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Mo Willems, on 'Knuffle Bunny Free'
"Where did the story come from? That's a bit tricky. I certainly spent more time on this than I did on the other Knuffle Bunny books. I think the turning point was realizing this was the last book. In the first story, she explores her neighborhood and in the second book she explores something larger — she goes to school and does the transfer of bunnies between two neighborhoods. The story had to expand further in this third book."
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Q & A with Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
In Bink & Gollie, two precocious girls who have little in common except for their fertile imaginations are the closest of friends, and embark on a series of adventures. Bink & Gollie's co-authors, Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, at first glance, seem as though they have little in common, but are themselves the closest of friends.
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Q & A with Blue Balliett
Like Lightning Thief author Rick Riordan, Blue Balliett has morphed from popular teacher to popular novelist. Six years ago, she started publishing bestselling mysteries: Chasing Vermeer, followed by The Wright 3 and The Calder Game. Her fourth title is The Danger Box, inspired by Charles Darwin's diary.
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Q & A with Dav Pilkey
Dav Pilkey scored a huge hit with The Adventures of Captain Underpants and its sequels; that series stars mischievous fourth graders George and Harold, who turn their principal into an underwear-sporting superhero. George and Harold were credited as the authors of The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, a Captain Underpants spinoff. Blue Sky will release these characters’ second graphic novel...
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Melissa Marr Is on a Wicked, Lovely Roll
Like the characters in her five-book Wicked Lovely series, Melissa Marr has endured (and overcome) hardships. She was raped twice—at 14 and again 18—and turned to drugs and boys. Today, the 38-year-old mother of two is married to a former Marine Corps officer; is awaiting the publication of her final Wicked Lovely title, Darkest Mercy, in February 2011.
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Q & A with Kirsten Miller
Kirsten Miller is best known as the author of the Kiki Strike novels, a series following a group of six girls adventuring in New York City. Her latest book, The Eternal Ones, follows the adventures of Haven, a girl from a small southern town who discovers that she might have lived a past life, and that her lover from her last life might be living in New York.
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The One That Almost Got Away
Although the English writer Siobhan Dowd did not start writing novels until her 40s, she proved to be quite prolific – completing four novels in a few years. She also wrote a detailed outline for a fifth novel about a boy, his mother, cancer, and the healing powers of a tree. That manuscript was not finished when Dowd died of breast cancer at age 47 in August 2007...
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In Brief: July 22
First-time author Christine Johnson’s novel, Claire de Lune, about a teenage werewolf, was published by Simon Pulse this past May, and because of the positive responses the book received among book bloggers, Johnson held a contest for bloggers to win the chance to announce the title of the book’s sequel.
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In Praise of 'Chaos': A Profile of Patrick Ness
Many people who now consider themselves evangelists for Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy initially resisted the first book, The Knife of Never Letting Go, which is narrated by the illiterate but lovable Todd Hewitt, the last boy in a frontier town on a colonized planet, and features a talking dog...
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Q & A with Marla Frazee
A briefcase-toting baby wearing a onesie styled like a business suit is clearly in charge of the household in The Boss Baby. Written and illustrated by Marla Frazee, two-time Caldecott Honoree, The Boss Baby is simple in concept—a new baby takes over a household—but Frazee talks about some of the challenges she met while creating it.
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Q & A with Grace Lin
Over the years, author-illustrator Grace Lin has mined her own childhood for funny, upbeat stories that shed light on the unique experience of growing up Asian-American.
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Spring 2010 Flying Starts
Spotlighting four novelists and one illustrator who had their debuts this spring
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Q & A with Patricia MacLachlan
Patricia MacLachlan is the Newbery Award winning author of Sarah, Plain and Tall and more than 20 other acclaimed books. She spoke with Bookshelf about her new novel, Word After Word After Word, which is based on her own experience speaking in schools.
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Q & A with Treat Williams
Treat Williams, an accomplished actor who has clinched Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his work in the theater, television, and film over three decades, steps into a new spotlight with his first book, Air Show (Disney-Hyperion). In this large-format volume, illustrated by Robert Neubecker, two siblings fly with their pilot father to an air show, where they view planes of various design and vintage.
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BookExpo America 2010: Big Children's Books of the Show
The BEA convention may have been shorter than in years past, but there was no shortage of major titles at the show last week. “It’s been a good show, bigger than I thought it would be,” said Mary Albi of Egmont USA, while Robert Kempe of Seven Footer Press called it “BEA on steroids,” due to the compressed two-day schedule.
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Q & A with Christoph Niemann
German-born author/illustrator Christoph Niemann moved with his family from New York City to Berlin two years ago, but his two new books both focus on the Big Apple,but his two new books both focus on the Big Apple and are drawn from a blog Neimann produces for the New York Times.
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Amy Krouse Rosenthal: Putting All Her Books Under a Yellow Umbrella
What a year Amy Krouse Rosenthal had in 2009. First, with four children's books published that spring, Rosenthal got the coveted invite to be a breakfast speaker at BookExpo America; then, on Mother's Day, the New York Times printed a glowing review of all four of her new titles, Duck! Rabbit! and Little Oink (Chronicle), Spoon (Hyperion), and Yes Day! (HarperCollins); and she hit the New York Times list for Duck! Rabbit! May 24—staying on for weeks and re-emerging later in the summer.
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Q & A with Rachel Vail
She's written picture books, middle-grade fiction, and young adult novels, but Rachel Vail breaks new ground as an author in her latest novel, Justin Case. Aimed at readers ages 7-9 and written as the journal of a third-grade worrywart, the book will be published by Feiwel and Friends.
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Q & A with Louis Sachar
In his first novel since Small Steps, the 2006 sequel to his Newbery-winning Holes, Louis Sachar focuses on a subject rarely explored in fiction for teens: the game of bridge. The Cardturner centers on 17-year-old Alton, who spends a summer accompanying his blind great-uncle Trapp to his bridge club, where the boy acts as the bridge whiz's "cardturner" and finds himself drawn into the game, the mystery surrounding his relative, and a new love interest. Delacorte will release the novel with a 250,000-copy first printing.
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Q & A with Deborah Wiles
Deborah Wiles, author of the Aurora County trilogy, is using the term "documentary novel" to describe her latest release, Countdown, a work of historical fiction set in 1960s Maryland.
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