Little Brown and Company Fall/Winter 2008 Preview

I get so confused.  Is Little Brown & Co. now known as Hatchette or is that an entirely different entity altogether?  When it doubt, stick with what you know.  And what I know is that this past Tuesday LB&Co. had its seasonal librarian preview for some of those people out there lucky enough to have MLS degrees (and a couple who don’t).

– You go to the place they designate.
– They feed you.
– You sit at a table while editors get ten minutes to tell you about anywhere from 2-5 of their books coming up this season.
– You get very excited about these books, and converted by more than a few.
– They feed you again.
– A special guest star (always a secret) comes to speak.
– You get a signed poster from the special guest star…. and they feed you.

Yes, as librarian previews go, Little Brown has the system down pat.  Now in the past they’ve always held these delights at the Time-Life building on 5th Avenue.  Since their move, however, they have had to make do with shabby quarters.  So we went to some no-name place called The Yale Club.  I mean, they couldn’t even get a Harvard outfit?

Upstairs Victoria Stapleton had everything running like clockwork.  And, as is my job, I had to check out her shoes.  I forgot my camera (a running theme of the day, I’m afraid) so I wasn’t able to take a shot of them.  Please be aware that they were red boots of the Italian designer persuasion (kind of like this but without the buttons).  And yes, she has teeny tiny feet, so sasquatches like myself can’t even pretend that we might get a pair off of her in her will or something.

I always end up at the Suffolk County table at these things, and this one was no exception.  Very nice women, all of them.  There was also a Staten Island librarian present that I’d never met before. We did NOT see eye-to-eye on covers (she’s pro-back of the head/dismembered female bits n’ pieces and I am not) but we got into some good conversations so that worked out.  But Laura Lutz?  I am so sitting at your table next time.  Seriously, why do we never sit together?  It’s not as if they assign us places or anything.

And then an editors sat down and they were off!

All right.  So LB likes to leave handy dandy full-color (can’t be cheap) printouts of the books the editors will be discussing.  Only 19 books make this list (there are advantages to small releases) and this year they went and made the titles alphabetical to boot.  That’s all well and good when it comes to following what different editors say at different times.  As such, I’ll just point out some of the books that particularly caught my little eye.

First up, a book that is appearing on shelves September 1st, a fact that I cannot find coincidental since it’s patriotic city.  America: The Making of the Nation by Charlie Samuels may as well be called Americaology, since it’s very much in the same vein as those other "ology" books like Pirateology and Dragonology, yadda yadda yadda.  Pullouts.  A life-sized folded version of the Declaration of Independence.  I didn’t get a very good look at it, so I can’t say how well this ode to the U.S. mentions minorities or women-folk.  Interesting Fact: A Brit has written this.  We’ll see how that affects the general tone of the book itself.

Now here’s an author/illustrator pairing that feels so natural you almost wonder if there’s been some kind of shift in the universe and you heard about this book in the past.  I’m referring to the new book The Day Leo Said "I Hate You!" by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Molly Bang.  Aw yeah, baby.  Bang is back.  And with her When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry you know that she’s not afraid of any issue Harris is liable to pull out.  This is a topic that hasn’t really been covered in picture books before, and there was some discussion during its creation about whether or not to use the word "hate" in the title.  I mean, obviously that’s what the book is all about, but you just know that some bookstores are going to be afraid to stock it for that very reason.  Bang’s using what looks like mixed media and photos in this puppy alongside her usual pictures, so we’ll see how well that works.  I haven’t examined it yet.  Could be good, could be bad.  In any case, this is one to watch out for.

But first, the guest of honor!  To our delight it was none other than picture book superstar and Caldecott winner Ed Young!  Mr. Young’s work includes everything from his award winning Lon Po Po to the more recent and touching My Mei Mei.  Now it appears that he has illustrated a new picture book and it’s a stunner.  Wabi Sabi is the tale of a cat walking out on its own.  The story behind this book has already gotten big, in large part because the original illustrations were stolen off Mr. Young’s agent’s porch.  Without missing a beat Mr. Young decided to make them again and to make them even better (though he had already thrown out the sketches for the original pictures and would have to begin from scratch).  After finishing he turned them in.  Then, six months after they disappeared, the original pictures were returned to a local church.  Around the room we were able to compare the Before and After illustrations.  Mr. Young wasn’t lying.  The "After" pics were definitely preferable. 

Recently Mr. Young had found a book at a bookstore called Wabi Sabi and he bought it out of curiosity.  According to him, the term can be broken down into the two words.  Wabi: To go against what was wished.  The world is a messy place and it never conforms to what one wishes it to be.  Sabi: A love of grime and soot and weather.  This was the general definition I heard at the time.  It’s probably far off, but who cares?  It sounds good.

All in all, Little Brown seems poised for a strong season this coming fall.  We’ll see if any of their gambits pay off in the long run.