We all know and love the familiar story and characters of “Winnie-the-Pooh” and on October 5th, 2009 Dutton will publish the first authorized sequel of the beloved story! The sequel is titled “Return to the Hundred Acre Wood”and is written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess. I’m not sure I want my “Winnie-the-Pooh” to be tampered with because how could anyone possibly even attempt to recreate the magic of the originial?
To decide on your own, read the full story and catch a glimpse of the new artwork on PW’s children’s bookshelf here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/enewsletter/CA6646921/2788.html
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Good grief, Charlie Brown! A recently found original Charles Schultz comic, which was hand-drawn and signed by the famous cartoonist is attracting major attention at a small rare-books auction house in California. The comic strip is an April Fool’s comic, apparently created in 1973.
“Why is this particular cartoon such a big deal?” you may ask. Although Mr. Schultz published a new “Peanuts”cartoon in the Sunday paper every week from 1952 until 2000, there are only about 6 of them were “April Fools” cartoons. Also noteworthy is Charles Schultz’s admitted love for this particular cartoon. In his personal selection of cartoons for his book entitled “Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown,” Schultz chose this, along with 133 other comics, to display as his favorites. Previous “Peanuts” cartoons have gone for as much as 100,000 dollars!
The auction is set to end on March 31st, 2009. For all you interested buyers, read more here:
http://www.prlog.org/10204247-oneofa-kind-charles-schulz-peanuts-comic-strip-expected-to-draw-recordbreaking-bids-at-auction.html
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Is Samuel R. Delany’s Dhalgren the greatest science fiction novel ever written or one of the hidden gems of 20th century literary fiction? The answer probably lies somewhere in between. Originally published in 1975, the novel has been puzzling, shocking, and rewarding readers for more than 30 years. Formally innovative, dense, and lushly lyrical, Dhalgren traces the exploits of an unnamed narrator nicknamed “The Kid” in the fictional city of Bellona, where a strange disaster has severed all contact to the rest of the world and altered the flow of time. For the remaining inhabitants, life becomes a surreal mixture of boredom, violence, and suspension of the normal rules of reality. A meditation on the nature of writing and of reality, Dhalgren is difficult, but well worth the effort.
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The Alexander McCall Smith series, “The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” makes it’s small screen debut this Sunday on HBO at 8P.M.
Read the review in the Wall Street Journal here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123810093798251423.html?mod=article-outset-box
And the New York Times article here: http://tv.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/arts/television/27ladi.html?ref=books
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I feel like I’ve been hearing about the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are forever, but at long last director Spike Jonze has given us the first trailer of the movie starring Mark Ruffalo, Catherine Keener, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker, and James Gandolfini. Check it out here.
Judging by how long the whole process has taken and the number of rewrites the film has gone through (the first version was completed then judged too scary for children), Maurice Sendak’s well-loved picture book has presented plenty of challenges to the filmmakers. But the trailer took my breath away, right from the opening shot of a sleepy Max riding in the arms of a Wild Thing.
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Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, has reached book deals with the most recent and current occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Former President George W. Bush is at work on a memoir tentatively titled “Decision Points,” due out in 2010, which will focus on 12 personal, political, and presidential decisions which defined his life and presidency. As for 44, President Obama and Crown reached a $500,000 agreement to adapt his best-selling memoir Dreams From My Father for middle readers. Obama already has a deal with Crown for a third memoir, to be completed after he leaves office. Obama has reportedly earned over $8.5m in advances and royalties from Dreams and his policy-oriented nonfiction book The Audacity of Hope.
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Check out pictures of some of the most interesting bookstores in the world here.
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Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo’s eagerly awaited new novel, The Magician’s Elephant (Candlewick, Sept.), illustrated by Yoko Tanaka, continues to move forward. This week Candlewick revealed the cover art and announced a hefty first printing of 500,000 copies for the 208-page fable, in which a boy who learns from a fortuneteller that not only is his sister alive but an elephant will take him to her.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6645168.html
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Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh is the culmination of a seven-year study of the infamous Robert Taylor Homes of Chicago during the 90′s. Readers may recognize Venkatesh from a chapter of Freakonomics, where he dispels commonly held notions about crack dealers. As a first-year graduate student at the University of Chicago, Venkatesh’s first introduction to gang members is when they take him hostage in a dank building because they think he is sent by a rival Mexican gang (actually, he is Indian). From there, a careful friendship forms with gang leader JT, and Venkatesh is soon embroiled in the highly complicated world of selling crack, where he learns about the gang’s hierarchy, law and order, bookkeeping and more. This book is perfect for fans of HBO’s The Wire.
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For those of you who don’t use Google on a daily basis, whoever you may be:
Happy 40th Anniversary to The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
The book, published in 1969, still sells one copy every 30 seconds in the world, 40 years after it was originally published.
Written and illustrated by Eric Carle (a graphic designer who later became art director of an advertising agency before moving into book illustration), it has sold more than 29 million copies, and is published in 47 languages. Mr Carle, who turns 80 this year, said he got the idea from a hole puncher.
“One day I was punching holes with a hole puncher into a stack of paper, and I thought of a bookworm and so I created a story called “A Week with Willi the Worm”. Then my editor suggested a caterpillar instead and I said “Butterfly!” That’s how it began,” he said.
For the complete Telegraph article, click here.
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