Harper Collins, Part Three

Time is up and it’s off to Table #4.  In this ring, Tara Weikum and Farrin Jacobs.  We see the brand new Meg Cabot manga title Avalon High Coronation #1: The Merlin Prophecy.  Doesn’t sound very Cabot, does it?  My notes taken during the talk about this book appear to be the word, "Hoodehoo".  Quite.

Weikum and Jacobs apparently have a lock on the Cool Cover market over at Harper Collins.  How else to explain the fact that they’re the ones putting out shiny shiny shiny Jinx by Meg Cabot and that truly mouth-watering book The Luxe by Anna Godberson (shown at the end of these posts) that everyone was drooling over during BEA.  Methinks somebody’s been sacrificing significant offerings to the Book Jacket Gods.  Both books are YA and not my thing so no worries there.  Still, my heart did some serious palpatations when I heard about the new Neil Gaiman book, Interworld (written with Michael Reaves) coming out.  And take a gander at the cover image:

I’m keeping that puppy nice and large.  It’s apparently by a Mr. James Jean, though I’m going to tip a hat to Art Director Hilary Zarycky as well.  I don’t know what the book’s about though.  Could be a treatise on lawn care for all I know.  Gaiman has another book coming out for kids called M is for Magic.  Which was a good idea but then we get to the blurb.  The blurb is from Clive Barker.  Clive Barker?  You’ve a new Gaiman title out there and Barker was the best you could do?  Seriously?  What, did Diana Wynne Jones, Eoin Colfer, Cornelia Funke all have head colds?  I mean… Clive Barker?  He writes one tiny children’s book series and suddenly he had the clout to blurb Gaiman?  Gah.

Moving on.  I’m not a YA person so the news that Louise Rennison’s new Georgia Nicholson novel Love Is a Many Trousered Thing is due in July made little impression.  However, movies do catch my interest and it was interesting to hear that Georgia Nicholson movie is now in the works, directed by Gurinder Chadha of Bend It Like Beckham fame.  The Bode Meter’s arrow is wavering over the Well forecast as we speak.  The screenwriter also did Beckham.  I’m fascinated.

Trying to find a cover image for the next book I’m going to talk about led to finding the Harper Collins First Look Program.  This is an interesting idea.  Each month, HarperCollins Children’s Books will offer Advanced Reading Copies (ARCs) of great books that you will have the chance to read and review before they are available in stores. Reviewers are selected at random but you must be a member of the program to be eligible. And, best of all, First Look is completely free!  I’ve never heard of a publisher offering ARCs to children before.  Does any other publisher do this?  They might want to consider it.

This book is tiny but it’s worth it.

Aw yeah, baby.  Nellie Oleson done went and got herself her OWN book.  Basically it’s On the Banks of Plum Creek but told from Nellie’s point of view.  And the fact of the matter?  Turns out that Laura’s not exactly the world’s most reliable narrator.  For you purists, the book was done with the Little House Estate’s blessing.  The author’s name is a pseudonym but I blanked when they explained who she really was.  Sorry.  And there aren’t any interior illustrations either.

DING!

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