The first official trailer for Austenland, produced by Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, was just released online, only a month before the movie begins a limited run in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 16.

Based on Shannon Hale’s first adult novel Austenland, (Bloomsbury USA, 2007; a sequel, Midnight in Austenland, was published last year), it stars Keri Russell as a Jane Austen fan who tries to overcome her debilitating infatuation with Mr. Darcy (specifically, Colin Firth’s version in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) by going to “the world’s only immersive Austen experience,” run by Jane Seymour. Jennifer Coolidge provides ample comic relief in some astounding costumes.

The trade paperback tie-in was released last week.

Disney’s live-action movie based on Judith Viorst’s 1972 hit children’s book  Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Atheneum) is moving closer to the screen.  Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) is directing.  Ed Oxenbould will play Alexander,  Steve Carrell his father, Jennifer Garner his mother. Deadline reports that Dylan Minnette will play the older brother and Kerris Dorsey his sister.

[Note: our earlier story has been corrected; thanks to the reader who caught our error.]

The movie is currently scheduled for release on Oct. 10, 2014.

Calling Ivy Pochoda’s  mystery, Visitation Street, (HarperCollins/Ecco, releasing tomorrow), “utterly transporting,” the new issue of People designates it a “People Pick.”

Set in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood, described by  reviewer Ellen Shapiro, as “a onetime longshoremen’s enclave that’s now a mishmash of abandoned warehouses, hipster renovations and housing projects … [that] emerges as a captivating small town,” it is about the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl, who, with a friend, launched a raft into the New York harbor to try to beat the Brooklyn heat.

On the Saturday of BEA, a dozen GalleyChatters, who had been talking the book up since March, got to soak in the Red Hook atmosphere (not to mention the heat and humidity), during a tour arranged by EarlyWord and the HarperCollins Library Marketing team (Virginia Stanley, Annie Mazes and Kayleigh George who recently left to join the RH/Hogarth imprint). We experienced the starkly contrasting neighborhood elements; within blocks of a large housing project are an upscale chocolate factory, fancy bakeries and even a winery. They all come together in a bar that features prominently in the book. We went there, of course (research demands sacrifice). Once we told the bar owner that we were fans of the book, he said, “Oh, right! Ivy lived across the street. I have a copy of the book I’m giving people on two-week loans. I’ll let you know if anyone come in who appears in the book.”

UPDATE: One of the participants, Robin Beerbower, posted her photos of the trip , complete with quotes from the book.

True enough, we witnessed a woman bring in the precious copy to hand it off to the next reader and, yes, the model for one of the book’s characters dropped by for an afternoon beer.

Visitation Street is the second under the “Dennis Lehane Books” imprint and no wonder. As Kaite Stover, Kansas City P.L, said when she highlighted it during the “Librarian’s Shout ‘n’ Share,” at BEA, “Ivy Pochoda does for Brooklyn’s Red Hook what Dennis Lehane does for South Boston.”

Today’s NYT review of Mark Leibovich’s takedown of D.C. insiders begins with a list of the many things the reviewer finds irritating about the city, including the fact that it is often referred to as “This Town,” which is also the name of the book. From title alone, says the reviewer,  “you know [Leibovich has]  a sharp ear, and a sharp eye to accompany it. You also know that he’s got the sharp knives out.”

This Town, (Penguin/Blue Rider) wasn’t always the book’s title. Many library catalogs are still showing it under an earlier version, The Club.

The book is embargoed until its release a week from Tuesday, but, predictably, the Washington Post already broke it, so the NYT followed suit, even though Leibovich, the chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, is one of their own (the excerpt that is the cover story for the NYT Magazine was probably meant to be the first glimpse of the book).

Highly anticipated, not to mention feared, for months, the cover reportedly carries a frustrating label, “WARNING: This Town does not contain an index. Those players wishing to know how they came out will need to read the book.” The Washington Post overturned this clever marketing ploy by creating an index of their own. Library users seem unimpressd; most libraries are showing few holds on light ordering. The book has broken into the top 100 on Amazon sales rankings, however, reaching a high of #38 on July 4, the day the Washington Post index was released.

As World War Z continues strong at the box office, a zombie apocalypse arrives in kid’s books this week, from Zombelina by Kristyn Crow and Molly Idle, (Macmillan/Walker) about a little green dancer to The Music of Zombies, the fifth in Vivian French’s Tales from the Five Kingdoms series (Candlewick) and Darren Shan’s Zom-B Angels, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR) the fourth in his new YA horror series.

My particular favorite is My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish, by Mo O’Hara, (S&S/Feiwel & Friends), about a budding evil scientist. I am a sucker for what is now called “guys read ” fare, I’m not the only one.  I just got a note from an 8-year-old that reads, “Thank you for the fart book it was reely (sic) funny.” So is this one. I’m looking forward to My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish: The Sea-Quel arriving in January.

Below are other highlights of the week. All the titles noted here and many more, including movie tie-ins, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of July 9.

Picture Books

Rocket’s Mighty Words, Tad Hills, (RH/Schwartz & Wade)

English is hard. Really hard. A lot of it doesn’t make sense to the beginning reader. Sight words are often the key to emergent literacy and fluency. We hear these words. We see these words. We hear these words again, repeating the cycle until we know these words. Then only and only then can we read them. Building our inventory of sight words can make or break of the first reading experiences. After following Rocket’s journey to literacy in How Rocket Learned to Read and Rocket Writes a Story, it is lovely to have him as our guide as we learn to own these words. This is as larger size board book that can be used at story time.

What Floats in a Moat?, Lynne Berry, Matthew Cordell, (S&S Young Readers)

Archie the goat and Skinny the Hen try to find a way to cross a moat through trial and error. The common core educators will fall in love with this simple scientific experiment framed in a picture book format.

Chapter Books

    
Home Sweet Horror  and I Scream, You Scream! (Scary Tales Books 1 and 2) by James Preller, (S&S/Feiwell & Friends, simultaneous paper and hardcover)

I am thrilled with this new series of  early chapter books that are just scary enough for newly fluent third graders. Lots of dark scratchboard illustrations, and a flip animation spider that crawls down the margin, adds visual interest. A third title, arriving in October, brings on the zombies (Good Night, Zombie). At least three more titles are planned in the series.

Nikki and Deja: Substitute Trouble, Karen English, Laura Freeman, (HMH/Clarion)

This is the 6th in a series that is terrific for  librarians looking for great stories that reflect the daily lives of kids. The early chapter book format is one that we can’t get enough of — think Johanna Hurwitz’s  Riverside Kids series (Scholastic), and James Howe’s Pinky & Rex, (Scholastic).

Young Adult 

45 Pounds (More or Less), Kelly Barson, (Penguin/Viking)

Jenny Brown of Shelf Awareness called this story of Ann, a teen aged girl trying to lose weight for her aunt’s wedding, a must-read. I think one of my students “borrowed” my galley so I’ll quote from Jenny’s review, “Teens who struggle with their weight will find a funny, smart companion in Barson’s charming heroine, and those who overlook or judge a classmate like Ann may find themselves taking a moment to get to know him or her. All readers will cheer for this winning character.” Kirkus is also on the bandwagon “‘While lessons are offered, they are deliciously coated in readable prose and a compelling plot.’ SLJ chimes in “Telling the story in Ann’s wry, realistic voice, this debut author effectively captures society’s preoccupation with size and the resulting alienation of an overweight teen.”

It’s a book announcement that caused a molecular biologist blogging on the Scientific American site to go all weak in the knees. Astronaut Chris Hadfield signed a deal with Random House Canada to write two books (Hadfeld is Canadian). The first, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, is scheduled for release on Oct. 29. It will be published in the U.S. on the same date by Hachette/Little, Brown.

Commander of the International Space Station for five months, Hadfield is known his creative use of social media to document his experiences.

At this point, only the Canadian edition is listed on retailer and wholesaler sites. Below is the Random House Canada book trailer.

A psychological thriller that was just declared “Better Than Gone Girl” by the Cleveland Plain Dealer‘s insightful reviewer Laura DeMarco, The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison, (Penguin Trade Pbk original) is showing heavy holds on modest ordering in libraries.

Like the surprise hit it’s compared to, The Silent Wife is the story of a marriage gone wrong, but says DeMarco, in this case, “both members of the couple are a lot more human, more fully fleshed — albeit badly damaged — individuals … Like Gone Girl, The Silent Wife is told in alternating chapters from ‘Him’ and ‘Her.’ But while Flynn’s book almost redefined ‘unreliable narrator,’ Harrison’s narrators come across as more personally deluded than manipulative.”

The Silent Wife is an original trade paperback, which makes it not only easier to buy additional copies but also an immediate book club candidate.

Continuing the “Beach Read Challenge,” the staff at Cuyahoga Public Library are reading ARC’s (both e-ARC’s and print) to identify new titles for summer reading. Supporting the effort, Wendy Bartlett, Collection Development Manager, orders more non-reservable copies of each selected title to make it  available for browsing and recommending. The first pick was The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, Anton DiSclafani, (Penguin/Riverhead). The second arrives next week. The following is from Wendy’s weekly “hot title alert” to the staff:

Letters from Skye by Jessica Brockmole, (RH/Ballantine) [Ed note: Digital ARC’s available from Edelweiss, but hurry, they won’t be available after the book is published next Tuesday].

Here’s another good book to hand customers this summer, one that is a more poignant Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Just prior to World War I, a young American writes a fan letter to his favorite poet. Little does he know that the poet is a lovely young woman. As the letters go back and forth, we learn more about Elspeth and David, and their unfolding, very complicated love story.

Elspeth lives an isolated life on the Isle of Skye, and years later, Elspeth’s daughter Margaret, in the midst of her own love story, tries to piece together what really happened and where her scattered family might be. The mystery keeps the romance from being overly sentimental. You  want to see if it all works out for these likable characters.

If your customers like historical fiction and don’t mind epistolary novels, they’ll enjoy Letters from Skye.

Thanks to Sue Levinsohn and Barb Wilson, who also gave this one a test drive and came back with positive reports!

In press releases issued early this morning, the parent companies of Random House and Penguin announced that they have finalized contracts for a merger of the two, creating the largest trade publishing house in the world, named Penguin Random House (interim logo at the left).

The Random House parent company, Bertelsmann, owns 53 percent of the new company and Penguin parent, Pearson, 47 percent. Random House chief executive Markus Dohle becomes CEO of the  new group and Penguin’s CEO John Makinson, the chairman of its board of directors. The CEO of Penguin USA, David Shanks, has stepped down to serve as Senior Executive Advisor to Dohle and the U.S. executive team. Madeline McIntosh, formerly Chief Operating Officer, Random House U.S., becomes the President and Chief Operating Officer of the new U.S. company.

While it is too early to speculate on the composition of the new company’s library marketing teams, it would make sense on the adult side if they combined each group’s expertise in academic and library marketing into two new larger departments. In terms of eBooks libraries will be waiting to hear if the new company follows the Random House or Penguin models.

Press Releases:

Bertelsmann Press Release

Pearson_Press Release

PRH Press Release