The multiple award-winning debut YA novel, Before I Die by Jenny Downham, (RH/David Fickling, 2007), has been adapted for the screen, with a strong cast, led by Dakota Fanning (trying on a British accent) as 17-year-old Tessa, who is trying to make the most of her life before she dies of leukemia. It also stars Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) as her shy next-door neighbor Adam and Kaya Scodelario (Skins) as her best friend Zoey.

Unfortunately, the title had to be prettied up for the movies, so it has been changed to Now Is Good and, naturally, it’s been given the Hollywood handle of “The Bucket List for Teens.”

A trailer has just been released online. Several sources note it will be released on May 25th, but that is the UK date; the US date has not been set.

You just knew it had to happen. The Carrie Diaries, Candace Bushnell’s YA prequel to Sex and the City, is being made into a pilot by the CW network. Austin Butler (Life Unexpected, Switched at Birth) has just been cast as Sebastian Kydd, the male lead. AnnaSophia Robb (Soul Surfer) is already in place as Carrie the Younger.

The Carrie Diaries Candace Bushnell Retail Price: $18.99 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: HarperTeen/Balzer + Bray – (2010-05-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061728918 / 9780061728914

HarperChildrensAudio; UNAB; 978-0061983948; $25.99

Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel Candace Bushnell Retail Price: $18.99 Hardcover: 421 pages Publisher: Balzer + Bray – (2011-04-26) ISBN / EAN: 0061728934 / 9780061728938

In our story about Oscars based on books, we overlooked one — the Best Animated Short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, based on the book by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg.

The trouble is, there is no book yet. Ironically, the story, which celebrates the joys of the printed page, is currently only available as a storybook app (it was was the top-grossing book app last year and received admiring reviews from both SLJ and Kirkus) and as the animated short.

The print book won’t be released until July by S&S/Atheneum. Joyce who was a formerly a Pixar designer as well as a children’s book author, is the film’s co-director, so he doesn’t have to follow the traditional sequence of book, followed by film adaptation, and then a tie-in edition. As Joyce told Variety last week, his two-year-old company Moonbot Studios sees things differently,

Our properties … our stories — we don’t see them as just one thing in one medium. We sort of sit there and go: “Is this a great movie? Is this a great book?” And if the answers are “yes,” then we think of them in whatever different (form is applicable).

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore William Joyce Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 56 pages Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers – (2012-07-24) ISBN / EAN: 1442457023 / 9781442457027

Joyce and Oldenburg have just released a second app, The Numberlys, which they describe in an Oscar’s backstage interview as “a remake of Metropolis but for kids.” The Variety story says it will also become a printed book, but no news yet on publication date.

Joyce is the executive producer for the Dreamworks feature film, Rise of the Guardians, coming Nov. 21, which involves a complex book publishing program, including picture books and chapter books.

The second title in the chapter book series was published last week:

E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth’s Core! (Guardians of Childhood Chapter Books) William Joyce Retail Price: $14.99 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers – (2012-02-21) ISBN / EAN: 1442430508 / 9781442430501

The poster for the movie was just arrived online.

More good news for teen fans of Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (Hachette/LBYR, 2009). Not only have the two leads been cast for the film adaptation (rising star Jack O’Connell, from the British TV series, Skins and newcomer Alice Englert, join Viola Davis, already cast as Amma), but the authors just announced that the fourth and final volume in the book series, Beautiful Redemption, is coming October 23rd.

The publisher is planning a “cover reveal” in March (oooh, let’s guess; red lettering this time?), but we have the exclusive on the ISBN — 9780316123532.

The Children’s Book Committee
Bank Street College of Education

Cordially invites you to attend a breakfast

celebrating the presentation of

The 2012 Children’s Book Awards

The Josette Frank Award for fiction

The Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for nonfiction

The Claudia Lewis Award for poetry

Thursday, February 23, 2012

9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Bank Street College of Education

The Evelyn Rome Tabas and Daniel Tabas Auditorium

610 West 112th Street

New York, NY 10025-1898

RSVP to bookcom@bankstreet.edu

On the heels of the arrival of the latest in the Fancy Nancy series yesterday, comes the news that Tina Fey is in talks to join Shawn Levy in producing a live-action movie based on the series, for Fox.

Levy directed Fey in Date Night. He’s also had experience with family fare as director of the two Night at the Museum movies.

Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet Jane O’Connor Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 32 pages Publisher: HarperCollins – (2012-02-07) ISBN / EAN: 0061703818 / 9780061703812

A very tall man sat on The View’s couch yesterday. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared on the show to talk about his new book,  What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors (Candlewick, Jan 3).

The book is currently at#26 and rising on Amazon sales rankings.

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What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Raymond Obstfeld Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover: 44 pages Publisher: Candlewick – (2012-01-03) ISBN / EAN: 0763645648 / 9780763645649

The Super Bowl movie trailer that most increased book sales may be The Lorax. Dr. Seuss’s 1971 book  rose to to #108 from #287 after the spot aired.

In addition to the original book, Random House has released a series of tie-ins, including a pop-up and two titles in the  “Step into Reading” series.

It’s difficult to judge the effect the pre-Super Bowl trailer for The Hunger Games. The series has been in the Top Five on Amazon for months.

Several tie-ins release tomorrow (full list, after the jump):

(more…)

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. UPDATE: The movie is now scheduled for release on Feb. 1, 2013.

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 two more titles have been published, Beautiful Darkness (2010) and Beautiful Chaos (2011). Hollywood loves teen franchises. UPDATE: The final book, Beautiful Redemption has been announced for release on Oct. 23.

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.

NYT Children’s Picture Books

#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.

NYT Children’s Chapter Books

#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.

UPDATE: Lionsgate will air a new Hunger Games teaser — not during the Super Bowl, but during the pregame (it’s so much fun trying to keep up with this).

Here’s the teaser for the teaser:

Did you know that the Super Bowl ads are a predictor of the economy? According to the San Francisco Chronicle, there will be more automobile ads this year and the first real estate ad in two decades, indicating that advertisers, at least, think consumers are ready to spend on big-ticket items. And social media has taken hold. No longer content to just create and run a memorable spot, advertisers are leaking teasers online and embedding URL’s so viewers, with tablets, laptops and iPhones in hand as they watch the game, can join contests and share favorite clips with friends.

But one business seems to be pulling back. Last year, movie studios ran ads for 15 films, including 5 based on books or comic books. The L.A. Times‘ roundup of studio advertising this year mentions only 4 spots, with just one based on a book (Disney may use its spot to promote John Carter, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars, RH/Modern Library).

Lionsgate is sitting out this Super Bowl, so fans of Hunger Games will not be treated to a new trailer (the latest one, below, was released in mid November). That may be a good thing. Promotion via social media, has been so heavy that some media observers wonder if all that blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, Googling, and YouTubing is just too much.

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.