Accusing Amazon of Antitrust Violations, Authors and Booksellers Demand Inquiry: NY Times →

"Five years after Amazon secretly asked regulators to investigate leading publishers — a case that ended up reinforcing the e-commerce company’s clout — groups representing thousands of authors, agents and independent booksellers are asking the United States Department of Justice to examine Amazon for antitrust violations.

... 

"The Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, the Association of Authors’ Representatives and Authors United said in letters and statementsbeing sent this week to the Justice Department that “Amazon has used its dominance in ways that we believe harm the interests of America’s readers, impoverish the book industry as a whole, damage the careers of (and generate fear among) many authors, and impede the free flow of ideas in our society.”

'Hansel & Gretel,' by Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti, reviewed in the New York Times →

The New York Times Book Review has posted a rave review for the new Neil Gaiman book, Hansel & Gretel from TOON Books. And it may well be the best reviewed Gaiman book, from a man who regularly earns rave reviews.

"Written with a devastating spareness by Neil Gaiman and fearsomely illustrated in shades of black by Lorenzo Mattotti, the newest version of “Hansel and Gretel” astonishes from start to finish. It doesn’t hurt that the book itself is a gorgeous and carefully made object, with a black floral motif on its pages’ decorated borders, along with red drop caps and tall, round gray page numbers. (Published by Toon Books, the New Yorker art director Françoise Mouly’s venture into richly illustrated books for children, it comes in two formats, with an oversize one that includes an afterword about the evolution of the tale.)"

“Gaiman, who has won every award a writer with a taste for the dark and fantastical could possibly win (Hugo, Nebula, Newbery), ends on an unequivocal high note, reminding us that horror should always be wielded along with some small possibility of brightness. ”

Standard edition:

Hansel & Gretel by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti | TOON Books / Candlewick Press | 9781935179627 | $16.95 | Cloth

Deluxe edition:

Hansel & Gretel - Deluxe by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti | TOON Books / Candlewick Press | 9781935179658 | $29.95 | Cloth