In anticipation, I’ve been perusing several pieces of fine literature, to wit: The Hunger Games: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion (Scholastic, February), Stars in the Arena: Meet the Hotties of The Hunger Games (Simon Pulse, February), and The Hunger Games Tribute Guide (Scholastic, February).

The Official Illustrated Movie Companion is fairly comprehensive, with bios, behind-the-scenes photos, and making-of trivia. We hear from author Suzanne Collins herself, the director, the producer, all the cast members, set designers, costume designers… it’s a big love-fest. There are also lots of huge, shiny pictures of prettiness. The takeaway: the people in the Capitol are going to be fun to look at. And keep an eye out for Wes Bentley’s beard. You’ll know it when you see it.

Speaking of things that are fun to look at, in Stars in the Arena: Meet the Hotties of The Hunger Games, we discover the answers to such questions as “Could Jennifer Lawrence survive in the wild like Katniss?”, “Is Josh Hutcherson as romantic as Peeta?”, and “Is Liam [Hemsworth] in love with Jen in real life?” …Wait, is he?

Sadly, they’re just friends, but I was totally whipped into a frenzy of fandom right there.

There’s obviously a conflation of the actors and their characters in all of these books, but it reaches a whole new level in the Tribute Guide, which begins with a sinister “Citizens of Panem, are you ready?” Now we’re the audience both in the real world and in the story? Not sure how I feel about that. The rest of the meta-exercise is essentially a program for viewers watching the book’s reality TV show, The Hunger Games.

Ooh, when are they going to make the TV show?

Yup, it’s definitely T-minus time.

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From the cover, which features a sled dog caught licking itself, it’s clear this book isn’t going to be pretty. Mush! is harsh, blunt, and rather philosophical. The sled dogs know what they love: running. Their problems arise in the interminable space between runs, when they have time to think and to debate their purpose in life. Their vulnerability seeps out in these conversations, my favorites being those with neurotic Fiddler (despite the spelling mistake):

Joe Infurnari’s illustrations emphasize this vulnerability, with prone positions and nearly-visible bellies. The dogs are drawn with unstable lines placed tenuously near one another, joining to create a unified (yet nuanced) whole, much like the team.

Mush! covers a wide swath of themes, including romance, politics, and perpetuating one’s species.  After years of mating, Buddy is still trying to get Venus to fall in love with him; the reader will cringe at his well-meaning if awkward pick-up lines.

Winston fears he may be the last purebred Samoyed in his genealogical line and wants to mate with another purebred, but there are none on his team.

The bleak, melancholy story is backed by an electric undercurrent of joy: What if the dogs never stopped running?  Could they be “high all the time,” like lead dog Dolly hopes?  Perhaps then, they could live without worries or nagging insecurities. Self-doubt would be eradicated by the need to run and survive.  In Fiddler’s words, “the great thing about starving is, it makes you forget your metaphysical pain.”

This graphic novel stayed with me long after I finished reading. I imagine those dogs out in the snowy wilderness, running their hearts out, not a care in the world.

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Salley Mavor and Roger Sutton

For the past few weeks we have been housing a treasure. Salley Mavor, who won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Pocketful of Posies, created an original piece for our January/February Magazine cover. When I picked it up from the photographer a few weeks ago, I brought it back to the office to store it here because Salley and her husband were enjoying some R&R on a boat off the coast of Turkey.

We’ve pulled the art out of hiding quite often, showing it to visitors and just taking some time to gaze in amazement. Yesterday, Salley came to pick it up and we found it hard to say good-bye to the art— and to Salley, who sat down for lunch with us and told stories about Turkey, her RISD days, and life on Cape Cod.

She took a lot of photos of the office; we’re wondering if they might show up on her blog soon. We took some of her, too, to accompany her speech in the January issue. Here’s a sneak peek at part of the cover, followed by two of the Artist at Work photos.

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Gresh shies away from the series’s romantic story lines, focusing instead on the dark, dystopian aspects of the books. Toward the beginning of The Hunger Games Companion, Gresh writes: “The reader can’t help but wonder if our society is heading toward the same problems depicted in the world of The Hunger Games.” Gresh draws parallels between the novels and the current financial crisis and America’s materialism, as well as post-9/11 torture methods, invasions of privacy, and decreases in civil liberties. Historical “Doomsday Predictions” sidebars are scattered throughout the text; an appendix offers various end-of-the-world scenarios. While Gresh does give some insight (most notably in her chapter on medicine and poison), it feels as though her primary aim is not to analyze and supplement the books but rather to incite fear of the future in her readers.

The Hunger Games and its sequels are certainly disturbing; I avoided reading them for years, worried that I would be as thoroughly distressed as I was while reading Lord of the Flies. (Curiously, though Gresh discusses several dystopian classics like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984, she does not mention Lord of the Flies—not even in the chapter entitled “Killer Kids: How Responsible Are They?”) But Collins’s trilogy is not just a fictitious warning of what the world could become or a tragic account of a political system run amok. The Hunger Games trilogy is also a story of love, loyalty, friendship, and courage. It’s a shame that Gresh gives little thought to the series’s poignant moments of humanity.

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For more details, see the Cambridge Public Library’s announcement; call 617-349-4409 to reserve a spot.

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In editor Trisha Telep’s collection Corsets & Clockwork: 13 Steampunk Romances (Running Press, May), authors such as Caitlin Kittredge, Dia Reeves, Kiersten White, and Adrienne Kress write the steamier side of steampunk, where “technomagical and natural desires collide.” This naturally means lots of flirting and first kisses (with gorgeous automatons or gentlemen criminals, aboard airships, or after narrowly escaping mad inventors); it also entails deeper ethical concerns about technology, progress, and humanity’s impact on nature. Don’t miss contributor Dru Pagliassotti’s excellent essay “How Do I Write a Steampunk Story?” at Steamed!.

Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories edited by Kelly Link and Gavin Grant (Candlewick, October) goes even further in expanding the steampunk oeuvre—but you’ll have to wait for the September/October issue of The Horn Book Magazine to read my review. In the meantime, pilot your airship over to the website for our list of recommended steampunk-inspired reads.

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Fiction
Winner: Blink & Caution by Tim Wynne-Jones
Honor book: Chime by Franny Billingsley
Honor book: Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke, illustrated by Lauren Tobia

Nonfiction
Winner: The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin
Honor book: Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross, illustrated by Stephen Biesty
Honor book: Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins, illustrated by Vicky White

Picture book
Winner: Pocketful of Posies by Salley Mavor
Honor book: Pecan Pie Baby by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Honor book: Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen

The ceremony will be followed by a reception with the winners. Mosey over to our website to see video and pictures of last year’s (and previous years’) awards festivities.

Join us the next day for the Horn Book at Simmons colloquium, led by Horn Book editor in chief Roger Sutton and Cathie Mercier, director of the Simmons Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. Entitled “Engaging Worlds, Real and Imagined,” the colloquium will feature all three of this year’s winners (and many more speakers) in presentations, panels, and workshops. Registration for the colloquium includes an invite to Friday’s awards ceremony. Sign up here!

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- The Haunted Hamburger and Other Ghostly Stories by David LaRochelle; illus. by Paul Meisel (Dutton)
- A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade)
- Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Farrar)
- Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck; illus. by Kelly Murphy (Dial)
- The Watch That Ends the Night: Voices from the Titanic by Allan Wolf (Candlewick)
- Breaking Stalin’s Nose by Eugene Yelchin (Holt)
- A Little Bitty Man and Other Poems for the Very Young by Halfdan Rasmussen; trans. from the Danish by Marilyn Nelson and Pamela Espeland; illus. by Kevin Hawkes (Candlewick)
- Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson (Atheneum)
- Orani: My Father’s Village by Claire A. Nivola (Foster/Farrar)
- Feynman by Jim Ottaviani; illus. by Leland Myrick; color by Hilary Sycamore (First Second)
- Drawing from Memory by Allen Say (Scholastic)
- Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman; illus. by Beth Krommes (Houghton)

Congratulations!

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On Saturday, July 15th, at 5 p.m., Mr. Carle will host a ceremony to honor his mentor Leo Lionni and unveil Mr. Lionni’s bronze sculpture Imaginary Garden. A reception with Mr. Carle will follow.  Tickets for the ceremony and reception are $25 for the public, $15 for members.

The following morning at 10 a.m., Mr. Carle will meet fans and sign books. This event is free with admission.  More details for both appearances are available here, and a specific FAQ for the “Meet Eric Carle” signing is here.

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In addition to discussing the inspiration for Thirteen Reasons Why, its impact on readers, and the upcoming film version, the article touches on Jay’s latest project: a collaboration with Carolyn Mackler. Titled The Future of Us, the novel is about two teens in 1996 who somehow access the Facebook profiles they will have 15 years in the future. The book won’t be out until November, but the movie adaptation rights to The Future of Us were recently acquired by Warner Bros.

While I have a hard time feeling any nostalgia for the dial-up internet of the ’90s, I’m intrigued by the premise of The Future of Us. Social media profiles are pretty skewed representations of ourselves—it’ll be interesting to see how accurately they predict the future for these characters.

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