The 2013 finalists for the Children’s Choice Book Awards have been revealed. Kids can vote from March 19th to May 9th.

The winners will be announced live at the Children’s Choice Book Awards gala on May 13th. Nominees have been divided into four groups classified by different school grades.

In the Author of the Year category, middle-grade fiction writers and young-adult novelists dominate. The nominees include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 7: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, The Heroes of Olympus 3: The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan, and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

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The Invention of Hugo Cabret author Brian Selznick has created the beautiful 2013 Children’s Book Week poster embedded above, a tribute to authors and illustrators Remy Charlip and Maurice Sendak.

Schools and libraries can get free copies of the poster during April and May, encouraging kids to keep reading. To order a copy, you must pay for shipping. Here’s more information:

To receive a free poster(s) with activity guide, please send a 9 x 12 self-addressed envelope (for 1 or 10 posters) or a 10 x 13 self-addressed envelope (for 25 posters) with appropriate postage affixed. Note that Postal regulations have changed. Please use the USPS Postage Price Calculator to determine postage cost, or ask for help at your local post office … There is a 25 poster maximum per person. Due to the volume of poster requests, we cannot process any poster orders that do not include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

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AbeBooks has released its annual list of the most expensive books sold by the used and rare books dealer.

This year, an 1603 astronomy text by Johann Bayer topped the list–selling for $47,729. An inscribed first edition of Ian Fleming’s  Casino Royale took third place as a $46,000 purchase. We’ve collected the top five books below, with Louisa May Alcott and Maurice Sendak tied for fifth place.

Here’s more from AbeBooks: “In third place is Franz Kafka’s novel Die Verwandlung (aka The Metamorphosis), which sold for $30,000.The original German edition is highly sought after because of Kafka’s ability to deliver unexpected impact at the end of his sentences. This effect has been difficult for English translators to replicate so the original German script is essential for Kafka collectors.”

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Books of Wonder, a New York City-based children’s bookstore, must raise a minimum of $100,000 to stay in business. The independent bookseller has turned to the crowd-funding site indiegogo for the campaign.

As of this writing, they have received more than $20,000 in contributions. The campaign will last for 30 more days. Backers, depending on the amount they donate, can claim a number of special rewards including a Maurice Sendak collection (four signed books), a birthday party at the store and deluxe Harry Potter film posters.

Here’s more about this fundraising campaign: “When we moved into our current space eight years ago, we leased out 40% of the space to a well-established NYC bakery to provide a cafe for our customers. Unfortunately, the Great Recession was even harder on cupcakes than children’s books and they were forced to close, still owing us many months back rent and utilities. Worse still, with the economy hurting, we could not find a new subtenant, and so had to pay the rent on the space we had previously rented. The result of these unexpected expenses, is that BOOKS of WONDER has had to layout over $300,000 in rent and utilities that we expected to be paid by our subtenant. This has strained our resources to the limit. And that is why we are launching this campaign.”

John Vitale is leaving HarperCollins this month. He worked with authors that included Kurt Vonnegut, Maurice Sendak and Shel Silverstein.

Here’s more from the company memo: “John joined the company in April 1977 when Harper & Row acquired Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. In 1978, he was named Production Director for the Children’s Division. In 1998 he was promoted to Vice President of Book Production, where he added the Adult Trade Group to his existing responsibilities of Children’s and Audio.”

The publisher will promote Tracey Menzies to VP of production and creative operations to replace Vitale.

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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)

Writing about the death of Maurice Sendak, the New York Times reported that My Brother’s Book will be posthumously published next February: “a poem written and illustrated by Mr. Sendak and inspired by his love for his late brother, Jack.”

The brothers forged an early partnership as writers. Jack Sendak died in 1995 and published six kid’s books (including Circus Girl and The Happy Rain with illustrations by Maurice). His HarperCollins biography explored their relationship:

Jack Sendak was born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. He began writing at a very early age, working with his brother, Maurice, writing and illustrating their own story books. Sendak often credited his father for his love of books, citing inspiration from nightly bedtime reading. Reviewers have called Jack Sendak’s books humorous, magical, and mysterious. Having served in the US Army during World War II, Jack Sendak went on to work for Emerson Radio and Television, as well as the US Postal Service.

Maurice Sendak has passed away, leaving behind a lifetime of beloved children’s books, including Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There.

This GalleyCat editor will never forget reading Where the Wild Things Are to his daughter for the first time. Months before she could speak, she could growl like the dreamy monsters lurking in that book. Sendak’s poem and picture book about his late brother, My Brother’s Book, will be published in February.

Here’s more from the New York Times: “A largely self-taught illustrator, Mr. Sendak was at his finest a shtetl Blake, portraying a luminous world, at once lovely and dreadful, suspended between wakefulness and dreaming. In so doing, he was able to convey both the propulsive abandon and the pervasive melancholy of children’s interior lives.” Read more

TV host and author Stephen Colbert has inked a book deal with Grand Central Publishing for his children’s book, I Am a Pole (and So Can You!). Publication is set for May 8, 2012.

Here’s more from the publisher: “The book came about as a result of a two-part interview that Stephen Colbert did last month with legendary children’s book author, Maurice Sendak, on The Colbert Report. During the interview, Colbert gave viewers a preview of a children’s book he was in the midst of writing. The interview went viral and immediately became an internet sensation, with fans clamoring for copies of the book.”

Colbert quipped in the release: “It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to write a children’s book. I hope the minutes you and your loved ones spend reading it are as fulfilling as the minutes I spent writing it.” Trident Media Group CEO Dan Strone and Dixon Talent agent James Dixon negotiated the deal with Grand Central publisher Jamie Raab.

The Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert interviewed Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak this week. Follow these links to watch part one and part two of the interview.

According to Shelf Awareness, Colbert “turned [to Sendak] for advice on becoming a celebrity children’s author, pitched his sequel idea for Where the Wild Things Are 2: Still Wildin’ (featuring action star Vin Diesel) and generally let the wild rumpus begin.”

During the interview, some of the “rumpus” that emerged included Sendak’s opinion on the current state of children’s literature; he finds it “abysmal” and thinks that “most books for children are very bad.”

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