Elizabeth Bird

Librarian Preview: Lerner Publishing Group (Spring 2010)

This has been a season of firsts.  I did my first Albert Whitman preview a week or so ago.  I'll be doing my first National Geographic preview in the future.  And I've certainly never done a Lerner Publishing Group preview before!  That's the nice thing about New York.  Even if the publishers ain't local, there's no reason for them not to say howdy when they happen to be in town.

And howdy it was!  Two lovely ladies, Lindsay Matvick and Terri Reden, joined me at The Algonquin, home of a very fluffy and elusive cat, and we got down to business.  Here's what's on the menu over in Minnesota (where Lerner is based).

Because my brain doesn't do so well on remembering the order of things, I have taken the shiny, full-color, white-space-ah-plenty handouts I was given and put them in age order.  That means that first up is . . .

Picture Books (Reading Level 2)

All right.  So there's a prevailing theory out there that you just enter dinosaurs into any equation and the book requires little else to keep it going.  Dinos + trains = Dinotrain.  Dinos + trucks = Dinotrux.  But it's not that simple, really.  A book has to have a hook above and beyond the simple inclusion of dinosaurs.  Lisa Wheeler and Barry Gott's sports-based dino series might be a good example of that.  This year Carolrhoda Books is coming out with Dino-Baseball, to follow on the heels of the already successful Dino-Hockey and Dino-Soccer.  I'm a little surprised that Baseball wasn't the first in this series, considering that it's the national pastime and all.  Hockey and soccer?  Tres Canadian!  In any case, the extra hook to the series is that the teams playing are always the meat eaters verses the herbivores.  And while I'd sort of love it if the carnivores had an edge because they can eat their opponents, apparently that's not how these books roll.  The title even contains a Steve Bartman reference.  Those of you who follow baseball will know what that means.  Those of you like me, smile and nod.  Just smile and nod.

For a Bible story, there's something about the tale of Noah's Ark that crops up in children's picture books more than any other story in the Old Testament, I swear.  Normally, Bible tales are relegated to specific part of my non-fiction shelving... except Noah's Ark books.  Whether they're illustrated by Peter Spier or Jerry Pinkney or even Zachary Shapiro, there's something about a boatload of cranky animals that folks gravitate towards.  Now Stephen Krensky has penned Noah's Bark and it has been illustrated by the French-Canadian one-namer artist Roge.  In this fairly secular version of the tale, the animals on the ark are loud, but while on the boat none of them have decided upon their own specific sound.  The book has a nice look to it.  Somewhat reminiscent of Pep Montserrat's work, but more Canadian than Spanish (howsoever you choose to define that).

Primary Grades (Reading Levels 2-4)

Early graphic novels make more and more in-roads into our everyday literature with each passing year.  Now Lerner's getting in on the action with Mr. Badger and Mrs. Fox: The Meeting.   Written and illustrated by Brigette Luciani and Eve Tharlet, this 32-page picture book is an interesting parable for blended families.  In it, a fox and her daughter are forced out of their burrow by hunters and find themselves living with a badger and his three kids.  The kids are sure that foxes and badgers can't live together, but their efforts to prove this lead to effects that surprise them.  Lerner's going for a second grader reader audience on this book with a 100 Acre Wood feel.  Not a bad combo.  And with the popularity of foxes due to increase thanks to the film version of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, there will probably be an audience for this.  Plus it's nice to get some blended family metaphors out there.

If you're familiar with Tony Ross and his Horrible Harry series then you at least have a passing familiarity with Anderson Press.  For the first time, this company is slated to distribute in America and there are lots of offerings on the plate.  A new David McKee Elmer tale called Elmer and Rose.  A book called Bedtime Without Arthur, which tells a pretty cute story about a girl and her karate chopping teddy bear (that's how he disperses the monsters each and every night).  Something to keep an eye out for.

Okay.  Informational text time.  Lerner is coming out with a series called Lightning Bolt Books.  These are your basic informational titles, and they're slightly more eye-catching than the usual rote fare.  One of them will probably be on our own list of purchases, now that the economic crises is causing parents to want to teach their kids about rudimentary money management.  So the Exploring Economics series (with books like Do I Need It? Or Do I Want It? Making Budget Choices) is aiming to fill a need.  Generally these are written by Jennifer Larson, with Robin Nelson handling What Do We Buy? A Look at Goods and Services.  All these books flit about a second grade reading level and use contemporary terminology for a lot of the vocabulary words being bandied about.  Considering how little I myself understand about economics, this makes sense to me.  These will probably be books most desired by those same kids who read The Lemonade War for the money parts.

The Lightning Bolt Books are also doing other concept stuff as well.  Seasons and the like by Sheila Anderson.  With this series the books use bright colors, glossaries, fun layouts, and bigger trim sizes to catch the reader's eye.  And they know enough to see that when it comes to seasons, what you really have to cover is the whole animals-getting-ready or transition-from-one-season-to-another shtick. Colors Everywhere - same deal (author Kristen Sterling, presumably no relation to the company of the same name).

Then we get into The Punctuation Station, and that old Schoolhouse Rock song "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function?" began playing without cease in my head.  That's because it's a similar concept, but this book is more punctuation based and also throws in some giraffe families there for spice.  Author Brian P. Cleary and illustrator Joanne Lew-Vriethoff go into more detail than old SHR ever could too.  Each page contains a little box, displaying the punctuation being used at that time.  Cleary himself has a website with teaching tips and downloads, to aid teachers and parents.  Most intriguing for me was the mention that at the end of the book there's a guide to "all new forms of punctuation".  New?  High-tech 21st century punctuation?  Probably not, but it's an interesting notion.

I had a woman come in the other day and say to me, "I need a book.  I don't know anything about it except the word Mallory is in the title.  My daughter told me to get it."  All the more fortunate that Laurie Friedman's Mallory series contains the only Mallory I know (with the exception of the glasses wearing girl in the Babysitters Club books... and she hardly counts anyway).  Mallory has been a Carolrhoda Book boon, and so it's little surprise what her next step is.  Just as Just Grace Goes Green, now Mallory Goes Green! as well.  The nice thing about this book is that it sort of has a new take on an old storyline.  Mallory is selected to be the class representative for the all-school Green Fair.  Unfortunately, her newfound power goes to her head and she becomes a nightmarish Eco Policewoman with a strong-arm approach to environmentalism. Quick Sidenote: Has Judy Moody gone green yet?  If not, she's the last hold out... besides Clementine and maybe Ivy and Bean.  Oo!  And Babymouse!  Where's the Eco-Babymouse that's green and black instead of pink and black?

And then we come to a book that I am the most excited about on this list.  First off, I'm excited because I know the author and that she has the world's greatest tattoo.  Second of all, I'm excited because the name of the main character is Sasspants.  I never knew I needed a book starring a guinea pig named Sasspants before.  Now I don't know how I've lived this long without it.  Guinea PIG, Pet Shop Private Eye makes a nice complement to all the crime-solving geckos, bunnies, dogs, and cats (I'm counting Chester from the Bunnicula books) out there.  Illustrated by Stephanie Yue, what we're looking at here is a 48-page graphic novel for third graders.  The plot involves Sasspants as a pet shop resident.  One day the "G" in his label falls off and that can mean only one thing.  He's officially now a Guinea PI.  What with the popularity of guinea pigs in movies lately (Bolt, G-Force, etc.) this is following a pretty popular trend.  Four are planned in the series so far.  #1 will be named Hamster and Cheese.  Waaaaant.

Snopes for kids.  That's not necessarily how Lerner is selling its new non-fiction series Is That a Fact? but it should be.  Using a magazine kind of layout, the books (with titles like Does It Really Take Seven Years to Digest Swallowed Gum?: And Other Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask) are full of facts.  The jacket, interestingly enough, folds out to become a poster on its opposite side.  This may prove useful in those libraries where the jackets are eventually removed (if they notice).  Nice that some kids will be able to get an answer to that age old question, "Is yawning contagious?"  You're yawning just having read that question aren't you?  Yeah.  Me too.

Intermediate Grades (Reading Level 4)

When I think of author Pamela Service I tend to think of one thing: Tomorrow's Magic.  Dang that was a good book!  I have Tammy Pierce to thank for its republished state too.  In any case, Ms. Service is still writing to this day, particularly on the Alien Agent series.  I've always liked the concept in this one.  It's about "Zack, a young, likable boy who considers himself quite ordinary, until he finds out he's really an Alien Agent planted on Earth to smooth Earth's introduction to the Galactic Union."  The newest one is Alien Encounter (#4) and Ms. Service attended the UFO Festival in Roswell, New Mexico to do her research.  Nice work if you can get it (and you can get it if you try).

YA (Reading Level 9)

This year (2009) I noticed a fair amount of Civil War titles on topics I hadn't seen before.  I guess that's pretty normal.  Each year has its own focus on the Civil War and the people alive during it.  After misreading the name in this title as Amityville rather than Andersonville (thereby giving myself a very different personal interpretation of what the book was about) I got to hear about Catherine Gourley's The Horrors of Andersonville: Life and Death Inside a Civil War Prison.  There may be books about Civil War prisons out there, and certainly I've read about them in larger more sweeping histories, but this is the first Andersonville title for teens I can think of off the top of my head.  The book follows the court martial and execution of the man in charge, Captain Henry Wirz, offering a fair look at the reality of the situation.  Inside you'll find a cast of characters (always useful in histories like this) and online there's a website with a discussion guide and a photomontage.

Finally, there is An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine Marie Alphin.  Or, for the Broadway inclined amongst us, the true story behind the musical Parade.  The book examines the case of Leo Frank, the only known Jew lynched in America.  It gives an up-close look at mob mentality and the first appearances of the KKK.  The website will include photos of the real life participants as well as teaching tools, but will not show any lynching images or pictures of hangings.

And on THAT note we end things.  A big thank you to Lindsay Matvick and Terri Reden for meeting with me! 

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on November 20, 2009 | Comments (5)