Children’s publishers hosted a number of Halloween parties last week, and creative staffers donned costumes based on favorite characters and books—both classic and contemporary. We’ve gathered a selection of photos from the festivities.
At HarperCollins, Rachel Zegar as the Peddler from Esphyr Slobodkyna’s Caps for Sale won Best Overall Costume prize at the annual Harperween costume contest.
The Quill Tree Books team (from l., Jennifer Ung, Rosemary Brosnan, Alyssa Miele, and Carter Wilken) stumbled into Wonderland and won the Best Group Costume title.
Members of the Harper Group team flocked in as the French fry-loving seagull from Bob Holt’s The Red Jacket. (Front row from l.): Anna Goldberg, Alyson Day, Caitlin Johnson, Courtney Stevenson, and Nancy Inteli; (back row from l.): Luana Horry, Karina Williams, and Erika DiPasquale.
Harper staffers Lexie Axon (l.) and Elba Luz paid tribute to Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle.
That’s Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing’s executive coordinator Richard Ackoon as Olivia from Olivia’s 25th-anniversary cover, with president and publisher Jon Anderson maneuvering the cover.
Beach Lane Books’ N.Y.C. editorial team: (from l.): Sarah Yamashita, Danielle Collins, and Catherine Laudone, dressed as characters from Maggie Edkins Willis’s Little Ghost series.
The Spice Girls of romance: S&S publicity team (from l.) Lisa Moraleda, Anna Elling, Maryam Ahmad, Antonella Colon, Samantha McVeigh, Lindsey Ferris, and Tara Shanahan.
The S&S marketing team was very much on trend with their costumes of Sprayed and Stenciled Edges: (from l.), Alissa Rashid, Caitlin Sweeny, Shirley Merino, Bezi Yohannes, Perla Gil, Amelia Johnson, Remi Moon, Cass Fernandez, and Lisa Quach.
The Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group’s publicity and school and library teams all dressed as Evelyn Witch from Evelyn Witch Gets a Pet by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Charles Santoso: (front row, from l.), Kelsey Marrujo, Morgan Rath, Tatiana Merced-Zarou, and Chantal Gerschl; (back row, from l.), Zoe Karoub, Grace Tyler, Morgan Kane, Molly Ellis, Mary Van Akin, and Elysse Villalobos.
Macmillan’s Alexei Esikoff came as a Little Free Library.
Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot was the inspiration for Tuesday Hadden at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
LBYR’s Emilie Polster as The Invisible String by Patrice Karst and Joanne Lew-Vriethoff.
Christy Ottaviano as Will Hillenbrand’s Little Red, published by her imprint at LBYR.
LBYR’s Maggie Montgomery (l.) and Isabella Friedman as The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman.
Random House Children’s Books’ Taylor Belgrade (standing) and Mia Gelb dressed as Pizza & Taco by Stephen Shaskan.
Ms. Rachel (aka Caroline Lese) posed with her Random House picture book.
RHCB’s Sara Dowler as Emily Winfield Martin’s The Wonderful Things You Will Be.
RHCB art director Veronique Sweet as Lolly on Ice by Sarah S. Brannen.
The scariest costume award at the Random House party went to Stephania Villar, who dressed as the place holder cover image.
Scholastic’s cast of Halloween characters included (from l.) Jackie DeLeo as Sybil Trelawney from the Harry Potter series, Seale Ballenger as Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus series, Elizabeth Whiting as a survivor from I Survived: The Shark Attacks of 1916, and David Saylor as an eight-year-old David Saylor as a pirate.
The New York and Atlanta offices for Holiday House, Peachtree, and Candlewick Press held their annual Books and Boos Bash. From New York, (front row, from l.): Sara DiSalvo (Case from Casey’s Cases: Everything Is Terrible), Maggie Salko, Aliza Li, Thelonia Saudners, and Alison Tarnofsky (Zrk from To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here); (middle row, from l.): Alexandra Aceves (Julieta from This Is the Year), Wafa Babban, Saskia den Boon (Broccoli from Broccoli Is Trying to Kill Me), Roxie Munro (author-illustrator of Treasure Thieves on the High Seas: Pirates, Privateers, and Plunder), Michelle Montague (Hubert from The Voice in the Hollow and The Winding Willow), Mary Cash (Ivan from First Kiss with Fangs), Erin Mathis (Blrg from To Activate Space Portal, Lift Here,), and Melissa See; (back row, from l.): Cathy Citarella, Julia Gallagher, Jim Secula (Toasty from Toasty), Megan Brearley (Pumpkin and Beetle from Pumpkin and Beetle: Two Vampire Cats), Rebecca Godan (Rodeo Hawkins from Rodeo Hawkins and the Daughters of Mayhem), Hannah Finne (a brain from Hooray for My Brain!), Kade Dishmon (Finn from This Raging Sea), and Therese Mahler.
And in Atlanta, the gathering included (from l.) Adelaide Cronin (Broccoli from Broccoli Is Trying to Kill Me), Kayla Phillips (girl from Broccoli Is Trying to Kill Me), Delali Adjoa (author of The Free Verse Society), Allie Jones (Stanley from Stanley the Baker), Lily Steele (Stanley from Stanley the Painter), Zoie Konneker (Stanley from Stanley the Builder), Lucy Ricketts (Stanley from Stanley the Grocer), and Jamie Evans (Stanley from Stanley the Mailman).
First Book’s management team dressed as characters from The Little Prince, including (from l.) Wendy Lin as the Little Prince, Daniel Stokes as the Pilot, Kyle Zimmer as the Fox, and Etienne Veber as the Astronaut.
Little Bee Books staffers celebrating Halloween: (from l.) Amy Goppert, Rob Wall, Kristin Errico, Eric Levy, Alexis Lassiter, Jaime Gelman, Brett Duquette, Alexis Lunsford, Sydney Hackley, Shimul Tolia, Stephani Stilwell, and Charlie Ilgunas.
