Kids New Title Radar, Week of July 1
Among the titles that qualify as “blind orders” (those that need no reviews), arriving next week, are R.L. Stine’s new gruesome stand-alone, A Midsummer Night’s Scream, (Macmillan/Feiwel & Friends) with appropriately spooky cover (the plot features teenaged actors in Hollywood and a short guy named Puck), as well as another “standalone” (even though it’s part of a series), Erin Hunter’s Warriors Super Edition: Tallstar’s Revenge, which follow the previous five standalone “super-editions” (see a break down of the various series here).
For those buying movie tie-ins, there are plenty for Disney’s Planes, coming Aug 9.
Below are other highlights of the week; all these titles, and more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Titler Radar, Week of July 1
Younger Readers
The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail, Richard Peck, (Penguin/Dial)
Newbery Medalist Richard Peck (for A Year Down Yonder) celebrates an earlier queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Victoria’s, in his return to the mouse society featured in Secrets at Sea (2011). Says Kirkus, “Peck binds this unlikely romp together with his characteristically witty and precise prose, flavored by an endearing blend of humility and superiority that only a British foundling mouse can muster.” Booklist adds, “This may be a book about a tiny mouse, but it’ll be big on everyone’s radar.”
What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World, Henry Clark. (Hachette/Little Brown YR)
No need for a plot summary for this debut; the title does that. It got mixed reviews from SLJ and PW for being a little over the top. I thoroughly enjoyed the voice and contemporary style, with big words and snarky humor. Kirkus concurs, saying it’s “refreshingly bonkers. It offers thinking kids humor that is neither afraid of the potty nor confined to it. Most of the characters (and some of the furniture) have their quirks, but there is a realism at the core that readers will respond to.” This one is sure to be a pick of the lists come year end. Here’s hoping there’s a movie in the works.
SYLO, D J MacHale, (Penguin/Razorbill)
The start of a new dystopian trilogy by the author of the Pendragon books, is starred by Kirkus, which says “MacHale knows boy readers and delivers, giving them an action-packed plot with a likable, Everykid protagonist and doling out answers with just the right amount of parsimony to keep the pages turning. This first installment in a proposed trilogy is absolutely un-put-down-able, more exciting than an X-Box and roller coaster combined.”
Sea of Monsters — Movie Tie-in and Graphic Novel
The Sea of Monsters: The Graphic Novel, Robert Venditti and Rick Riordan, illus by Tamas Gaspar and Attila Futaki, (Disney Book Group), pbk and hdbk.
In addition to the tie-in to the movie opening theaters on Aug. 7, a graphic novel is being released. As in the previous titlem The Lightning Thief: The Graphic Novel ,the publisher does a a spectacular job translating the story into graphic format while losing none of the excitement of the originals and providing high-interest reads to kids daunted by the size of the novels.
New Adult
Because of Low, Abbi Glines, (S&S/Simon Pulse)
The rights to this formerly self-published ebook title were bought by the S&S Pulse imprint which in now releasing it in both hardcover and paperback. This second title in the Sea Breeze series, it actually arrives AFTER the third in the same series, While It Lasts, already spent 4 weeks on the NYT YA best seller list back in May, in its former incarnation as a self-published eBook-only title. The fourth title, Just for Now will be released in late August.