The young star of The Book Thief, Sophie Nelisse is set to play the title role in The Great Gilly Hopkins, based on Katherine Paterson’s middle grade novel.

Also signed for the film are Glenn Close, Kathy Bates, Danny Glover and Octavia Spencer. To be directed by Stephen Herek,  it is scheduled to begin shooting on April 9, according to Variety.

The book was a Newbery Honor winner in 1979, the year after Paterson won the Newbery Medal for Bridge to Terabithia.(also made into a film, which Variety notes, grossed ore than $200 million worldwide). In 1981, she won the Newbery for Jacob I Have Loved.

The former Republican Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist,  is running for that office again, but with a twist. He’s now running as a Democrat.

He made news last week by calling for the end of the embargo against Cuba.

He appears tomorrow night on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to talk about his book, released last week, The Party’s Over : How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat, (Penguin/Dutton).

Libraries show growing holds on light ordering for The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (Norton; Brilliance Audio).

The book has been getting attention in the print media, including Thomas Friendman’s column in The New York Times, an Op-Ed in The Washington Post, a piece by the book’s authors in the Financial Times, and a story in the UK’s Telegraph.

The authors appeared on Fareed Zakaria’a CNN show on Sunday.

A book translated from the original Japanese, published here in trade paperback, arrived at #16 on Sunday’s NYT Pbk Trade Fiction best seller list.

The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide, trans. by Eric Selland, (New Directions)

A best seller in both Japan and France, on the NPR web site, reviewer Juan Vidal calls it “… a rare treasure. In just under 140 pages, it spans a wide spectrum of emotion and detail. Takashi Hiraide, the Japanese poet and novelist, blindsided me. His prose — so illuminating and achingly poetic — made me care.”

The Publishers Weekly review is equally strong and allays any concerns about the translation, noting the “the gorgeous and textured, lolling rhythm of its prose.”

An excerpt is available here.

The March Library Reads list shows a lot of librarian love for the mystery and suspense categories, beginning with the number one title:

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh (RH/Spiegel & Grau; March 11)

“The Dane family has been keeping secrets in the Ozark town of Henbane for years. An outsider steals the heart of one of the Dane brothers, and the secrets threaten to unravel. When sixteen-year-old Lucy’s friend is found murdered after being missing for a year, Lucy begins to ask questions – the answers to which may destroy her family. Atmospheric and visceral, McHugh’s story is vividly and effectively told.” — Jennifer Winberry, Hunterdon County Library, Flemington, NJ

Also included are new titles by Chris Pavone, Elly Griffiths, Alice LaPlante, and the following debut:

Precious Thing, Colette McBeth, (Macmillan/Minotaur; Brilliance audio; March 4)

“Clara and Rachel have been friends since high school. Life has intervened and they’ve grown apart, so when Clara invites Rachel for drinks to catch up, it’s a chance to reconnect. But before that can happen, Rachel is called to cover a missing girl story, and the missing girl is Clara. Was she abducted, murdered or did she simply leave on her own? In the vein of Gone Girl and The Husband’s Secret, this is a fast read that is sure to entertain.” — Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH

Remember that several of these titles will be available as egalleys on either Edelweiss or Netgalley until publication date, so you still have time to get to know them. For ordering information, including alternate formats, check our spreadsheet, LibraryReads through March.

Now’s the time to make your voice heard and nominate your favorite upcoming titles. If you are looking for help on how, Edewleiss is holding a webinar on Wednesday, March 5th, 4-5:30 EST, covering how to nominate titles, write blurbs, find ARC’s, track titles in Edelweiss and connect with other librarian users in the Edelweiss Community. Register here.

Two movies that are widely expected to become blockbusters arrive in theaters today. However well they fare at the box office, they have already sent related books into Amazon’s top ten. For adults, there’s George Clooney’s The Monuments Men. For kids, it’s The LEGO Movie. 

#7 The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter, (Hachette/Back Bay)

#8 The LEGO Ideas Book, Daniel Lipkowitz, (Penguin/DK) —  Even though the Junior Novel tie-in (Scholastic) appeared on last week’s NYT Middle Grade list, it’s only at #474 on Amazon’s rankings. It seems kids, or at least their parents, are more interested in creating their own LEGO worlds, than in reading tie-ins.

Fortunately, there are many more titles you can pull out of the stacks that relate to both movies.  For Monuments Men, see our earlier post. And, of course, there are dozens of LEGO titles, including Lisa’s favorites.

A new book by Elizabeth Kolbert, a staff writer for the New Yorker, examines mass extinctions, like that of the dinosaurs caused by asteroids, and particularly the one we are going through now, which is caused by us and may lead to our own demise. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, (Macmillan/Holt; S&S Audio), arrives next week.

The author is scheduled to appear on several shows:

2/10 — CBS This Morning

2/10 or 2/11 — NPR All Things Considered

2/11 — The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 

There will also be print coverage in the NYT Science Section, the NYT Book Review, and New York Magazine.

The book grew out of a two-part series that Kolbert published in the New Yorker in December. Her previous book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, (Macmillan/Bloomsbury, 2006) was on climate change.

The junior novel tie-in to the Lego movie landed at #4 on the NYT Middle Grade best seller list last week, so we probably don’t need to remind you that the movie opens tomorrow.

Download our LEGO tie-ins spreadsheet. Also, see Lisa’s list of her favorite LEGO titles here.

Below is the clip that accompanies the NYT review of the movie (try hitting refresh if the video doesn’t load):

Dean Koontz fans have been frustrated by news that the movie of Odd Thomas (RH/Bantam, 2003) was finished, but was being held up by various legal wrangles.

It suddenly appeared On Demand last week through most cable providers, is being released next week through rental sources like iTunes, and on DVD and BluRay on 3/25 (see Dean Koontz’s site for a full rundown). It will have a limited theatrical release on 2/28.

A paperback movie tie in was planned, but is now cancelled; movie art will be included in the ebook. More on the book series here.

Below is the trailer, with Anton Yelchin starring as Odd.

Stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James kicked off the marketing campaign for Divergent, which arrives in theaters on March 21, by introducing the movie’s second and final trailer on Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday night. Tie-ins in hardcover and paperback, (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen), release next week.

Woodley, considered to be “on the verge of genuine stardom,” can also be seen in the recently released trailers for The Fault in Our Stars, coming in June, and for White Bird in a Blizzard, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as in last year’s The Spectacular Now, recently released on DVD.

All four movies are based on books (White Bird in a Blizzard by Laura Kasischke, was published by Hyperion in 1999).

The media has been giving attention to the books that are about to become movies, from Oprah.com, to CNN, to the Today Show, which featured BuzzFeed’s 16 Books to read before their films open, a story that got over a million hits before the show.

You can also capitalize on the interest — use our lists of  books to movies in various states of production, Upcoming, In Production or those that are  still In Development to create real and virtual displays. Also don’t forget the highly anticipated TV shows based on books, such as Outlander, The Leftovers, Olive Kitteridge and The Strain.

Below are the titles that are getting media attention. Links are to trailers (after all, it is your professional duty to watch them) or to their listing on IMDB:

Labor Day, Joyce Maynard — in theaters now — CNN; Oprah.com

The Monuments Men, Robert M. Edsel, 2/7/14  — Today Show; Oprah.com

Vampire Academy, Richelle Mead, 2/7/14 — CNN

In Secret, 2/21/14, based on Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola —  Oprah.com

Endless Love, Scott Spencer, 2/14/14 —  Oprah.com

Winter’s Tale, Mark Helprin, 2/14/14 — CNN; Oprah.com

(more…)

Fans of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show know how often he has mined the ongoing story of  the man he calls “Toronto’s crack mayor,” Rob Ford.

So naturally, he’ll compare notes tomorrow night with Toronto Star‘s city hall reporter Robyn Doolittle, whose book, Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story (Penguin) is being released today.

The book wasn’t reviewed pre-pub, so many U.S. libraries have not ordered it. In Toronto, libraries have been “flooded with requests.” For those who can’t get their hands on it, Toronto Life offers “Seven crazy things we learned from Crazy Town” and the book  has brought strong denials from Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother.

UPDATE — As expected, Stewart had fun with this interview. He even extended it to three parts. Below is part one:

Holds continue to rise on Jennifer Senior’s All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood  (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio), spurred by the author’s appearance on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report (video below) as well as NPR’s Fresh Air. The book has also jumped from #24 on Amazon’s sales rankings to #4.

Still to come; an interview with the author is scheduled for Feb. 27 on Good Morning America.

Several years after it was first announced, a TV series based on Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novel, American Gods, (HarperCollins) may be moving forward. Originally set as an HBO series to be produced by Tom Hanks’ Playtone company, the rights have just been picked up by FremantleMedia. On his blog, Gaiman says, “As to where you will be able to see it, who is going to be in it, who will be writing or show-running, none of these things have yet been settled. But it already looks like it’s going to be a smoother run developing it than it had at HBO, so I am very pleased.”

Gaiman also announces that a separate project, based on the American Gods followup, Anansi Boys (HarperCollins), is set to be made into a TV miniseries in the UK for the BBC.

There is also movement on another title in the “long awaited Gaiman adaptations” category. Last month, it was announced that a film version of the Sandman graphic novel series (Vertigo) will be directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who may also star. In an interview, however, Levitt warns it is still “Very, very early days.”

Last year, it was announced that Ron Howard had signed on to direct The Graveyard Book as had Joe Wright for an adaptation of Gaiman’s adult novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

Howard is currently filming another adaptation, Heart of the Sea, based on Nathaniel Philbrick‘s In The Heart of the Sea, scheduled for release on March 13, 2015. Wright is in pre-productionan on Pan, a original prequel to Peter Pan, with Hugh Jackman starring as Blackbeard, now set for release in July, 2015

Back in 2008, when book trailers were in their infancy, the paperback of Kelly Corrigan’s first book, The Middle Place, soared as a simple video of her reading from it made its way around the Internet.

Corrigan’s third book Glitter and Glue, (RH/Ballantine, out today), comes with another equally affecting video of Corrigan doing a simple reading. Now that  book trailers are often indistinguishable from movie trailers,  with some even including well-known actors, it is particularly refreshing.

The book is now rising on Amazon. The audio version (RH Audio)  is, of course, read by the author.