Lerner Publishing Group

Let It RAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rodgers) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Last Saturday, I was one among a packed audience at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Minneapolis. We were all there—boomers to teenagers to everything in between—to listen to RAIN--A Tribute to The Beatles. This show has toured worldwide and has been on Broadway.

Unlike some tribute bands, members of RAIN—which takes its name from the b-side song, “When the Rain Comes”—actually play the instruments and sing. The actors/musicians have studied the Fab Four and give a good rendering of The Beatles’ accents, mannerisms, and playing peccadillos. Tom Teeley, who plays George Harrison, doesn’t look much like him, but he’s mastered the funny leg jiggle George did in the early days. Mac Ruffing, who plays Paul McCartney, has the richness of his voice down—even to the way Paul would speak to the audience. Chris McBurney has Ringo Starr’s role, and. Jim Irizarry got the toughest impersonation role as John Lennon. The stage paraphernalia even brings home the period, with Vox amplifiers, Hofner bass guitars, Rickenbackers, and Ludwig drums.

The show starts off with the band reenacting their performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, followed by the Shea Stadium extravaganza in 1965. The cast changes clothing and hair styles throughout the show, so they are colorful and silky during Sgt. Pepper and then go on to more laid back to finish out the show. John is in his white suit. Paul is wearing his yellow loafers. George is in head-to-toe denim, and Ringo is providing the relentless beat. RAIN even performs some of the songs that The Beatles never performed live, such as “A Day in the Life.” (Paul has performed it live in his concerts, however.)

The cast, all Americans, are all self-confessed Beatles’ fans, and they do their best to ensure that the audience has a nostalgic ride. Irizarry’s rendition of “Twist and Shout,” for example, had people—including me—dancing in the aisle. We were all on our feet at the end, singing the refrain of “Hey Jude.”

If you think, as I kind of did beforehand, that this is a lame idea, consider this. RAIN sells about 100,000 tickets a year, and it’s one of 50 Beatles tribute bands around the country. I would say RAIN is probably among the best. While the living Beatles, Paul and Ringo, haven’t endorsed any tribute band, they haven’t dissed it either. On the RAIN website, founding member Mark Lewis says, “Our goal has always been to present this music in a live environment to audiences throughout the world, and most importantly, to maintain the integrity of The Beatles, and their music. After all, it is their music. We are just a few very fortunate guys that get to perform this music night after night. What’s better than that?”

Lou! Is Here!

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Lerner) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:18:00 +0000

Graphic Universe has just rolled out Lou!--a hugely popular, award-winning French graphic novel series by Julien Neel about a precocious twelve-year girl and her amusing apartment life with mom, cat, crush Tristan, girlfriend Mina and cranky grandma Memaw.

The franchise’s foray into the North American market begins with two initials titles Secret Diary and Summertime Blues, with at least 6 additional titles expected. With over 800,000 copies sold in France, Graphic Universe is optimistic that the series’ reception will carry over stateside. And already laudable reviews are trickling in. Kirkus writes on its February 22 website (and on newsstands March 15) “A beguiling import introduces the irresistibly plucky 12-year-old Lou, a French cousin to Jimmy Gownley’s Amelia McBride…This lighthearted charmer will leave readers enchantées.”

Given the beauty of its illustrations, whimsy of its story, and absolute charm of its main character the word enchanting definitely springs to mind.

A Double Fine Adventure Indeed

noreply@blogger.com (Adriano Fruzzetti) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:57:00 +0000

In last week's update, I lamented the tepid learning technology of my youth in comparison to what the children in the Minnetonka Public Schools are using.

While Oregon Trail and Math Blaster Plus were a far cry from the cool stuff kids get to use today, those old titles did foster my love of computers and video games. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? gave way to Might and Magic II, which eventually led to The Secret of Monkey Island, my first SCUMM game, and favorite of all time. The 90's was the decade of the adventure game genre, and, with respect to Sierra's 'Quest' games, LucasArts games were the coolest. I have fond memories of wiling away the hours playing Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and Full Throttle.

After spending a while on the Google machine revisiting these classics, I stumbled upon an interesting story regarding Double Fine Adventure, a forthcoming point-and-click adventure game by Tim Schafer, designer of a number of LucasArts games, including The Secret of Monkey Island! The tale of Double Fine Adventure is interesting for a number of reasons, but it all centers around the unique approach his company, Double Fine Productions, took to generate funding for the project. Rather than trying to pitch his adventure game to traditional game publishers, Schafer decided to instead appeal directly to consumers via Kickstarter, an online crowdfunding website for creative projects.

Schafer knew that there was a market for his game, but felt that no publisher would take a risk on an adventure title. Schafer's Double Fine colleague and partner in SCUMM, Ron Gilbert, wrote in his blog: "From first-hand experience, I can tell you that if you even utter the words "adventure game" in a meeting with a publisher you can just pack up your spiffy concept art and leave. You'd get a better reaction by announcing that you have the plague."

Schafer's goal of raising $400,000 was obliterated within 8 hours of their company's announcement of the project, and currently stands at $2,422,107.00. In a few weeks since his announcement, Schafer has managed to establish a market for his game, side-step the meddling publishers, and get a remarkable amount of free publicity. Double Fine's is a bona fide underdog success story, for sure. But it is also an example of how connectivity via the internet is significantly impacting, and perhaps upsetting, the way entire industries have done business for decades.

Interesting things on the information super-highway:

Guest Post: Ashley Hope Pérez

noreply@blogger.com (Elizabeth Dingmann) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:28:00 +0000

Ashley Hope Pérez, author of What Can't Wait and The Knife and the Butterfly, agreed to wrap up her recent blog tour with a guest post here on the Lerner blog. Here, she tells us what she wants readers to know about the similarities and differences between her two novels.

Thanks to the amazing folks at Lerner, my latest novel The Knife and the Butterfly looks gorgeous next to my debut novel, What Can't Wait. You can tell just by looking that these books belong together. Kind of the way any siblings, no matter how different, belong to the same family. But—as you can also tell from the covers and book blurbs—The Knife and the Butterfly is not (NOT!) a sequel to What Can't Wait. In fact, it's so different that sometimes I feel like I need to prepare readers.

When I'm writing, this kind of thing is not a problem. It's not even something I think about. Each project presents me with its particular terms and demands, and I accept them. I don't know any other way to write.

But things get more complicated when it’s time to introduce the new novel to the world. I feel a little like a mom at that first back-to school conference with a teacher who has taught one of my kids before. “He's really different,” I want to say, “but there are still lots of reasons—maybe even more—to care about him and take time to get to know him.”

Hang on, aren’t both What Can't Wait and The Knife and the Butterfly set in Houston? (Yes.) Don't they feature Hispanic protagonists? (Yes.) Aren't they both contemporary realistic fiction? (Mostly yes.) Isn't there even a character from What Can't Wait who shows up in The Knife and the Butterfly? (Yes! And you get bonus points if you can find that character!)

Now let's look at a few of the differences in the characters' worlds. Marisa, the protagonist of What Can't Wait, is trying to figure out how she can go away to college without blowing all her family/friend relationships. Azael, the protag of The Knife and the Butterfly, dropped out of school after seventh grade and drifts from friends' couches to abandoned apartments in the area of town where he grew up. Marisa's mother sometimes undermines her efforts to put education first, and her father is overbearing and often ungrateful. Azael's parents are missing completely; his mother died when he was a kid, and his father was deported back to El Salvador before Azael was out of middle school, leaving him and his brother essentially orphaned. Their gang and neighbors are the closest things they have to family. Marisa feels invisible sometimes in spite of the teachers, friends, and boyfriend who care about her. Azael has completely fallen through the cracks of just about every system that should have looked out for him. When the novel opens, he is a dropout, a gang member, and a kid on the fringe of everything most of us take for granted.

The best way I can think of to explain the different worlds represented in What Can't Wait and The Knife and the Butterfly is this: What Can't Wait reflects the tough world of some of the students I was lucky enough to teach. The Knife and the Butterfly is about the kids I never got to teach. It is my exploration of one world that swallowed up students and sucked them out of school long before their peers walked into a senior English class.

Readers who pull both books off the shelf will discover at least two different dimensions of teen experience. They will think about how education and family make a way to a better future for one character (Marisa in What Can't Wait), and they will feel the weight of lost promise—and the narrow margins in which change is possible—for another character (Azael in The Knife and the Butterfly).

In fact, that’s how I want to picture my readers—not staring at my books on a shelf, but holding one in each hand.

And lucky for you, readers, Ashley's first book, What Can't Wait, will be available in paperback in just a few short months!

Did you miss any of the interviews or guest posts in the blog tour for The Knife and the Butterfly? Find all the links in one place here. And be sure to check out Ashley's blog, follow her on Twitter, or find her on Facebook.

Winning Was a Golden Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Carol Hinz) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

[this blog post comes courtesy of Sandra Markle]

For someone who loves the excitement of science investigation, being surrounded by 8,000 scientists at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Conference was in itself a dream come true. To top that off, I had the privilege of being an honored guest because my book The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs: A Scientific Mystery was the 2012 recipient of the AAAS/Subaru Prize for Excellence for Middle Grade Science Books.

Getting to the conference in Vancouver, Canada was a twenty-four hour flight from my home in New Zealand, but being there was worth the trip. What a magical city! Close to wilderness areas that are still home to bears, wolves, mountain lions and more, built with its back against mountains and rimming the sea, this city was the perfect setting for a conference focusing on the issues that profoundly effect the world in this century: climate change, energy, and healthy ecosystems. I loved every minute of exploring the city, taking a dogsled ride along old logging trails to see the wilderness, and listening to scientists share their scientific investigations.

I was also honored to have the opportunity to share my book with children as part of the conference’s family science days. As children gathered around me, I told the story of The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs. It shares what happened when scientists discovered there was a serial killer loose in the world and it was targeting amphibians. In fact, in Panama, it was sweeping across the country toward the high, cool misty forests, the one ecosystem in the world where that country’s beloved golden frogs exist. As I shared the science detective work that went on in an effort to rescue surviving golden frogs and to insure their future, I realized how much more exciting scientific mysteries are than fictional ones. A fictional murder mystery is over once the killer is caught. In The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs, like any good science mystery, identifying the killer reveals a new mystery. In this case, it’s how frogs and other amphibians can be protected from the fungus that’s killing them. Today’s children are tomorrow’s science detectives, and they may be the ones to solve that mystery.

My favorite saying is Sir Issac Newton’s, “If I’ve seen further it’s because I stood on the shoulders of giants.” My goal for The Case of the Vanishing Golden Frogs—and all of my books—is to provide a stepladder children can climb to reach the shoulders of giants. I’m deeply grateful to the team at Lerner Publishing for working with me to bring this scientific mystery to life, and to AAAS/Subaru for shining a light on my book with this special prize. Going to the conference to accept the prize was my chance to meet new science giants waiting for children to climb up onto their shoulders. So, now I’m back home and writing again. After all, I’ve lots more stepladders to build.

Free Book Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Matvick) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:28:00 +0000

Congratulations to Cristin Caruso! She is the winner of Jennifer Lawrence: Star of The Hunger Games!

This week, we're celebrating the success of one of our first Carolrhoda Lab rats, Ilsa J. Bick! Ilsa's first Carolrhoda Lab novel, Draw the Dark , received this starred review from School Library Journal:

"Bick has created a likable teen protagonist whose unique ability is completely believable in the author's skilled hands. The novel brilliantly strikes a compelling balance between fantasy and contemporary fiction. Readers will be on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what happens next and will clamor for a sequel to follow Christian into the sideways place." --starred, School Library Journal

Two lucky winners will receive the new paperback version of Draw the Dark plus a copy of her new YA novel Drowning Instinct!

There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.)

Jenna Lord's first sixteen years were not exactly a fairy tale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother—until he shipped off to Iraq. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire.

There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and everyone cries for his innocent victim. (This is not one of those stories either.)

Mitch Anderson is many things: A dedicated teacher and coach. A caring husband. A man with a certain...magnetism.

And there are stories where it's hard to be sure who's a prince and who's a monster, who is a victim and who should live happily ever after. (These are the most interesting stories of all.)

Drowning Instinct is a novel of pain, deception, desperation, and love against the odds—and the rules.

To enter to win please leave a comment below or Tweet the following line: "RT to win DRAW THE DARK and DROWNING INSTINCT by @ilsajbick from @CarolrhodaLab & @LernerBooks! http://bit.ly/1OrSN #FreeBookFriday." The winners will be announced during Free Book Friday on March 9 so make sure to check the blog to see if you've won!

Good luck!

I <3 E-books

noreply@blogger.com (Sara Hoffmann) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:00:00 +0000

As a book lover, I’m always completely puzzled when I read criticisms of e-books, such as this. I would think anyone who is passionate about words, stories, and the potentially life-changing perspectives books afford us shouldn’t be anything but enthusiastic about books in any format. E-books make leisure reading more accessible and extra appealing for many people. That’s certainly true for me. How so? Mostly, it’s because:

1. E-books are convenient. I always have my phone with me—and I use it to do almost all of my reading. Just like I want the music I love to be with me at all times, I want my books to be available whether I’m on the bus, at a café, or snuggled in bed before drifting off to sleep. My books and music are a part of me in a fundamental way. Why would I want to leave them on a shelf?

2. E-books are searchable. While I was editing Lerner’s Steve Jobs biography, I was also reading the Walter Isaacson book on Jobs on my trusty phone. At work one day, I was reviewing the Jobs layout when a question came up about how to spell Jobs’s sister’s name. Was it Patty with an i or a y? I pulled my phone out of my purse, did a search on my Isaacson e-book, and knew in an instant—y it was.

3. E-books are instantly available. Say I’m reading a newspaper article (again, probably on my phone) and it mentions a book that sounds fascinating. All I have to do is visit the online catalog of my awesome neighborhood library, or click on a favorite e-book retailer, and presto! The borrowed or purchased book is in my phone.

4. E-books don’t require storage. This is a big one for me. I live in a lovely but tiny home. Open almost any drawer or closet at my place, and you’ll see books, books, books. Now, I love those books and there’s no way I can part with them (which is why they are everywhere). But I’m also a neat freak engaged in an Epic Battle against Clutter. I’m certainly not going to add to that clutter if I don’t have to. Enter the e-book.

I could go on about why else e-books work well for me, but this gives you a pretty thorough picture. So, readers: Are you as addicted to e-books as I am? Or is a book just not a book unless it’s printed? Let me know what you think.

No pressure

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Karre) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:33:00 +0000

I’ve had to write a fair amount of back cover copy lately (it’s that time again), and it’s a task I always hate. Think about it. You’ve not only seen the manuscript—you hope—reach its full potential, but you’ve also seen the jacket through its awkward early stages into something everyone is proud of. And now it’s all on you to tie a textual ribbon a round it all. No pressure.

Sometimes I watch movie trailers to get my head in the right space for enticing brevity. Sometimes they just end up being cautionary tales. I just watched this one, for one of my favorite gangster movies:

Get Carter, the original, not the Stallone crap.

Oh, this is a disaster. Get Carter is a tricky movie. The voiceover is right—Carter is an assassin and he does come home and things do get personal—but that’s not what makes the movie great. It’s all the things outside of the plot—Michael Caine’s portrayal of Carter, the wonderfully spare cinematography, the extraordinary score—that make it much more than a movie about an uncommonly well-dressed maniac. But you’d never get that from the trailer. The last line--“Get Carter before Carter gets you”--is the worst because at no point in the movie are you scared of Carter. The trailer sets up all the wrong expectations.

Then I moved on to another trailer for another great movie that’s really tough to summarize:

When I was a kid and my father would come across this on TV, he’d always stop to watch it, and I swear, it was always as long as the rest of the afternoon.

This one does a little better, but it still manages to get in its own way. Not only does it misidentify which character is bad and which is ugly, but it manages to make the movie sound like a Civil War epic but tacking “the blue, the gray” on to “the good, the bad, the ugly.” Look, when you’ve got a Morricone score and Leone visuals to play with, you don’t have to write much. In fact, your goal should be to write the absolute minimum possible. (And if you can’t see that saying “the gold” when the gold coins spill out of the bag is a unnecessary, then I can’t help you. No one can.)

And this is where writing BCC turns into karmic payback for query letters. You have to write just enough but not too much, and then you have to get the hell out of the way. Much harder than it seems.

If memory serves, the copy on the back of this jacket was spot on and worthy of an extraordinary book with a great jacket. It helped that it was the author’s own words: “I am here, Master. Command me.” Perfect.

(Hey, look at that, from bottom to top we have good, bad, and ugly.)

Minnetonka Technology Institute Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Adriano Fruzzetti) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:45:00 +0000

On Thursday of last week a number of Lerner employees were treated to a technology visit of the Minnetonka Public Schools. The day started out in Deephaven, Minnesota which sounds like a good spot for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Fortunately, the only scary creatures I found in the Minnetonka Community Education Center were pre-caffeinated teachers.

After a light breakfast and introduction by our hosts, we were bussed to our first location; Excelsior Elementary School. I should preface this story by stating that despite working the past 10 years in the educational publishing industry, I have not set foot in an elementary school since the 1980's. Unsurprisingly, a lot has changed since the days of the sideways ponytail, though I may have spied a few slap bracelets.

Right off the bat, I could tell that this was a happy place for children. Art projects adorned the walls, bright colors were everywhere, and kids zig-zagged the halls like busy bees, flitting from one space to another. I felt like I had invaded a new but all-too-familiar habitat that I no longer belonged to. Also, I felt really big. Lee Drolet, principal of the school, guided us around the facility, stopping in on several classrooms to observe the Lilliputians at work.

The focus of the day was to "see how Minnetonka integrates technology into teaching and learning," and it was very apparent in everything they did. In a Chinese immersion classroom, the kids were broken up into small study groups. Some of the kids were working with their teacher on a SMART Board lesson, some were using mp3 players to listen to Chinese songs, while others worked on exercises on the computer. I was impressed at how effortlessly the children interfaced with technology, and how well they spoke Chinese. Throughout the rest of the day, I was exposed to various learning technologies, impressive facilities (such as the Deephaven Elementary Media Center), and educators who seemed genuinely excited about their work. Everyone was certainly proud of their accomplishments, and rightfully so.

As an Associate Product Manager for Lerner Digital, it was quite useful to see how technologies (similar to what I work on) are used by children. But not only did I gain valuable insight on the function of technology in the classroom today, it also brought back a flood of memories from my own childhood, both good and bad. For instance, in comparison to what kids are using today, the green screen Apple IIe I played on seems like a disgrace. I know that that was the best there was back then, but I can't help but feel a bit robbed!

All-in-all, it was an enlightening experience and I left feeling impressed, inspired, and a bit jealous.

Anonymity and Shoes–1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous Lerner Shoe Blogger) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:38:00 +0000

Hello Readers! I'm new, I'm anonymous, I wear shoes, and I talk about them.

"What?" you say? This is an independent children's book publisher blog... shoes? Really?

Yes, I'm here to talk about shoes.

Because shoes are more than just protective foot coverings, extravagant or not. They show personality. They show interests. They show activities. They give a glimpse into the personalities of those who work here. We're not just a group of quiet bookish people who only hide away behind closed doors, reading, editing, designing, promoting, producing, and otherwise creating bookish things—we have interests, activities, and quirks. Our activities give us knowledge and experiences and that can help in our bookmaking professions.

Shoes, they tell all. Or at least lots. At the minimum, things. Shoes tell things.

Things like seasons. We work in Minneapolis and so are in the middle of an upper Midwest winter. It only makes sense to kick this off with the shoe that you're probably expecting to see in this town in this climate in this season: winter boots, complete with coils.

The out of context thing of note here: bare ground. As I take this picture I'm sitting outside, on dry ground, not even wearing a coat. Were I to personify these boots in image, they'd be horribly sad. We haven't had enough snow to necessitate wearing winter boots more than a few times, and not near enough snow to make good use of the coils even once. The boots and coils have had barely a chance to live up to their winter wear potential. It has been a sad, sad winter indeed for those of us and our shoes who enjoy the usual snow.

Not to be left out, it has also been a less satisfying winter for those that don't. There has been significantly less of another winter pastime: reveling in warm comfort on the couch with a fuzzy blanket, a mug of hot tea, and good book while watching the streetlights glittering on the falling snow outside. Without wearing shoes.

Global Differences and Picture Book Illustrations

noreply@blogger.com (Carol Hinz) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:52:00 +0000

One of the fun parts of my job is working with illustrators. Last week a Minneapolis author/illustrator came to our offices for a meeting. What a treat to be able to all sit down together and talk! But other times, an illustrator we’re working with may live halfway around the world. While we’re sometimes aware of the differences between different countries, from time to time, something will catch me by surprise. Here are a few recent examples.

This sketch is from the book A Fraction’s Goal—Parts of a Whole. Brian Gable, the illustrator, lives in Toronto, Canada. Check out those mayors!

While I’d love to see Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak in a similar getup, it’s probably not very likely to happen. So we asked for a few changes. Here is how the final art turned out:

The book Watch Over Our Water was illustrated by Xiao Xin, who lives in Shanghai, China. This sketch was our first indication that we were going to need to provide a reference image for what a typical U.S. bathroom with a tub looks like:

Here is the final art:

And here is a sketch for Emma’s Easter from Constanza Basaluzzo of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Apparently not everyone around the world enjoys marshmallow-filled bunnies on Easter morning!

We gathered a few reference images, and here’s how the final art turned out:

I really enjoy working with illustrators from all around the world, and I certainly don’t expect them to be experts on all aspects of life in the United States. And sometimes, the sketches we get make me laugh at my own assumptions about what is universal and what is not.

Free Book Friday- Oscar Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Matvick) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Congratulations to Angela Moorad! She is the winner of five new picture books from Carolrhoda Books and Millbrook Press! We hope the students at OMazing Kids Yoga enjoy the books!

This week in honor of the Academy Awards, we're giving away a book focused on the star of one of the most anticipated movies of 2012, The Hunger Games! Three lucky winners will receive copies of Jennifer Lawrence: Star of The Hunger Games.

To enter to win please leave a comment below or Tweet the following line: "I want to win Jennifer Lawrence: Star of The Hunger Games from @LernerBooks! RT to win! http://bit.ly/1OrSN #FreeBookFriday" The winner will be announced during Free Book Friday on March 2 so make sure to check the blog to see if you've won!

And as a sneak preview of the Academy Awards, we found a clip that book lovers everywhere have to see! The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is up for an Oscar short film (animated) and we love it!

Intersection

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rodgers) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

[I asked Martha Kranes to blog today. Here's her report.]

I love when art and science intersect. The other day, I heard a clip on NPR’s Science Friday. The speaker, author Robert Courland, talks about the wondrous Pantheon, built in A.D. 128. The dome of the Pantheon is a perfect hemisphere measuring 142 feet (43 meters) across. Its shape means that the ancient Romans could build it without any interior columns or walls to support the weight of the 5,000 tons (4,500 metric tons) of poured concrete—a building substance that they also invented.

The outside of the Pantheon is not all that impressive, but standing inside is awe-inspiring. On a bright day, sunlight streams through the opening in the top of the dome, 142 feet above the dazzling marble floor. Anyway, it turns out that, if the Romans had used modern-day reinforced concrete, the Pantheon would never have lasted two thousand years. Take a listen:

As it happens, we’ve published a book that details this awesome building feat.

And speaking of books and art and science, here’s a link to an amazing book artist, who takes that term to a whole new level, sculpting out-of-date dictionaries, medical textbooks, and encyclopedias to make art.

New York City: A Character in Comics

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Lerner) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:23:00 +0000

Since Graphic Universe is based in New York City, much less on the 72^ndfloor of the Empire State Building, I couldn’t help look outside and think about the city’s name and its relationship to the world of comic books. After all, New York is not just the automatic choice for a generic backdrop in all those comics through the decades, but the city often takes on a unique character all its own.

And now Graphic Universe has gotten into the mix. Our final and arguably best Twisted Journeys installment, Hero City, puts New York City front and center. What’s more, the book's superheroes and villains whose names like Greenwich, Waverly, and Tweed make full use of well-known New York landmarks while action and mayhem erupts throughout the city.

Famously known in comic books as “Gotham City” and “Metropolis” (and probably a couple more I don’t know of) the first inklings of alternate names of New York City came on the scene well before comics themselves. In fact, “Gotham” was a name New Yorkers started calling their beloved city in the early 1800s when writer Washington Irving lampooned the city in one of his essays, borrowing the name from a small town in Nottingham, England called Gotham. DC Comic’s Batman series first mentions Gotham City in early 1940. “Metropolis”, home of Superman, on the other hand beats Batman by a few months initially appearing in late 1939. But the early days of the Superman comic books found several cities vying for the Man of Steel’s hometown identity including Cleveland (co-creator Jerry Siegel’s hometown) and Toronto (co-creator Joe Shuster’s first choice). Of course, the word metropolis means any large, busy, and densely populated city. The famous German filmmaker Fritz Lang immortalized the name “Metropolis” in his seminal 1927 science fiction film.

No doubt the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing, Queens helped spur the imaginations of early comic book creators’ concepts of superheroes adventures in the “city of tomorrow”, namely New York.

Jeremy Hsu writes in an article for LiveScience website (link) that “The original Human Torch came from Timely Comics, a forerunner to today’s entertainment behemoth Marvel Comics. He became one of Timely’s first big characters along with Namor the Sub-Mariner…The Sub-Mariner arose from the mind of writer Bill Everett, who was scrambling at the time to come up with an answer to Superman’s sensational debut in 1938. Like many other comic book writers, Everett called New York City his home and likely attended the World’s Fair.”

Marvel’s Spider-Man also finds itself doing business squarely in New York City. But, in this case, New York is New York and no need for a name change here. Though, it’s refreshing to note that young Peter Parker resides in a house in Forest Hills, Queens—a regular neighborhood in New York’s outer borough, rather than some fancy loft in the heart of Manhattan.

And the list continues. Comic book artist Frank Miller, who’s spent many years grinding away in Hell’s Kitchen, credits his daily experiences in this storied Manhattan neighborhood as fodder for writing works like Daredevil: Born Again.

Numerous recent comic books have made New York home base too. From Jason Little’s 2002 Shutterbug Follies about Bee, a photo lab technician, who takes it upon herself to solve strange and mysterious events in the city to Peter Kuper’s Stop Forgetting to Remember, a semi-autobiographical tale that prominently features the city.

They say New York is the city that never sleeps. This is certainly true when it comes to comics as well. And the non-stop four days of the humongous New York Comic Con reinforces that thought. All of this ensures New York City’s (Gotham City, Metropolis, etc.) continued reign as the comic book capital of the world.

Barnes & Noble Wages Cold War Against Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Adriano Fruzzetti) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:19:00 +0000

North American booksellers Barnes & Noble, Indigo Books and Music, and Books-a-Million are waging a "cold war" against Amazon following the announcement that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish print editions of Amazon Publishing East Coast titles. The brick-and-mortar stores refuse to stock Amazon's print titles. Jaime Carey, chief merchandizing officer of Barnes & Noble, said in a statement that "[Amazon's] actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content. It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest.”

This is an interesting story to keep tabs on. Publishers have always had a perilous symbiotic relationship with Amazon, and I wonder of HMH partnering with them will illicit reaction from the "Big 6" publishers. According to Paul Biba, the Big 6 could take steps to boost competition, such as offering exclusive deals to Kobo and B&N during the initial release of expected ebook best-sellers.

Other News:

Star Trek and Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton delivered an inspiring and nostalgic keynote address at Tools of Change.
A number of articles have popped up in the blogosphere criticizing the Big 6 and other publishers for making it difficult for libraries to distribute their eBooks. This issue was first raised to my attention by Monique Sendze, Associate Director of IT for Douglas County Libraries, who, at a Digital Book World panel, pleaded with publishers to sell eBooks to her library.
ICv2 estimates that digital comics sales tripled in 2011 to $25 million.
Jason Boog at Galleycat reports a new site called StoryBundle will offer DRM-free, pay-what-you-choose, bundles of eBooks for any eReader.

Literary Musings...in Orange!

noreply@blogger.com (Domenica Di Piazza) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I’m just back from Paris, so I have to admit I don’t have much to say on the professional front, other than that RED and all its derivatives--from pink to orange to blood red--are in.

Luckily I had packed some orange, and I did buy a new red dress while I was there. That’s me in orange in the photo above making pizza montagnarde in our Paris kitchen. (For the foodies out there, that’s a pizza with crème fraiche, caramelized onions, thinly sliced potatoes, kalamata olives, and chunks of creamy reblochon or vacherin, which is in season now. To die for.)

I did some book shopping in Paris for recent winners of the prestigious Prix Goncourt and am finishing up one of them, called Syngue sabour: Pierre de patience (available in English as The Patience Stone) by Atiq Rahimi. It won the Goncourt in 2008 and is about a woman in Afghanistan caring for her gravely wounded husband, who is in a coma after a brutal fight. It's a very dark story about war and about women in Afghanistan, and it has a grisly ending. (I skipped ahead.)

I didn't see any e-book readers overseas so it seems they haven't caught on yet, at least in France. People still seem to love their print books, carrying them everywhere. It's hard to miss that every third Parisian on the metro is reading a book and that book reviews take up a big part of the daily newspaper, often the front page.

I love the specialization of bookstores in Paris. You want a graphic novel? Well, you go to one of the city's many neighborhood graphic novel bookstores. A Russian novel? Head down the street to the local Russian bookstore. Total niche marketing, and these bookstores seem to thrive. Paris is a book lover's paradise, that's for sure!

Check in for more from TFCB in two weeks!

Free Book Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Matvick) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:52:00 +0000

Congratulations to Mary Ann and Mommy Reads! Mary Ann has won our new On the Radar: Street Style series and Mommy Reads has won our new On the Radar: Defend and Protect series!

This week we're giving away a set of five new picture books from Carolrhoda Books and Millbrook Press! One lucky winner will receive A Leaf Can Be..., A Secret Keeps, Beep and Bah, Big Birthday, and Zip It!

To enter to win please leave a comment below or Tweet the following line: "I love picture books from @LernerBooks! RT to win 5 books from Carolrhoda Books and Millbrook Press! http://bit.ly/1OrSN #FreeBookFriday" The winner will be announced during Free Book Friday on February 24 so make sure to check the blog to see if you've won!

Good luck!

Who Says Picture Books Are Just For Kids?

noreply@blogger.com (Anna Cavallo) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Yesterday Kate Hosford, author of the Carolrhoda picture books Big Bouffant and Big Birthday, pointed me to a blog post by Laura Purdie Salas. One of Laura’s daughters shares the name Annabelle with the daringly nonconformist protagonist of Kate’s books, and although the real-world Annabelle is 19, it turns out they also share a fondness for red polka-dotted dresses! Laura writes about reading Big Birthday with her grown-up Annabelle over brownies and enjoying these coincidences.

Kate was excited to see the book being enjoyed by an older audience. I loved it too—largely, I admit, because I like the idea of having my own mom read a picture book while we eat dessert! But brownies or not, there’s something to this.

Any children’s picture book worth its paper should certainly captivate young readers with the cadence of the text, the story it tells, and the art and design of the pages. We create picture books that are short enough to hold a young reader’s attention and that keep the language and the art kid-friendly. These books pave the way for children to advance their reading skills, and they provide invaluable opportunities for bonding between the reader and a younger child.

But it’s unfortunate that the kid-friendliness of picture books often translates into the notion that adults do not or should not enjoy them just as much without young children around. Picture books texts, whether rhyming or not, involve a certain poetry. The more limited the text, the more thought put in to each word selected and the weaving of those words into a narrative. Take a spread from Laura Purdie Salas’s gorgeous, poetic book A Leaf Can Be . . ., for example:

You can be quite sure the two words on each page were given substantial consideration! (For more on this book, see Carol’s previous posts.) So why shouldn’t we, as adults with scrutinizing eyes and ears, enjoy such carefully crafted language? Shouldn’t we enjoy it that much more? Perhaps it’s a stretch for me to count the Winnie the Pooh books as picture books, but I adore them even more now than I did as a child—I marvel at A. A. Milne’s understated humor and dialogue.

But the real magic of a picture book, of course, is how the illustrations and text pair to bring the story to life. As Kate Hosford noted to me, “in reality, the addition of pictures usually adds to the sophistication of the book rather than detracts from it.” Sophistication, meaning, and especially humor—I’d argue that the interplay of text and illustrations highlights these in a way that adults can (and should!) appreciate with wonder.

So why not? Lerner’s various imprints include a wide array of picture books well worth marveling (and there are more on the way that I’m dying to share). Go grab a book, a brownie, and perhaps another grown-up, and enjoy.

Under the Ice

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Karre) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:21:00 +0000

As readers of Frozen Secrets already know, Antarctica’s subglacial lakes—those bodies of liquid water that lie thousands of feet beneath continental ice sheets—are truly Earth’s unexplored frontiers. They are time capsules containing pristine examples of environments that have been unchanged and uncontaminated since the ice above them formed millions of years ago.

In Frozen Secrets, readers were left hanging, with Russian scientists poised to drill into Lake Vostok, a subglacial lake equivalent in size to one of the Great Lakes. We had no choice: the scientists ran out of summertime, the only season where work of this nature can be carried out. We, at Carolrhoda, had to meet a print deadline for the book. But now, a new page in Antarctica’s continuing story has been turned.

On February 8, 2012, Russian scientists publically announced they have drilled into the surface of Lake Vostok and water samples have pushed up into the drill core and been retrieved. This is scientific history in the making. We are on the verge of breathtaking discoveries. And what if life is found in the water? Let’s just say it will push the phrase “extreme living” to the max.

-Sally M. Walker

A Leaf Can Be: Three in One Blow

noreply@blogger.com (Carol Hinz) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0000

We have referred to the book A Leaf Can Be . . . a couple of times on this blog, but I thought I’d spend a little more time on it today. In short, the book is a poetic exploration of the many roles leaves play all throughout the year. The text is by Laura Purdie Salas and the illustrations are by Violeta Dabija.

When Laura first sent me the manuscript, back in July 2009 (!) I was immediately drawn to it because it took a fresh, lyrical approach to a topic that kids typically learn about in early elementary school. After all, Millbrook’s focus is books that approach curricular topics in fun and innovative ways.

Although the official publication date is still a few weeks away, there have already been a number of great blog reviews. What has taken me by surprise is how nicely the book works for Nonfiction Monday, Poetry Friday, and STEM Friday. I think this is the first book I’ve been involved with that fits in all three of these categories! I know that we publishing folk are “supposed” to think in categories, but I first and foremost acquire books because I think they’re special in one way or another—not because they fill a certain slot.

Here are some of the reviews I’ve seen around the blogosphere recently:

A Year of Reading (Poetry Friday)

Simply Science (Nonfiction Monday; with suggested leaf activities)

NC Teacher Stuff (STEM Friday)

Want to know more? Head over to Laura Purdie Salas’s website, where you can learn about the inspiration behind the book and find a book trailer and a reading guide.

By the way, if you’re wondering, “three in one blow” is a reference to the fairy tale “The Brave Little Tailor,” in which a tailor kills seven flies in one blow. No flies were harmed in the creation of this blog post.

Free Book Friday!

noreply@blogger.com (Lindsay Matvick) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:45:00 +0000

Congratulations to Wendy, Vividha, and CBarnett! They are the three lucky winners of No Crystal Stair written by Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winner R. Gregory Christie.

This week one lucky winner will receive our new On the Radar: Street Style series and another lucky winner will receive On the Radar: Defend and Protect!

On the Radar: Street Style is a new high-interest, browsable series that covers Body Decoration, Street Art, Graffiti Culture, and Cool Brands.

On the Radar: Defend and Protect puts a lens on the Armed Services; Special forces, including SEAL Team Six; Undercover Operations; and Police Forensics.

To enter to win please leave a comment below or Tweet the following line: RT to win On the Radar: Street Style and On the Radar: Defend & Protect from @LernerBooks! http://bit.ly/1OrSN #FreeBookFriday" The winners will be announced during Free Book Friday on February 17 so make sure to check the blog to see if you've won!

Good luck!

Beautiful Hoarfrost and Other Random Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rodgers) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:46:00 +0000

Last weekend, parts of Minnesota awoke to the beautiful sight of trees tricked out in white crystals.This effect is called hoar frost, but when the frost forms on objects like tree branches, apparently it’s also known as air hoar. In any case, the result was a magical array of trees of every shape and size, looking like someone’s idea of a fairyland.

Giliane Mansfeldt, one of our photo researchers, snapped a few shots of the dazzling view. Here's one of them. Thanks, Giliane!

Then I started thinking about the word hoar. I’d only heard it in the context of frost. But apparently it’s been in use since the 1500s as an adjective meaning gray or white with age. Hoary is another way of saying the same thing. Samuel Taylor Coleridge used it that way in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone : and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

Coleridge (right, aged 23): now there’s an engrossing tale. Ran away to sea while young. Failed to take his degree at Cambridge. Failed in his calling to the ministry. Failed in his marriage. Messed up his friendship with Wordsworth. Was addicted to opium…and lived the last years of his life in the care of a London doctor who didn’t seem to have done him much good. But he gave us some useful metaphors and quotations: like an “albatross around one's neck,” "water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink," and the phrase "a sadder and a wiser man."

And reminded us of the origins of hoarfrost!

The Girl Who Owned A City: The Graphic Novel

noreply@blogger.com (Danny Lerner) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:05:00 +0000

Graphic Universe is jazzed about its new release of the long-standing Lerner favorite—The Girl Who Owned A City, written by O.T. Nelson. This time it’s in full graphic novel format in which intense colors and magnificent artwork splash the pages and tell the iconic story of a girl named Lisa Nelson who suddenly finds herself in charge of her Midwestern town following a mass extinction of everyone over 12.

Exquisitely illustrated by veteran comic book artist Joëlle Jones and adapted to comic book format by Dan Jolley (My Boyfriend is a Monster and the Myths and Legends series') this new work is set to inspire a whole load of new readers.

The book, which was originally published in 1975, became required reading in many high schools across the country in the ensuing decades. I recently spoke to a woman who grew up in Illinois (during the 1980s) and she confirms this piece of high school trivia.

The title has had many incarnations over the years—not just the variety of paperback and hardcover printings (although it’s cool to look at the progression of cover art over time including an old Dell Publishing trade paperback version)—but the fact that there's been at least one play production. The unique occasion took place on the stage of a community college in Scottsdale, Arizona in the 1990s. And from accounts on the ground it was a good, respectable adaptation.

With well over 200,000 copies of Girl in print we are gratified that another generation of young adults inclined to enjoy post-apocalyptic intrigue will continue to make this number go way, way higher. A combined “one million sold” has a very nice ring to it.

Digital-Readers for Beginners, Part Two

noreply@blogger.com (Adriano Fruzzetti) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:36:00 +0000

I just flew in from the Reading Recovery conference, and boy are my arms tired!

Last week in Digital-Readers for Beginners, Part One, I wrote about some digital-reader ownership statistics, and highlighted the typical features of eBook readers and tablet computers. Today, we'll cover the following topics:

1. iOS vs. Android
2. The concept of the digital ecosystem
3. Which digital-reader is right for you?

iOS vs. Android
Tablets come in two distinct flavors: Apple's iOS or the Android operating system. iOS is the proprietary operating system for all of Apple's devices, including iPod and iPhone. Those who already own an iOS device will be immediately familiar with the iPad's interface. Android is a Linux-based operating system that Google debuted in 2007 to compete with the iPhone. The Android OS is present in many of today's smart phones and tablets, and is used by a variety of manufacturers. Amazon Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, and Toshiba Thrive are just a handful of the tablets that use the Android operating system.

So what is the difference between Android and iOS, you wonder? Well... for the common user, there isn't a whole lot of difference- both systems are intuitive and easy-to-use in their own ways. iOS is developed only by Apple, whereas Android code is open source, allowing each manufacturer to tailor the system to (theoretically) best suit the device. While the Android variations that are available for consumers make it sometimes better and sometimes worse, the major difference between Android and iOS is not found in the interface, but rather the content available for each system. This ties into our next topic...

Digital Ecosystem
The concept of the digital ecosystem,as it pertains to digital-readers, is something that has emerged only recently. Digital-readers vary significantly in many physical ways; size, weight, processing power, storage capacity, and so on- but we're not shopping for cars here- the physical nature of a digital-reader is only half of the picture. The other half of the picture is content. It's not only a question of "can I watch movies on this device?" but also "which movies can I watch on this device?"

So now we've reached the crux of the digital ecosystem concept: Not every ebook, movie, or application is available for every device. And if the same content does bridge multiple platforms, it is unlikely to have the same price point on each one. Understanding the differences between ecosystems is as important as understanding the physical differences between digital-readers. There are two major digital ecosystems in play right now; Apple and Amazon.

Apple: The iPad utilizes the iTunes store for entertainment (movies and music), the App store for applications, and the iBookstore for electronic and interactive books. iTunes was made popular with the rise of the iPod as the world's most widely-used mp3 player, which evolved into the world's most widely used portable media player. The iBookstore has been less successful. It's important to note that due to the cost of doing business with Apple, and the restrictions and constraints of their business model, many publishers have avoided selling their books in the iBookstore. I view the recent announcement of the iAuthor software as a desperate attempt to generate more book content for the iPad. Apple is notorious for monetizing everything and the fact that iAuthor is free is one of the most obvious responses to their losing effort in the eBook battle. That being said, for pure entertainment, iTunes is the premier music provider, and has a robust movie selection as well. Movies may be purchased or rented, and there's no better digital-reader for watching movies than the iPad. Apple's App store is accessible only to app developers who are able and willing to adhere to Apple's strict requirements. Apple screens every app before it is made available to consumers, and takes 30% of all app sales. Many people feel that Apple's model limits consumer choice, but I think it's an effective way to eliminate bloatware/malware, and helps ensure customers are purchasing apps of a certain quality.

Amazon: Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, and have been the biggest seller of print and digital books for a long time. The Kindle is the most widely-used eReader device on the market, and the Kindle Fire is the fastest-growing tablet since it's debut in late 2011. Amazon has a clear advantage in the eBook market: they have the most selection, and their prices are typically the lowest available. Movies may be purchased or rented for the Kindle Fire. Amazon Prime members can view a decent number of movies and books for free. Amazon's App store is not nearly as large as Apple's, but does have the most popular apps available. Since the Kindle Fire is an Android-based device, it is possible the device will someday allow access to the official Android Market.

Some additional notes to consider

Third-party apps such as Pandora or Netflix are available on nearly every tablet, including iPad and Netflix. If you subscribe to a digital content service, make sure to find out what apps might be available for you to leverage.
I've written a lot about Apple and Amazon, but there are other worthy digital-readers and digital ecosystems. Nook has a fantastic book selection. Samsung Galaxy Tab has access to the Android Market, and it's 20,000+ apps.

Which digital-reader is right for you?
To figure out which digital-reader is right for you, you need to figure out what you're looking for. By now, you should have a pretty good idea of the major players, and their strengths and weaknesses. Here are a few bullet points you should consider before making a purchase:

If you have small children, iPad is the best for picture books. (There also happens to be a Lerner Digital iPad app available!)
Kids love apps. Kids break things. Kindle Fire is $300 cheaper than iPad.
If you already have a Kindle, and are thinking about adding a tablet, consider that Amazon content may be shared among all of your devices.
Sony eReader is the smallest and lightest of all the eBook readers.
Barnes & Noble offers free in-store Nook support.
You can read any book for free, up to one-hour a day, when you bring your nook into a B&N store.
If you're like Maurice Sendak, none of these devices is right for you.

If you're still not sure which device you should get, post a comment and I'd be happy to assist you!

Fantasy Life

noreply@blogger.com (Domenica Di Piazza) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

http://bit.ly/oJs4nF/

I heard part of a fascinating interview (link above) with author and book critic Lev Grossman on public radio recently. He talked about the popularity of fantasy fiction and the blurring of genres, and about two of his own fantasy novels (The Magicians and The Magician King). Since I myself don’t read much fantasy, the interview made me wonder what my colleagues are reading in this area, so I asked them.

Jon says:

I read a lot of fantasy. Lately I’ve been reading the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin. There are five books in the series so far and more than 1.7 million words, with more to come. I love them because Martin created this vast fantasy world with thousands of years of history. There are real knights, duels to the death, and wars. There are many minor and great lords who hold castles with epic names (Winterfell, Harrenhal, the Eyrie) and wield swords passed down in their families for thousands of years that also have cool names (the Sword of the Morning, Oathkeeper), and sit on thrones that, yes, also have heroic titles. There is some magic such as dragons (very rare) and an evil sorcerer or two, but mostly the books focus on the kingdom and the constant struggles for power.

I also recently read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which was awesome. The Night Circus is a book about a mysterious magic circus. It’s romantic and full of beautiful imagery, very dreamlike. I can’t really describe the plot without spoiling it, but there is some suspense.

1Q84 is a Japanese novel by Haruki Murakami. I like it a lot so far, but it’s a massive book and I’m only about 200 pages into it. It’s about a young woman who climbs down a service ladder (rabbit hole?) from a Tokyo freeway and finds herself in an alternate Tokyo. Some of the differences are subtle (the police carry modern pistols instead of the old revolvers the hero is used to) and others are not (there are two moons). There is some kind of mystery involving a young girl and a cult, but the plot is still unfolding.

Jen says:

I always find it difficult to say what is fantasy. I think a lot of what I read (both in adult and YA) is considered fantasy, or urban fantasy. What I have found is that almost all the books I read now that are considered “fantasy” are really mysteries with a supernatural element, with some romance and other things thrown in. The best of all the worlds, if you ask me.

My favorite semi-fantasy books/authors right now are Charlaine Harris (author of the Sookie Stackhouse books, which are the basis for the HBO show True Blood, as well as other series), Rachel Caine (YA Morganville Vampires series, plus adult novels. I really enjoyed her recent book Working Stiff, the start of a new adult series that is supposed to be a new spin on a zombie theme), and Richelle Mead (YA fantasy author with several series). I also loved the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, like everyone else. And I have really enjoyed books by Maggie Stiefvater, though I haven’t yet read her newest, the Scorpio Races [see Andrew below].

Andrew says:

Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is every bit as good as the hype. It’s a magical horse book, I suppose, and I am allergic to horse books, but Maggie has managed to obliterate all my prejudices and preconceptions. The combination of borrowing from history, appropriating from myth, and outright invention is breathtaking, plus the plotting is masterful and the characters are memorable. It’s a good audio book, too.

Greg says:

Fantasy stories don’t make it to the front of my library queue often—Patricia Highsmith and Dashiell Hammett are the big genre writers in my life right now. Robert Holdstock’s 1984 novel Mythago Wood had been on my to-read list for a while, after Paul Kincaid praised the book effusively at Big Other.

The book follows two brothers in England as they become obsessed with the mysterious local woods that had earlier been an obsession of their father’s, drawing, as it progresses, from every era of British folklore. Mythago Wood is sometimes guilty of my least favorite feature of fantasy, the world-building information dump (be prepared for digressions about what X did to escape the clutches of Y in the bygone era of Z), but it also includes cleverly integrated meditations on authorship and the mutability of myths.

Check in for more from TFCB in two weeks! And be sure to let us know if you have any favorite fantasy titles to recommend.

[book covers from amazon.com]