Christina Makes the Bookish Rounds (79)

Christina Makes the Bookish Rounds is a feature that will let you know about recent MG/YA/NA book related news. I'll post about articles from the publishing industry, cover reveals, discussions from fellow bloggers, the latest tv/movie news, and giveaways that you're hosting. If you would like to follow along with cover reveals during the week, see my Pinterest.

Two weeks worth!

Publishing:
Rights Report& another one + yet another:

• Queen of Hearts - Colleen Oakes (Set in Wonderland before Alice has arrived, this fantasy re-imagining tells the origin story of classic literature's most-feared villain, the Queen of Hearts. The first two books in the series were originally published by SparkPress. Prisoner of Hearts, book one in the trilogy, is slated for summer 2016; HarperTeen).
• Maudeville - Michelle Schusterman (MG standalone was previously under contract with Egmont USA. It's about a girl who longs to sing and, after flubbing a big audition due to stage fright, comes upon an old theater run by a glamorous but sinister grand-dame of show business. Publication is scheduled for spring 2017; Random House).
• Hibiscus Daughter duology - Lana Popovic (The YA contemporary fantasy series, pitched as The Night Circus meets the The Tiger's Wife, is about two sisters, one cursed to be Death's courtesan and one forced to pass the curse on to the next generation, who must find a way to save each other. Publication for the first book is planned for 2017, with the second to follow in 2018; Katherine Tegen Books).
• Useless - M.J. Beaufrand (a YA novel set on an island in Puget Sound, in which a teenage girl and her four brothers search for a missing child, but uncover disquieting truths about themselves and their community along the way. Publication is scheduled for fall 2016; Abrams).
• The World from Up Here - Cecilia Galante (a middle-grade novel following a 12-year-old girl who, in the wake of a family event, must confront her fears while moving to an aunt's house with her autistic brother and their dog. Publication is set for summer 2016; Scholastic).
• Deleting Tenley Tylwyth - Jennifer Gooch Hummer (In the MG Debut, a 13-year-old girl who can create weather patterns must protect humans from an evil and vindictive Mother Nature. Publication is slated for 2017; Month9Books).
• Invincible Wild - Jessica Taylor (YA magical realism debut in which a teen Wanderer must choose between the rambling way of life she's always known and the townie boy she falls for, even when all signs portend doom if she stays. The novel was formerly set to publish on Egmont's fall 2015 list and will now publish in 2016; Sky Pony Press).
• My Body Was Made for This - Calla Devlin (YA debut; the story of three sisters who travel with their mother to Mexico so she can receive alternative treatments for her leukemia, while remaining unaware that an illness far more insidious than cancer poisons their home. Publication is scheduled for fall 2016; S&S/Atheneum).
• Cici Reno Knows it All - Kristina Springer (first in the middle-grade Yoga Girls series; It follows a pre-teen yoga enthusiast who helps her best friend get a crush's attention by impersonating her on Twitter, but a friendly favor turns into a social media love triangle. Publication is slated for spring 2016; Sterling Children's Books).
• The Boy with Seventeen Senses - Sheila Grau (a middle-grade reboot of "Jack and the Beanstalk" featuring a resourceful boy, a greedy neighbor, and a planet where every inhabitant has synesthesia. Publication is planned for fall 2016; Abrams/Amulet).
• How to Disappear - Ann Redisch Stampler (It's a thriller about a girl on the run after she witnesses – or commits? – a murder, told in alternating points of view by two unreliable narrators. Publication is scheduled for summer 2016; Simon Pulse).
• Doreen - Ilana Manaster (a contemporary YA debut take on The Picture of Dorian Gray. The social hierarchy of New England boarding school Chandler Academy is thrown into upheaval after roommates Heidi and Biz take in new arrival Doreen Gray and Photoshop her profile pic. It's slated for 2016; Running Press Kids).
• Alterations - Stephanie Scott (A debut re-imagining of the movieSabrina, set in Miami. It tells the story of a shy, hopeful fashion designer caught between her lifelong crush and his awkward, nerdy brother. Publication is planned for early 2016; Bloomsbury Spark).
• Lou Lou and Pea and the Mural Mystery - Jill Diamond (MG debut about two best friends with a flair for intrigue who uncover a string of mysteries in their community, set against the backdrop of Día de los Muertos. Publication is set for fall 2016; FSG).
• Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Stripmall! - Tom Angleberger (The middle-grade novel follows Rocket Raccoon and a walking, talking tree, Groot, as they crash-land on a planet made up of 99 cent stores, nail salons, dry cleaners, maniacal robots bent on customer service, and killer toilets. Worldwide publication is scheduled for March 2016; Marvel Press).
• Did I Mention I Love You trilogy - Estelle Maskame (The first novel in this contemporary YA series follows Eden during a sun-drenched summer in Southern California, where she unexpectedly falls for the one boy she shouldn't – her infuriating stepbrother, Tyler. It's slated for publication in spring 2016; Sourcebooks Fire).
• The Problem Children - Natalie Lloyd (a middle-grade series about seven strange siblings, all born on a different day of the week, and the neighbors who keep trying to tear their family apart. Publication is planned for fall 2017; Katherine Tegen Books).
• I'm Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Noodlings for Precocious Children, Typical Youth, and Weirdly Immature Grownups - Chris Harris (debut poetry collection; It's a selection of humorous poems for all ages with an absurdist twist. Publication is set for fall 2016; Little, Brown).
• Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies - Laura Stampler (debut pitched as The Devil Wears Prada meetsSex and the City. When Harper scores the summer internship of a lifetime, she moves to New York City to work as a dating blogger at the hottest teen magazine in the country. There's just one problem: she's not exactly the dating expert she claimed to be. Publication is scheduled for summer 2016; Simon Pulse).
• Saving Hamlet - Molly Booth (debut in which a 15-year-old working on her high school production of Hamlet falls through a stage door and lands at the Globe Theater in 1601. Publication is slated for winter 2016; Disney-Hyperion).
• Truth or Dare - Barbara Dee (a novel that follows a late-blooming tween girl who lies to keep up with friends in an extended game of truth or dare. Publication is set for fall 2016; S&S/Aladdin).
• The Ethan I Was Before - Ali Standish (MG debut; The story is about a boy who moves with his family to a small, eccentric seaside town after an accident that killed his best friend, but finds himself struggling to makes sense of the past and future when a mysterious new girl enters his life. Publication is scheduled for winter 2017; HarperCollins).
• One Shadow on the Wall - Leah Henderson (a middle-grade debut about a newly orphaned boy who discovers the power of self-reliance as he protects his younger sisters from poverty and bullying in contemporary Senegal. Publication is planned for summer 2017; S&S/Atheneum).

Nothing From Last Time...

• The Thrifty Time Traveler's Guide - Jonathan Stokes (new series in which a future time travel agency puts together affordable vacation packages to history's biggest events. The first books will span Ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and WWII, and will include illustrations, maps, and infographics. The series will launch in 2017; Viking).
• See You in the Cosmos, Carl Sagan - Jack Cheng (MG: When 11-year-old Alex Petroski, along with his dog, Carl Sagan, sets out to launch his iPod into outer space, his three days away from home turn into a longer, unexpected road trip. Publication is planned for fall 2016 or spring 2017; Dial & Puffin).
• Safe at Home - Jenn Barnes (writing as Jenn Bishop) (MG debut which alternates between two baseball-filled summers – last summer, when Quinnen was struggling to repair her relationship with her older sister, and this summer, when Quinnen is reeling from her sister's death. Publication is scheduled for summer 2016; Knopf).
• The Kindness Club - Courtney Sheinmel (New MG series; Pitched as The Baby-sitters Club with an altruistic twist, three fifth graders form a Kindness Club and look for proactive ways to do nice things for others, but things don’t always work out the way they intend. Bloomsbury).
• Two Truths and a Lie - Ammi-Joan Paquette (l.) and Laurie Ann Thompson (a middle-grade nonfiction series which combines made-up entries with wacky-but-true stories from science, history, and more. Publication is slated for winter 2017; HarperCollins/Walden Pond Press).

Publisher’s Lunch:

• Carol Goodman's MG debut THE METROPOLITANS, the story of four unlikely friends who come together at New York's Metropolitan Museum on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack to track down the missing pieces of a lost Arthurian manuscript before the Nazis can turn it into a tool for war, to Viking Children's.

Authors: Lying Out Loud - Kody Keplinger, Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman, Melissa Marr, Written in the Stars - Aisha Saeed, Crow’s Rest - Angelica Jackson, Melanie Conklin, The Devil Diaries - Tatum Flynn, All the Rage - Courtney Summers, Sarah Darer Littman, Kiersi Burkhart, The Water and the Wild - Kathryn Ormsbee, Dating Down - Stefanie Lyons, Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli, I Am Her Revenge - Meredith Moore, The Weight of Feathers - Anna-Maria McLemore

Excerpts: Nimona - Noelle Stevenson, Scarlett Undercover - Jennifer Latham, Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman, Cold Burn of Magic - Jennifer Estep, Gods of Chaos - Jen McConnel, The Grace of Kings - Ken Liu, Hold Me Like a Breadth - Tiffany Schmidt, Inked - Eric Smith, Play On - Michelle Smith, The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things - Ann Aguirre, Last Year’s Mistake - Gina Ciocca, Dangerous Deception - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, The Clouded Sky - Megan Crewe, Hit - Delilah Dawson, The Royal Wedding - Meg Cabot

Book trailers: Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman, Magonia - Maria Dahvana Headley, Hold Me LIke a Breath - Tiffany Schmidt, The Edge of You - Theresa DeLayne, Rook - Sharon Cameron

Awards: Bisexual Book Award Finalists were announced. As were the May Library Reads. And the winner of the LA Times Book Award as well as the E.B. White & Indie’s Choice Awards… and the YALSA Teens’ Top Ten Nominees for 2015…. and the 2014 RT Book Awards.

A librarian analyzed the NYT Bestsellers list by author gender. Are the results what you would expect? For me, yeah. Not surprising. Disappointing too.

You can check out the VIDA count for 2014.

So, for all that debate on “oh, do diverse books sell well?,” don’t forget the part where editors basically said “One Asian Book Is Quite Enough.” How will you ever know when you don’t give them the chance? But apparently this is not far from the norm: books that are about diversity or written by diverse authors are among the most censored books. Frequently. And here specifically for 2014, though it’s not just for books. I can only hope that this will change as WNDB gets more support, like this partnership with the CBC. Besides these figures, here’s another reminder why diversity is important in books.

So, there are a bunch of pictures and reports from an event that happened April 19-21, Children’s Institute. Jon Scieszka: Reaching Out to Reluctant Readers: Children's Institute 2015; Mac Barnett and Jory John: The Pranksters Get Serious About 826 Valencia: Children's Institute 2015; Jewell Parker Rhodes: Living the Dream and Writing for Children: Children's Institute 2015; Jeff Kinney: Wimpy Kid Author Turns Bookseller: Children's Institute 2015; Marla Frazee and Allyn Johnston: Collaboration Thrives After 15 Years: Children's Institute 2015; 10 Children’s Bookseller Challenges—And How Stores Solved Them: Children's Institute 2015; Lots to Do at Children's Institute; Wimpy Kid 'Bookseller' Opens Enthusiastic CI 3

There was also the AWP: The Art and Business of Writing Children’s Books, at which WNDB told AWP to write diverse books that sell.

And of course, Teen BookCon, which you can see the pictures for here, and even a summary of the Bologna Book Fair from weeks back. And pictures from the inaugural YALLWEST!

Plus a report on the LA TImes Book Festival last weekend.

Not surprising (to me): children’s book sales are doing so well, and so, so much better than adult book sales.

Interesting to think about, in this age -- a YA anthology, whose cover I featured last time, called Among the Shadows was funded on Kickstarter.

David Fickling Books Joins Scholastic.

A summary of industry and author events from two weeks ago and last week.

Sooo, though HarperCollins was reportedly putting its foot down against Amazon (it wants to sell its ebooks at full price, and because it can sell them through its website, people think it’s going to do better in this fight than Hachette did….), that doesn’t matter. HC signed a contract with Amazon.

If you’re an author who feels dissatisfied with how much marketing your publisher has put into your book, you are not alone. Fascinating survey of authors on their publishers.

This is a little hilarious. Salman Rushdie just started using Goodreads and didn’t realize that his ratings would be publicly visible.

This is really cool and considerate, Overdrive. The app now features a dyslexic font option.

Sorry, y'all. HP 8 ain’t happening.

This was pretty fascinating to me, a profile on Julie Strauss Gabel, who’s an editor at Dutton and has worked with John Green and Ally Condie among others. I always find things about/by editors really interesting because how cool is it to watch a book evolve into something that’s actually on the shelves? That you’ve helped someone else achieve their artistic vision?

A really lovely portrait of Toni Morrison too.

Gayle Forman & Jay Asher are teaming up for an event on suicide awareness.

Courtney Summers’s #ToTheGirls campaign trended worldwide and was covered in the NY Times, Hello Giggles, The Huffington Post, Quill & Quire, BlogHer, micdotcom and USA Today as well as by Sofia Vergara.

So, I didn’t realize that there was a new Dr. Seuss book even being published, but looks like the sales for it may already be strong.

Cover Reveals:
Cover Reveal Watch -- Brooks Benjamin: My Seventh-Grade Life in Tights on Pop! Goes the Reader on MAY 4th!

Discussion/Other Blogger Posts:

May’s most anticipated titles. So, like, what is up with all the MOST ANTICIPATED things of the year getting tossed in May? I thought that that was a fall thing, but then I’ve not been able to pre-order a bunch of things yet because they’re all coming out in May and I won’t I WILL NOT BUY ALL THE THINGS NOW.

Oyster compiled a list of the 100 best books of the Decade so far - and would you believe it, there are actually a few YA books there.

I really like this Bustle article on how YA authors can stand up to stereotypes about women through their writing.

Have you read these popular April YA books?

A list that’s constantly evolving (via viewer vote) about the most overrated books of all time. Basically, what I understand of this is that any book that’s really hyped will either have people who LOOOOOOOOOVE it or hate it on so much that they’re gonna vote it high there (*cough* HP *cough* - b/c why else would that be there?).

As always we’ve got some beautiful pictures of libraries + improbable libraries. And beautiful quotes from YA books on libraries. And on the real purpose of libraries.

You know what was on the top of Amazon’s bestseller list? Colouring books for adults. Apparently they’re great destressors.

Were you a bookworm as a kid? Here are signs pointing to YES.

If you’ve ever wanted to read more international books, here’s a good list for you. Books from the LA Times winning a Translator’s award.

Can you tell where the quote is from? Classic or YA Lit?

And some quotes about spring to put you in the mood. (I’ve been told that these are the 2 good months of NJ/the east coast and yet it rained so frakking heavily yesterday, I wasn’t dry until like 4 p.m. And that’s only walking like 20 minutes in the rain.)

Apparently there are a lot of YA books with 5 word titles. (I would similarly say, why are there so many YA books with 1 word titles).

What do you do when your book bff moves away?

And how do you find a new book bff?

Man, all those people who say that they don’t like to read are really missing out on some awesome benefits. And if you like reading, well here are some tips for reading even more!

Hmm, according to Buzzfeed, these are 29 underrated book series for YA lovers. But I’m really skeptical about that “underrated” label when so many of those books are already popular.

More feminist lists! Huzzah! 23 Feminist Books Every Child should read.

Wowza, if you’re a SFF fan, here’s io9’s “most essential” picks for April. I’m happy that some YA books do make the cut. And here’s a list of the 10 best YA books for April by Paste Magazine. If you are looking to keep books on your radar, here’s April - June in YA.

According to Tor, these are some YA books you should read.

7 YA Books for Girls Interested in STEM (I would like to point out that 1/7 was published in 2006; many are old books… aka there are not many books with girl protagonists who love science, and as someone who did while I was in HS, this is disappointing), 5 Books to Help You Celebrate #UKYA Day (sometimes I forget that while YA is experiencing a huge surge in the U.S., some countries don’t have many conventions where YA books are sold, or any dedicated to YA -- I love that some lists like this exist), 6 YA Series That Needed to Be TV Shows Yesterday (do you ever wonder sometimes if film companies have interns look for articles like that? or if they just look at the “big” deals and the manuscripts that end up on their desk?), 5 YA Characters Who Should’ve Had a Sibling (but if they did, they wouldn’t be the same character…?), 7 YA books set in art school, and 7 YA Reads for Game of Thrones Fans (and this is probably the list I’m least interested in because GoT comparisons are everywhere).

More recommendations! That one was the paragraph I wrote up last week & then didn’t post :P. If you’re waiting on summer movie season, here’s a list pairing movies to YA books. Man, I need to watch more TV, like Orphan Black - a list on the Orphan Black Club characters & relating them to YA books, plus book recommendations for Orphan Black fans. Huzzah to this list of 7 YA Heroines who know “Girly” does NOT mean weak& to counter that (sorta, if they’re like Katniss), 8 badass YA Heroines who aren’t Katniss. 15 of the best opening lines in YA, the 8 most embarrassing parents in YA, and plenty of greek mythology inspired retellings.

I love this look at how kidlit can help children cope with what’s going on in their lives. Earlier today I actually saw this wonderful billboard with a quote from Frederick Douglas: “It’s easier to raise strong children than to repair broken men.” (I may have the phrasing a little bit wrong - but I am reminded of that now).

7 YA Books to Give You a Reality Check -- and open your empathetic eyes to new worlds.

IF you’re a blogger who’s read & reviewed Ruin and Rising, make sure to leave a comment on this post.

A list of America’s most literate cities.

Bestselling fantasy books, with stats broken down by copies sold/book & total number sold. It’s interesting to see which kidlit books made it.

You know how some people sell books for one cent on Amazon? Did you ever think that they could be making any profit whatsoever? Turns out there’s a method to the madness.

50 Best Genre-Bending Books - this one is for you, C.J., after all that we’ve discussed :P.

30 Teen Books that Changed Our Lives& this was in honor of Teen Book Day, which was last week, April 16th.

Blogger Discussions to come!

Movies/TV Shows:

You can be a fan correspondent for the new Twilight Short Film Stories that are coming out, if you’re interested.

The Luckiest Girl Alive was optioned by Reese Witherspoon’s company.

Fox & Temple Hill optioned The Young Elites by Marie Lu.

The trailer for Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was released.

McG will be directing the new Shadowhunters (The Mortal Instruments) television show on ABC Family. Also, Dom Sherwood will be playing Jace.

Disney is joining Steven Spielberg in the BFG movie.

There’s a new clip from the Paper Towns movie with Margo & Q. They’re also planning on revealing more clips and information about the movie at Bookcon.

Eddie Redmayne is reportedly in talks to play Newt in the adaptation of Fantastic Beasts (by JK Rowling).... and omg that would make me so happy if he got cast. YASSSSSS.

Both Maze Runner and TFiOS had big wins at the MTV Movie Awards.

Screenwriters have been hired for the Just One Day/Just One Year adaptation.

A new still from the Scorch Trials.

They’ve cast Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the live version of Beauty & the Beast.

A new Peter Pan poster& teaser trailer were released.

Giveaways:

Adventures in Children's Publishing giveaways: Win THE SHADOW CABINET by Maureen Johnson, ends 5/11/15; Win SEEKER by Arwen Elys Dayton, ends 5/4/15; Win ISLA AND THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER by Stephanie Perkins, ends 4/20/15.

Giveaways listed at Saturday Situation by Lori of Pure Imagination and Candace of Candace's Book Blog.

Don't forget to enter YABC's giveaways for the month.

Sci-fi and Fantasy Friday {SF/F Reviews and Giveaways}.

Annotated ARC of Made You Up by Francesca Zappia, INT, ends 04/30.

ARC of The Heart of Betrayal by Mary Pearson, INT, ends 05/11.

If you have a giveaway, you should let me know. NGL, this is the least important section to me.

Other:

New Releases:

April 12 - April 18: All the Rage by Courtney Summers, Forged by Erin Bowman, Dream a Little Dream by Kerstin Gier, The Promgoers Interstellar Excursion by Chris McKoy, The Wondrous and the Wicked (Dispossessed #3) by Page Morgan, The World Forgot (Ever Expanding Universe #3) by Isla Neal and Martin Leicht, Denton's Little Deathdate by Lance Rubin, The Revelation of Louisa May by Michaela MacColl, Hit by Delilah S. Dawson, Shredder (Crusher #3) by Niall Leonard, The Fearless by Emma Pass, Mapmaker by Mark Bomback and Galaxy Craze, The Pretty App by Katie Sise, Andreo's Rage by Pam Withers, Bloodline by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, First There Was Forever by Juliana Romano, The Truth Commission by Susan Juby.

April 19 - April 25: Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman, The Death Code (Murder Complex #2) by Lindsay Cummings, Becoming Jinn by Lori Goldstein, City Love by Susane Colasanti, The Remedy (The Program 0.5) by Suzanne Young, The Trials (Paper Doll Project #3) by Stacey Kade, Endangered by Lamar Giles, Challenger Deep by Neil Shusterman, Things We Know By Heart by Jessi Kirby, Invisible Monsters (Talker 25 #2) by Joshua McCune, Every Last Promise by Kristin Holbrook, Finding Paris by Joy Treble, Still Waters by Ash Parsons, Wrong About the Guy by Claire LaZebnik, Sophomore is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin, 99 Days by Katie Cotogno.

Recent Recommended Reads: You can read my review of Made You Up by Francesca Zappia. You can also check out my March & April recap, where you’re guaranteed to find everything that’s been on this blog and my booktube channel as well as an update on my own personal life. You can read my review of The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson.

Which articles did you like best? Did I miss any news? Did you host a cover reveal or discussion that I should have posted about? A giveaway? Leave the links, and I'll either edit this post or post about 'em next week.