Children’s Books

Just in time for the 2012 election season, a sequel to 2010′s Tea Party Coloring Book for Kids has been released. Entitled The Tea Party II: Why America Loves You! The Social-Activist Coloring Book For Kids, the 48-page coloring book costs $5.99.

The book is published by Really Big Coloring Books, the creators of a coloring book about 9/11 and the original Tea Party Coloring Book for Kids. We’ve embedded the cover and two sample pages in this post. Check it out:

The Genius of America is how The Tea Party truly reflects, represents and respects its homeland. The Tea Party is widely considered the “Real American Party.” Grassroots based and inclusive in its ideals, this diverse group of humanity, known as the “Tea Party”, is accepting of any individual. It is considered a post-racial organization, meaning: The Tea Party welcomes, embraces and represents all races of people. Red, Yellow, Black or White – The Tea Party does not discriminate based on race, sex, religion, political party, opinion, credo or any other factor. Reflective of true American exceptional-ism, The Tea Party is the classical America and will keep America safe.

Read more

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Artist Hannah Friederichs has created a beautiful tribute to the late Maurice Sendak, painting The Avengers comic book heroes in the style of the children’s book author. Click the photo embedded above to enlarge.

If you visit Friederichs’ page, you can download wallpaper versions of the drawing. On Tumblr, you can see some concept sketches and close-ups of the drawing.

Here’s more from the artist: “Two things on my mind today: RIP Maurice Sendak. Yay Avengers. Okay- I put together some wallpapers using the original- I tried to make them as big as possible and cover the major aspect ratios. You can download them here. Enjoy!” (Via io9)

Percy Jackson series author Rick Riordan plans to work on a new series inspired by Norse mythology, but his fans will have to wait for the series.

According to Courier Press, Riordan will be spending next year working exclusively on book four of The Heroes of Olympus series. The third installment, The Mark of Athena, will be released in October. Here’s more from the article:

Writing about Norse mythology “represents a return to my roots as a reader,” he added, noting that his eighth-grade teacher got him interested in mythology by pointing out that the “Lord of the Rings” books — Riordan’s favorites at the time — were based on Norse mythology.”

Read more

Wimpy Kid series author and illustrator Jeff Kinney was crowned “Author of the Year” at the Children’s Choice Book Awards gala in New York City. This marked the second year in a row that a middle grade author has emerged victorious in this category.

Follow this link to check out videos from last night’s gala. We’ve posted the full list of winners below.

Kids cast their votes for the awards, breaking last year’s record with more than 900,000 submissions. The Children’s Book Council hosted the event to celebrate the 93rd anniversary of Children’s Book Week.

Read more

Mortal Instruments author Cassandra Clare and The Spiderwick Chronicles author Holly Black have landed a book deal for a five-book middle grade fantasy series.

Scholastic will publish the first book, The Iron Trial, in 2014. Editorial director David Levithan negotiated the deal with literary agents Russell Galen (for Clare) and Barry Goldblatt (for Black).

Here’s more from the release: “In this exciting new series, twelve-year-old Callum Hunt has grown up knowing three rules by heart. Never trust a magician. Never pass a test a magician gives you. And never let a magician take you to the Magisterium. Callum is about to break all the rules. And when he does, his life will change in ways he can’t possibly imagine.”

Read more

Beloved children’s book characters like Madeline, Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Babar the Elephant and The Very Hungry Caterpillar star in a new video (embedded above) to promote the literacy nonprofit, Reading Is Fundamental.

The video urges readers to take the the Book People Unite pledge: “declare your belief in the transformative power of books, especially for young minds. Encourage your friends to join the movement too by sharing online and you’ll get a download of the full Book People Unite track. We’ll also follow up with news on the Book People Unite movement.”

The catchy song in the video was produced by The Roots with vocal support from Jack Black, Chris Martin, John Legend, Regina Spektor, Jim James, Nate Ruess, Jason Schwartzman, Melanie Fiona, Carrie Brownstein and Consequence. Follow this link to see reading pledges from these celebrities.

Secret Series author Pseudonymous Bosch (a.k.a. Raphael Simon) has inked a deal for a new middle grade trilogy with Penguin’s Dial Books for Young Readers.

The not-yet-titled first book is slated for release in 2013. Literary agent Sarah Burnes (from the Gernert Company) negotiated the deal with editor-at-large Jennifer Hunt. Hunt will edit the project.

Bosch (pictured, via) submitted this “secret” statement in the release: “It is a thrill to be working with Jennifer Hunt again as well as with all my new friends at Dial.  As my readers know, I love to eat, especially anything chocolate.  I couldn’t be more excited to embark on this important search for three new cooks.  If bread is the staff of life, then a good cook is…What?  Not cooks, books?  I’m supposed to write three new books?  Oh, no—how distressing!”

Read more

Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently we spoke with the United States’ first children’s poet laureate, Jack Prelusky.

Prelutsky did not enjoy studying poetry during his primary school days, but he has since published eighty volumes of children’s poetry.

In his new collection, I’ve Lost my Hippopotamus, the poet talks about real and imaginary animals. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

Read more

Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. To kick things off, we have award-winning children’s poet Douglas Florian.

Florian (pictured, via) started off as a cartoonist for The New Yorker. He now works as children’s poet and illustrator. He has also exhibited his abstract paintings.

In his new collection, unBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings, the poet explores the world of honeybees. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

Read more

Author Ian Samuels and illustrator Bill Robinson hope to raise $8,000 for their “epic” children’s book project, Gwendolyn and the Underworld. These two childhood friends spent four years working on this book and aim to have printed copies available in time for Comic-Con International: San Diego 2012. Above, we’ve embedded a video about the project–what do you think?

Here’s more about the project: “Gwendolyn and the Underworld is an illustrated storybook about a young Pet Reaper (think Grim Reaper + dead pets) who ventures to solve the mystery behind her Overworld roots.  She uncovers a rotten conspiracy with her corpulent corpse aunt, a sidekick Peacodgehog, an army of Skellies, and slew of part-this and part-that creatures.”

Welcome to our Kickstarter Publishing Project of the Week, a feature exploring how authors and publishers are using the fundraising site to raise money for book projects. If you want to start your own project, check out How To Use Kickstarter to Fund Your Publishing Project.