Children's Book Reviews: Week of 5/11/2009

Appearing in this week's reviews: dinosaur/truck hybrids, a magical box, musically-inclined swamp animals, aliens with an appetite for people, a teen trying to hide his superpowers, re-imagined classic Greek myths, a round-up of concept books and more.

Fiction Book Reviews: Week of 5/11/2009

Book reviews of new Fiction, Poetry, Mystery, Science Fiction and Comics. This week, we review the latest from Stephen L. Carter, John Lescroat, Mike Lawson, Louise Dean, Maryann McFadden and others. Get a double dose of Southern charm from Dorothea Benton Frank and Mary Kay Andrews, or a shot of Irish coming-of-age with Irish rock critic Peter Murphy's debut.

Combat Poetry: Swords into Ploughshares—and Paper

Complicity is a theme that runs through all my poems,” says Greg Delanty, an Irish-born poet, recent Guggenheim Fellow and professor at St. Michael's College in Burlington, Vt. “We're involved in things we don't want to be—killing people, hurting people.” So when he saw an exhibit of the Combat Paper Project—a collective of American war veterans— earlier this...

The Lonely Stand of Print Reference

In 2008, Google made a startling announcement: in July of that year, Internet users had used the Web site to perform 235 million searches per day on average, a new record. With all of that information being sought online, it's only natural that the print reference category is feeling the pinch. Casper Grathwohl, publisher of Oxford University Press Reference, says, “The decline in print s...

Short Order: May 11

This week's roundup of cookbook news includes James Beard Award winners, London's answer to Magnolia Bakery, the Julie & Julia trailer, an Italian grandmother's book deal, and party pictures.

Cooking the Books with Adam Schell

Former chef Adam Schell spent nine years researching and writing his first novel, Tomato Rhapsody: A Fable of Lust, Love and Forbidden Fruit (Delcaorte). He picked grapes and olives in Tuscany, visited libraries in Florence to read ancient Italian cookbooks and menus, and studied with a master gardener and cultivated Italian heirloom tomatoes. He talked to PW about what he learned along the way, and also shared his recipe for tomato-baked eggs.

Robert Rose Cookbooks Are No-Frills with Big Sales

How does a small house in Toronto sell 75,000 copies of cookbooks by no-name authors with little to no publicity or promotion? Consistency. Robert Rose books have a look: they’re usually paperback, with copious color photos; the type is large and the recipe steps are numbered, with text following a strict two-column format. Titles often feature numbers—300 Sensational Soups, 150 Best Diabetes Desserts—and recipes tend to be uncomplicated. It's a formula that works.

Cookbook Photography Takes an Aerial View

It’s long been acknowledged that food stylists use tricky techniques—such as spraying food with corn syrup or other liquids to keep it looking fresh—to make food appear as attractive as possible in photos. But what about the photography itself? Do certain angles, backgrounds and effects make food look more attractive, tasty or approachable? A new line of cookbooks that features only aerial photography suggests a new trend in food styling.

Emily the Strange: From Fashion to Fiction

On June 2, HarperCollins’ HarperTeen imprint will release Emily the Strange: The Lost Days, the first in a series of four novels starring Emily, a quirky, independent 13-year-old who got her start 15 years ago as a design on a line of t-shirts and skateboards.

IDW Hires Webber to Oversee E-publishing

IDW, April's third largest comics publisher, according to Diamond figures, has hired Jeff Webber to the new position of director of e publishing. Webber was formerly vp of product development at uClick, following stints at Hallmark and Shockwave. At IDW he'll help explore the growing opportunities for comics to be sold via various electronic formats.

PEN World Fest Shows Off Comics Artists

PEN American Center’s impressive international literary festival, PEN World Voices, held a panel discussion, "1,000 Words: The Power of Visual Storytelling," featuring a star studded panel of international comics artists.

Swedish Small Press Expo Spotlights Growing Scene

Sweden’s Small Press Expo is a state-sponsored program which invited members from around the globe to participate.

Life in Comics: Free Comic Book Day in the Boutiki

The author looks at the lessons of the this years Free Comic Book Day at SLG's Boutiki retail store.

The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún: A Web-Exclusive Review

The legacy of J.R.R. Tolkein lives on with Harcourt's latest release, a volume collecting two epic poems based in Norse mythology.

PW's Review of "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series comes to a close with the release of The Last Olympian, which goes on sale today and has a 1.2-million copy first printing. The PW review follows.

Panelmania: Noir

Dark Horse's Fall release, the Noir anthology contains short stories in the crime and mystery genres, by a wide mix of comics luminaries.

Comics Briefly

Job Moves

Former Scholastic editor Sheila Keenan has been hired by Harry Abrams as a senior editor working on the Abrams ComicsArts imprint.

May Comics Bestsellers

Jeff Kinney's Last Straw holds steady at #1; followed by Naruto at #2-3; Fruits Basket at #5; more Naruto after that and Marvel's hardcover graphic adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand: Captain Trips is at #12.

Children's Book Reviews: Week of 5/4/2009

Among this week's reviews: the latest picture books from Vera B. Williams and Jane Yolen, debut novels from Hallie Durand and Jacqueline Kelley, and a round-up of titles commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.