Jeremy Irvine, who played the lead in 2011’s War Horse, is set to star in an adaptation of the first book in Lauren Kate’s best selling YA novels featuring fallen angels, Fallen, (RH/Delacorte, 2009) reports Deadline. Starring opposite him will be Addison Timlin, who appeared in the decidedly non-YA Showtime series, Californication

Kirkus praised the book’s Southern Gothic atmosphere, as “so well crafted that readers can easily picture Luce walking among the marshes and crumbling buildings.”

No news yet on who is going to play the book’s “evil school librarian.”

Fallen, was followed by Torment (2010), Passion (2011) and the final title in the series, Rapture (2012). Kate begins a new supernatural YA trilogy this fall with Teardrop (RH/Delacorte, 10/22/13; Listening Library).

In other supernatural-YA-romance-to-movie news, the first trailer for Vampire Academy has just appeared online. Based on the first book in Richelle Mead’s series (Penguin/Razorbill), it is expected to be the beginning of a franchise (there’s plenty more material; the series consists of six books with more in the on-going spinoff series Bloodlines). Directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls), it stars Zoey Deutch and Lucy Fry and opens Feb. 14, 2014.

The new issue of USA Today offers a first look at the adaptation of Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters, the first in the series by Richelle Mead (Penguin/Razorbill). The director, Mark Waters, describes Zoey Deutch, who plays the lead, as having “a lot of personality, and that fun, brassy energy is what makes Rose interesting,”

Deutch has experience with YA adaptations. She appeared in a supporting role in this year’s Beautiful Creatures, based on the book by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Vampire Academy arrives in theaters on Valentine’s Day, 2014.

A new trailer for Catching Fire has been released online (if you’re trying to keep track, this is the third, the “Official international Trailer.” It follows the first, shown at the MTV Movie Awards in April and the second, shown at Comic-Con last month, which is not much different from this one). The last two trailers both emphasize the SF elements of the story, while the first focused on the politics of the Hunger Games. The film debuts on Nov. 22.

Meanwhile, the trailer for another dystopian teen movie, one that is more frightening because it is set in the near future and seems all too plausible, How I Live Now, has also been released.

It is based on a Meg Rosoff’s debut novel (RH/Wendy Lamb), a Printz Award winner, published in 2004, before the term “YA dystopian novel” was common. The film is directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King Of Scotland) and stars Soairse Ronan as Daisy, an American teenager who’s sent to stay with relatives in the English countryside just before World War III breaks out.

The film will be released in the UK on October 4; the US release date has yet been set, but it is expected in the fall.

Of the titles releasing next week (downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of Aug. 5), below are a few that should be particular hits with kids.

NG Kids Ultimate Weird But True 2: 1,000 Wild & Wacky Facts & Photos! (National Geographic)

This is the second in a high-interest reading series that appeals to kids who can read, but choose not to. Each page is a glossy color photo with fun facts. The first one flew off the shelves and this one will too.
 

Robots, Robots Everywhere!  Sue Fliess, illus. by Bob Staake (RH/Little Golden Books)

Short rhyming text perfectly supported by Staake’s primary colored graphic images demonstrate why “Golden Books” is a go-to brand for preschool story time.

The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppett: An Origami Yoda Book, Tom Angleberger, (Abrams/Amulet)

The first title in this series, The Strange Case Of Origami Yoda was a best seller and for good reason. It was a terrific school story, told from different points of view, formatted in the style of Wimpy Kid. We all know series that peter out after the 2nd or 3rd book. Angleberger demonstrates in this 4th book that he has hit the mark in portraying contemporary middle school life.

Llama Llama And The Bully Goat, Anna Dewney, (Penguin/Viking)

Llama Llama Red Pajama continues to be be one of my favorite read alouds for the pre-school set. Anna Dewney continues the series that and helps children manage “big feelings.” In previous books we learned that sharing is hard and it’s okay to get angry. Now she tackles teasing with just the right light touch.

Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales Donner Dinner Party, Nathan Hale, (Abrams/Amulet)

Thanks to one of my trusted sources, Susan Faust, school librarian and children’s book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle, for recommending this one. She says,

“Heading up to Tahoe on Interstate 80? A tidy graphic novel recounts the mess at the summit in the winter of 1846-47. Quick summary: Things go from bad to worse for a wagon train headed from Illinois to California, and there is nothing left to eat but each other. The narrator is Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, who foresees another gruesome chapter in American history right before the British hang him in 1776. (With the same name as the real-life author, he ties together the Hazardous Tales series.) Although it’s based on somber truths, irreverence rules with Mad Magazine edge and snarky asides. Still, the main themes are intact: arduous journey, bad choices, hubris, hunger, cold and an infamous end.”

Harvey Weinstein is reuniting with his old nemesis Walt Disney Studios (now under different leadership), for a live-action adaptation of Eoin Colfer’s fantasy novels for children, Artemis Fowl. As Variety notes, “Weinstein has been working on a bigscreen version of Artemis Fowl since 2000.”

The film will be based on the first two books in the series. MTV is already speculating on which young actors should be considered for the lead as the 12-year-old Artemis.

The eighth and final novel in the series, The Last Guardian, (Disney Book Group), came out last year.

If, like P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, (HMH), you hate the sanitized Disney version of her heroine, then you may be looking forward to Emma Thompson’s portrayal of a prickly Travers, as she struggles against the charms of Tom Hanks’ Walt in the movie Saving Mr. Banks.

The trailer claims the film is based on the “Untold True Story.” Perhaps this version has not been told, but others have. Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers, by Valerie Lawson (S&S, 2006), according to the Publishers Weekly review, details Travers’s “fussy movie negotiations with Walt Disney and the downplaying of her authorship in the 1964 hit film.” It is even being re-released with a note on the cover that it “Explores the events that inspired the major motion picture Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks.”

In “Becoming Mary Poppins,” published in The New Yorker in 2005, prior to the opening of a theatrical version of Mary Poppins on Broadway (with a script by Downton Abbey‘s Julian Fellowes and judged to be a “faithful rendering of the books’ brisk and sophisticated comic sensibility”), Caitlin Flanagan writes that, far from trying to charm Travers, Disney didn’t even meet with her at first. Instead, he palmed her off on the two songwriters he had hired for an agonizing, week-long story meeting. He left town, going to a ranch in Palm Springs to “read scripts.”

When Travers confronted Disney after the movie’s premiere, to which she hadn’t even been invited, demanding some changes,

Disney looked at her coolly. “Pamela,” he replied, “the ship has sailed.” And then he strode past her, toward a throng of well-wishers, and left her alone, an aging woman in a satin gown and evening gloves, who had travelled more than five thousand miles to attend a party where she was not wanted.

For those who are only aware of the supercalifragilistic version of Mary Poppins, Saving Mr. Banks may shed new light on the original, but it is likely to be a rose-colored light. Saving Mr. Banks is, after all, a Disney movie.

The film premieres in limited release Dec. 13 and expands nationwide on Dec. 20.

A few highlights of the titles coming out next week are below. All of these, and more, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of 7/29

Picture Books

Good Night, Sleep Tight, Mem Fox, Judy Horacek, Orchard Books

Picture book master, Mem Fox (Time for Bed) again teams up  with the illustrator of Where Are The Green?  creating the perfectly rhyming text for  story that will become another bedtime favorite.

Martin & Mahalia: His Words, Her Song , Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney, (Hachette/Little, Brown BYR)

“They were each born with the gift of gospel./Martin’s voice kept people in their seats, but also sent their praises soaring. /Mahalia’s voice was brass-and-butter – strong and smooth at the same time. /With Martin’s sermons and Mahalia’s songs, folks were free to shout, to sing their joy.”

Coretta Scott King winner Pinkney brings her storytelling voice to expressing the passion and commitment of two civil rights icons.

NOTE: The University of Minnesota, Children’s Literature Research Collections has been named the site for Andrea Davis Pinkney’s Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, which will be given on Saturday May 3rd, 2014.

Middle Grade

Goosebumps Most Wanted #4: Frankenstein’s Dog, R.L. Stine, Scholastic Paperbacks

Since Scholastic re-launched the Goosebumps series with fresh packaging, the it has flying off the shelves.

The Hypnotists: Book 1, , Gordon Korman, Scholastic Press

This prolific author of high interest series provides fast-paced reads. This is the first in a new series.

Guardians of Ga’Hoole: The Rise of a Legend, Kathryn  Lasky, Scholastic Press

Prequel to the popular series.

Young Adult

Earthbound, Aprilynne Pike, Penguin/Razorbill

The perfect summer read, a supernatural romance that is the first in a new series from the  best-selling author of the Wings series.

The Lying Game #6: Seven Minutes in Heaven, Sara Shepard,

I know it sounds crazy, but this is the series that has librarians fighting over who gets the galley first. Addictive reading for the Pretty Little Liars fans.

Divergent author Veronica Roth and the stars of the upcoming film based on the first in her YA dystopian series, which opens March 14, appeared on a panel at Comic-Con yesterday. The audience got to see footage from the film, but it has not been released online (Entertainment Weekly offered a “first look,” with stills from the set last month).

Plot details have not been revealed for the final book of the trilogy, Allegiant (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen; HarperAudio; Dreamscape Audio, Oct 22), but CNN reports that Roth said it will be told from two points of view; that of Tris and her love interest Four.

The film of the second book in the series, Insurgent, is expected in 2015.

Tie-ins:

Divergent Movie Tie-in Edition
Veronica Roth
On Sale Date: February 11, 2014
HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen
9780062289841, 0062289845
Hardback; $17.99 US / $23.99 Can.

9780062289858, 0062289853
Paperback; $9.99 US / $10.99 Can.

Following the teaser trailer for Catching Fire that was released in April, a new trailer debuted  at Comic-Con on Saturday. Reports MTV News, “While the first trailer for Catching Fire focused on Katniss’ pre-Games press tour, the new one introduces much more of the civil unrest rising throughout Panem after Katniss’ inspirational subversion of the Hunger Games rules.” Entertainment Weekly comments, the new trailer “offered up first looks at the Arena (Katniss dives right in!), the action (Johanna especially), and the fashion (looks like Cinna stepped up his game).”

The movie arrives Nov. 22

Tie-ins:

Catching Fire: Movie Tie-in Edition: The Second Book of The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic
On Sale Date: October 8, 2013
9780545603683, 0545603684
Paperback, $12.99
 

Catching Fire: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion
Kate Egan
Scholastic
On Sale Date: November 22, 2013
9780545599337, 0545599334
Paperback, $18.99

How time flies. Next week brings the fiftieth in the now classic series, Magic Tree House #50: Hurry Up, Houdini! (Random House BYR). Also cause for celebration is another new title in a series, My Weird School Special: It’s Halloween, I’m Turning Green! (HarperCollins), the perfect early chapter books for newly fluent readers.

Below are some other titles to on our radar for next week. All the titles highlighted here, plus many more, are on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of 7/22.

Picture Books

The Case of the Missing Donut, Alison Mcghee, Isabel Roxas, (Penguin/Dial)

This one leapt instantly to the top of the must-read pile on the basis of Alison McGhee’s name alone. Love her picture books, A Very Brave Witch and Countdown to Kindergarten illustrated by Harry Bliss and her gently lyrical books with Peter Reynolds. We adore her partnership with Kate DiCamillo, in the award winning series, Bink and Golly. Her middle grade Julia Gillian trilogy is an under-the-radar gem.

She has broken out new illustrators like Taeeun Yoo who was perfectly matched in her Only a Witch Can Fly. Now we have this lovely picture book illustrated by Isabel Roxas in her U.S. Debut. McGhee’s dry humor is perfectly matched with these “pictures that tell more than the words.”

Kirkus concurs; “Roxas’ charming illustrations are drawn with graphite and colored digitally in subtle but appealing hues. A hint of sepia echoes the faux homespun language and Western theme. They showcase a clean, friendly small town of leafy streets and small shops, populated with perky cartoon-style characters.”

Planes Fly!, George Ella Lyon, Mick Wiggins, (S&S/Atheneum BYR)

An exuberant celebration of nearly everything about flight, from the plane parts to the thrill of being in the air (of course, there’s nothing about long security lines or lost luggage). The bouncing verse mimics the exhilaration of flying and the retro illustrations do what early travel posters were designed to do; make you want to be a part of the fun (check out the spreads on Edelweiss).

Middle Grade

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Kathi Appelt, (S&S/Atheneum BYR)

Kathi Appelt is a singular voice and got raves for The Underneath, but that story of darkness and betrayal cloaked in lyrical language was not my cup of tea. For those, who, like me turned the pages of The Underneath with trepidation, fear not. As librarians often say, every book is not for every child. This one is, as I write in my review  in last Sunday’s NYT BR.

Binny for Short, Hilary McKay, (S&S/Margaret K. McElderry)

If you haven’t discovered Hilary McKay, her humor, her characters and her ability to express children’s “big feelings” within the context of family life, you are in for a treat. Do not miss Saffy’s Angel, the beginning of the Casson family series. Binny for Short introduces us a strong, sensitive and expressive little girl in the midst of big changes and developing friendships.

Bluffton: My Summer with Buster Keaton, Matt Phelan, (Candlewick)

Matt Phelan takes us to places that we have never been and may never have experienced except through his exquisite visual storytelling. In this case, it’s a little-known artist’s colony on the shores of Lake Michigan in 1908.

Young Adult

The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong, L. Tam  Holland, (S&S BYR)

Vee Crawford-Wong has been assigned to write his family history. Only as he tells it, in his family “We didn’t like to upset each other. That’s why we couldn’t talk about anything. That’s why I didn’t know anything. That’s why I couldn’t do my homework which is why I was going to flunk history. It was all my parents’ fault.” Debut author Holland has captured the authentic snarky voice of this high-schooler delving into his families secrets.

A new trailer for Catching Fire will debut at Comic-Con this weekend. Another teen dystopian adaptation, Divergent, will also be featured, with many of the stars, as well as the book’s author Veronica Roth, on had to talk with fans, setting off a round of publicity for the movie that doesn’t open until March.

USA Today has the best headline, “On set of Divergent, Kate Winslet is pregnant and mean” (she is actually pregnant but only plays mean as the intimidating Jeanine Matthews).

Shailene Woodley, who plays the lead, Tris, is also featured in the current issue of Interview magazine (the big news? She is topless for the photo shoot).

MTV is promoting their live-stream coverage of the Comic-Con event with a video of their visit to the Divergent set.

Summit Entertainment clearly expects this to be a success; they have signed up a screenwriter for the sequel,

DivergentOfficial.com

Facebook/DivergentSeries

EarlyWord Kids Correspondent, Lisa Von Drasek, writes in response to the news of the death last week of children’s book author Barbara Robinson:

Barbara Robinson died. Here’s the thing — if I share what she meant to me, its definitely too much information. But if I don’t then how will you know so… here it goes. We were the Herdmans (featured in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, HarperCollins, 1972 and other titles). The kids who were running wild, the kids who were not “maybe going to get in trouble,” we were trouble. So when I say to another children’s book person, we were the Herdmans, I don’t have to get into the “we were raised by wolves” thing. They get it and I don’t have to say another word. Barbara Robinson did that for me. Thank you just doesn’t say enough but thank you.

The story was covered by several sources, including School Library Journal and The New York Times.

After the onslaught of new kids titles that arrived at the the beginning of the season, next week is much lighter. In addition to the titles highlighted below, note the three new DK Readers for their high-interest, engaging format especially the LEGO Hero Factory tie-in; a brand that is a sure hit with kids.

All the titles mentioned here and more, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of July 15.

Bully, Laura Vaccaro Seeger, (Macmillan/Roaring Brook)

Caldecott honor winner Seeger (Green) never ceases to enthrall. The bull in this new story IS a bully. Name-calling makes him feel big but there is a twist. This one deserves all three of its starred reviews (PW, Booklist and SLJ).

Some Monsters Are Different, David Milgrim, (Macmillan/Holt)

We fell in love with David Milgrim with his outstanding pre-level one Otto and Pip early readers, (beginning with See Otto, Atheneum, 2002), Some Monsters displays the same the same delightful quirkiness and humor sure to delight the preschool set.

The Garfield Show #1: Unfair Weather, Jim Davis, Cedric Michiels, illus. by Ellipsanime, (Macmillan/Papercutz; also in trade pbk)

That pizza-loving fat cat, Garfield, appears in a new graphic novel fthat will fly off the shelves.  Papercutz, the publisher of the graphic Geronimo Stilton, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew as well as the Garfield & Co. series, scores with this new full-color comic.

Martin Sheen (West Wing) and Rooney Mara (the English-language version of  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) are set to star in the adaptation of Andy Mulligan’s 2010 YA novel, Trash (RH/David Fickling).

The book received strong reviews and was on several state awards list that year. Horn Book described it as, “Treasure Island meets Slumdog Millionaire in a rousing and hugely entertaining adventure set in an unnamed third-world country in the not-too-distant future. Fourteen-year-old Raphael Fernandez and his friend Gardo are ‘trash boys’ in rubbish-town, picking through ‘one whole long world of steaming trash,’ never finding anything of interest or value…until one day they do…”

Production is scheduled to begin in Rio de Janeiro early next month, with release scheduled for May next year.

It’s been delayed so many times (from Feb. to Oct. 2013 and then to January next year UPDATE: Delayed again! As of 11/27/13, the new date is 2/6/15 — Variety) that some have wondered if The Seventh Son will ever make it to the theaters, but the release of the first trailer gives new hope.

The movie, based on The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney (HarperCollins/Greenwillow, 2005), stars Julianne Moore as Mother Malkin, “the most evil witch in the world,” Jeff Bridges as the mentor to a young apprentice played by Ben Barnes and is set in the 1700′s.

The next book in the series, the twelfth, The Last Apprentice: I Am Alice, will be released on Sept. 3 of this year.

Series Web site: LastApprenticeBooks.com

True to form, Bridges gets the final, and best, line of the trailer.