A few posts ago, I mentioned that S&S is doing a publisher preview for their adult imprints. Unfortunately, I got the date wrong — it’s Friday, September 24th  from 9 to 12:30 at the S&S offices in NYC (email Michelle Fadlalla to RSVP or for more information).

Such a deal; you get breakfast, a chance to hear S&S editors talk about the books they are passionate about, and to hear from National Book Award winner Carlos Eire about his new book, Learning to Die in Miami: Confessions of a Refugee Boy (Free Press, Nov. 2, 2010), not to mention the opportunity to mingle with area colleagues.

Also, save the date for the AAP Fall Buzz Event for Tri-State area on Wednesday, October 20^th (don’t worry; I double-checked that date!); more details later.

And, if you’re not in the tri-state area, remember that you can get the HarperCollins Buzz — Fall 2010 right on your desktop.

The Bells, Richard Harvell’s first novel rose to #213 (from #83,196) on Amazon sales rankings after an interview on the Diane Rehm Show

About a castrato in the 1700’s, the book garnered generally strong prepub reviews, with the exception of PW‘s, which calls it “overwrought.” LJ‘s Barbara Hoffert showed the most enthusiasm, calling it “wrenching and painfully triumphant.”

The Bells: A Novel Richard Harvell Retail Price: $24.00 Hardcover: 384 pages Publisher: Crown – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0307590526 / 9780307590527

Blackstone Audio; simultaneous release

When we wrote about President Obama’s new book yesterday, we did not have the cover or ordering information; it’s now available

Quickly after the title appeared on Amazon, it rose to #24 in sales rankings.

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters Barack Obama Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover Publisher: – (2010-11-16) ISBN / EAN: 037583527X / 9780375835278

President Obama has written a tribute to 13 groundbreaking Americans for readers aged 3 and up. Titled Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, it will be published  Nov. 16 by Knopf Books for Young Readers. Among the people profiled are George Washington, Jackie Robinson and Georgia O’Keeffe. According to a story by the AP, the book will have a first printing of 500,000 copies and a list price of $17.99. The President will donate  proceeds from the book to “a scholarship fund for the children of fallen and disabled soldiers serving our nation,” according to the publisher’s statement.

The book will be illustrated by Loren Long, whose work includes illustrating the 2005 re-release of The Little Engine That Could, (Philomel, 2005) and writing and illustrating Otis (Philomel, 2009).

Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters Barack Obama Retail Price: $17.99 Hardcover Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (2010-11-16) ISBN / EAN: 037583527X / 9780375835278

Coming out today is a memoir by Nancy G. Brinker, the woman who founded Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which has raised more than a billion dollars for breast-cancer research.  She appeared on Good Morning America yesterday.

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Promise Me: How a Sister’s Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer Nancy G. Brinker Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 368 pages Publisher: Crown Archetype – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0307718123 / 9780307718129

This week, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert feature just one author each; both are on tonight.

Colbert  talks with Sam Wilentz and his new book on Bob Dylan; it’s fared much better with the consumer press than it did with the prepub review sources.

Bob Dylan In America Sean Wilentz Retail Price: $28.95 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Doubleday – (2010-09-07) ISBN / EAN: 0385529880 / 9780385529884

Audio; Books on Tape; UNABR; 6 CD’s; 9780307714978; $40

While Stewart sits down with Britain’s former prime minister.

A Journey: My Political Life Tony Blair Retail Price: $35.00 Hardcover: 720 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2010-09-02) ISBN / EAN: 0307269833 / 9780307269836

William H. Macy has signed to star in Freaky Deaky, a film based on Elmore Leonard’s 1988 novel, according to Deadline. Production is planned to begin next year.

Previous books by Leonard that have been made into films include Get Shorty (1995), Jackie Brown (1997, based on Rum Punch), and Killshot (2008).

Leonard’s next book, Djibouti, is coming out in October.

Djibouti: A Novel Elmore Leonard Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: William Morrow – (2010-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061735175 / 9780061735172

The Daily Beast says to “forget Blair or Bush, [Even Silence Has an End] is the memoir of the season.” By a French Colombian political leader, it describes “her six unbelievably harrowing years” as a prisoner in the jungle. It has not yet been reviewed prepub. The publisher announced a 100,000 copy first print run.

Also listed are the Daily Beast‘s 19 other “Big Books” of the season, coming out between November and September.

Even Silence Has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle Ingrid Betancourt Retail Price: $29.95 Hardcover: 544 pages Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The – (2010-09-21) ISBN / EAN: 1594202656 / 9781594202650

No Hay Silencio Que No Termine;  9781616052430; Publisher: Aguilar; 9/21/2010; Pbk $19.99

Two best selling authors were featured on NPR over the weekend. Jonathan Franzen’s book Freedom debuted at #1 on the NYT Fiction list this week. He was interviewed on All Things Considered.

Anne Fortier’s book Juliet, appeared on the list last week at #14 and slipped to #21 on the extended list this week. That could turn around; it moved up Amazon’s sales rankings as a result of an interview on Weekend Edition Saturday.

In addition to the three Oprah fiction contenders we just mentioned, Emma Donoghue’s much anticipated novel Room arrives next week, with the highest sales rank of all the Booker shortlist titles on Amazon. The novel is told in the voice of a five-year-old who’s spent his entire life in a single room, held captive there (unknowingly) with his mother. It’s a People magazine pick in the current issue and was featured on NPR’s Morning Edition today. Holds are 5:1 or higher at libraries we checked.

Other Notable Fiction On Sale Next Week

Wicked Appetite by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin’s) begins a new series in a genre that Kirkus dubs “paranormal farce,” with the hunt for ancient artifacts corresponding to the seven deadly sins.

Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central) follows a mysterious new woman’s slow integration into a small town. The hardcover will be promoted not just by the publisher, but by the movie company that plans to produce a film version of the book, even though the screenplay has not yet been finalized, according to a Wall St. Journal story.

Reckless by Cornelia Funke (Little, Brown) draws on the spooky side of traditional fairy tales to launch a major new dark fantasy series for young readers. Despite making her mark as a master creator of richly imagined worlds with the Inkheart series, Funke’s latest effort gets mixed early reviews. Kirkus praises the “fluid, fast-paced narrative,” but PW finds “the writing is beautiful on one page, clunky on another…. Planned sequels will give Funke a chance to fill in the missing back-story that makes this a frustrating read.”

Next Friday, September 17, Oprah will select the 64th and final selection for her book club, in the final season of her talk show. The few clues are confusing. The blind ISBN has a St. Martin’s prefix and a $28 price. However, no title in St. Martin’s catalog matches that price. So, we have to assume that one of the two clues is a red herring.

Our hunch is that it’s St. Martin’s Some Sing, Some Cry, a novel of seven generations of African American life by sisters and playwrights Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza that goes on sale next week. A Shout & Share pick at ALA, it got a starred review from Booklist, which called it “glorious in its scope, lyricism, and spectrum of yearnings, convictions, and triumphs.” Ntozake Shane’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, is coming out as a movie in November, directed by Oprah’s close friend and producing partner for Precious, Tyler Perry. However, the price does not fit.

Some Sing, Some Cry: A Novel Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza Retail Price: $26.99 Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 031219899X / 9780312198992

There’s also a possibility it might be another one of next week’s releases, the international bestseller Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin’s), a psychological thriller set in Paris that plumbs the power of family secrets. PW said “this perceptive portrait of a middle-aged man’s delayed coming-of-age rates as a seductive, suspenseful, and trés formidable keeper.” And Booklist adds, “Expect demand among fans of both literary mystery and high-end romance.” Again, however, the price is not the same as that for the Oprah pick.

A Secret Kept Tatiana de Rosnay Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: St. Martin’s Press – (2010-09-14) ISBN / EAN: 0312593317 / 9780312593315

Others have suggested it might be Nelson Mandela’s Conversations with Myself, a collection of the South African leader’s personal papers, including journals kept on the run during the anti-apartheid struggle of the early 1960s and diaries written in Robben Island and other South African prisons during his 27 years of incarceration. But here, the book’s ISBN prefix doesn’t match (it’s from St. Martin’s sister Macmillan imprint, FSG) and it’s currently scheduled to release on October 11. However, the one thing that does match is the $28 price (also true for Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom , but, given Oprah’s history with the author, that one seems a real long shot).

Conversations with Myself Nelson Mandela Retail Price: $28.00 Hardcover: 480 pages Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux – (2010-10-11) ISBN / EAN: 0374128952 / 9780374128951

We’ve fallen in love with Ron Charles’s “totally hip video book reviews.” Now, with just two in the can (My Hollywood and Freedom), Ron announces that his employer, The Washington Post, has become the official sponsor. Swearing that this will have no effect whatsoever on the reviews, Charles throws in several “product placements” while reviewing Sara Gruen’s new book, Ape House.

Unfortunately, we can’t find a link to embed the review on EarlyWord. Please, Ron, tell The Washington Post they won’t be as hip as you are until they allow you to go viral.

For now, we all we have to give you the video review link. Charles also reviewed the book in print yesterday.

UPDATE: Hurrah! The new episodes of the Totally Hip Book Review are embeddable.

Wondering why Dav Pilkey’s Adventures of Ook and Gluk hasn’t appeared on the NYT Children’s best seller lists? It’s not going to, because it’s on the Graphic Books list, where it’s been in the top spot for two weeks. It’s a bit of an oddity on that list; not only is it the only title for kids (the rest are all adult and YA titles) but it’s one of the few published by a traditional book publisher, rather than a comics publisher.

Until about five years ago, kids comics were an afterthought for comics publishers, and book publishers didn’t think about them at all. Then, the success of Jeff Smith’s Bone series, published under Scholastic’s Graphix imprint in 2005, lead other book publishers to explore the format. The Bone series was adopted by kids when Smith was self-publishing, and has continued to be consistently popular since Scholastic rereleased the series.

Titles like Pilkey’s Captain Underpants and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series have shifted the publishing landscape in comics’ favor by proving that hybrids, or titles that are part comic-part prose, can also attract a substantial audience. The fact that hybrids include prose also helps assuage parents’ fears (however unfounded) that their children aren’t reading real books if they’re reading comics. Full blown comics still have a bit of a climb in terms of proving their worth to skeptical parents, but are finally starting to get their due as valued reading all on their own.

A number of respected authors from the book publishing side of the pond have written engaging comics for children. One of my personal favorites, Shannon and Dean Hale’s Rapunzel’s Revenge arrived on the scene from Bloomsbury in 2008. Shannon Hale, the author of the Newbury-honor winning title Princess Academy and the lauded Goose Girl series, is a recognizable prose author who speaks eloquently about graphic novels as both engaging and quality reading. Her essay Graphic Novels: The Great Satan, remains one of my favorites in illuminating the reasons graphic novels are worth young and old readers’ time.

I find, however, that far too often librarians who know the great kids comics from the book world — Jennifer and Matt Holm’s Babymouse, Jarrett Krosoczka’s Lunch Lady, Eleanor Davis’s Stinky, and so on — are unaware of the equally brilliant kids comics from the comics world. Top Shelf Comix publishes titles to rival book publishers’ finest including Christian Slade’s Korgi, Andy Runton’s Owly, and James Kolchalka’s Johnny Boo series. Oni Press has a strong history of publishing titles for younger readers including Matthew Loux’s Salt Water Taffy, Chris Schweizer’s Crogan Adventures, Ted Naifeh’s Polly and the Pirates and Courtney Crumrin series. Dark Horse, purveyors of the fine Star Wars kids comics that never stay on the shelf, also offer Sergio Aragones Groo, John Stanley’s Little Lulu collections, and tween favorites like Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo. On the manga side of the business, VIZ has done a fine job of introducing a number of popular kids manga titles, including Sayuri Tatsuyama’s Happy Happy Clover , Kenji Sonishi’s Leave it to PET! , Yohei Sakai’s Dinosaur King, and Akira Toriyama’s COWA!. UDON has a whole line of manga just for younger readers, including Shunshin Maeda’s Ninja Baseball Kyuma and Tomomi Mizuna’s The Big Adventures of Majoko.

Libraries own far fewer of the kids graphic novels from comic publisher than they do of those from book publishers. According to WorldCat, all the titles mentioned above from book publishers are owned by 1,500 or more libraries (over 5,000 own Diary of a Wimpy Kid), while those from the comics publishers are owned by an average of just 150 libraries (Owly is the top title, owned by 748 libraries). This is because comics publishers get little review attention from the trade journals that librarians rely on for buying  (School Library Journal, Library Media Connection, The Horn Book). Whatever the reason for the lack of coverage, the result is that libraries are missing out on some great titles.
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To give you a head start on the comics world’s upcoming titles, here are a few that should be on everyone’s radar:

Okie Dokie Donuts by Chris Eliopoulis

Pirate Penguin vs. Ninja Chicken by Ray Friesen

Monster on the Hill by Rob Harrell

Maddy Kettle: The Adventure of a Thimblewitch by Eric Orchard

Korgi: A Hollow Beginning (volume 3) by Christian Slade

And, not to overlook the book publishers, here are a few new and upcoming favorites from them:

Tower of Treasure by Scott Chantler

Lila and Ecco’s Do-It-Yourself Comic Club by Willow Dawson

Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch

The Olympians series by George O’Connor (Zeus and Athena are out, Hera is due out next spring)

The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier

Owly and Wormy: Friends All Aflutter! by Andy Runton

Adventures in Cartooning Activity Book by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost

What are the titles you’re most looking forward to in the next few months?

Literary darling Jonathan Franzen’s new book Freedom is the top-selling adult hardcover fiction title on USA Today’s Best Seller List — we also hear that it debuts at #1 on the upcoming NYT Fiction list.

Still, the book takes a back seat to Mockingjay. Suzanne Collins’ title is #1 on the USA Today list, which reflects sales of all books, regardless of format or age level. Freedom comes in at #5, following Mockingjay (on for two weeks), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (69 weeks), Debbie Macomber’s 1022 Evergreen Place (original pbk; this is its first week), and The Girl Who Played with Fire (58 weeks).

The new issue of People magazine (9/20) features Booker shortlist title Room, by Emma Donoghue. In Europe, the book has been compared to the true story of an Austrian man who imprisoned his daughter in the basement of the family home for 24 years, fathering seven children with her. People sees a comparison to an American story, asking,

What must childhood have been like for Jaycee Dugard’s two daughters? A year after their rescue from the sex offender who kidnapped their mother and fathered them, this compelling new novel offers an imaginative take on a similar plight.

Room: A Novel Emma Donoghue Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2010-09-13) ISBN / EAN: 0316098337 / 9780316098335

Hachette Audio; UNABR; 9781607886273; $29.98
Hachette Large Print; 9780316120579; Trade Pbk; $24.99

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The other titles reviewed in the issue are all being released this week:

Getting to Happy, Terry Mcmillan, (Viking, 9/7) 2.5 of 4 stars

Katie Up and Down the Hall: The True Story of How One Dog Turned Five Neighbors into a Family , Glenn Plaskin, (Center Street, 9/8) 3 of 4 stars

The Widower’s Tale, Julia Glass, (Pantheon, 9/7)  4 of 4 stars

Vermilion Drift, William Kent Krueger, Atria (9/7) 3 of 4 stars

Reminder: Since People’s book reviews are not readily available online, we maintain an archive.