Cover Reveal: Moletown by Torben Kuhlmann
Folks, I make no bones about the books that I love. And when I saw that jaw-dropping picture book Lindbergh last year in all its high-flying mousie glory, I knew I was looking at something special. Now I am so pleased and honored to offer you a quickie peek and glance at German author/illustrator Torben Kuhlmann’s next glorious book. It’s Moletown (ISBN: 978-0735842083). And it’s amazing:
Sort of The Lorax by way of The Rabbits, no? And these interior spreads haven’t even shown you the moles’ intricate underground city. It’s an absolute jaw-dropper.
The book has the distinction of having a remarkably cool title in its native Germany: “Maulwurfstadt”. If you know the language you can get some additional information about the book here.
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Coming to shelves in America on September 1st!
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About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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Looks beautiful! This one would be eligible for the Batchelder Award next year, I assume?
Well, this is where I get confused. As far as I can ascertain the Batchelder doesn’t typically go to picture books. I believe it’s primarily an award for the writing. So the likelihood of this winning that particular award is slim. It might have a better chance with the New York Times Best Illustrated awards, but since its predecessor Lindbergh didn’t win anything there’s no guarantee that this would either. Tricky stuff.
Heather Lennon from NorthSouth Books here…I think where the Batchelder gets tricky is that the award is specifically for “books in translation” – so a picture book can be eligible, but Moletown’s almost wordless storyline will make it tough to satisfy the translation focus. In general, I’ve noticed the award seems to go to shorter novels, sometimes with illustrations, sometimes not. That’s just what I think.
Can’t wait to see this!
That looks fantastic! Wow! The Batchelder criteria says, “Primary attention must be directed to the text. Picture books should be considered only if the text is substantial and at least as important as the pictures.” I haven’t seen the book, of course.