Welcome to EarlyWord
We're happy to announce our latest addition -- EarlyWord YA GalleyChat. Please join us the second Tuesday of every month at 4 p.m. Eastern (mark your calendars for Feb. 14. Yes, we heart YA) for a lively discussion of the new galleys grabbing readers' attention. And, don't forget our adult GalleyChat, the first Tuesday of each month (info on how to join each, here).
Let us know what is happening in your library. Email me with information on books that are getting an unexpected number of holds and the titles you enjoy recommending.
Keep on reading,
NoraNora Rawlinson Co-Founder and Editor
Fox has acquired John Green’s new book and #1 NYT Best Seller, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton; Brilliance Audio). Variety reports that Twilight producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen have signed on to do the adaptation.
John just wrapped a 17-city tour for the book. He talks about how it felt, below.
Technically, it’s true, as we reported earlier, that a Hunger Games teaser won’t air during the Super Bowl — however, one will appear during the pregame show.
Trying to stay current with this is dizzying. A teaser for the teaser appeared on Entertainment Tonight, briefly on the Web before it was yanked by the studio. As of now, it’s back up:
Finally, an answer for all the teens who have been anxiously awaiting news about the film version of Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Hachette/LBYR, 2009). Movie news sources, including Entertainment Weekly‘s blog, report that it now has financing from Warner Bros. and the first cast member has been named, Oscar nominee, Viola Davis. Filming is scheduled to begin in April in New Orleans.
Davis will play Amma, referred to by some sites as a librarian. However, in the book is Amma is a housekeeper. There is a librarian in the book, but she is called “Marian” (of course).
The filmmakers may have been waiting for the full series to be complete before moving ahead. Since it was signed in 2009, the second two books in the trilogy have been published, Beautiful Darkness (2010) and Beautiful Chaos (2011). Hollywood loves teen franchises.
The effect of the Newbery and Caldecott awards on book sales is seen in the Feb 12 NYT Best Seller list; both the medalists and one of the honor books make their debuts.
Sales are for the week ending Saturday, January 28, the week of the awards, which were announced that Monday.
#3 – Caldecott Medal
A Ball for Daisy, by Chris Raschka
RH/Schwartz & Wade – (2011-05-10)
ISBN/EAN: 037585861X/9780375858611
NYT Description: Daisy’s favorite ball is destroyed by a bigger dog; a 2012 Caldecott winner.
#8 – Caldecott Honor
Grandpa Green, by Lane Smith,
Macmillan/Roaring Brook, 8/30/11
ISBN/EAN: 1596436077/9781596436077
NYT Description: In a topiary garden, a boy narrates the story of his great-grandfather’s life.
#6 — Newbery Medal
Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos
Macmillan/FSG, 9/13/11
ISBN / EAN: 0374379939 / 9780374379933
NYT Description: Typing obituaries for a neighbor lands Jack in a string of comic adventures; a 2012 Newbery winner.
A long-standing tradition was broken last year. The winners of the Newbery and Caldecott Awards were not invited to appear on the Today Show the day after the announcements. They were snubbed again this year, despite ALA’s efforts to reach out to the shows, as reported by Publishers Weekly.
It’s beginning to seem that the 2009 appearance, below, will be the last one.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The winners were not overlooked by NPR, however, which featured an interview with Caldecott medalist Chris Raschka on All Things Considered. Newbery medalist Jack Gantos appeared on NPR’s comedy show, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! on Saturday.
As for the Today Show, it did feature a children’s title this week. On Wednesday, Henry Winkler talked about the debut of Zero to Hero, (Scholastic, Jan 1), the first book in his new Ghost Buddy series. Despite the attention, it currently falls far below the Newbery and Caldecott medalists on Amazon sales rankings.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Author Christopher Paul Curtis appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered to discuss his book, The Watson Go to Birmingham - 1963, (RH/Yearling, 1995), the January pick for The Back Seat Book Club (a club for the kids who hear NPR from that spot as they are being ferried from place to place).
For February, the Club is featuring two titles, published over fifty years apart, but with a similar theme; the prejudice that kids from other 
countries face from their American school mates.
The classic The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes (HMH), about a young Polish girl who is mercilessly teased, was published in 1944 and won a Newbery Honor. Shooting Kabul by N. H. Senzai, (S&S, Paula Wiseman), the story of an 11-year-old who moves to California from Kabul, came out in 2010.
In addition to inviting questions from kids, NPR also invites them to send in photos of the places and people they love (the boy in Shooting Kabul finds solace in photography). Selected photos will be featured on the NPR web site.
YA author John Green, currently in the midst of a 17-city book tour, was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, talking about his new book, The Fault in Our Stars (Dutton; Brilliance Audio), which debuted at #1 on the NYT children’s chapter books best seller list in its first week on sale.
If you’ve heard Green speak, or watched his frenetic vlog, you’ll wonder who suggested that he slow down for NPR.
During his tour, he appeared at ALA Midwinter and at the Dallas Public Library, as part of a fundraiser for the Freedom to Read Foundation, saying controversial things like people should pay taxes, teachers should be allowed to teach and librarians to select books.
The book War Horse by Michael Morpurgo is now a best seller, thanks to the long-running play in London and on Broadway, and Steven Spielberg’s movie. Today’s NYT Arts Beat blog quotes the author saying that before the adaptations, “It simply was not a book that anyone really knew about or cared about,” selling just 25,000 copies in its first 25 years. The play brought sales of 950,000 copies and the movie put it at #1 on the NYT Children’s paperback list, where it has remained for the last seven weeks (it rose as high as #17 on the USA Today general list).
Now Morpurgo and his book are getting even more attention. ALA has announced that the author, who is the Children’s Laureate in the UK, will deliver the 2013 Arbuthnot Lecture. Applications for hosting the lecture will be available this spring on the ALSC Web site.
 |
|
Elton John’s production company, Rocket Pictures, has purchased the best selling children’s fiction series, Nerds (Abrams/Amulet), reports Deadline. The books are about five nerdy kids who happen to be secret agents (or, as author Michael Buckley describes the characters, “James Bond with asthma”) .
The most recent title in the series, NERDS Book Three: The Cheerleaders of Doom came out in September. Elton John’s company has had experience with adaptations, having produced Gnomeo and Juliet.
Long in the works (it was first signed in 2009), a movie version of the YA series Sweet Valley High will be musical. Diablo Cody, who wrote the screenplay for Young Adult (now in theaters, starring Charlize Theron) and Juno, is at work on the adaptation. She recently told MTV that original music is being written for it and it “may be” a musical. Last week, she confirmed that it will be in an interview in The Guardian. No casting yet, but with so many adult fans in the media, speculation is rife.
The first Sweet Valley High book came out in 1983. The series ran for 20 years spawning over 150 titles plus multiple spin-offs as well as a TV series, and last year’s Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later (St. Martin’s; released in paperback this month) which takes the characters into adulthood.
Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog
Stephen Colbert bravely sat down with Maurice Sendak, who repaid him by calling him a “man of little imagination” (and Newt Gingrich an “idiot”).
Part One:
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Part Two (in which Sendak calls Colbert an “idiot” — watch to the end to find out what he thinks of eBooks):
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Following up on our previous story about the sales impact of the major ALA Youth Media Awards, we tracked Amazon sales rankings from the day of the award through today, using Publishers Marketplace‘s Book Tracker tool.
For each title, we’ve shown the lowest and highest rankings the day of the award announcements, followed by the highest rankings for each day since (Amazon updates its rankings daily); several titles have reached new highs.
This is our first tracking of the honor books; every one of those titles has also risen in the rankings.
NEWBERY MEDAL
Dead End in Norvelt, Jack Gantos (Macmillan/FSG, 9/13/11)
1/23/12
Lowest — #27,842
Highest — #18
1/24/12 — #11
1/25/12 — #10
1/26/12 — #13
NEWBERY HONOR BOOKS
Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai, (HarperCollins, 2/22/11) – also won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
1/23/12
Lowest — #3,859
Highest — #108
1/24/12 — #55
1/25/12 — #92
1/26/12 — #131
Breaking Stalin’s Nose, Eugene Yelchin (Macmillan/Holt, 9/27/11)
1/23/12
Lowest — #294,522
Highest — #67
1/24/12 — #76
1/25/12 — #107
1/26/12 — #183
CALDECOTT MEDAL
A Ball for Daisy, Chris Raschka (RH/ Schwartz & Wade, 5/10/11) — also a NYT Best Illus. Book
1/23/12
Lowest — #22,059
Highest — #16
1/24/12 — #9
1/25/12 — #9
1/26/12 — #17
Tracking for the Caldecott Honor Books, the Printz and Coretta Scott King Awards after the jump:
It’s well-known that ALA’s Youth Media Awards have an impact on sales. To track how much of an impact, we checked the Newbery, Caldecott and Printz winners on Amazon sales rankings before and two hours after they were announced (UPDATE: we checked again the day after; see updated figures below). As expected, each experienced a swift rise. The Newbery winner rose to the highest level, while the dark horse of the group, the Printz showed the most dramatic rise.
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. The response to this win was a pleasant surprise. Gantos is no stranger to awards; he has won two Newbery Honors, a Printz Honor, and a Silbert Honor, but this is his first Medal. The book was on three major best books lists we tracked this year. By contrast, Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck (Scholastic), also considered a contender, was on seven. Before the award, Dead End in Norvelt, was at #27,051 on Amazon sales rankings. Two hours later, it rose to #192. UPDATE: The day after the announcements, it rose to #11.
Four large library systems own a total of 96 copies (those same libraries own 536 copies of Wonderstruck).
 |
|
Macmillan Audio, 9781427213563
The cover of the book bears some resemblance to another title that was considered a strong candidate for the award:
 |
|
A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka, appeared on two best books lists (SLJ and NYT Best Illustrated Books). It was at #22,059 on Amazon sales rankings before the award, rising to #304 two hours later. UPDATE: The day after the announcements, it rose to #9.
The four major libraries we checked own a total of 86 copies.
 |
|
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley. The dark horse of the awards, this title appeared only on the PW Best Books list. At the time of the pick, it was at #97,910 on Amazon sales rankings and rose to #328 two hours later. UPDATE: Later in the day, it rose to #76, settling back down to #117 the day after the announcements.
The four libraries we checked own 43 copies.
|
Trade Paperback, S&S/Atheneum, 9781442413344
The news that the studio behind the Hunger Games, Lions Gate has bought Summit, the studio behind Twilight, has raised speculation that Meyer’s series will not go gentle into that good night after Breaking Dawn Part 2 hits theaters in November. An L.A. Times headline procliams “Twilight saga may continue after fifth film, Lions Gate CEO says.”
The actual comment is not so definitive. Asked whether Twilight will continue, Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer basically said, ”Boy I hope so.”
Meanwhile, Meyer is part of the production team working on the adaptation of her non-Twilight title, The Host. It begins shooting February 13 in Baton Rouge and stars Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) William Hurt and Max Irons (Red Riding Hood) and is scheduled to release on March 12, 2013.
The kids at the Bank Street College of Education School for Children have decided which book they think should win the upcoming Printz Award. Forty-Two twelve and thirteen-year olds read, reviewed, discussed and voted on titles from a shortlist of 17 titles and the winner is:
 |
|
——————————
In addition, they chose three honor books:
 |
|
Penguin Audio; Large Print, Thorndike; OverDrive, ebook and audio
——————————
 |
|
———————————–
 |
|
Following the jump, the rest of the titles from the short list:
