Disney’s live-action movie based on Judith Viorst’s 1972 hit children’s book  Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Atheneum) is moving closer to the screen.  Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) is directing.  Ed Oxenbould will play Alexander,  Steve Carrell his father, Jennifer Garner his mother. Deadline reports that Dylan Minnette will play the older brother and Kerris Dorsey his sister.

[Note: our earlier story has been corrected; thanks to the reader who caught our error.]

The movie is currently scheduled for release on Oct. 10, 2014.

As World War Z continues strong at the box office, a zombie apocalypse arrives in kid’s books this week, from Zombelina by Kristyn Crow and Molly Idle, (Macmillan/Walker) about a little green dancer to The Music of Zombies, the fifth in Vivian French’s Tales from the Five Kingdoms series (Candlewick) and Darren Shan’s Zom-B Angels, (Hachette/Little, Brown YR) the fourth in his new YA horror series.

My particular favorite is My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish, by Mo O’Hara, (S&S/Feiwel & Friends), about a budding evil scientist. I am a sucker for what is now called “guys read ” fare, I’m not the only one.  I just got a note from an 8-year-old that reads, “Thank you for the fart book it was reely (sic) funny.” So is this one. I’m looking forward to My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish: The Sea-Quel arriving in January.

Below are other highlights of the week. All the titles noted here and many more, including movie tie-ins, are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of July 9.

Picture Books

Rocket’s Mighty Words, Tad Hills, (RH/Schwartz & Wade)

English is hard. Really hard. A lot of it doesn’t make sense to the beginning reader. Sight words are often the key to emergent literacy and fluency. We hear these words. We see these words. We hear these words again, repeating the cycle until we know these words. Then only and only then can we read them. Building our inventory of sight words can make or break of the first reading experiences. After following Rocket’s journey to literacy in How Rocket Learned to Read and Rocket Writes a Story, it is lovely to have him as our guide as we learn to own these words. This is as larger size board book that can be used at story time.

What Floats in a Moat?, Lynne Berry, Matthew Cordell, (S&S Young Readers)

Archie the goat and Skinny the Hen try to find a way to cross a moat through trial and error. The common core educators will fall in love with this simple scientific experiment framed in a picture book format.

Chapter Books

    
Home Sweet Horror  and I Scream, You Scream! (Scary Tales Books 1 and 2) by James Preller, (S&S/Feiwell & Friends, simultaneous paper and hardcover)

I am thrilled with this new series of  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. A third title, arriving in October, brings on the zombies (Good Night, Zombie). At least three more titles are planned in the series.

Nikki and Deja: Substitute Trouble, Karen English, Laura Freeman, (HMH/Clarion)

This is the 6th in a series that is terrific for  librarians looking for great stories that reflect the daily lives of kids. The early chapter book format is one that we can’t get enough of — think Johanna Hurwitz’s  Riverside Kids series (Scholastic), and James Howe’s Pinky & Rex, (Scholastic).

Young Adult 

45 Pounds (More or Less), Kelly Barson, (Penguin/Viking)

Jenny Brown of Shelf Awareness called this story of Ann, a teen aged girl trying to lose weight for her aunt’s wedding, a must-read. I think one of my students “borrowed” my galley so I’ll quote from Jenny’s review, “Teens who struggle with their weight will find a funny, smart companion in Barson’s charming heroine, and those who overlook or judge a classmate like Ann may find themselves taking a moment to get to know him or her. All readers will cheer for this winning character.” Kirkus is also on the bandwagon “‘While lessons are offered, they are deliciously coated in readable prose and a compelling plot.’ SLJ chimes in “Telling the story in Ann’s wry, realistic voice, this debut author effectively captures society’s preoccupation with size and the resulting alienation of an overweight teen.”

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.

The beloved 1990 children’s book Esio Trot by Roald Dahl (Penguin) is about a shy old man who hatches a complicated plot to win over the heart of the woman he loves by helping her tiny pet tortoise grow into a larger, more dignified animal. His scheme  involves  an incantation that begins with the backwards spelling of tortoise, Esio Trot.

Production is set to begin for an adaptation of the book, reports the movie news site, Showbiz411, starring Dustin Hoffman and Dame Judi Dench, lead by Irish director Dearbhla Walsh.

A picture book that celebrates the joys of math, released  today, is rising on Amazon after Cory Doctorow gave it a rave on Boing Boing. Praising The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah Heiligman, with illustrations by LeUyen Pham (Roaring Brook) about the eccentric Hungarian math genius, Doctorow says it uses “numbers and mathematics through the text, with lively, fun illustrations of a young Erdős learning about negative numbers, becoming obsessed with prime numbers and leading his high-school chums on a mathematical tour of Budapest.” The ultimate accolade? His five-year-old daughter, “demanded that I read it to her three times in a row,” (spreads are available on the Boing Boing site)

It appears that the rumors of Tim Burton directing Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children were true; Fox recently announced a release date, with Burton’s name attached to direct.

It will be a while, however, it’s scheduled for July 31, 2015.

The sequel to the novel will arrive sooner. Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Children (Quirk Books; AudioGo) is scheduled for release in January next year.

Burton is now at work on a biopic about painter Margaret Keane, whose kitschy portraits of kids with enormous eyes were popular in the ’60’s. It’s being called, of course, Big Eyes.

As the school year winds to a close, it may seem odd that  several “back to school” titles arrive next week, but come July and August, we’ll be scrambling to find them for all those parents who want to help their kids navigate this important transition. Also coming, a new book that advocates adding math to bedtime routines, James Patterson’s latest in his Middle School series explains How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill and a YA title about an African albino boy who suffers far worse, Golden Boy arrives with librarian buzz. For those who buy movie tie-ins, get ready for The Smurfs 2, coming  July 31. Paris will never be the same.

The books highlighted here and many more are listed with ordering information on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids-New-Title-Radar-Week of 6.24

Bedtime Math, Laura Overdeck, Jim Paillot, (Macmillan/Feiwel & Friends)

Overbeck and her husband have received media attention including a story on NPR about how they incorporate math into their kids’ bedtime routine. They’ve written about this on their popular blog and the send a “Daily Math Problem” email to subscribers. Here they present both their approach and bedtime story problems to use with “wee ones” up to “big kids” in book form.

Golden Boy, Tara Sullivan, (Penguin/Putnam)

Librarians at BEA said they were riveted by this YA novle. It brings to light the treatment of albinos in Tanzania, where they are often killed for their body parts which are sold to people who believe they are lucky. Kirkus calls it “A riveting fictional snapshot of one Tanzanian boy who makes himself matter.”

Friday’s issue of Entertainment Weekly offers a “first look” at the movie Divergent,  based on Veronica Roth’s dystopian YA best-seller, the first in a series.

The cover asks the question that’s preoccupying Hollywood, “Is This the Next Hunger Games?” (we’ll have to wait for the issue to see if they offer an answer). There will be a longer wait for the ultimate answer; the movie won’t be released until March 21, 2014.

What is not in question is that the female lead, Shailene Woodley, is a rising star, so hot that she has been cast to star in the adaptation of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.

Before the public sees her in either, they will see her in another YA adaptation, The Spectacular Now, opening August 2.

A favorite at the Sundance Film Festival, it is based on the 2008 National Book Award finalist by Tim Tharp, (RH/Knopf Books for Young Readers; Brilliance Audio).

The film also stars Miles Teller (who won kudos for his role in the remake of Footloose) and Jennifer Jason Leigh and is directed by James Ponsoldt.

The paperback tie-in releases on July 9 (Random House/Ember).

That staple of ’80’s and ’90’s childrens book publishing, the Choose Your Own Adventure series, is heading for the big-screen, according to the Hollywood Reporter, with Fox working on a “crossplatform four-quadrant action-adventure franchise.”

Translating that into English, the books may be adapted not only as a movie, but also as a TV show and/or a game and will aim to capture the four major demographics (male/female, over/under 25 years old).

The movie producers will have some choosing to do of their own. The series consists of 185 titles, set in many different places and time periods.

We all love new books, but it’s often even more exciting when favorites come back into print. Arriving next week are several reprints that will make librarians’ hearts race.

Among the new titles, Alex London moves from middle grade into YA with Proxy. In series, Cate Cahill follows up last year’s Born Wicked with another title about the Cahill Witches, in the well-reviewed  Star Cursed while Katherine Longshore releases a companion novel to her book about King Henry the VIII’s court, Gilt, this one focused on Anne Boleyn and called, of course, Tarnish.

Also, get ready to raid the adult collection for Martha Stewart’s Favorite Crafts for Kids.

All titles highlighted here and more are listed on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of 6.17.13

Reprints

   
DK Eyewitness Books and DK Readers series (See downloadable spreadsheet for titles and ordering information)

Time to put in that DK replacement order for those popular titles that have been OSI packing slip after packing slip. They’re back!

A few years ago, I was on the subway and spotted a kid who was completely engrossed in a StarWars early reader. Thinking, “Whoa; I’d better get some of those for my library,”  I suddenly realized that kid was one of my students and that was one of MY library books. I put in an order for six of each title that day. Love ’em, all of ‘em, especially the LEGO books.

Henny Penny, and Cinderella, both by Paul Galdone
(Folk Tale Classics series, HMH Books)

I am crazy for these classic stories retold and illustrated by Goldone. HMH began updating the entire series in 2011, with colorful covers. These are reprints done right.

Picture Book

Bogart and Vinnie: A Completely Made-up Story of True Friendship, Audrey Vernick, Henry Cole, (Macmillan/Walker Childrens)

This fictional interspecies tale will remind librarians of the sweet true story of Owen and Mzee (Scholastic, 2006) as well as the never-ending, very charming stories of dogs who partner with elephants and cats who adopt ducklings. Henry Cole’s droll humor creates a winner (see a spread here).

Middle Grade

Bo at Ballard Creek, Kirkpatrick Hill, LeUyen Pham, (Macmillan/Holt BYR)

Hill, who wrote one of my favorite works of historical fiction, The Year of Miss Agnes, (S&S/McElderry), presents another story set in Alaska, this one about a little girl who is adopted by miners during the 1920’s goldrush.

Young Adult

Proxy, Alex London, (Penguin/Philomel)

Known for his middle-grade Accidental Adventures series, London crosses into YA with this adventure that Publishers Weekly calls “an entertaining throwback to ’70s dystopias like Logan’s Run, offering intriguing moral dilemmas amid breakneck action.” The “proxy” of the title pays the price for the main character’s wrong-doing.

The second week in the month, the traditional release period for children’s titles, brings a flood of new books to our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of June 10, including the conclusion to actress Lauren Conrad’s Fame Game series. For those who buy movie tie-ins, we’ve listed the titles that are based on the animated Dreamworks movie, Turbo, about a garden snail and his dreams of becoming the fastest being on earth. It hits theaters on July 17, with a Netflix series following in December.

Last week’s Book Expo had us distracted, so we didn’t post the downloadable Kids New Title Radar, Week of June 3. It happens that two of the week’s most-anticipated books were also big at the show. Sarah Dessen was there, about to begin her book tour for The Moon and More (Viking/Penguin), which has been praised by YA GalleyChatters for showing a new level of maturity, focusing more on character than the author’s earlier, but nonetheless very popular titles.

The first in a new dystopian series, The Testing just arrived and ARC’s for the sequel, Independent Study coming in January (both from HMH) were already being handed out at the show (see previous post).

Also arriving this week is a book that mimicks the form of the still-popular nearly 45 year-old title, Go Ask Alice, a cautionary tale in the form of an anonymous diary. This one about anorexia, Letting Ana Go, (Simon Pulse) and even refers to its predecessor in the cover line (“In the tradion of…”). It cleverly begins as a high school sophomore’s food diary that gradually slides towards obsession. Kirkus calls it “A disturbing tale that feels meant to titillate rather than caution.”

If you weren’t already aware of it, your middle graders have probably let you know that Dork Diaries 6: Tales from a Not-So-Happy Heartbreaker, (S&S/Aladdin) was also released this week.

The hottest spring teen dystopian title, one that our YA GalleyChat group has been buzzing about for months, The Testing (HMH) hit shelves on Tuesday, with this terrific tagline, “Its not enough to pass the test, you have to survive it.”

Days before, at Book Expo America, booksellers and librarians not only met the author in the HMH booth, but grabbed copies of the sequel, Independent Study, arriving in January.

UPDATE: Deadline announces that Paramount has bought the film rights

The trailer gives a good sense of the story:

Author Mo Willems signing at BEA, pictured with his editor Tracy Keevan

The longest line for a kids book author signing at BEA (although it did not beat the two-hour wait to gaze upon the latest internet sensation Tartar Sauce, aka Grumpy Cat) was for Mo Willems signing his two spring titles, the 19th Elephant and Piggy book, A Big Guy Took My Ball! (Disney/Hyperion) and  That Is Not a Good Idea!, (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray).

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of Mo Willems’ award-winning Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Disney published It’s a Busload of Pigeon Books!, a boxed set of three classic Pigeon titles with a smaller trim size and featuring an original poster illustrated by Willems.

Also, Don’t Pigeonhole Me!, (Disney Editions), available on June 18, gives adults a rare glimpse at Willems’ early self-published Pigeon illustrations, along with two decades’ worth of cartoons and sketches.

The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA, will be unveiling their newest exhibition Seriously Silly: A Decade of Art and Whimsy by Mo Willems on Saturday June 22nd.

The number one hot galley for children’s librarians at BEA was Kate DiCamillo’s Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, illustrated by K.G. Campbell, coming in September from Candlewick (also, Listening Library).

Betsy Bird, NYPL librarian and author of SLJ’s Fuse 8 blog, had this to say about  it when I ran into her on the show floor,

“Squirrels, to my mind, are the least lauded and most deserving city animal dwellers I know of. Mo Willems may have created the ultimate pigeon and there are few rats to compare with Templeton, but squirrels have few icons and fewer fans. I expect all that to change with the advent of Flora & Ulysses. Pithy and poignant, smart and good, this is a story that will allow you to fall in love with those chattering, perpetually hungry, tree denizens all over again.”

DiCamillo recevied the Kerlan Award at the University of Minnesota on Saturday.

The sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books) arrives this coming January. Entertainment Weekly reveals the title, Hollow City, (Quirk Books, 9781594746123, pbk, $17.99; AudioGo) along with a preview (no photos and no cover, however).

As to Miss Peregrine, the movie, a  screenwriter was assigned in December of 2011. Tim Burton was rumored to be interested in directing it, but there’s been no recent news and Burton is now at work on a biopic about painter Margaret Keane, whose kitschy portraits of kids with enormous eyes were popular in the ’60’s. It’s being called, of course, Big Eyes.

On his Web site, Riggs announces that he is going on tour in June for the paperback of Miss Peregrine, which will also include some extra photos and the first chapter of Hollow City.

Below is the book trailer for Miss Peregrine.