Read at midnight last night by Veronica Roth:

As you undoubtedly already know from the eager lines of kids waiting for it, tomorrow is  Allegiant Day, with the release of the final volume in Veronica Roth’s YA dystopian series (HarperCollins/Tegen; Dreamscape Audio). Amazon reports that it is selling 5:1 more copies than did Mockingjay (Hunger Games Book 4)  in the month prior to its release (an encouraging comparison for Summit, which is producing both as movie franchises).

Midnight release parties are being abetted by an online reading by Roth of a chapter on the Divergent Web Site, beginning just before midnight tonight. Entertainment Weekly is the first with a review, giving it just a B+, revealing that, “Barely six chapters in, Roth brutally offs a character who’s been around since the first book. The message: In this dystopian universe, nobody is safe” and that the novel has a “shocking ending.” The reviewer rightly adds “None of this will matter to Roth’s fans, who thrill to the heart-pounding immediacy of her writing and swoon over Tobias, the damaged dreamboat who co-narrates Allegiant with his true love, Tris.”

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Tomorrow is also Mac Barnett and Jon Scieszka Day, with the release of Battle Bunny (S&S/Atheneum). The creators, joining forces for the first time, have  gone all meta-cognition on us, first producing one of the most insipid picture books in recent history (Birthday Bunny— a faux Golden Book illustrated by Mathew Myers), then transforming it via the magic marker of a fictional boy reader into the far less saccharine Battle Bunny.

This creates some cogintive dissonance for me as a librarian. I believe that defacing books is wrong, even though there is a long tradition of creating art from old books. Should I buy  a book for my library that celebrates such defacement?

Definitely. I need multiple copies AND will want to print out the original for programing.

[See our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of Oct 21, for other titles coming out this week]

Hollow City, (Quirk Books), the sequel to Ransom Riggs’ unlikely best seller, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, based on eerie found photographs, arrives in January. The cover has just been revealed.

There’s not much news on it yet, beyond the publishers description:

“This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.

Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.”

Love the line about London being “the peculiar capital of the world.”

Among the many series titles that arrive next week, one offers an unusual opportunity. We rarely get to see how life ultimately works out for teen series characters. Next week, Phyllis Naylor lets fans in on what happens to Alice, from entering college through her 60’s. Appropriately, it’s titled, Now I’ll Tell You Everything,

The titles highlighted here are listed on our downloadable spreadesheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of Oct. 14.

Picture Books

I’m a Frog! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)

Number 20 in the series, another pitch-perfect title from Mo Willems. This time the two very different best friends, Elephant and Piggie, tackle the complicated topic of “let’s pretend.”

Please Bring Balloons, Lindsay Ward, (Penguin/Dial)

The many who were charmed by Ward’s bluebird (When Blue Met Egg, 2012) will be equally enchanted by this dreamy fantasy featuring carousel bears. The author presents a preview of the book’s lovely art on her blog.

Cinderella: A Fashionable Tale , Steven Guarnaccia, (Abrams BYR)

Hip parents with stylish progeny will enjoy this retelling and playing spot the designer,

Middle Grade

The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit , (S&S BYR; S&S Audio)

Kirkus gives this one the right hook, “Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan meet Nancy Drew. In this first novel by Oscar-winning actress Spencer, Randi Rhodes thrives on solving the mysteries that unfold in her busy Brooklyn neighborhood.”

Sweet Feet: Samantha Gordon’s Winning Season, Samantha Gordon with Ari Bruening, (Walker Children’s; simultaneous paperback)

The biography of a ten-year- old girl who is a football phenom and internet sensation.

Young Adult

Now I’ll Tell You Everything, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, (S&S/Atheneum)

Booklist says it best, “Naylor has given fans a gift: the chance to see how life unfolds for a beloved character. This 500-page farewell is the twenty-eighth title of a series that began in 1985, and it opens when Alice is 18 and headed off to the University of Maryland … we follow her from college to marriage and babies, all the way up until the eve of her sixtieth birthday. For the diehard Alice fan.”

More Y.A. Series

Revealed, P. C. Cast, Kristin Cast, (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Griffin; Macmillan Audio)
The House of Night series has been on The New York Times Children’s Series bestseller list for nearly 150 weeks and counting. It’s also reach #1 on German, and UK bestseller lists. This is the eleventh and next-to-last in the series.

The Darkest Minds Never Fade, Alexandra Bracken, (Hachette?Disney-Hyperion)

Second in action packed dystopian fantasy series, following The Darkest Minds (2012). Kids will be screaming for number 3.
UnSouled, Neal Shusterman, (S&S BYR)

Unwind the first of this trilogy was a tour de force of near future dystopic fantasy. Imagine a world where birth control is illegal, parents have the right to “unwind” oppositional or ordinary or just “spare “adolescents for their body parts. Anyone who has read number one will not want to miss this next one..

Originally set for Valentine’s Day, the film of James Dashner’s The Maze Runner has now been moved to the fall, Sept. 19, 2014. About the change, director Wes Ball tweeted, “These things aren’t my choice, but I 100% agree with Fox’s decision. Just imagine the cool stuff we can do with a little extra time.”

As a result, it will no longer be competing with Vampire Academy, still scheduled for Feb. 14.

In a less dramatic move, The Book Thief has been rescheduled from Nov. 15, this year, to a week earlier, Nov. 8.

The film version of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, (Penguin/Dutton), is now set for release on 6/6/14.

When the names of the stars were revealed earlier this summer, Shailene Woodley as Hazel and Ansel Elgort as Gus, the two teenagers who fall in love after meeting in a cancer support group, Green launched a spirited defense of the choices on his Tumblr page.

Green pointed out, “There seems to be some concern that Ansel and Shailene are playing siblings in a different movie [the upcoming Divergent, based on the book by Veronica Roth]. I guess I can understand that, but they’re actors … I mean, no one watched Silver Linings Playbook and thought, ‘When did Katniss move to the suburbs of Philadelphia?’”

In a new interview in The Pittsburgh Gazette, where filming is currently in progress, he notes that the screenplay is remarkably true to his novel, “almost every line of dialogue in the movie is from the book.”

Green has been updating fans from the movie set via Twitter and his Vlogbrothers videos on YouTube. The most recent video from the set is below:

Several big kahunas arrive next week. James Patterson’s Confessions: The Private School Murders (Hachette/LBYR; Hachette Audio; Hachette Large Print), Rick Riordan’s 4th title in his Heroes of Olympus series,  The House of Hades (Hachette/Disney-Hyperion; Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Print) and the highly anticipated, aggressively promoted, novel by Newbery Honor winner Shannon Hale, Ever After High: The Storybook of Legends, (Hachette/LBYR) which ties in to Mattel’s doll franchise, with videos, apps and games, following Mattel’s previous Monster High (with tie-in titles by Lisi Harrison).

To top it all off, the tie-in to Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Scholastic) also arrives. But don’t let all these  big names obscure some other books worthy of attention.

All the titles mentioned here are listed, with alternate formats, on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of Oct. 6

Picture Books

Captain Cat, Inga Moore, (Candlewick)

Moore, who has created lush editions of the classics Wind in the Willows and The Secret Garden, charms with this tale of an island overun with rats and ship filled with cats.

Anton and Cecil: Cats at Sea, Lisa Martin, Valerie Martin, (Algonquin YR)

For those looking for more cats at sea tales, this animal adventure story will remind readers of Avi’s Poppy.

Facts For Younger Kids

National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Space, Catherine D. Hughes, David A. Aguilar, (National Geographic Children’s Books)

National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of the Ocean , Catherine D. Hughes, (National Geographic Children’s Books)

I love this First Big Books series. Stunning pictures (click through to the book on space to see some of the spreads) and fact-filled fun.

Maps, Daniel Mizielinski, (Canglewick/Big Picture Press)

A stunning publishing debut for a new publishing house, which introduces itself  this way, “Big Picture Press is a new list of highly illustrated books launching September 2013, publishing as an imprint of … Candlewick Press (US and Canada). We believe that books should be visually intelligent, surprising, and accessible to readers of all ages, abilities, and nationalities.”

Middle Grade

Will in Scarlet, Matthew Cody, (RH/Knopf BYR; Listening Library)

An old fashioned fast-paced historical adventure from the point of view of the youngest member of the Robin Hood’s band of merry men.

Adam Gidwitz has taken apart, mashed-up, spun around Grimm’s fairytales in this series that has a Princess Bride narrative tone. Don’t miss number three. All are superb read alouds.

Young Adult

A cyber reality page-turning adventure from the the author of the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series as well as the books in the 13th Reality series and The Infinity Ring.

Kirkus calls this mystery, “smart, intricate storytelling loaded with genuinely teen concerns. Atmospheric, lyric and unexpected.”

Just One Year, Gayle Forman, (Penguin/Dutton Juvenile; Dreamscape Audio)

Published in January, Just One Day told the story of a pair of teenagers spending a day (and night) in Paris, from the point of view of Allyson. Just One Year picks ups where the first book left off, but from the boy’s point of view. Must have for the romance fans.

Emerald Green, Kerstin Gier, Anthea Bell, (Macmillan/Holt; Macmillan Young Listeners)

I’ve been waiting for this — the final book in the Ruby Red Trilogy , a this time traveling romance series with a hint of humor.

Jeff Bridges’ 15-year long effort to adapt Lois Lowry’s seminal YA dystopian novel, The Giver (HMH, 1993; winner of the 1994 Newbery Medal) is finally coming to fruition. A release date of Aug. 15 next year has been announced, with production  set to begin this month in Cape Town, South Africa.

Australian actor Brenton Thwaites will star as Jonas, a young boy in a utopian society that has eliminated conflict via conversion to the “Sameness.” Jonas has been selected by the Giver to become the “Receiver of Memory” who knows the truths behind the facade. Jeff Bridges will star as The Giver (a role Bridges originally envisioned for his father, Lloyd Bridges). Meryl Streep will play the Chief Elder of the community; Katie Holmes, Jonas’s mother; Alexander Skarsgard, Jonas’s father; Cameron Monaghan, Jonas’s best friend Asher; and Odeye Rush, Jonas’s friend and love interest Fiona.

Bringing new attention to the production, it was recently announced that singer Taylor Swift is also joining the cast.

New books from award winners are big next week, from Caldecott medalists Jerry Pinkney and David Wiesner to the longlisted National Book Awards title from Meg Rosoff … Your next favorite read aloud, Snatchabook, focuses on the love of reading … In tie-ins, releases of Ender’s Game and Frozen signal two big fall movies arriving in November.

Titles mentioned here, and more arriving next week, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kid’s New Title Radar; Week of Sept. 30.

Picture Books

The Tortoise & the Hare, Jerry Pinkney, (Hachette/LBYR)

Caldecott-winning artist Pinkney, (The Lion And The Mouse) retells Aesop’s fable, set in the American Southwest. The illustrations are rich in detail, accurately displaying the flora and fauna of the region’s landscape. These animals are more anthropomorphic than his previous retelling, with the turtle sporting a train engineer’s cap (perhaps a nod to John Henry) and the rabbit in a checkered vest. Another winner.

Snatchabook, Thomas Docherty, Helen Docherty, (Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky)

Looking for a new read aloud picture book so delightful that it sings? Look no further, it’s here.

Click on the title link to see some of the charming interior spreads.

Mr. Wuffles!, David Wiesner, (HMH/Clarion Books)

The world has gone cat crazy, from French video star, Henri, Le Chat Noir, who paces to an interior monologue of ennui, to  Grumpy Cat, who has his own bestselling book from Chronicle (and the longest lines at Book Expo).

Now there is Mr. Wuffles! Inventive, surprising, with sly humor and visual jokes, three-time Caldecott-winner David Weisner gives new life to the alien invasion trope.

Young Adult

Picture Me Gone, Meg Rosoff, (Penguin/Putnam)

Longlisted for the National Book Awards, this is a story that sneaks up on you. Written from the point of view of a very smart, very aware (think Sherlock Holmes) twelve-year-old, it is about a girl accompanying her father on a trip to the United States to search for his missing best friend.

Movie Tie-ins

Ender’s Game (Movie Tie-In), Orson Scott Card, (Macmillan/Tor Teen; also in trade pbk)

Whatever you think of Orson Scott Card’s politics or point of view, when Enders Game was published in 1985, it brought a new vision to speculative fiction with its intergalactic power plays and the fate of the human race resting on the gaming skills of children. The book has reappeared on best seller lists as attention is gearing up for the movie, which open Nov. 1, starring Harrison Ford as Col. Hyrum Graff and Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin.

New TV spot below:

Frozen Tie-ins

Disney’s big animated feature for the winter, opening Nov. 27, is appropriately titled Frozen, which is oosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen,

In addition to the novelization (pictured), several tie-ins are being published.

See our downloadable spreadsheet, Kid’s New Title Radar; Week of Sept. 30, for the full list.

Two titles on just-announced longlist for the National Book Awards for Young People’s Literature arrive tomorrow; The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu (Walden Pond Press) and Kate DiCamillo’s Flora and Ulysses (Candlewick). On our Watch List is the next title in one of my favorite new middle grade series and a title that’s been buzzed on YA GalleyChat. With all the ads out there for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, we probably don’t need to remind you that it opens this weekend. For those who want to read ahead, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 3 : Planet of the Pies came out last month.

See our downloadable spreadsheet with the movie tie-ins, the titles highlighted here, and many more  coming this week, Kids New Title Radar — Wk. of Sept 23.

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, Kate DiCamillo, illus. by K.G. Campbell, (Candlewick)

It’s no surprise that the latest by award winning author Kate DiCamillo is a delight to hold. Those who read it digitally will miss the beautiful bookmaking, the heft, the delicious paper stock and the shiny embossed red detail that dances across the cover, even landing on the tiny letters on the comic that Flora is hugging. DiCamillo and her partners-in-crime the creative team at Candlewick, fearlessly experiment with a hybrid graphic format telling the quiet, funny and sometimes sad tale of self-proclaimed cynic Flora and her superhero squirrel companion Ulysses.

The review in the New York Times Book Review  is particularly insightful. Christine Scheper, Children’s Materials Specialist, Queens Library, NYC gives the ultimate librarian recommendation “As a children’s librarian I am always thinking ‘who is this book for?’ I would give this book to everyone! It’s hysterically funny.”

As a special gift from the publisher and School Library Journal, you are invited to join a Livestream Event featuring Kate DiCamillo and Jon Scieszka live from Bank Street College of Education on Monday October 21st. Set up an assembly so all of your students, parents, and teachers can share the belly laughs with these two hilarious authors. It’s the school visit to end all school visits!

Watch List

Good Night, Zombie, James Preller, illus. by Iacopo Bruno, (S&S/Feiwell & Friends, simultaneous paper and hardcover)

AsI said about the earlier titles in this series, I am thrilled with these early chapter books that are just scary enough for newly fluent third graders. Lots of dark scratchboard illustrations, and a flip animation spider that crawls down the margin, adds visual interest. Happily, at least three more titles are planned in the series.

Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson, (Delacorte Press; Brilliance Audio)

As proclaimed on the cover, Sanderson is a NYT best selling author, but for adult titles (he completed Robert Jordan’s fantasy series The Wheel of Time). He has also published a series of YA novels (beginning with the marvelously-titled Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians) and the standalone YA/middle grade novel, The Rithmatist, which came out in May. This beginning of a new series is called by SLJ a “fun, fast-paced, futuristic science-fiction superhero story.” Librarians on YA GalleyChat report that kids are eagerly awaiting this one.

The box office results for City of Bones were so poor that plans to film the sequel City of Ashes have turned into, well, ashes.

Meanwhile, expectations for the Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire are outpacing the original. Wall Street analysts project that the film, which opens Nov. 22, will bring in $400 million in profits  vs. $325 million from the original.

It’s no surprise, then, that  announcements of new cast members for the adaptation of the third and final book in the series, Mockingjay (Scholastic), have been coming fast and furious.

For those having trouble keeping up, Entertainment Weekly offers a quick rundown of the new, as well as returning, cast members (beginning with newcomer Julianne Moore as President Alma Coin). Mockingjay will be released in two parts. The first is scheduled to arrive in theaters in Nov., 2014, followed by the second the following year.

The National Book Awards committee is working to create excitement about this year’s nominees. Taking a cue from other awards, the announcements will be rolled out slowly, with a longlist for each category, followed by shortlists on Oct. 16 and the winners announced on Nov. 20.

Adding more anticipation, and more opportunity for media coverage, the longlists of ten titles for each category are being announced each day this week, on the Book Beast:

Today —  Young People’s Lit. — Click here for the BookBeast listing with annotations and links to consumer reviews. Our downloadable spreadsheet with bibliographic information and alternate formats — Nat’l Book Awards; Young People’s Longlist

Tues. — Poetry

Wed. — Nonfiction

Thurs. — Fiction

Covers of the titles on the Young People’s Literature longlist below:

It’s not over until it’s over (especially when billions of dollars are involved).

On her Web site yesterday, J. K. Rowling announced that she is working with Warner Bros. on a new franchise, based on the fictional Hogwarts textbook that Rowling wrote for the Harry Potter series in 2001, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, (Scholastic), under the name Newt Scamander. Set 70 years before Harry and crew enrolled in Hogwarts, the films will feature the book’s fictitious author, a revered former Hogwarts headmaster. Rowling will write the screenplay.

In her statement, Rowling says,

It all started when Warner Bros. came to me with the suggestion of turning Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of Fantastic Beasts, realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood. As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros. Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for 17 years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, 70 years before Harry’s gets underway.”

Neil Gaiman’s next book Fortunately, the Milk, (HarperCollins) is written for middle-grade kids and is scheduled for publication on Sept. 17 (shipping today). It is about the many obstacles a father encounters while trying to buy milk for his childrens’ cereal (which, fortunately, he finally manages to bring home).

Videos of Gaiman introducing the book have already appeared. The official book trailer has just been released and it’s being featured in several publications, including USA Today and The Hollywood Reporter.

The U.S. edition (above, left) is illustrated by Marvel comics’ Scottie Young (the UK edition is by Chris Riddell, who illustrated The Graveyard Book).

View the official trailer here.

The first trailer for the film adaptation of Veronica Roth’s YA novel Divergent debuted at MYV’s Video Music Awards last night.

Unfortunately, it arrives just as another YA adaptation is being called a flop. City of Bones, which opened this weekend, was called a “disappointment” by  many sources, including the Wall Street Journal. Nevertheless, filmmakers say a sequel is still in the works.

This is viewed as a trend, since the adaptation of Beautiful Creatues, released in the spring, was also considered a box office failure.

Bloomberg Business Week quotes YA marketing consultant MaryLeigh Bliss of YPulse, who says that these movies didn’t connect because they are based on books that don’t have “an organized and impassioned fandom that could match something like Harry Potter or Twilight” or a large crossover audience. She expects the second Hunger Games film, opening in November, to do well, but doesn’t hold out much hope for Divergent, coming in March, or The Maze Runner which arrives in February.

The trailer is below:

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