Bits o’ Bites o’ News

Mmm.  This is the weather I live for.  Yesterday I came to the realization that heaven is 74 degrees at all times with a slight breeze coming off the river.  Heaven also appears to be New York in the summer.  Go fig.

Here’s your daily round-up.

• From Cynopsis Kids (though plenty of other sources picked up these stories as well):

"Warner Bros. has picked up the movie rights to Septimus Heap , a popular seven-book fantasy series by author Angie Sage , from publisher HarperCollins . The movie adaptation of Septimus Heap: Magyk , the first book title in the series, will be produced by Karen Rosenfelt (Devil Wears Prada) with author Sage serving as executive producer. The Septimus Heap series is published by

Katherine Tegen Books , an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books. Septimus Heap: Magyk was published in March 2005, followed by the second and third books, Septimus Heap: Flyte and Septimus Heap: Physik , which were published in March 2006 and March 2007 respectively.

Walden Media and Penguin Young Readers Group have teamed up to acquire the North American rights to Savvy , a novel by Ingrid Law, in an agreement with Daniel Lazar, Agent, Writers House . Walden has also picked up the movie rights to book. Scheduled to be published by Dial Books for Young Readers/Walden Media in May 2008, Savvy revolves around a girl who is about to turn 13 and find that she has unique powers."

The first piece is good news for Angie Sage, no question.  In terms of the second bit of news, what is the logic, I wonder, behind movie studios picking up movie rights to novels that haven’t even come out yet?  There’s no fan base built into the book, which means that from a marketing standpoint you’re going to have to work from scratch.  Moreover, if a book and a movie come out in tandem with one another, will book reviewers take the novel seriously at all?  I did some additional digging and found that according to Variety this is Law’s "debut novel" and that she’s done two picture books in the past.  Apparently these are "Faerie Wedding Tale" and "A Quilt for Uncle Paul."  Which is all well and good, but neither of these books are available through the American Amazon.com and a Google search reveal nothing but more info on this movie deal.  So I ask of you, how on earth did this happen and how?  Details please.

• More my speed are the two new ALA Awards that will soon be coming to town. Found via the Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf:

"The William C. Morris YA Debut Award will be given annually to a previously unpublished author “who has made a strong literary debut in writing for young adult readers,” beginning in January 2009. YALSA is currently forming the award committee, which will begin its deliberation work in January 2008.

Another new ALA award, The Odyssey Award for Audiobook Excellence, a joint project between the ALSC and YALSA divisions, is off and running. The committee selected to judge this award held its first meetings during the recent ALA conference in Washington, D.C., under the direction of committee chair Mary Burkey. The Odyssey recognizes the best in audiobooks created for listeners ages birth to 18. Next January, one Odyssey winner and possible honors will be named along with the Newbery, Caldecott, Sibert and Printz Awards."