Sony has big plans for the upcoming Goosebumps movie, hoping it will spawn a franchise, reports the L.A. Times. However, that may be a problem. The story notes that the books’s heyday was in the early ’90’s so fans are now too old for the movie and their kids may be too young for the its ten-year-old target audience.

As we reported a few weeks ago, Goosebumps which arrives in theaters Oct. 16 starring Jack Black, is not based on any of the specific titles, but uses the entire series as a jumping-off point. Black plays author R.L. Stine, whose library of Goosebumps manuscripts contain actual monsters, unleashed by local inquisitive kids.

Tie-in editions are on their way (see our listing of Upcoming Movie Tie-ins), but keep your eye on the old Goosebumps titles as well, recently reissued as Classic Goosebumps (with the line “Now a Major Motion Picture” on the covers).

It’s difficult to say which titles may get a bump. In an interview with ComingSoon.net, Stine said that the movie features “All the early monsters that are in the books. They all come out, they’re all there.” He names a few specifically,  “The real evil one is Slappy the Dummy (in the three Night of the Living Dummy titles), he’s there, the Abominable Snowman from Pasadena is there, and lawn gnomes, HUNDREDS of lawn gnomes (Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes). They’re great, they’re really good.” He also mentions  the giant praying mantis from  A Shocker on Shock Street.

“The wizarding world is getting a handsome new addition,” reports Time magazine. Colin Ferrell is joining the cast of the Harry Potter spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Planned as the first in a trilogy, the movie is scheduled for release on November 18, 2016.

Directed by David Yates, who was responsible for 4 of the 7 original Potter films, it stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, the writer of the fictional Hogwarts textbook (a real edition was published in 2001 and rereleased earlier this year). J.K. Rowling has written the script.

The other movies in the series are planned for release in two-year intervals; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 (2018) and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3 (2020).

On the eve of the release of Dr. Seuss’s new book, What Pet Should I Get? (RH Books for Young Readers; Listening Library), the Today Show features a story focused on the production of the lost manuscript.

Seuss’s longtime assistant offers a reason Seuss may not have published the book himself, suggesting that One Fish, Two Fish appealed to him more, a preference that The New York Times’ Michiko Kakutani agreed with in her rhyming review.

In her cover review for the NYT Sunday Book Review, Maria Russo offers the theory that What Pet Should I Get? was a warm-up for One Fish, Two Fish.

Released on Friday, the first full trailer for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is getting heavy scrutiny. In case you miss any significant bits, Entertainment Weekly does a “deep dive” into  all 2 minutes and 24 seconds.

The movie arrives in theaters on Nov. 20

Just after hearing librarians rave about the forthcoming Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy (HarperCollins/ Balzer + Bray, Sept. 15) during yesterday’s YA GalleyChat, comes the news that Disney is developing it as a movie.

DRCs are available on Edelweiss, where it’s already gotten “much love” from  47 peers, including 16 librarians.

Check out the full chat below:

In all the excitement over Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, some may have forgotten that earlier this year Theodor Geisel’s wife and his long time secretary found material for at least three new Dr. Seuss books as they were cleaning out Geisel’s office.

The first to be published arrives next week. What Pet Should I Get? (Random House Books for Young Readers; Listening Library.July 28, 2015) is believed to have been written between 1952 and 1962 and features the characters from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.

At the time it was announced, Washington Post book reviewer Ron Charles composed a poem in tongue-in-cheek disbelief. A sample:

“Book in Drawer”

Those yellowed notes,
Those yellowed notes,
I do not like those yellowed notes.

Will you read this ancient draft?

I will not read that ancient draft …

The New York Times’s chief book critic, Michiko Kakutani has read it and gets in to the act, with her own review in verse form.

Her conclusion?

Seuss never spoke down to his readers, no matter how small.
His tales were told with vim, vigor and zest.
What Pet Should I Get? entertains us just fine.
Who cares if this book’s not really his best?

For a comparison, listen to a clip from the audio:

Coming October 16, Goosebumps, the movie, in 3-D, of course.

It’s less an adaptation of the Goosebumps books and more a movie in which they are referenced. Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, the books’ creator, who keeps the ghosts and monsters from each book locked in the manuscripts stored in his library. A kid new to the neighborhood discovers them and before you can say “Don’t open them, Pandora,” sets them loose.

The tie-ins, coming from Scholastic, are based on the movie (see our listing of  Upcoming — Tie-ins).

This tantalizing trailer was posted on YouTube yesterday:

Unfortunately, it seems it’s a hoax, Variety reports that a Netflix spokesperson says the company had nothing to do with it. They also report that “The video in the fake trailer appears to be from the 2004 movie adaptation starring Jim Carrey, while the song is an excerpt of Missed Me by the Dresden Dolls, a Boston-based ‘punk cabaret’ duo.”

Netflix announced last November that they plan to adapt Daniel Handler’s Lemony Snicket books, but there’s been no news since.

Although the movie based on The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, by Cassandra Clare was considered a box office flop, ABC Family thought it could have a new life as a TV series, titled Shadowhunters,

It’s not coming until next year, but fan flames will be kept burning in the just-launched official site ShadowHuntersTV.com.

New trade paperback editions of the six titles in the series as well as of the 3-part prequel series, Infernal Devices are coming in September.

In March, Clare launches a sequel to the series, beginning with Lady Midnight  (S&S/ Margaret K. McElderry) set five years after the Mortal Instruments.

Winner of this year’s Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery, and a nominee for the National Book Awards in Young People’s Literature, Kate Milford’s middle grade novel Greenglass House ((HMH/Clarion; Recorded Books, 2014) may be on the road to the big screen.

Deadline reports that Paramount in final negotiations to acquire the rights, has assigned a producer and screenwriter and is considering breaking the story in to several parts, to create a film franchise.

On her web site, Milford says she’s very happy with the choices because,  “I really loved what the producer Ian [Bryce, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Age Of Extinction] told me about what he wanted the movie to be … He hit all the points that you’d want to hear someone hit if you’ve read Greenglass House and had strong feelings about it. In fact, it was immediately and overwhelmingly clear that he himself had read the book and had strong feelings about it, and I think the best thing an author can hope for in someone who’s going to shepherd their work to a new phase of being is that that person is as passionate about it as the author is, and that you have the same vision for the story you’re telling.”

Call it #WeNeedDiverseBallet. After 14 years with the American Ballet Theater, Misty Copeland has just been become the company’s first black female principal dancer.

Her autobiography, Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, (S&S/Touchstone; Tantor Audio), was published in hardcover last year and is also available in trade paperback.

She also published a children’s picture book, Firebird, illus. by Christopher Myers, (Penguin/Putnam) picked as a best book of the year by NPR:

“The book is for very young dancers who may not see many people who look like them in the world of ballet. It’s illustrated by Christopher Myers, whose collagelike work is painterly, vivid and emotional. Copeland’s writing and Myers’ art draw you into a beautiful world, rich with color, texture and drama. For all budding young artists who maybe don’t have role models they can relate to, this little book provides some inspiration.”

She was one of Time magazine’s 100 Most influential People this year and was profiled in May on 60 Minutes and said she dreamed of becoming ABT’s principal dancer one day. That day has come.

In a bit of an understatement, the Hollywood trade Deadline notes “[John] Green’s young-adult allure has made him as bankable an author as there is right now.”

Just last week it was announced that a film adaptation of a collection of three linked short stories, one of them by Green, Let It Snow (Penguin/Speak, pbk original, 2008), will be released on Dec. 9, 2016.

Another Green title has just taken a step closer to the screen. Director Rebecca Thomas is in talks for Looking For Alaska.

And, of course, Paper Towns, starring  Nat Wolff and Cara Delevingne is set to open in less than a month, on July 24.

So, what about his other books?

On his web site, Green says that An Abundance of Katherines, has been optioned, but is “a long way off.”

That leaves just Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which he wrote with David Leviathan. It hasn’t been optioned, says Green, because,”To quote a real live movie producer who really said this about Will Grayson, Will Grayson, ‘The only thing Hollywood hates more than smart teenagers is smart, gay teenagers’ I hope Hollywood will prove this movie producer wrong someday.”

Green has helped Hollywood get over that first objection. He may conquer the second as well.

People often ask me how could I give up working Bank Street College of Education in NYC to live in Minnesota.

The answer is the Kerlan Collection at University of Minnesota Libraries​, one of the largest  repositories of children’s book manuscripts, art and first editions. We hold the papers of all of the Ambassadors for Young Peoples Literature (if you are counting in your head that is Scieszka, Patterson, Myers, and DiCamillo).

Since everyone can’t visit the University of Minnesota, it is my goal to bring the collection out of the cavern and share it with librarians and teachers.

One of those efforts is the just-launched digital exhibit, Balloons Over Broadway, Melissa Sweet, and the Engineering of a Picture, which examines the author/illustrator research and creative process using the materials in the Kerlan Collection.

If you are going to ALA, don’t miss the opportunity to hear Melissa Sweet​ at the ALSC President’s program.

Charlemae Rollins President’s Program
More to the Core: From the Craft of Nonfiction to the Expertise in the Stacks
MCC-2001 (W)
Monday, 6/29 1:00 to 2:30

Awarding-winning author and illustrator Melissa Sweet and literacy advocate Judy Cheatham, VP of Literacy Services at Reading Is Fundamental, share the stage to present an informational and inspirational look at the creation of excellent nonfiction and the matchmaking of great books and kids who need them. Libraries’ role in innovative implementation of programs and services to support the Common Core Standards is a central skill and an important contribution to the communities we serve.  Even if CCS isn’t a part of your educational landscape, great nonfiction books – how they are created and ways to connect them to children and families is central to our craft and critical to our ability to collaborate with our communities. Let’s be inspired together!

It doesn’t have a director or cast yet, but that hasn’t stopped Universal Pictures from announcing that it will release Let It Snow on Dec. 9, 2016.

The film is based on a collection of three linked short stories by Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle (Penguin/Speak, pbk original, 2008), all of which take place on the same day during a snow storm.

Coming November 6th is The Peanuts Movie (in 3-D, of course. There’s a certain irony in that, since the original comics were decidedly 2-D). The second trailer has just been released.

Several tie-ins, including a novelization are on their way (for a full list, check our Upcoming Tie-ins catalog on Edelweiss):

Peanuts Movie Novelization
Charles M. Schulz, Tracey West (Adapted by)
September 22, 2015; Trade Paperback
Juvenile Fiction \ Media Tie-In
Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7