Book trailer: A Monster Calls (Candlewick Press)

A Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd
illustrated by Jim Kay
Candlewick Press | 9780763655594 | $16.99 | Sept 2011

I wrote about A Monster Calls in a preview post on my3books.com earlier this year, shortly after I first read it. It's still one of the fall books that comes back to me most powerfully when I tell others about it:

The two authors have created a novel that shares the hallmarks of both their best works: the story goes in directions that are simply not anticipated, and the tidal pull of emotion that hits the reader by the end is out of all proportion to what should be possible.

From the Candlewick Press web site:

At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn’t the monster Conor’s been expecting – he’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It’s ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth. From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd-- whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself-- Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.

Book trailer for The Flint Heart (Candlewick Press)

The Flint Heart
by Katherine Paterson & John Paterson
illustrated by John Rocco
Candlewick Press | 9780763647124 | $19.99 | Sept 2011

A really lovely book trailer for The Flint Heart, the enchanting new novel from Katherine and John Paterson, illustrated by John Rocco (who also did the animation for this trailer from his own illustrations).

I originally read this in manuscript with just place-holding unfinished sketches for most of the art. I got my finished copy of the book the other day and now I want to re-read it to better appreciate Rocco’s art.

More about the book from @CandlewickPress’ web site:

An ambitious Stone Age man demands a talisman that will harden his heart, allowing him to take control of his tribe. Against his better judgment, the tribe’s magic man creates the Flint Heart, but the cruelty of it causes the destruction of the tribe. Thousands of years later, the talisman reemerges to corrupt a kindly farmer, an innocent fairy creature, and a familial badger. Can Charles and his sister Unity, who have consulted with fairies such as the mysterious Zagabog, wisest creature in the universe, find a way to rescue humans, fairies, and animals alike from the dark influence of the Flint Heart? This humorous, hearty, utterly delightful fairy tale is the sort for an entire family to savor together or an adventurous youngster to devour.

 A robust and wildly entertaining fairy tale, freely abridged from Eden Phillpotts’s 1910 fantasy and wryly retold by Katherine and John Paterson. 

The Flint Heart (Book Trailer by CandlewickPress)

Kudos for one of our colleagues: John Eklund, fellow sales rep

John Eklund is one of our favorite fellow sales reps, a fellow midwesterner based in Milwaukee, book lover and bookstore lover. He's a sales rep for three great academic presses: Harvard, Yale and MIT Press. Like so many of us book travelers, he's a former bookstore employee too. 

Last week, we all learned that he's one of four finalists for Publishers Weekly's annual Sales Rep of the Year.

I grinned wildly when I saw his name on the list because, with absolutely no disrespect intended to his co-finalists, he's a hell of a sales rep. Like all the Academy Awards nominees always say, they share the honor of simply being nominated with a group of amazing colleagues and there's not a bad one in the bunch.

But as this Harvard University Press blog post pointed out, in addition to holding down his sales rep duties with a careful intelligence, John thinks deeply about the book business and writes about it sincerely and passionately. You owe it to yourself to follow his writings at Paper Over Board.

 

Another of the finalists for Sales Rep of the Year is Bridget Piekarz, one of the Random House reps based in Chicago, and she is another formidable colleague with a passion for sharing her publishers' new books to the booksellers here in the midwest.

Whichever sales rep is chosen in the end to be this year's Sales Rep of the Year, we are glad that John and Bridget and Doni and Rick have been lifted up and recognized in this way. 

Nina Revoyr's Wingshooters is out & booksellers are loving it! (Akashic / Consortium)

Wingshooters
by Nina Revoyr
Akashic Books (Consortium) | 9781936070718 | $15.95 | Paper

(Also available in limited quantities in a hardcover edition: 9781936070862 | $23.95 | Cloth)

 

Indie Next pick - March 2011 (chosen by indie booksellers around the country)

 

The quote on the Indie Next sheet is from Prairie Lights' Jim Harris:

"An abandoned young girl narrates this tale set in 1974 in a small Wisconsin town as it plummets and tumbles into heartbreak. 'You don't belong here,' the townspeople tell the mixed-race schoolgirl and anyone else who is not like them. Revoyr's voice vibrates with the spiritual and physical isolation -- without adornment or illusion -- that is reminiscent of the writings of Carson McCullers. The pacing is perfect, and Wingshooters captures fully the tragedy of personal rejection resulting from racial tension as it explores both connection and loss and the enduring bonds of family." --James Harris, Prairie Lights Books, Iowa City, IA

Daniel Goldin of Boswell Book Co. praised it in his blog recently: 

It's a beautifully written story, and we're already selling copies. We've had the inevitable comparison to To Kill a Mockingbird, and I've heard Snow Falling on Cedars as well. The enthusiasm for this small press title also recalls to me Montana 1948 by Milwaukee's own Larry Watson. More recently, I can see comparisons to Hillary Jordan's Mudbound.

 

FURTHER READING & RESEARCH:

Nina Revoyr: web site

Akashic Books: web site | facebook | twitter