is Blanket and Bear, A Remarkable Pair (Putnam), the debut picture book by L.J. R. Kelly, grandson of Roald Dahl; Kelly has teamed up with illustrator Yoko Tanaka for this August release.

The name Herman Melville often doesn’t come up at children’s book previews but it did twice at the Penguin preview. Ben Gibson ‘s The Ghastly Dandies Do the Classics, his first book for kids, has erudite monsters dressed in knickers and neckties retelling Moby Dick, in addition to Hamlet, The Odyssey, and Sherlock Holmes. Melville again resurfaced when Ann Hood’s Queen Liliuokalani: Royal Prisoner (Grossett Dunlap) was discussed. The sixth book in her “Treasure Chest” series has time-traveling kids who visit late 19th century Hawaii and meet Melville who runs a bowling alley. It’s more plausible than you think—history does show that Melville once worked as a pin setter in Honolulu.

Debut books came in various shapes and sizes. “Lose Weight and Get the Guy”—doesn’t that sound like an article in a teen magazine? It’s actually the plot of K.A. Barson’s humorous debut novel 45 Pounds (More or Less) (Viking), in which 16-year-old Ann aims to become a thin bridesmaid at her aunt’s wedding. The celebrity-filled book trailer for Firecracker (Razorbill), meanwhile, also garnered much attention at the preview for debut author David Iseron—also known as a writer for New Girl and Saturday Night Live—and his unusual character of Astrid Krieger, who lives in a rocketship.

Other titles that garnered attention last week include Tara Sullivan’s debut novel Golden Boy (Putnam), which tackles the human rights issue of Albino Africans; a debut middle school novel by Natasha Farrant, After Iris (Dial), about a girl who is left to cope with her dysfunctional family after the death of her twin sister; and Saturday Boy (Viking), the debut novel by David Fleming, which deals with an 11-year-old boy and his father in Afghanistan.

Fantasy then took the stage with The Hostage Prince (Viking), which begins the “Seelie Wars” trilogy by mother-and-son writing team Jane Yolen and Adam Stemple that will be told in both male and female voices, while in Rogue (Nancy Paulsen), Lyn Miller-Lachmann uses the  voice of a teen girl with Asbergers to shed awareness on the syndrome. 

The highlight of publisher previews often is the appearance of an author or illustrator, and Penguin’s event last week was no exception. In fact, the publisher hosted a double header in the form of Andrea Cremer and David Levithan, the co-authors of Invisibility (Philomel). The authors wrote alternating chapters in this book about a romance between a boy who’s been who has been cursed with invisibility and the girl who has the ability to see him. It debuts next month.

Want to join the Twitter conversation about Penguin’s new releases? Look for #pyrprev.

“I am pleased to learn that Penguin’s pilot is confirming what research suggests and librarians believe: There is more to be gained than lost when publishers work with libraries,” American Library Association President Maureen Sullivan said in a statement to the AP. “We are encouraged by Penguin’s willingness to experiment, make adjustments and move forward with libraries and our millions of readers.”

It has been a busy year for Penguin on the ebook lending front. In February 2012, the publisher terminated its contract with OverDrive. Four months later, Penguin announced a pilot project with the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the 3M’s new Cloud Library ebook platform. The pilot officially launched on October 1, and by November 13, Penguin had expanded the program, allowing all of 3M’s Cloud Library customers to purchase Penguin ebook titles. A few days later, the publisher announced that its ebook content would also be available on Baker & Taylor’s Axis 360 platform.

With the purchase embargo lifted, Penguin’s other lending terms remain the same. Libraries can purchase titles at prices comparable to retail, and circulate each purchased copy to one patron at a time for one year. After one year, the titles will expire, regardless of checkout frequency. Penguin’s Director of Online Sales and Marketing Tim McCall confirmed to the AP that prices would not be raised as a result of the change to the embargo period.

In the tablet market, the push to unseat the iPad had competitors slapping an HD tag on every supersize device they produced, while Apple went small, releasing its seven-inch iPad Mini in October.

Nothing small about ebook prices for libraries, with Random House tripling prices for that market, with $28 titles ratcheted to $84, and Hachette doubling prices on their backlisted titles. Amazon finally devised a school model—but using it as intended violates their terms of service.

So what’s in store for 2013? I see three key areas: changing ebook business models, access to more content, and affordable new hardware. The first two points are strongly linked. By exploring new business models, we could access collections of resources, which have been previously unavailable to schools. To make this work, we have to find ways to overcome the roadblocks to ebook lending experienced by public libraries.

School libraries, I believe, will be the coming focal point for ebook licensing. We have strong relationships with our K–12 publishing partners, but now we must reach out to the trade houses. As the print market weakens, the time is right for schools to present a new business proposal.

The fact is, the big trade houses aren’t very keen on “selling” ebooks to libraries. To justify its $84 ebooks, Random House implied that libraries owned the titles, but applied so many restrictions that ownership was effectively obviated by all the fine print.

So let’s give them another option. Rather than seeking to own ebooks, school libraries should instead seek more favorable deals in a short-term lease market. Support classroom instruction with two-month book rentals, or license titles for three-year terms to avoid locking the school into endless recycling of the same novels.

If publishers are concerned about the impact on consumer sales, we can point out that these ebooks are for instructional use and not pleasure reading. By writing licenses that restrict ebook use in classroom settings, we’re giving up some access but opening up a huge new world of content. Besides, we can always buy print books for independent reading.

Finally, 2013 should be an exciting year for hardware. By year’s end, I expect we’ll see sub-$100 tablets, not knock-off brands, but fully supported devices akin to the Kindle and Nook. We might also see color digital ink readers with better support for illustrated books. But the main hardware issue will be accessibility. Two high-profile lawsuits in 2012 established that schools and libraries purchasing ebook readers must buy accessible devices. Currently, none of the E-Ink based devices (Kindle Paperwhite or Nook Simple Touch, for example) are accessible, according to ADA definitions. Make sure your district considers accessibility if it’s planning to buy mobile computing and reading devices this year.

 Christopher Harris (infomancy@gmail.com) is coordinator of the school library system of the Genesee Valley (NY) Educational Partnership.

Jenny Bent, Susan Katz, Joy Peskin, Marisa Russell, Hannah Moskowitz, Betsy Bird. Photo by Galo Delgado.

What are the ingredients that make up a YA bestseller? A panel of seasoned publishing professionals addressed this question and many more at the Women’s National Book Association NYC chapter’s event “The Making of a Young Adult Bestseller-From Acquisition to Reader,” November 14. It was moderated by New York Public Library’s youth materials specialist and Fuse #8 blogger Betsy Bird, at Manhattan’s Wix Lounge, a free work and event space for creative professionals.

Over the course of two hours a group of industry hopefuls—aspiring writers, editors, and agents—heard insider tips, advice, anecdotes, and encouragement from representatives involved in each of the major stages of children’s publishing. Speakers included Jenny Bent, founder and literary agent at the Bent Agency; Susan Katz, president and publisher at HarperCollins Children’s; Hannah Moskowitz, author of several books for teen and middle-grade audiences; Joy Peskin, editorial director at Farrar Straus Giroux for Young Readers; and Marisa Russell, publicity manager at Penguin Young Readers.

The panelists agreed that while there is no magic formula for acquiring and finding “the next big thing,” chart-topping hits usually have a few key elements in common.

When taking on clients and new manuscripts, Bent looks for the perfect balance of great writing and a phenomenal idea. She said she asks herself “Does it leap off the page? Will it resonate with young adult readers?”

Photo by Galo Delgado.

Peskin added that a clue to a title’s possible future success is whether at an editor’s first read, the manuscript has a magnetic pull, much like meeting an exciting new person. That initial gut reaction is what will create an advocate in an editor, who will then push for acquisition and publisher support in the months that follow.

Using the example of Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” series from HarperCollins, Katz credited spunky editors for bringing fast attention to books that deserve a closer look. Once they’ve received and read a stellar manuscript, these individuals then push for a preemptive bid—a preliminary deal, including author advance and contract terms—so high that it would allow a publisher to sign up the book before any auction with competing imprints. “Unfortunately, there are a lot more misses than home runs,” she says, as a high advance doesn’t always equal a grand slam.

Moskowitz, who recently experienced a small auction for one of her titles, assured the audience that an editor’s enthusiasm and connection to the work is just as important as contractual stipulations. “I knew which publisher I wanted to work with on Zombie Tag (Roaring Brook, 2011), because the house sent me the offer in a zombie-themed coffin,” she recalled.

In this competitive market, an author’s ability to self-promote and speak about their book is a publicist’s dream. In addition to a major hook and raising awareness on a new title via radio, print, bloggers, and social media, building buzz through author appearances can really impact a novel’s staying power.

“We were amazed at how YA author, Rae Carson, a former beauty pageant contestant, totally compelled her audience at the New York Comic Con,” Russell said. But if writers are not up to speaking in public, there are different ways they can build a relationship with their readers. “Find your own means of connecting,” whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, or blogging,” Bent recommended.

For her part, Moskowtiz explained, “I don’t use social media to expand my audience, but to cement it.”

Social media is especially important for authors who self-publish. For those writers, success requires a lot of time dedicated to promotion and marketing. “Trying to sell your self-published novel is a full-time job in itself,” said Bent, who represents both traditionally and self-published writers.

Citing the “Pete the Cat” picture book series (HarperCollins), which was sold by the creators to thousands of fans before being picked up by the publisher, Russell added that popular self-published authors often bring along a built-in fan base to build on.

When publishers feel like they have a potential blockbuster in their hands, they spend considerable time branding the book, brainstorming covers, title, and taglines, and soliciting advance praise in order to provoke excitement.

Peskin struggled with fine tuning the title for YA novelist Leila Sales’s next book, This Song Will Save Your Life (Farrar, 2014), changing it several times before she and Sales were completely satisfied that it accurately reflected the work’s caliber. Bent praised Abrams for getting the packaging just right for A.G. Howard’s Splintered (Abrams, 2013), a creepy retelling of Alice in Wonderland.

In the end, panelists agreed, there’s really no telling whether a book will meet its high expectations, even it if has all the right elements: riveting writing, perfect trappings, and savvy and connected author. The experts encouraged participants to keep working on their craft, and to persevere.

“Write the story that only you can write,” Peskin advised.

Kathy Dawson
Photo: Belathée Photography

Dawson, the editor of award-winning authors Kristin Cashore, Gennifer Choldenko, and K. L. Going, says she’s drawn to books “that matter” rather than those that just entertain.

“Life is complicated and humans have many levels, and I want books that express that,” explains Dawson, who plans to bring big-name authors along with her, as well as search for new talent.

Kathy Dawson Books will launch in the winter of 2014, with the release of nine titles in the first year. “We’re going for quality versus quantity,” says Dawson, adding that it will include a novel by Cashore  that takes place in a boarding school and a middle grade book by Going called Pieces of the Puzzle Why, which is about a gospel singer in New Orleans who goes through emotional trauma and loses her voice. Others include a still unnamed fourth-grade series by Julie Bowe that focuses on a group of kids who do good for their community, a high school murder mystery by debut author Elle Cosimano, and a middle grade novel about a girl who can literally enter books by Django Wexler, who wrote it while his adult novel, The Book of A Thousand Names, was being edited. Wexler has already signed on for three or more additional novels.

Dawson says editing books with controversial subjects is important. “I really don’t worry about censorship,” says Dawson, who edited Going’s Fat Kid Rule the World, a 2004 Printz Honor Award book about an overweight teen, which was challenged in several school districts around the country for its profanity. “Kids need to find books that mirror the real world and help them navigate life.” Dawson added that although attempts to ban a book can lead to more book sales, other times it means kids just don’t gain access to the book. “It’s hard on the authors, and it breaks my heart when it happens,” she says.

That’s why librarians mean so much to Dawson, who calls them her “favorite” people because they don’t just follow trends, “they make sure that that right books get into the hands of the right kids.”

Dawson’s attraction to “honest and true books that kids can relate to” may be partly rooted in her upbringing; she grew up in a family with four children, one of whom has albinism and is legally blind. Her mother, who worked with children “who would otherwise never read” made tactile books for her sister out of felt and other materials. Dawson’s older sister is a psychologist who works with kids. So, she says, she and her family are “no strangers to psychological distress.”

The idea for Dawson’s own imprint came about when Don Weisberg, the president of Penguin Young Readers Group, approached her. Although she says it was a difficult decision to leave Dial because she “totally loved” working there, the “dream of editing and being able to focus on determining my own list was really exciting.”