Glee star Chris Colfer was so excited to hear that his debut book lands at #1 on the 8/4  NYT Children’s Chapter Books Best Seller list that he  leaked the news yesterday afternoon, via a tweet. The leak was picked up by the Hollywood Reporter, which noted that “Colfer first came up with the idea when he was in grade school but wrote the book between scenes on Glee.

Prepub reviews for The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell (Hachette/LBYR; Hachette Audio) were not particularly strong, but most acknowledge, as Booklist puts it,  that the many Glee fans “will not be disappointed by the giddy earnestness of the writing.”

Last week’s debut, Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman, (Random House YR), arrived on the list at #8 with much better prepub attention; four starred reviews. Booklist says, “Hartman proves dragons are still fascinating in this impressive high fantasy.” The Washington Post agreed, “Nothing strikes dread in a reviewer’s heart like a dragon on a book cover. Can the author infuse this tired trope with fresh blood, or is it doomed to flame out in blatant cliche? Happily, Rachel Hartman, with her richly imagined reptile and human characters, proves more than equal to the task.” The book continues on the new list at #9. The debut began bullding librarian buzz on YA GalleyChat back in March.

One Book, One Community

One Book, One School

I have always been skeptical of these programs, wondering “Can one book really fit all?” But then, along comes one that does — Wonder by R.J. Palacio RH/Knopf, 2/14/12).

Wonder is the first book that I have read in years that deserves to be a One Book, One School read, so Bank Street will be using it for our very first One Book, One Bank Street program. We are urging students, teachers, faculty, parents, and alumni to read this moving book about a 5th grade class who must examine how they treat Auggie, a bright, boy with a frightening facial deformity who is going to school for the first time.

It is an un-put-down-able, gender-neutral story that gives an authentic voice to the relationships between sibling, friends, and parents. I can’t think of a book to compare it to and, given the number of books I’ve read during my career, that’s saying a lot right there.

Choosing a new hardcover seems like an expensive proposition for such a program, but this is a book that will stand the test of time. Our school will begin reading it aloud to 3rd and 4th grades in September. I am buying classroom sets for 5th and 6th grades to read in September/October. They will then be passed up to 7th and 8th grade in November. We will be blogging about the successes and pitfalls of the program and the reading/literacy/social curriculum that arises from the experience.

The publisher is supporting the book with various materials, including a readers guide, and terrific choose kindness campaign.

Word of mouth is spreading like wildfire. The book has been on the NYT Children’s Hardcover list since mid-March. For a taste of the kind of excitement kids are expressing for Wonder, below is a review from Bank Street Children’s Book Committee young reviewer, Foster, who is 12-years-old:

I loved Wonder. It is a wonderful novel about kindness and not judging people by their looks. The reader forms an incredibly strong bond with the main character, August Pullman. August is not an ordinary ten-year old. As he says, “ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds.” August was born without a jaw, with eyes too far down his face and missing external ears. Sheltered his entire life by his parents, he did not attend public school to avoid the shock and disgust on other children’s faces. However, his parents force him to enter fifth grade because they cannot homeschool him well enough for him to take advantage of his superior intellectual capabilities.

The plot so captivates the reader that Wonder must be read in one sitting. Wonder is inspiring because it shows that regardless of a person’s looks, a person should be treated the same as everyone else.

Wonder explains life through the eyes of a person whom society casts as an outsider and the book reveals that, even today, looks are given far too much importance. Also, Wonder describes how people interact with people with disabilities and how they overcome their prejudices.

Two of the stars of Disney’s Oz The Great and Powerful, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis (who play the good and the bad witches respectively) were trotted out at Comic-Con, where the trailer was also introduced and, according to some reports, enjoyed the best buzz of the show. The studio just released several high-res images from the film, to emphasize that, if nothing else, it is visually arresting. In addition to Williams and Kunis, the film stars James Franco and Rachel Weisz. It’s scheduled to arrive in theaters on March 8, 2013.

Disney Book Group, of course, will be publishing several tie-ins, including a junior novelization, an early reader, a storybook and a behind-the-scenes book. They are also republishing the first two titles in L. Frank Baum’s series, The Wonderful World of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz.

More Oz magic is on it’s way. The long-awaited film adaptation of the musical Wicked, based on the book by Gregory Maguire, may finally come to fruition; Deadline reports that Universal is courting Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) to direct. Also on the drawing board is an animated film, Dorothy of Oz. In April, it was reported that Bernadette Peters joined the cast as the voice of Glinda.

The conclusion to Gregory Maguire’s Oz series, which began with Wicked, was published last October (NOTE; We mistakenly said it was coming out this year; that’s the date the paperback edition will be released).

Out of Oz: The Final Volume in the Wicked Years Gregory Maguire Retail Price: $15.99 Paperback: 608 pages Publisher: HarperCollins/Morrow – (2012-10-02) ISBN / EAN: 0060859733 / 9780060859732

Entertainment Weekly gives us a look at a behind-the-scenes video of Jennifer Lawrence shooting a scary scene for Hunger Games (EW claims it as an exclusive, but it’s on YouTube) which was shown at Comic-Con:

Locations for the sequel, Catching Fire, are being scouted in Atlanta (the first film was shot in North Carolina). Several new cast members have been announced, the most notable being Philip Seymour Hoffman, who will play Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. Glee star Grant Gustin recently tried out for the role of Finnick Odair.

Catching Fire is scheduled to be released just before Thanksgiving, 2013. Following the tradition set by the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises, the final book in the series, Mockingjay will be released as two movies. They are scheduled to follow each successive November. The L.A. Times questions whether the studio can handle the intense schedule of a new movie every twelve months.

D.C. Comics made a splash during a Comic-Con panel yesterday when they announced that Neil Gaiman is returning to his classic comic series, The Sandman. He is planning a miniseries to explain why “Morpheus [was] so easily captured in The Sandman No. 1, and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining, and dressed for war.” It will be released some time next year from the Vertigo imprint.

The day before, HarperCollins Children’s division announced that Gaiman has signed a deal for three novels and two picture books. On his blog, Gaiman writes that one of the picture books, Chu’s Day, illustrated by Adam Rex, is finished and will be released on Jan. 8th (9780062017819). He says it is “the first book I’ve ever written for really little kids. Ones who cannot read. Ones who can only just walk.”  The second Chu book is written, but there is no release date yet.

Interior art below (Chu is on the far right; click on the image for a larger version):

The other three titles are middle-grade books, says Gaiman, “Fortunately, the Milk (already written), and the next Odd novel (started and plotted) and a mysterious book that I think I know what it is (not even started, won’t be for quite a while, and I think I know the setting but not the story)…”

He is also at work on a novel for adults, Lettie Hempstock’s Ocean, “which should be out in 2013 some time, although contracts aren’t signed.”

Next week will bring several books by celebrities, including Glee star Chris Colfer‘s middle-grade fantasy debut, a memoir from Giant’s receiver Victor Cruz, and Elton John‘s look back on his fight against the AIDS epidemic. Usual suspects include Iris Johansen, Orson Scott Card, Daniel Silva, James Lee Burke, and Chris Bohjalian.

Watch List

Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann (Hachette/Little, Brown; Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Print, Nov) is a debut novel set on Martha’s Vineyard after WWII, about two women finding marriage and motherhood more complicated than they expected, when a murder throws their lives into further turmoil. The author is Herman Melville’s great-great-great-great-grandaughter. It’s getting glowing advance praise, including from PW: “this carefully crafted soap opera skillfully commingles mystery with melodrama, keeping readers guessing about what really happened until the end . . . Her characters’ duplicitous behavior will elicit strong reactions.”

Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Macmillan Audio) is a whimsical debut novel about a woman who’s been hiding her baldness to fit into her suburban Virginia community and her astronaut husband, whose lives are redefined by freak accidents. The advance buzz brought an early review from  Janet Maslin in the NYT a week before publication, saying, “it is so full of oddities that no simple summary [presumably, like the one we just did] will do it justice. ” It also had several fans on GalleyChat in June.

Usual Suspects

Close Your Eyes by Iris Johansen (Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press; Brilliance Audio) is the fourth collaboration by this mother-son team, and stars Dr. Kendra Michaels, an FBI consultant and music therapist who was born blind and developed her other senses to an extraordinary degree before her sight was restored at age 20. PW says, “The authors combine idiosyncratic yet fully realized characters with dry wit and well-controlled suspense that builds to a satisfying conclusion.”

Earth Unaware by Orson Scott Card (Tor Books; MacMillan Audio) is a science fiction adventure that gives fans of the Ender series a new backstory to the classic Ender’s Game. LJ says, “Card’s gift for strong, memorable characters combined with screenwriter Johnston’s flair for vivid scene-building results in a standout tale… [that] should also please readers of military SF.” Production of the movie of Enders’s Game, starring Harrison Ford and Abigail Breslin has recently wrapped and is scheduled to be released on Nov. 1, 2013.

The Fallen Angel (Gabriel Allon Series #12) by Daniel Silva (HarperCollins; Harperluxe; HarperAudio) stars art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon in Rome, who gets a call from the pope’s personal secretary about the body of a woman in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Creole Belle: A Dave Robicheaux Novel by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster; Wheeler Large Print; Simon & Schuster Audio) finds southern Louisiana deputy Sheriff Dave Robicheaux recovering from the wounds he received in the last book (The Glass Rainbow), and facing another round of New Orleans-style homicide. Kirkus says, “Burke, in his latest attempt to outdo himself, ties the Gulf oil spill to art fraud, sexual slavery and Nazis. A darkly magnificent treat for Dave’s legion of admirers, though not the best place for newcomers to begin.” One-day laydown.

The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian (RH/Doubleday Books; Random House Large Print; Books on Tape) is the story of modern American woman who joins her father on a philanthropic trip to Syria to aid Armenian refugees, and pieces together the lives of her great-grandparents, who met on the eve of the Armenian genocide of 1915-16. It has been featured in many summer reading roundups, and is a GalleyChat favorite. Entertainment Weekly gives is a B+. The reviewer notes that Bohjalian, draws ” for the first time on his own heritage [as] the grandson of Armenian survivors [and] pours passion, pride, and sadness into his tale of ethnic destruction and endurance,” but notes the book’s structure is  “precariously ornate.”

Kids/Young Adult

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer (Hachette/LBYR; Hachette Audio) is a middle-grade debut by the Glee star, and finds 12-year-old twins Alex (a girl) and Conner roaming fairy tale land after falling into their grandmother’s book of stories, trying to collect the elements for a wishing spell that will get them home. Booklist says, “Golden Globe winner Colfer writes for an audience that will likely include plenty of teen readers (i.e., fans of Glee), and generally they will not be disappointed by the giddy earnestness of the writing, cut with a hint of melancholy.” Unsurprisingly, the author is getting plenty of media attention. The audio is read by the author.

Spark: A Sky Chasers Novel by Amy Kathleen Ryan (St. Martin’s Griffin, MacMillan Audio) is the sequel to Glow, in which girls and boys struggle with issues of leadership and violence on a spaceship after their parents have been kidnapped.

Nonfiction

Out of the Blue by Victor Cruz (Penguin/Celebra) is a memoir by the 25-year-old salsa victory-dancing Superbowl champion. USA Today says it “will include the highs and lows of his life — his spotty college career and rocky road to professional football (he was undrafted), his father’s suicide and his recent triumphs.” It will also be published in Spanish as Momento de Gloria in September.

Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss, and the End of AIDS by Elton John (Hachette/Little, Brown) is the pop singer’s personal account of his life during the AIDS epidemic, including stories of his close friendships with Ryan White, Freddie Mercury, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, and others, and the story of the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

The Violinist’s Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean (Hachette/Little, Brown) is the next book by the author who made the periodic table fascinating in The Disappearing Spoon. In this new book, he explores the secrets of DNA. Leading up to the book’s release, Kean has been “Blogging the Human Genome” for Slate.

New cast members have been signed up for the movie version of City of Bones, the first book in the YA series, Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare, indicating that the project is moving forward after several delays.

Lily Collins, who is the daughter of Phil Collins and plays Snow White in the recent Mirror Mirror, was signed earlier to play the lead character, Clary Fray, with Jaime Campbell Bower as her love interest, Jace Wayland.  Variety reports that Kevin Durand (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Robert Maillet (Sherlock Holmes) have joined the cast.

The movie is scheduled to release on Aug, 23, 2013.

The next book in “Al’s Book Club” for kids, Rebecca Stead’s Newbery winner,  When You Reach Me, (RH/Wendy Lamb) was featured on the Today Show yesterday. As a result, the book rose to #228 on Amazon’s sales rankings.

That’s no match for the Newbery announcement in 2010, which sent the book to  #21.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Production on the second movie in The Hunger Games series, Catching Fire, is set to begin this fall. The first casting news was just released. Philip Seymour Hoffman has been offered the role of Plutarch Heavensbee, according to a tweet from Variety reporter Jeff Sneider, later confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter.

Hunger Games Head Gamemaker Heavensbee is not a major character in the book, but the role is likely to be expanded for the movie. Director Gary Ross quit the franchise after the first installment. This one will be directed by Francis Lawrence (Water for Elephants, I Am Legend). Jennifer Lawrence will again play Katniss Everdeen, along with Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne. The film is scheduled for release on Nov. 22, 2013.

At the BEA this week, there was buzz about Libba Bray’s The Diviners, the first in a planned four-part YA series, to be published in September. It’s a mystery, featuring a main character with mystical power, set in NYC in the 1920’s (appropriately, Little, Brown threw a speakeasy-themed party for the book during BEA). More buzz– it was just announced that Paramount has picked up the film rights, with Bray writing the screenplay and acting as executive producer.

The Diviners Libba Bray Retail Price: $19.99 Hardcover: 608 pages Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers – (2012-09-18) ISBN / EAN: 031612611X / 9780316126113

Don’t cry Kermie, you will always be The First Frog.

But now, another frog is set to join you. The Jim Henson Company has acquired the rights to Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series for an animated feature, according to Deadline.

The winners of the 45th Horn Book – Boston Globe Awards were announced at the BEA yesterday. Horn Book’s editor in chief Roger Sutton said that the winners are “frequently unusual or under-the-radar choices. Because of the small judging panel, there’s always an excellent chance for surprise. Each year, the judges uncover some amazing treasures that I think will delight adult readers as much as the intended audience of children and young adults.”

PICTURE BOOK AWARD WINNER

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)

“When young Annabelle finds a small box containing a never-ending supply of yarn of every color, she does what any self-respecting knitter would do: she knits herself a sweater. Then she knits a sweater for her dog. She continues to knit colorful garments for everyone and everything in her snowy, sooty, colorless town—until an archduke gets greedy.”

PICTURE BOOK HONOR WINNERS

And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Macmillan/Roaring Brook Press)

And the Soldiers Sang by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Gary Kelley (Creative Editions)

FICTION AWARD WINNER

No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab)

“Lewis Michaux opened the National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem at the end of the Great Depression with an inventory of five books and a strong faith that black people were hungry for knowledge. For the next thirty-five years, his store became a central gathering place for African American writers, artists, intellectuals, political figures and ordinary citizens. In a daring combination of fiction and nonfiction and word and image, thirty-six narrative voices are interwoven with articles from the New York Amsterdam News, excerpts from Michaux’s FBI file and family papers and photographs.”

FICTION HONOR WINNERS

Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet (Candlewick Press)

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney/Hyperion)

NONFICTION WINNER

Chuck Close: Face Book, written and illustrated by Chuck Close (Abrams Books for Young Readers)

“Chuck Close’s art is easy to describe and especially attractive to children because he creates only portraits—in almost every possible medium with an intriguing trompe l’oeil effect. This book explores how his life story and so-called disabilities relate directly to his style. In this Q&A–style narrative, Close himself answers with a clear voice without a hint of famous-artist self-aggrandizement or angst.”

NONFICTION HONOR WINNERS

Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keeffe Painted What She Pleased by Amy Novesky, illustrated by Yuyi Morales (HMH/Harcourt Children’s Books)

The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O’Connell & Donna M. Jackson, photographs by Caitlin O’Connell and Timothy Rodwell (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children)

The trailer for the movie version of The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (S&S/MTV Books; audio, Recorded Books) debuted at last night’s MTV Movie Awards.

Star Emma Watson (who shared MTV’s Best Cast Award with the rest of the stars of the final Harry Potter installment) introduced the movie, along with co-stars Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller.

Watson plays Sam, who guides wallflower Charlie (Logan Lerman) through the pitfalls of trying to fit in. Chbosky wrote the screenplay and directed the film.

It is scheduled to open on September 14.

Official movie site: Perks-of-Being-a-Wallflower.com

The trade paperback rose to #23 (from #147) on Amazon sales rankings as a result. Many libraries are showing holds, some heavy.

Tie-in:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky Retail Price: $14.00 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: S&S/MTV Books – (2012-08-28) ISBN / EAN: 1451696191 / 9781451696196

Is it possible to be so sad about the death of someone that you didn’t really know? Do we know someone through their writings? Their blogging?

Peter D. Sieruta has died. He was a kindred spirit. Even though I am not a book collector, I read his blog, Collecting Children’s Books. I didn’t read it for information about rare first editions or the probable market value of a volume. It was because I have had many an “Aha! moment” as I read with pleasure and reminiscenced  about books that I  loved.

Blogs like Fuse #8 and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have commented on Peter’s wicked sense of humor. I particilarly appreciated his “inside baseball” children’s lit April Fools posting that claimed Neil Gaiman was under consideration to be stripped of his Newbery Prize. His Hornbook parody of Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (Harper, 2000) is flawless.

How sadly appropriate that his final posts were about Maurice Sendak.

Entertainment Weekly’s “Shelf Life” blog, ever on the search for hot YA “exclusives,” has the scoop on the upcoming Twilight tie-in.

The final Twilight movie is coming Nov. 16, of course. This means that Little, Brown YR can soon release (Oct. 9) The Twilight Saga: The Complete Film Archive: Memories, Mementos, and Other Treasures from the Creative Team Behind the Beloved Motion Picture by L.A. Weekly film critic Robert Abele. Says EW, based on their “first peek at the cover and the scoop on what you can find inside — from the looks of it, you’ll have a hard time prying this must-have from a true Twihard’s cold, dead hands.”

The book appeared on Amazon sales rankings, at #353.