Publications about books for children and young adults
Just to get a sense of historical perspective, when I last spoke at this festival, there was no euro, no iPods, no Wikipedia, no Facebook; Pluto was still a planet; and I was still drinking. More to the point—today’s point—is that Harry Potter had yet to appear on our side of the pond. That would [...]
Checking a fact about Joan of Arc, I found myself on the Wikipedia garden path, cruising through various manifestations of the saint on stage and screen. That led me to The Miracle of the Bells starring Italian actress Alida Valli, who, it turns out, was once married to Oscar de Mejo, a painter who did [...]
Amazon.com’s announcement that it is acquiring Marshall Cavendish‘s trade book department is making me think again about last week’s blogosphere discussion re bloggers and publishers and review copies. In that conversation, Pam Coughlan (Mother Reader), rightfully decrying William Morrow’s graceless attempts to make bloggers jump through hoops in order to receive free ARCs, asked, “Can [...]
The fallout over the New Yorker‘s decision to break an embargo to review The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo early is probably more entertaining than the movie is going to be. (Some commenter somewhere called it The Girl with the Thing on Her Arm, which I am immediately adopting). It is also convincing me that [...]
I spent most of yesterday being irritated by the conundrum of review books that come (or don’t) with nondisclosure agreements. Here’s what one looks like: CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT Date: xx/xx/xx Publisher XYZ Re: Title: Book ABC Author: Author LMNOP Publication Date: xx/xx/xx ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ Dear ___________: In order to induce [Publisher XYZ] to deliver a [...]
God, there’s a lot going on, and I haven’t even written my reviews yet. Katrina and Cathie Mercier and I have been finishing up the planning for this year’s Horn Book at Simmons colloquium. (When I am old and being interviewed by Leonard Marcus, if he asks “What did you learn at the Horn Book?” [...]
