Christina Makes the Bookish Rounds (85)

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. (If you're interested in how I make these posts, here's your guide.)

Publishing:
Rights Report 1, 2:

The Packer Inheritance - Varian Johnson (MG; In the story, two 12-year-olds search their small Southern town for the hidden will of an eccentric millionaire who disappeared years before. Publication is slated for 2017; Scholastic's Arthur A. Levine Books).
Dollar Will - Alison McGhee (a YA novel told in 100-word vignettes, of a boy in Los Angeles who leaves dollar-store items as anonymous gifts to neighborhood characters. A publication date has not yet been set; Caitlyn Dlouhy Books / S&S/Atheneum).
Dreamfall - Amy Plum (the first book of a duology. In the books, a radical experiment to cure chronic insomnia goes wrong, and its seven teenage test subjects are plunged into a shared coma populated by one another's nightmares; those who die in the dream will also die in real life. The first book comes out in summer 2017, with the second book publishing in summer 2018. HarperTeen).
Roseblood - A.G. Howard (YA retelling of the Phantom of the Opera set in a boarding school for music and art inside a French opera house. Publication is slated for January 2017; Abrams).
Moxie - Jennifer Mathieu (which follows a girl who takes inspiration from her mother's stories of the Riot Grrrl movement of the 90's to start her own anonymous zine, sparking a modern-day feminist revolution at her small-town Texas high school. Publication of Moxie is scheduled for fall 2017. Roaring Brook).
Someday Birds - Sally J. Pla (debut in which bird-loving Charlie, diagnosed with OCD and Asperger's, reluctantly travels cross-country with his siblings to see his dad, hospitalized after a brain injury. Charlie bargains with the universe that if he can spot along the way all the rare birds that the two had been hoping to see someday, then everything might just turn out okay. Publication is set for 2017. HarperCollins).
The Creepy Casefiles of Margo Maloo - Drew Weing (graphic novel; The book tells the story of a boy named Charles who moves to a new city and learns that it's infested with monsters. The first volume will be published in 2016; First Second).
Marvin and the Moths - Jonathan Follett, illus by Matthew Holm (MG; the book is a send-up of middle school, suburbia, and giant mutant moths. This is the first collaboration for Holm and Follett, who have been friends since middle school. Publication is scheduled for 2016; Scholastic).
The Princess and the Page - Christina Farley (a middle-grade novel about a girl whose dark fairy tale comes to life after writing it with a magical Word Weaver pen. Publication is slated for 2017; Scholastic).

From last week:

17 Years - Ava Dellaira (a YA novel told in alternating perspectives about a mother and daughter, each at 17 years old, on the brink of adulthood, and struggling to imagine her future and to discover her place in the world. Publication is slated for 2018; Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
My Shelf Life - Lilliam Rivera (a YA novel about a girl named Margot Sanchez who charged $600 on her father's credit card and is stuck spending the summer working off the debt at the South Bronx location of the family chain of grocery stores. Publication is set for spring 2017; Simon & Schuster).
There were a lot more but none had GR links, so I’ve decided to give up on them.

Authors/Interviews: This Monstrous Thing - Mackenzi Lee, Ink and Ashes - Valynne Maetani, These Vicious Masks - Kelly Zekas and Tarun Shanker, The Weight of Feathers - Anna-Marie McLemore, Bookishly Ever After - Isabel Bandeira, Monstrous - Marcykate Connolly, The Body Institute - Carol Riggs, Nightfall - Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski, Carry On - Rainbow Rowell, Dumplin’ - Julie Murphy, Tonight the Streets Are Ours - Leila Sales, Pax - Sara Pennypacker

Book Trailers: Faceless - Alyssa Sheinmel, Cloud Country - Noah Klocek, A Madness So Discreet - Mindy McGinnis, Illuminae - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Awards: You can vote now for YALSA’s top ten teen books of 2015 until Teen Week in October.

Excerpts: Young Man with Camera - Emil Sher, Beastly Bones - William Ritter, All American Boys - Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely, The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman, This Monstrous Thing - Mackenzi Lee, Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys, A Thousand Nights - E.K. Johnston, Evolution - Stephanie Diaz

Mira Jacob gave a speech about race to the publishing industry and no one listened (Here is the thing about how discrimination works: No one ever comes right out and says, “We don’t want you.” In the publishing world, they don’t say, “We just don’t want your story.” They say, “We’re not sure you’re relatable” and “You don’t want to exclude anyone with your work.” They say, “We’re not sure who your audience is.”).

Reading While White appears to be a new blog that’s getting quite a bit of recognition: “It is therefore essential to devote a space to examining Whiteness, lest we White people try to “escape” acknowledging our privilege by shifting into discussions about the identities along which we are marginalized.”

Richelle Mead has been posting excerpts from Adrian’s diary these past weeks. Here’s the latest.

Rita Williams-Garcia discusses writing diverse books with kids (RWG: “Our books should really reflect the diversity that is the world. Let’s tell not just one single story but a variety of stories from so many different perspectives. We need diverse stories for each and every reader so that that reader can feel that the world is an open book. And that they have only to reach out and grab their book.”).

Famous kidlit authors who actually disliked kids. Yeah, I learned about Shel Silverstein’s situation a couple of years ago but had no idea about Dr. Seuss! (Meanwhile check out the celebration of Dr. Seuss here).

Have you ever wondered what an author’s daily life is like? Here are 18 testimonials, esp in the YA realm.

It’s time for… the Library Card Selfie.

In the UK, less than a quarter of kids are frequent readers. They prefer, instead, to surf the internet or use Facebook.

People were in a bit of an uproar about the Nielsen Book Scan (Summit) results. Here are some of the main points from the summary article.

Children’s book sales are up 12.6% in the U.S., 28% in Brazil, and 10% in China, with 11 of the 20 bestselling books in the U.S. being children’s titles.
Children’s share of print markets is averaging 34% across the board internationally, in Australia and New Zealand, it’s almost 50%
Kids ages 5-8 ... account for 39% of dollars spent on children’s books, and for 38% of children’s book sales overall.
...today’s children under the age of nine are split demographically 50/50 between multicultural and white. → “If you create content that speaks to [specific] cultural segments,” the data shows that “it is resonating across all races and ethnicities.” Furthermore, Doc McStuffins, a female character, also has strong appeal for boys. → REAL DATA BEHIND CRY FOR DIVERSE BOOKS + “Diverse books don’t sell//aren’t universal” + “we need more boy protagonists/boys can’t relate” = horse ****.
80% of all the YA books that are selling are being bought by adults.
The panel seemed to suggest that the YA moniker can be limiting… one panelist suggested that publishers “change the name from YA to YAH - Young at Heart.” → for the people who were upset about this, I’d like to point out that the whole panel is a sample size of less than 10. If you take that panel’s advice, statistically you’re not making a very smart decision without polling more of your consumers.
Many of these [adult] readers discover books by browsing bookstores, and having their eye caught by good design, by hearing of forthcoming movie adaptations, and through the Internet via GoodReads and Twitter. VS. how teens discover books→ The teens said they are definitely influenced by movie releases when choosing to read books. They cited the Internet, particularly Amazon’s suggested books feature and Wattpad, as a place they find out about new books, and many stated that the recommendations of friends largely inspired their reading choices, as well as those from teachers and librarians.
You can read all the tweets about the summit here.

Creepy! Scholastic had a campaign to “Unveil Voldemort” in Jim McKay’s new illustrated HP and check out the picture. ACK, as a kid that might have actually haunted my nightmares if I saw that.

Yay for a continuation of the I Can Readathon campaign! (HarperCollins’s I Can Read! books and PBS KIDS are collaborating on a national I Can Readathon campaign. Now in its second year, the campaign is designed to get kids learning every day through fun, engaging activities that encourage them to explore the world of books and develop a love of reading.)

Undecided about reading Dumplin by Julie Murphy? Check out these 9 quotes!

8 Women Who Changed Literature Forever - I’m surprised Stephenie Meyer isn’t on that list, though it’s not specific to YA. Still. For all that backlash, she def helped make YA.

What’s it like to be an author and an editor? Leila Sales’s take.

A brief summary of author and industry events.

We Need Diverse Books has postponed its diversity festival to the summer of 2017 or 2018. And on a similar note, indie booksellers have announced a diversity initiative.

Have you checked out the dedicated online initiative Penguin has set up for Nightfall?

Banned Books Week is coming up! And meanwhile the author of New Zealand’s first banned book in 22 years has decided to speak out.

Cover Reveals: