Happy Book Birthday
Antoinette Portis’s
A NEW GREEN DAY
(Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Selected for the CBC
Champions of Change Showcase
Foreign licenses:
Korean (Woongjin), UK (Scallywag Press)
…filled with poetic riddles
that encourage young readers
to explore the natural world.
Embrace Spring!
If you listen, nature speaks.
Three starred reviews!
“The power of Portis’s poems, and the surprise each page turn allows, lets readers experience familiar moments with awakened senses, offering them nothing less than a new world filled with fresh experiences.”
—PW
“A playful, thoroughly captivating guessing game for young listeners.”
—The Horn Book
“ever-so-satisfying . . . In its reverence for each finely described detail, A New Green Day holds a magnifying glass to the wonders, big and small, that are waiting in nature for all to enjoy.”
—Shelf Awareness
#HOMESCHOOLING
with A NEW GREEN DAY
Check out this free, downloadable,
and printable lesson plan.
What makes this book special to you?
I remember the first time I sat by a stream and just gazed at the subtle colors of the pebbles on the bottom, and the little fish darting above them, casting tiny shadows. Relating to the natural world restores and soothes us and kids need that more than ever. Lying on your back, watching sunlight filter through leaves is the perfect antidote to an over-scheduled, overly electronics-focused life.
–Antoinette Portis
WATCH!
Antoinette Portis reads
A NEW GREEN DAY.
Click the image below to watch the video.
A 2020 Sibert Honor recipient for HEY, WATER!, Sendak Fellow Antoinette Portis made her picture-book debut with the NYT best-selling NOT A BOX, an ALA Seuss Geisel Honor book, and one of the NYT’s Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year. Antoinette graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts and then spent years in the world of design and advertising, working at Disney before taking a flying leap to pursue her sixth-grade dream of writing and illustrating picture books.
 
Happy Book Birthday!
HEY, WATER!
UK Edition
(Scallywag Press)
Antoinette Portis‘s award-winning book
debuts in the UK market as a
LOVEREADING Book of the Month.
“Clever and joyful…
(a) brilliantly executed early
science picture book.”
More E/W titles to
celebrate Earth!
PLASTIC AHOY!
INVESTIGATING THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH
by Patricia Newman
photographs by Annie Crawley
(Millbrook)
DON’T LET THEM DISAPPEAR:
12 ENDANGERED SPECIES AROUND THE GLOBE
by Chelsea Clinton
illustrated by Gianna Marino
(Philomel)
A TINY BROWN MONKEY
ON THE BIG BLUE EARTH
by Tory Christie
illustrated by Luciana Navarro Powell
(Amicus Ink)
Available for pre-order
WE WILL LIVE IN
THIS FOREST AGAIN
(out in October)
by Gianna Marino
(Neal Porter Books/Holiday House)
DEAR EARTH…
FROM YOUR FRIENDS IN ROOM 5
(out in December)
by Erin Dealey
illustrated by Luisa Uribe
(Harper Collins)
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TWO titles on the
NYT Bestseller List
Marking East/West’s
256th week:
Congrats!
Kimberly and James Dean‘s
PETE THE CAT:
BIG EASTER ADVENTURE
#1
on the
NYT Bestseller List
Four weeks in a row!
plus…
Kimberly and James Dean‘s
PETE THE CAT:
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
#2
on the
NYT Bestseller List
BOTH titles were also on the
USA Today Bestseller list…
as well as…
James Dean‘s
PETE THE CAT:
THE GREAT LEPRECHAUN CHASE
#5
on the
NYT Bestseller List
As to Amazon Best Sellers…
  
And there’s more…
2019 Facts and Figures
compilation of children’s bestsellers
100,000+ paperback category
PETE THE CAT:
TRICK OR PETE
and
PETE THE CAT
GOES CAMPING
also a
TOP 100: BESTSELLER!
Top 10 Overall
(all categories)
PW Bestsellers X 2
(4.20.20)
Congrats!
Anna Dewdney’s
LLAMA LLAMA EASTER EGG
 
#1 week of 4.20.20; #2 week of 4.13.20
As to Amazon Best Sellers…
 
and…
LLAMA LLAMA
YUM YUM YUM
an
Amazon Editors’
Pick for April
Best Books of the Month:
baby to age 2
Downloadable printables available here – from coloring sheets, to games, to curriculum connections…
for #DistanceLearning
You can also sing-along
with Llama Llama!
And did you catch DOLLY reading
LLAMA LLAMA RED PAJAMA?
Click the image to watch the video.
Just for fun:
Anna sits down with
The Dollywood Foundation’s president,
David Dotson, and is introduced onstage
by Dolly … after which Dolly sang the music
for a LL theatre adaptation they produced.
Click the image to watch the video.
Illustrated by Dow Phumiruk
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Click the image above to watch video.
Jennifer Garner also shared it on FB.
We know you have questions..
Are editors still offering contracts?
YES. East/West got an offer today, as a matter of fact. (Shout out to Megan Hoyt and her 3rd pb bio with Karen Chaplin @ HC!). Publishers still need content. Some books under contract have been pushed back, and that’s OK. Others are moving forward with their pub dates, and kudos to the authors & illustrators launching books at this time. (See Ernesto Cisneros below.) We are all adapting.
Is East/West still submitting?
YES–although our strategy is tempered by the awareness that editors, like the rest of us, are working from home. Some are sheltering in place with young children and spending their days helping with #DistanceLearning. Some have lost or are caring for loved ones and friends. These are different times.
Things to keep in mind:
Yes–Some publishers are cutting back: laying off staff, reducing hours, making even more prudent decisions about acquisitions.
However–Most contracts offered these days will be for publisher lists in 2022 or later. The world will most definitely be changed by what we’re experiencing now, but we will still need books. And someone needs to create them. How about YOU?
Stay healthy.
Stay home.
Make art.
PS: If you can, READ (and buy) each others’ BOOKS. Share your books in whatever creative ways you can. Support each other on social media.
We WILL get through this TOGETHER.
Happy Audio Book Birthday
EFRÉN DIVIDED
HarperAudio
Audible Audiobook (unabridged)
Narrated by Anthony Rey Perez
Click image above to hear an excerpt.
by debut author
Ernesto Cisneros
An #ownvoices #MG novel for anyone working toward a more loving world–about family, friendship, and tearing down the walls being built between us.
(Quill Tree Books/Harper Collins)
Cover art by Jay Bendt
Four starred reviews!
and an
Amazon Editors’
Pick for April
Best Books of the Month:
Ages 9-12 (Grades 4-6)
Congrats to Ernesto on his AMAZING online book launch last month!
on @YouTubeLIVE
COMING UP!
Ernesto will be part of
the online #EverywhereBookFest
And he was at the
#SocDistBookFest
And check out part of
Ernesto’s interview at
#Latinx Week Author Interviews
Q: What made you want to write in your current genre?
Ernesto: The story was born after three of my students experienced ICE raids at each of their homes. Each one of them had a family member taken away mid-school year. There was so much uncertainty in the community: I needed to do something. I created the character of Efrén (A friend) to help my kids, both at school and home, navigate through the confusion and uncertainty.
Q: What do you hope readers, especially from your community, take away from your book or your experiences as an author?
Ernesto: I want each and every one of my readers to understand that we are all part of the same human race. We are brothers and sisters. And for those Latinx children might be seeing themselves on the page for the first time, I want them to feel a sense of pride of who they are and where they come from… and to know that they belong center stage, not on the margins.
Happy Book Birthday
PETE THE CAT’S
GIANT STICKER BOOK
by James Dean
(Harper Festival)
The first Pete the Cat
interactive sticker-activity workbook.
See MORE Pete the Cat FREE ACTIVITIES
and downloadable, printable activities here.
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Check out this NEW Llama Llama COVID-19 PSA!
Click the image to watch the video.
PW Deal Announcements
April Sheltering with BOOKS and ART
Congrats, Luciana Navarro Powell, who was the #SCBWIFlashFic winner with her gorgeous illustration,
which became the writing prompt of the week.
Check out more of Luciana’s art on her Illustrator Highlight.
 
APRIL BOOK OF THE MONTH:
Mariko Nagai’s
UNDER THE BROKEN SKY
(Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt)
 
Reviews
 
Gayle E. Pitman’s
MY MADDY
(illustrated by Violet Tobacco/Magination Press; May)
Included in the PW’s
READING WITH PRIDE:
LGBTQ BOOKS 2020 List
“Most mommies are girls. Most daddies are boys. But lots of parents are neither a boy nor a girl. Like my Maddy.” Pitman’s story centers a child with a nonbinary parent, or “Maddy” (a hybrid of mommy and daddy “used in some families to describe a parent who is transgender or gender diverse,” per an end note). Tobacco’s crisp, richly detailed illustrations depict a parent and child moving through their days with warmth and love, snuggling and reading. Pitman’s affirming text highlights the joy of in-between things—hazel eyes, sporks, sunrises, motorcycles (“It’s not a car or a bicycle. It’s kind of both, and it’s something all its own”) —gently illuminating the idea that people, too, can exist beyond categorization. An extensive note from a psychologist is aimed at parents transitioning or living an affirmed gender.
–PW
Spring 2020 Middle Grade Spotlight:
A Book List
FLYING OVER WATER
by Shannon Hitchcock and N.H. Senzai
(Scholastic Press, Oct.)
“At Bayshore Middle School, Jordyn serves as school ambassador to Noura and her family, who were recently granted asylum after living for two years in a Turkish refugee camp. Jordyn begins experiencing panic attacks and is learning to deal with her anxiety as she helps Noura cope with the prejudice and hostility she faces in their Florida community following the enforcement of President Trump’s 2017 Muslim Ban.”
–PW
Also featured in:
[Scholastic Editor Andrea] Pinkney believes it’s important to remember that MG characters coping with mental health issues are multifaceted, “like all kids.” She adds, “For editors, that’s part of the opportunity to pull off that veil of stigma and present the characters as fully rounded individuals.” She notes that in the novel Flying over Water by Shannon Hitchcock and N.H. Senzai (Scholastic Press, Oct.), main character Jordyn suffers panic attacks, “but she is a great friend and a talented swimmer; she has many wonderful qualities.”
A LIVE-LY LAUNCH!
 
Congrats!
 
Sarah Scheerger‘s middle grade
OPERATION FROG EFFECT
(Random House Books for Young Readers)
– now in paperback –
was nominated for a Sunshine State Young Readers’ Award.
Michael Portis’s
PINKY GOT OUT!
(illustrated by Lori Richmond/Crown Books)
is included in the
2020-2021 Kentucky Bluegrass Award
Master List for Preschool
 
COUNTING ON KATHERINE
by Helaine Becker
illustrated by Dow Phumiruk
(Henry Holt)
has been shortlisted for the UKLA Book Award.
Look!
Many E/W titles made into the CBC’s Champions of Change list for Spring 2020.
 
“Overheard” at @EastWestLit on Twitter:
   
*CONGRATULATIONS ONE AND ALL*
We are thrilled and thankful to represent such amazing talent.
Artwork by Danielle Arbour
Thanks for following us on Twitter.
Tweet your good news our way and we’ll retweet. @EastWestLit .
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Stay safe and be well.
