In addition to her bestselling Neapolitan novels, the mysterious Elena Ferrante has written a book for children aged 6-10.

The Beach at Night (Europa Editions; ISBN 9781609453701; Dec. 6, 2016; it may not yet be on wholesaler sites), reports The Wall Street Journal, will hit shelves later this year,

“Star translator,” Ann Goldstein, who translated Ferrante’s blockbuster adult titles into English will translate this tale as well.

Previously published in Italy in 2007, sales were tepid, reports WSJ, but Ferrante’s U.S. publisher, Europa, says that was before she became a household name and booksellers were “perplexed” by how to position it.

All that has changed, prompting the re-release in America.

The Beach at Night is a spinoff of an earlier Ferrante novel, The Lost Daughter, which includes a scene of  an adult stealing a doll from a child during a seaside vacation. Abandoned rather than stolen in the new book, the doll is left alone to face the terrors of the night in Ferrante’s newest.

Is that a story that will work for young readers? According to the WSJ, Ferrante, known for her often dark adult novels, “doesn’t sugarcoat things for young readers.”

The British trade publication, The Bookseller offers this summary:

“Celina [the lost doll] is having a terrible night, one full of jealousy for the new kitten, Minù, feelings of abandonment and sadness, misadventures at the hands of the beach attendant, and dark dreams. But she will be happily found by Mati, her child, once the sun rises.”

“Highly anticipated” is a term that is loosely thrown around. In the case of the debut novel The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (HarperCollins/Ecco; HarperAudio), that claim can be documented, beginning with a major publishing auction that led to an estimated seven figure advance.

The plot is succinctly described by Kirkus in a starred review, “Dysfunctional siblings in New York wig out when the eldest blows their shared inheritance.” LJ comments that the story “typifies the Internet meme ‘white people problems’ even more than most current New York City-based literary fiction,” but concludes that the themes are nonetheless universal, “Anyone with siblings will appreciate the character dynamics at play here, although they may not care much for each character individually. A fun, quick read recommended for fans of Emma Straub and Meg Wolitzer.”

The author, who lives in L.A., clearly has Hollywood connections (her husband, as noted in a this week’s New York magazine profile, is Conan O’Brien’s head writer). The cover blurb is from Amy Poehler. “Intoxicating … I couldn’t stop reading or caring about the juicy and dysfunctional Plumb family” (no news yet on a film adaptation. Oddly, however, the latest Amy Poehler/Tina Fey film Sisters, was originally titled The Nest). A clever trailer released in January, stars several faces familiar from big and small screens (as well as author Susan Orleans), talking about their own sibling relationships.

Also a hit with booksellers and librarians, it is the #1 Indie Next title for April and on the March LibraryReads list. It is this week’s “Book of the Week” in People magazine and gets a strong review from Entertainment Weekly.

Many libraries are showing holds that outstrip cautious ordering.

Usual Suspects

Leading in holds for the week is Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once, also a LibraryReads pick (see below).

Another week brings another new book by James Patterson. This time, he is targeting Dork Diaries fans, with a middle-grade novel featuring a girl called Jacky Ha-Ha (Hachette/ Jimmy Patterson; Hachette Audio) because she just can’t stop cracking jokes.

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of March 21, 2016

Media Magnets

Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening, John Elder Robison, (PRH/Spiegel & Grau; RH and  BOT Audio)

Known for his  2007 memoir Look Me in the Eye, about living with Asberger’s, Robison is also the brother of another famous memoirist, Augusten Burroughs, who also has a new memoir, arriving just a week later, Lust & Wonder. In this book, Robison writes about undergoing a treatment to reverse his condition. The title of his essay in today’s New York Times “An Experimental Autism Treatment Cost Me My Marriage” indicates that  the outcome was not completely what he wished for. On Tuesday, Robison is scheduled to appear on NPR’s All Things Considered and on PBS’s NewsHour.

Back from the Dead, Bill Walton & John Papanek, (S&S; S&S Audio)

Basketball legend Walton suffered multiple sports injuries, including one that left him paralyzed. Now recovered, he recounts his experiences in this memoir. He is scheduled for appearances next week on Good Morning America as well as several ESPN shows and NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Peer Picks

The Nest, covered above, is a favorite of both booksellers and librarians, who are also in agreement about a several other titles arriving next week.

The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson, (PRH/Random; Random House Audio; OverDrive Sample), is the #1 LibraryReads pick for March and on the Indie Next list for April.

Paulette Brooks, of Elm Grove Public Library, Elm Grove, WI offers this warm invitation to start reading:

“Fans of Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand have reason to rejoice. She has created another engaging novel full of winsome characters, this time set during the summer before the outbreak of World War I. Follow the story of headstrong, independent Beatrice Nash and kind but stuffy surgeon-in-training Hugh Grange along with his formidable Aunt Agatha. Make a cup of tea and prepare to savor every page!”

Jane Steele, Lyndsay Faye (PRH/G.P. Putnam’s Sons; OverDrive Sample).
Abbey Stroop, of Herrick District Library, Holland, MI says:

“Jane Steele is a great read for lovers of Victorian literature who especially love their characters to have a lot of pluck! Jane Steele is the adventurous, irreverent, foul-mouthed broad that I so often loved about Jane Eyre, but in more wily circumstances. Remember that fabulous scene in Jane Eyre when she stands up to her aunt for the first time, and how you wanted to stand up from your comfy reading chair and cheer for her? Imagine an entire book just of those sorts of scenes. Absolutely fabulous fun!”

Faye’s clever take on Brontë is getting attention from other quarters. An April Indie Next pick, it is also  People pick this week and a favorite among GalleyChatters. USA Today featured the novel in a story on literary mashups. UPDATE: 3/21/16, Film rights were acquired by Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures.

Fool Me Once, Harlan Coben (PRH/Dutton; Brilliance Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Lisa Sprague, of Public Services Librarian, Enfield Public Library, Enfield, CT writes:

“Coben has made me lose more sleep over the years than all my other favorite authors combined. Joe Burkett has been murdered in front of his wife Maya. They have a two year old daughter who has a nanny. After the funeral, a friend gives her a picture frame that hides a camera so she can check on the care the nanny is providing her daughter. She watches the recording. Can she believe what she saw? Is she going crazy? Both? Buy a ticket for the coaster and find out for yourself. Keep your hands inside the car; it’s going to be a wild ride.”

Dimestore: A Writer’s Life, Lee Smith (Workman/Algonquin; OverDrive Sample).

Lois Gross, of Hoboken Public Library, Hoboken, NJ says of Smith’s memoir:

“Evenly divided between a book about Smith’s process and her life, first as a Southern mountain child and, later, as the parent of a schizophrenic child, this book is interesting and compelling. Despite being surrounded by loving family and being blessed with an active imagination, Lee copes with a mentally ill mother. Later, her son’s mental illness and early death brings her to the breaking point but she is saved by her writing. This is a read-alike for Karr’s The Liars Club. It desperately needs a cinematic translation for it’s elegant and evocative writing.”

One final bookseller pick, from the Indie Next April list, comes out this week. The Charm Bracelet, Viola Shipman (Macmillan/Thomas Dunne Books; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“This is the story of three women slowly losing themselves until they are reunited in Scoops, Michigan, at the beginning of summer: Arden, working at a job that gives her nothing but a paycheck; Lauren, becoming sadder as she moves farther from doing what she loves most; and Lolly, gradually forgetting all the things in her life that brought her joy and happiness. Linked together like the charms on their wrists, Arden, Lauren, and Lolly will remind each other of times gone by, how to appreciate the present, and how to embrace whatever the future brings. Reading this sweet story reminded me how lucky we are if we are close to those who share our history.” —Sylvia Smith, Bookmiser, Roswell, GA.

Tie-ins

There are no tie-ins publishing this week. For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins).

Fulfilling hints last week that the film adaptation of Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, Allegiant, would open to some hard critical hits, The Guardian gives it two stars (out of five), saying “All types of people will find something that irks them in the penultimate part of the Divergent franchise,” while A.V. Club gave it a C+, under the headline “Allegiant is the best Divergent yet, and still not good enough.”

The news for The Little Prince was even worse, it was yanked from distribution just a few days before it was due to open. UPDATE: Netflix has since picked up the rights with plans to stream it “later this year.”

Whether or not it does well at the box office, Miracles from Heaven, starring Jennifer Garner opening today has already propelled the tie-in onto best seller lists. It moved to #20 on the week’s USA Today list.

On to next week. Viewers will have a chance to re-visit a number of favorite characters from the past.

The biggest movie opening is Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Starring Ben Affleck as Batman, Henry Cavill as Superman, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. It opens March 25th.

Anticipation is high for the iconic smackdown as Batman decides Superman is a bit out of control. Deadline reports advanced ticket sales are outpacing those for Deadpool, Avengers, and Furious 7.

A junior novel tie-in came out last month. It was billed as a companion novel and riffs off the movie, Cross Fire: An Original Companion Novel (Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice), Michael Kogge (Scholastic Inc.; OverDive Sample).

I Saw The Light also opens on the 25th. It tells the story of country-western singer Hank Williams and stars Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen.

A tie-in came out last November: I Saw the Light: The Story of Hank Williams, Colin Escott with George Merritt and William MacEwen (Hachette/Back Bay Books; OverDrive Sample).

In TV-land PBS fans mourning the end of Downton can console themselves with the start of the second season of Grantchester, starring the dishy village vicar who loves jazz music and a married woman. It will run from March 27 until May 1.

These slightly less than cozy tales are adapted from the books by James Runcie, which collect a series of short mystery stories into several volumes. A tie-in edition, Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA; OverDrive Sample), comes out March 22.

Fans of The Bridge get ready for part 2. Hallmark fast tracked it after the success of part one which aired in December.

A tie-in edition came out in October 2015, The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury (S&S/Howard Books; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample).

Over on NBC Heartbeat begins. The show is loosely based on the real life story of Dr. Kathy Magliato, one of the nation’s few women heart surgeons. She wrote a medical memoir, Healing Hearts, which was reissued as Heart Matters: A Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon (PRH/Harmony; OverDrive Sample) back in 2011. It now bears the sticker, “The Book That Inspired Heartbeat Now on NBC.”

The show begins airing on March 23.

The hosts of HTGV’s popular design show Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna Gaines, have teamed up with New York Times bestselling collaborator Mark Dagostino on a memoir.

The Magnolia Story (Thomas Nelson) is due out on Oct. 18 (Magnolia is the name of their various businesses).

People offered a “first look” at the cover and reports the memoir starts long before the couple became famous for their 360-degree restorations of houses in need of repair.

Casual viewers of Fixer Upper may be surprised that the book is published by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, not known for design books. Although they don’t talk about it on the show, the Gaines have a strong Christian faith (the Billy Graham web site published a story last fall titled, “How God Used Billy Graham to Influence Fixer Upper Family“) and The Magnolia Story is primarily a memoir.

Joanna Gaines is also working on a design book, as noted in a press release, to be published by Thomas Nelson Gift Books in early 2017.

Expect an extensive media campaign for the memoir closer to pub. date.

Remember the novel Dark Debts by Karen Hall? It came out in 1996 and was a Book of the Month Club main selection. Called by the publisher as a cult hit that “wildly original theological thriller ” that “masterfully combines southern gothic, romantic comedy, and mystery.” Entertainment Weekly gave it an unimpressive C-. Paramount optioned it for a project that never took off.

As The New York Times reports, Ms. Hall, once a TV writer and now an indie bookstore owner, was never completely happy with it either and spent twenty years obsessing over her one and only novel,

“I never stopped thinking about it … I always knew I would never write another book until I got this one right … everything I didn’t like about it made me cringe.”

In a unique publishing path, she is getting a do-over. The audio producer, Audible approached Ms. Hall about doing an adaptation, which made her editor at Simon & Schuster think that would make a good launching pad for a 20th anniversary edition (S&S; S&S Audio; OverDrive Sample). Ms. Hall agreed on the condition that she could revise it.

After twenty years of thinking about the novel, her alterations are “dramatic and subtle” says the NYT. She changed the story’s ending, added and cut characters, took out the profanity, and toned down the violence.

Time will tell if the second shot grabs readers. Currently the novel, which published yesterday, is pretty low on Amazon’s rankings and orders are low to nonexistent in libraries we checked (a few of which still have the 1996 edition). But just think of the book club possibilities!

Librarian Nancy Pearl knows a thing or two about reviewing which adds extra interest to her interview with A. O. Scott, chief film critic for The New York Times. In the latest episode of her Book Lust Author Interview show, Nancy weighs what Scott says about films against what she knows about books.

His book, Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth (PRH/Penguin; Recorded Books; OverDrive Sample), addresses criticism itself as well as the process of being a critic.

In the interview, Scott and Nancy talk about the importance of criticism and contrast movie and book reviewing (he’s done both). He maintains the fundamental difference has to do with scale.

With the huge number of titles released in a year, book critics tend to focus on a narrow segment, literary novels and serious nonfiction. There are far fewer movies, so film critics can see a great many in the course of a year. As a result, they can cover a wider range of genres and have a broader perspective on what is interesting and valuable.

He also notes that book reviewing, since so much of it is done by other authors with vested interests, can be incestuous.

His own book is getting of attention. How could it not,  as a comment on criticism for other critics to take on?

In what could be called an incestuous action of its own, Scott’s own publication, the NYT runs a strong review by Michael Wood. The Atlantic does not agree, saying the book “says nothing.” The New Yorker, LA Times, Slate, and The Millions have all weighed in as well.

No soaring for The Little Prince film, at least not yet.

In an odd and sudden move, Paramount has decided not to distribute the film in the US, on the eve of its March 18th scheduled arrival. UPDATE: Netflix has since picked up the rights with plans to stream it “later this year.”

According to Variety there is no word on why, but director Mark Osborne tweeted out a promise that it will come out later this year via a different distributor:

.@SarahSerata @ParamountPics All I can say is #thelittleprince will in fact be released by another distributor later this year.

— Mark Osborne (@happyproduct) March 12, 2016

As we have been reporting (here, here, and here), it has gotten a warm reception where it has aired globally and publisher HMH issued two tie-ins and released a new translation in hardcover last October as well as board books.

Beyond the comforts of those books, another look at the enchanting trailer is the only option right now for frustrated fans.

The hip hop musical Hamilton is sweeping the box office and every award it encounters. Yesterday, the Broadway sensation headed off-Broadway, all the way to the White House.

It was actually a return performance. Seven years ago, rapper and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda gave the president a taste of a “concept album based on the life of I someone I think embodies hip hop: Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton.” Yesterday, the full cast performed songs from the resulting musical.

In this first clip, the President talks about the musical and then the cast performs the opening number, “Alexander Hamilton.”

Here the cast performs “My Shot.”

There was a even a Rose Garden rap session, which, fulfilling POTUS’s prediction, immediately went viral.

Miranda’s preview of the work in progress seven years ago brought the President to his feet.

The interest in the hidden identity of Elena Ferrante, author of the Neapolitan novels that have swept through the best seller lists, hit a boil this weekend, sending her titles soaring again on Amazon.

The real author behind the Ferrante pseudonym has rigorously kept her (or his) true identity private. She grants email interviews only and those exchanges pass through her publisher.

That only fuels speculation, and the latest, reports The New York Times, comes from an Italian author and professor who has conducted an historical and literary study of the books. He sets his eyes on a fellow professor from Naples named Marcella Marmo. Both Ms. Marmo and Ferrante’s publishers flatly deny it.

“It’s nonsense,” said the publishers and “I’m not Elena Ferrante,” said Ms. Marmo. Those predictable responses have not quelled speculation.

Holds and circulation remain high across the series that includes My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of The Lost Child (all published by Europa Editions)

Just last week, it was announced that Ferrante is on the longlist for the Man Booker International Prize, adding even more interest to this long-running literary parlor game.

The holds leaders of the titles arriving next week are by two authors who, despite long histories, keep up an amazing pace.

Private Paris, James Patterson (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print, OverDrive Sample)

In a spinoff of the Private series that Patterson began with co-author Maxine Paetro, the head of the investigative agency, Jack Morgan drops in on offices around the world. Sometimes, as he did in Private India, Patterson takes the opportunity to work with a local author. Not so this time. Mark Sullivan is an American who has co-authored several previous Private titles (Games, Berlin, L.A) and has written several solo novels. His first, The Fall Line (1994), was a New York Times’ best book of the year.

Property of a Noble Woman, Danielle Steel (PRH/Delacorte; RH Large Print; Brilliance)

If it seems that you’re seeing more from Danielle Steel than usual, that’s correct. The publisher has declared 2016 the “Year of Danielle Steel,” with six new titles being released (an increase from the slothful pace of just four). Blue arrived in January. Upcoming are The Apartment in May, Magic in July, Rushing Waters in August and The Award in November. In this one, two people bond while investigating the contents of a mysterious safe deposit box.

The titles covered here, and several other notable titles arriving next week, are listed with ordering information and alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, EarlyWord New Title Radar, Week of March 14, 2916. NOTE; Beginning this week, the list also include all the week’s picks from People magazine.

Consumer Media Picks

If at Birth You Don’t Succeed: My Adventures with Disaster and Destiny, Zach Anner, (Macmillan/Holt; Macmillan Audio)

People magzaine’s “Book of the Week” (the other five pics for the week are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet).

Comedian Zach Anner has cerebral palsy, but that hasn’t slowed him down. In this memoir, he writes about winning his own travel show on the Oprah Winfrey Network, Rollin’ With Zach and hosting the Have A Little Faith show produced by Rainn Wilson’s media company SoulPancake. People calls the result, “Hilarious and inspiring, Anner has made life filled with fans, love and Internet fame.”

Peer Picks

Five Indie Next picks hit the shelves next week, from the March and April lists:

At the Edge of the Orchard, Tracy Chevalier (PRH/Viking; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

“Robert Goodenough was born in Ohio’s Black Swamp. The youngest of 10 children, he was the only one with any interest in his father’s obsession of buying seedlings from John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, and trying to cultivate and perfect his apple orchard in the inhospitable black muck. Family tragedy sends Robert running west to California and the Gold Rush, where he finds solace in the redwoods and sequoias and meets a naturalist who recognizes his love of botany. But Robert is reluctantly forced to face his past and must decide to either claim it or set out on his own path. Chevalier’s tale is a thoughtfully crafted and vivid slice of pioneer life.” —Jody Misner Chwatun, Saturn Booksellers, Gaylord, MI

Shelter, Jung Yun (Macmillan/Picador; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

“Shelter is the perfect example of that extraordinary kind of story that careens down a path toward a conclusion that feels somehow both completely surprising and totally inevitable. Kyung Cho is a young father whose anxiety over present financial concerns couples with damage from past traumas to inhabit every breath he takes. His precarious equilibrium is shattered when his parents are the victims of a cruel act of violence and he is called upon to react with a compassion and forgiveness that he may not possess. This novel is a dark and moving portrait of a family and what it ultimately means to love.” —Mary Cotton, Newtonville Books, Newton Centre, MA

It was also a GalleyChat favorite.

Two If by Sea, Jacquelyn Mitchard (Simon & Schuster).

“Mitchard has woven a gripping narrative of a family borne out of tragedy. Frank loses his wife and unborn son to a tsunami, and in the midst of rescuing others saves a small boy. This child, Ian, possesses a special gift that impacts those around him in powerful ways. As Frank tries to form a new family, there are repercussions from Ian’s past that put them both at risk. This is the marvelous story of Frank and Ian’s journey as both try to handle the pain of the past and accept the joy of new beginnings. I loved it!” —Stephanie Crowe, Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL

A Man Lies Dreaming, Lavie Tidhar (Melville House; OverDrive Sample).

If this book’s reception in the U.K. is any indication, we will be hearing a lot about this book. The Guardian writes, “Somehow this shocking book turns genocide into pulp fiction – and gets away with it.” The Telegraph adds, that it is “weird, upsetting, unmissable.” NPR.org is the first to cover it here, “Unnerving WWII Noir In A Man Lies Dreaming.”

“Tidhar’s brilliant novel channels pulp fiction conventions to grapple with the horrors of the Holocaust. In its opening pages, readers are dropped into late 1930s England where Oswald Mosley is about to become prime minister and Hitler, whose Nazi party was defeated by the Communists, is a down-at-the-heels private investigator, a sad and tortured little man. As it turns out, this alternate history is a fever dream of a prisoner at Auschwitz. Who is to say that turning the powerful into the defeated — even as a fantasy — isn’t an important tool in coping with brutality and dehumanization?” —Anmiryam Budner, Main Point Books, Bryn Mawr, PA

Margaret the First, Danielle Dutton (Perseus/Catapult; OverDrive Sample).

“Dutton’s novel takes the already extraordinary life of Margaret Cavendish — 17th century natural philosopher, author of The Blazing World, and Duchess of Newcastle — and transforms it into a stunning work of historical fiction. With women in the sciences a hot issue today, Margaret the First satisfies a craving for women’s writing, women’s voices, and women’s stories, painting a portrait of a sensitive, thoughtful woman hungry not just for praise and recognition, but acknowledgment, affirmation, and validation. Margaret the First is a triumph!” —Liz Wright, Brazos Bookstore, Houston, TX

All Star

Exit, Pursued by a Bear, E.K. Johnston (PRH/Dutton Books for Young Readers; BOT; OverDrive Sample).

A YA novel about a star cheerleader who is drugged and raped during a party garners star reviews from every pre-pub source. Booklist says “Fierce and gorgeously drawn, this is a rape story that doesn’t focus on victimhood,” while Kirkus says “Middle and high school readers will pass this powerful, engaging story around and around. Adults should be ready to join in the discussion that follows.”

Tie-ins

There are no tie-ins publishing this week. For our full list of upcoming adaptations, download our Books to Movies and TV and link to our listing of tie-ins.

There is plenty to watch next week, with six adaptations airing on screens big and small.

The newcomers arrive after a so-so week for books to screen performances. Season 2 of Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s character, got little attention and the reviewers who did take note offered warm, but not glowing, praise.

Forbes panned The Young Messiah, based on Anne Rice’s Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt, (RH/Knopf, 2005) saying “the writer-director is either grossly pandering to his perceived audience, or has forgotten how to make a movie.”

Next week’s hopefuls are:

Allegiant, part one of the last in the film adaptations of Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, opens March 18 and is already taking hits.

Variety says: “Allegiant will seem awfully meager to those who so recently feasted on … countless other superior examples of the genre.”

Like so many YA adaptations, it will be split in half with the second part due in the summer of 2017.

Tie-ins came out in mid February: Allegiant Movie Tie-in Edition (Harper/Katherine Tegen Books; HarperCollins Audio; OverDrive Sample; in paperback as well).

Next up in the running for the Easter movie to see is Miracles from Heaven, the inspirational story of a young girl inexplicably cured from a terminal illness. It is also getting a lot of buzz with Jennifer Garner on the cover of the most recent issue of Vanity Fair. People has also featured the film.

Tie-ins came out a few weeks ago: Miracles from Heaven: A Little Girl and Her Amazing Story of Healing, Christy Wilson Beam (Hachette Books; Hachette Audio; OverDrive Sample; also in Mass Market). The movie opens March 16.

It is a busy week for adaptations. Here is a run-down on the rest:

The Little Prince, based on the beloved novel by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is getting praise for its fresh approach. While not a straight adaptation, there are tie-ins, The Little Prince Family Storybook: Unabridged Original Text  and The Little Prince Read-Aloud Storybook: Abridged Original Text
(both HMH Books for Young Readers). The film opens in limited release on the 18th, and goes wide on the 25th.

And Then There Were None is a BBC/Lifetime three-episode adaptation of Agatha Christie’s famous novel. It begins airing on March 14. There is a tie-in: And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie (Harper/William Morrow Paperbacks; OverDrive Sample).

A.V. Club is already a fan, calling it “note-perfect” and saying “if you’re looking for an unabashedly bloodstained gothic take on pre-war psychological horror that locks 10 great actors in a room and makes them battle it out … are you ever in luck.”

Season two of Netflix’s Daredevil starts up again on March 18. There is not a direct tie-in but there are plenty of comics. Reading guides are offered by the sites Comic Book Hero and Comic Vine.

The Program, a biopic about Lance Armstrong with Ben Foster playing the role of the disgraced cyclist, premieres March 18. Although it is an adaptation of David Walsh’s 2013 book Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong, there is no US tie-in edition.

Called one of the “most anticipated” novels of this season, with that status further cemented by an author profile in the NYT‘s Sunday Magazine, Dana Spiotta’s Innocents and Others (S&S/Scribner; Simon & Schuster Audio; OverDrive Sample) is the book that all the critics want to weigh in on.

The Washington Post ‘s influential critic Ron Charles is a fan, calling it a “quiet miracle,”

“If you enter the theater of this novel, get set to weather some disorientation as soon as the lights dim … but stay in your seat and pay attention. Soon enough, all [Spiotta’s] literary chicanery comes into focus, creating a brilliant split-screen view of women working within and without the world of Hollywood.”

But the daily NYT‘s formidable Michiko Kakutani couldn’t disagree more:

“Unfortunately, Innocents does not deliver on its ambitions … [it] turns out to be a lumpy, unpersuasive novel — enlivened by some arresting moments and thoughtful riffs, but ultimately a sort of hodgepodge of derivative scenes and ideas that have been cut together into a meaning-heavy montage.”

Few are on Kakutani’s side. This week’s NYT Book Review devotes an entire page to an  appreciative review saying, “Highbrow and lowbrow have cohabitated before, of course, but rarely with this ease or this empathy.” Also strongly positive are the Los Angeles Times, New York magazine, and Vogue.

Entertainment Weekly, however, having listed it as one of “25 books we can’t wait to read in 2016,” follows with a review that gives it just a “B,”  saying the “taught modernist” writing is ultimately “chilly emotionally.”

So far, all the attention isn’t grabbing reader interest. Holds queues are modest, but since libraries ordered very few copies, the ratios are high.

As the award-winning musical Hamilton has proved, Broadway shows based on books can be a good bet. Two drastically different book adaptations try their odds this spring.

Opening on April 26th is Tuck Everlasting: The Musical, based on the modern classic children’s novel by Natalie Babbitt in which a young girl meets the immortal Tuck family. Tuck has already been adapted into two films. It comes to Broadway under the leadership of Tony winner Casey Nicholaw (Aladdin, The Book of Mormon).

On the other end of the spectrum is American Psycho: The Musical based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. It was also previously adapted as a film (starring Christian Bale as the wealthy investment banker serial killer).

To those familiar with the book, the concept of it as a musical may be tough to imagine. According to NewYork.com, “after Sweeney Todd, American Psycho is probably the first Broadway musical with a serial killer as the main character.” It opens in previews March 24.

Beyond the pure adaptions, there is at least one other book hook as well. Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne on The Walking Dead, is a playwright. Her play, Eclipsed, opened on Broadway at the start of this month. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o (Twelve Years a Slave) makes her Broadway debut in the play, set in a Liberian army camp in 2003.

For those who were disappointed that Fifty Shades of Grey wasn’t about “old people getting it on,” a new book takes on the topic. Scary Old Sex: Stories  (Macmillan/Bloomsbury; OverDrive Sample), a debut short story collection by Arlene Heyman, a practicing psychiatrist  is soaring up the Amazon charts, jumping from #6,527 to #303.

In his recent NYT’s review, Dwight Garner praises the collection of stories largely concerned with sex and love past a certain age, saying it is “rueful and funny and observant” and that a few of the stories “take startling turns and have edges made from razor wire.”

While acknowledging that some of the stories are not completely successful, Garner says “Ms. Heyman is never an uninteresting writer … These men and women are busily and blissfully humanizing themselves, the kind of bliss that lifts right off the page.”

Heyman, 73, has been writing privately for decades. Once a student of Bernard Malamud’s, she put that career on the back burner to train as a pyschiatrist. Garner says that readers “can be glad she didn’t abandon it completely, and has been slowly composing these mature and soulful stories.”

How does literature change and shape lives? What are the best ways to share the empowerment of reading with teens? Those questions are dear to librarians, and also to a staff writer for The New Yorker.

David Denby wondered if kids were still reading books in an age of Twitter and Snapchat. To find out he spent a year embedded in a 10th grade English class and then another year in several other schools researching how teachers teach kids to appreciate literature. The result is Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives (Macmillan/Henry Holt; Macmillan Audio; OverDrive Sample).

The book has received the glowing attention of USA Today, The Washington Post. Somewhat less enthusiastic, the New York Times calls it a “a lively account” but fears that “it isn’t clear whether the students are getting as much out of the books as [Denby] believes they are.” 

NPR just posted a web-only interview with Denby, who says of reading literature:

“It’s an enormously powerful critical tool … It’s not simple lessons, of course. And it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s incremental. It happens over your entire life.”

We couldn’t agree more.