Fusenews: Island of the Gold Dolphins

• Old news, yes, but Laurie Halse Anderson and her novel Chains have won the 2009 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction.  I harbor a very great fondness for the Scott O’Dell Award.  Over the years it has brought much needed attention to too little read titles. Well done, Ms. Anderson!

• Everyone should have a blog where they can pose questions to the universe and, many times, receive accurate and interesting answers back.  Today’s example is the article in Publishers Weekly Roxburgh Launches New Venture.  From the article:

Stephen Roxburgh, founder and former president and publisher of Front Street, Inc., and former publisher of Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers, has launched namelos, a consortium of publishing professionals who will offer an array of publishing services. Namelos  will develop children’s books independently with authors and artists and place them with agents, editors and publishers. The firm will also work with publishers on projects that need outside development.

Okey doke.  I’ve read and reread this article a couple of times and here’s what this sounds like to me.  My husband is a screenwriter and in the screenwriting world you have an agent and then you also have a manager.  Matt has a manager, and eventually he will have an agent as well.  Namelos sounds like it’s replicating this manager/agent model for the children’s book publishing world.  It also sounds as if they are finding employment for some folks who might have suffered in the recent layoffs.  True or false?  And if namelos is interested in marketing, one hopes they’re going to make the requisite overtures to the children’s literature blogger community, to say nothing of SCBWI.  Any answers for me? Thanks to PW Children’s Bookshelf for the link.

• Note to self:  Please remember to update my Hunger Games review so as to include the British cover and this new jacket for the second book. 

Many many thanks to Jen Robinson for the link.

• The title As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom  has been awarded the Sydney Taylor Award Gold Medal from the Association of Jewish Libraries  while A is for Abraham was awarded the Silver Medal.  And as Douglas Florian pointed out on his blog, "This is the first time in the award’s 41-year history that one author has been honored with their top two awards."  Thanks to Florian Cafe for the links.

• Also from PW’s Children’s Bookshelf:

"The nominees for the Women’s National Book Association’s Lucile Micheels Pannell Award have been announced. The award is given annually to two retail bookstores (children’s specialty and general independent) that excel at inspiring interest in young people in books and reading. The nominees are: …and Books, Too! in Lewiston, Idaho; As the Page Turns in Northville, Mich.; Baker Books in North Dartmouth, Mass.; Changing Hands in Tempe, Ariz.; Cowan’s Book Nook in East Ellijay, Ga.; Downtown Books in Craig, Colo.; Garfield Book Company at PLU in Tacoma, Wash.; Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Cincinnati, Ohio; Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Shop in LaVerne, Calif.; St. Helens Book Shop in St. Helens, Ore.; Schuler Books and Music in Okemos, Mich.; That Bookstore in Blytheville, in Blytheville, Ark.; The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, Utah; Urban Think! Bookstore in Orlando, Fla.; and Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis, Minn. The winners will be announced at BEA in New York City. Each recipient will receive a check for $1,000 and a framed piece of original art by a children’s book illustrator."

Imagine me sitting here wearing my Wild Rumpus hat, cheering them on.  Go, Wild Rumpus, go go go!  Not that I have anything against the rest of you guys, but I used to be a Minneapolis resident.  >blows noisemaker<

• I’ve a weakness for random amusing artistic bits o’ randomness.  As such I was pleased to hear about the NamelessleTTer collaborative art project.  Random clever bookmarks left hither and thither and yon.  I like.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.

• It’s rare that you read a review that gets its facts as gloriously, horribly, amazingly, jaw-droppingly wrong as found in this one from The Times Online.  The kind of review where you’re fairly certain the reviewer (one Amanda Craig) probably didn’t get within five feet of the book.  At all.  That may sound as if I’m going out on a limb, but think about it.  If you read a review of Laurie Halse Anderson’s book Chains and the reviewer said of it that it was, "Set in the South at the time of the civil war" what would be your reaction?  Kinda makes your head buzz a little, don’t it?  Thanks to Laurie Halse Anderson for the link.

• Today is Steal All Your News from PW Day – " Victoria Stapleton has been promoted to associate director, school and library marketing, from manager, school and library marketing."  I’m already in a cheering mood so go, Victoria, go go go!

• Daily Image:

Compare and contrast time.  Here we go. 

Fantasy: 

Reality:

Thanks to GraceAnne DeCandido for the link (and the comparison)!

Filed under: Fusenews