June 2023

June 1, 2023

 Good News–from East to West 
and everywhere in between!

Image by Luciana Navarro Powell
Featured in our June Illustrator Highlight
 

Happy Book Birthday 

by NYT-bestselling author
Jennifer Fosberry

Illustrated by Shiho Pate

(Simon Spotlight)

The launch title in a new

series (Level 1)

A chicken and penguin with seemingly nothing in common see if they can be birds of a feather in this early reader graphic series about celebrating differences!

Classmates Chi-Chi and Pey-Pey are as different as night and day. Chi-Chi is a chicken who likes cheese puffs and cheerleading. Pey-Pey is a penguin who likes pirates and pogo sticks. If these two can find some common ground and become friends, anything is possible!


Ready-to-Read Graphics books give readers the perfect introduction to the graphic novel format with easy-to-follow panels, speech bubbles with accessible vocabulary, and sequential storytelling that is spot-on for beginning readers. There’s even a how-to guide for reading graphic novels at the beginning of each book.

Featured in: 

Spring 2023 Announcements: Middle Grade Comics & Graphic Novels

“A chicken who digs snacks and a pogo-stick-enthusiast penguin become unlikely friends.”

and

The S&S Summer 2023 Preview


“[Chi-Chi and Pey-Pey’s] words and thoughts effectively guide readers through the scenes as cute, appealing cartoon illustrations provide visual cues to assist decoding. … An early reader to befriend.“

Book #2
Coming soon!

Jennifer Fosberry is a NYT-bestselling children’s book author [the 6-book series launched by MY NAME IS ISABELLA] and board game designer. After working in the high-tech industry in Silicon Valley and running away to Costa Rica for a few years, she returned to the San Francisco Bay area to read, write, game, and try to get out of housework. She lives with her patient husband, her three darling children, and her two little dogs, too.
jfosberry.com

Illustrator Spotlight

Shiho Pate

Shiho Pate (pronounced Sheeho Peit) was born in Hokkaido, Japan, and raised in Aichi. She received her degree in illustration from the Savannah College of Art and Design and worked for indie gaming studios before she started making children’s books. Shiho lives in Southern California, where she loves hunting with her daughter and husband for new ramen restaurants.

Shiho Pate’s Illustrator Highlight
 

Antoinette Portis is the creator of many inventive books for children. She made her picture-book debut with the NYT-bestselling book NOT A BOX, an ALA Seuss Geisel Honor Book, and one of the New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year. In addition to A SEED GROWS, her other award-winning books include A PENGUIN STORY, also a NYT Best Illustrated Book, HEY, WATER!, a Sibert Honor book, and A NEW GREEN DAY, a JLG selection, a PW Best Book of the Year as well as a Horn Book Best Book of 2020.

Happy Book Birthday

 
by two-time Paralympic
gold medalist
and debut author
Patty Cisneros Prevo

Illustrated by Dion MBD

(Lee & Low Books)


A Junior Library Guild
Gold Standard Selection

Meet fifteen remarkable athletes who use adaptive equipment in this beautiful and truth-telling picture book.

An Amazon

in Children’s Sports Biographies


“This upbeat offering promises profiles of 15 disabled athletes but delivers even more. . . Readers will come away with an enhanced understanding of the scope of adaptive sports (BMX, surfing, CrossFit) and great respect for these dedicated, tenacious athletes.”

Illustration by Dion MBD

“This is precisely the book I dreamed of growing up as a young girl with a disability. It shows what is possible to achieve and acknowledges the very real hard points, while fostering and supporting healthy, positive disability identity development.”
—Dr. Anjali Forber-Pratt,
Paralympic medalist and disability activist


Illustration by Dion MBD

“An eclectic, encouraging lineup.”

The Tenacious Summer Book Tour launched on June 16th at A&J Mobility’s Grand Opening in McFarland, WI, along with wheelchair basketball!

Check pattycisnerosprevo.com for more tour dates and locations, book signings, meet & greets, and a cool display of Cisneros Prevo’s two gold medals.
🥇🥇


Patty at her unboxing.


Deborah Warren and
Patty Cisneros Prevo at ALA

Join Patty on July 1st
for the virtual book launch!

Download the Teachers’ Guide.

Patty Cisneros Prevo is a three-time Paralympian and two-time Paralympic gold medalist with the US Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. A DEI professional, Patty has recently been appointed to the Congressional Commission on the State of the U.S. Olympics & Paralympics. TENACIOUS: FIFTEEN ADVENTURES ALONGSIDE DISABLED ATHLETES (Lee & Low) is her first book.

Stay tuned for a deal announcement soon!
 

LICENSING

Scholastic has acquired book club/fair paperback rights to Anna Dewdney’s LLAMA LLAMA LOOSE TOOTH DRAMA.

*****

Beijing Tianlue has renewed their Chinese license for Gianna Marino’s acclaimed TOO TALL HOUSES – the fifth overall license.

 

  
  

*****

TGM Cultural Development & Distribution has licensed Chinese (simplified characters) in hardcover & paperback to the “informative … fascinating” SLJ starred LIFE IN A FROZEN WORLD, the launch title in the “Life in the Extreme” series (Peachtree; Mary Batten, illustrated by NYT-bestselling illustrator Thomas Gonzalez).

Happy Book Birthday 


by NYT-bestselling author
Bob McKinnon

Illustrated by Lou Fancher
and Steve Johnson

Translated by Isabel C. Mendoza

(Grosset & Dunlap)

A poignant story to remind a new generation of readers to
“think they can.”

A gorgeously illustrated, modern retelling of the classic The Little Engine That Could, sharing the timely message that everyone’s journey is different, and that sometimes, success comes from a helping hand.
 

Una versión moderna, espléndidamente ilustrada, del clásico La pequeña locomotora que sí pudo, presenta el oportuno mensaje de que el recorrido de cada uno es diferente, y que, a veces, el éxito proviene de la ayuda de una mano amiga.

An instant NYT-bestseller in the original version!

Featured in:
CBS Sunday Morning

and

PBS’s MetroFocus

“Three Little Engines” Tackles Ideas of Inequality and Social Mobility for Young Children


Click image above to view

Read Aloud with Bob McKinnon 
Brightly Storytime

Bob McKinnon is the author of the NYT-bestselling children’s book, THREE LITTLE ENGINES, (a modern retelling of the beloved “The Little Engine That Could”). He also writes the Moving Up Mondays newsletter and edited the book Actions Speak Loudest: Keeping Our Promise for A Better World. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Esquire, The Boston Globe, PBS, NPR, Fast Company and the Huffington Post. He lives in a small village north of New York City, near a train station with his wife, dog, and three engines…err daughters. 

Stay tuned for Bob McKinnon’s AMERICA’S DREAMING, illustrated by Thai My Phuong, (Penguin Workshop) Summer 2024! 
 

Congratulations, Joshua!

 

Marking East/West’s
306th week

*****



Alexandra Alessandri’s ISABEL AND HER COLORES GO TO SCHOOL (Sleeping Bear Press), illustrated by Courtney Dawson, is a B&N Best Books of 2023!    

*****



 

 

 

June-tastic NEWS, AWARDS and REVIEWS!

CONGRATS to our 2023 ALA Award Winner
Antoinette Portis

 

Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book
ALA Notable

*****

State Awards!

 
Stay tuned for the award ceremony on 11/10/23. 

Also on the New York State Young Readers Charlotte Award list:

 

by Megan Hoyt
Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno
(Quill Tree Books)

*****

  

Stay tuned for the MA award ceremony on 10/21/23 at Boston Book Festival’s children’s programming day!

*****
 

Nominees:

2023-2024

 

*****
 

Ernesto Cisneros’s FALLING SHORT has been nominated for:

and the 2024 Oklahoma Sequoyah Book Award

 

Stay tuned for Ernesto Cisneros‘s EFRÉN DIVIDED (Quill Tree/HC), in Spanish, coming July 4th.

*****
 

Nominated for the CT Nutmeg Book Award:

   

*****
 

 

FLIPPING FORWARD TWISTING BACKWARD (Peachtree), by Alma Fullerton, has been nominated for the Rhode Island Children’s book award 2024.

 
Stay tuned for the audiobook and paperback edition in July!

*****
 

Upcoming in August:

 

“With humor and sympathy, this tale brings to life a very common experience that will resonate with preschoolers … A spot-on series installment that imparts a valuable lesson on the importance of honesty.” 

*****

Ready for school?

 

by Janet Nolan
Illustrated by Maria Neradova
(Albert Whitman)


“Young or newer pupils may even find themselves getting excited instead of jittery when they think about their first days. Energetic, instructive, and endearing.”

Next up:  Janet Nolan’s GET READY FOR HALLOWEEN!

*****
 

It’s a 2nd star!


by Suzanne Slade
Illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez

Available now!

(Peachtree)

“Via stunningly realistic pastel, colored pencil, and airbrush artwork, Gonzalez presents a series of colorful octopus portraits, each shown in tight close-up. … (an) accessible, fact-rich volume.”



Stay tuned for the team’s next collaboration – 
BEHOLD THE HUMMINGBIRD, soon:

*****

Talking about stars…


 

Interview with Mark A. Vieira author of WARNER BROS: 100 YEARS OF STORYTELLING

Where’s East/West?

 

*****


Kirk Reedstrom’s Squiggle Party Exhibition is on display at R.W. Norton Art Gallery through August 6.

*****

 

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A collaboration between Kristi Yamaguchi’s Always Dream, Children’s Discovery Museum and the San José Public Library Foundation, to promote the importance of reading.

*****
 

The Tony Awards!

Children’s author & Tony-winning actress LaChanze—is now a Tony-winning producer with this year’s Best Musical, Kimberly Akimbo!
 

 

From The Winner’s Circle: Tony-Winning KIMBERLY AKIMBO Producer LaChanze Hits The Press Room!
—via Broadway World

Look for LaChanze’s LITTLE DIVA coming next month in paperback!

*****
 

Licensing Expo / Las Vegas

Afro Unicorn Mixer hosted by April Showers (c)
Andrews McMeel editors Hannah Dussold and Erinn Pascal, and Karen Kilpatrick (R)—literary agent for Afro Unicorn™

April Showers, Askia Fountain (VP of Afro Unicorn™ Entertainment), Deborah Warren, and Angel Tyree

*****

at ALA

  

Patty Cisneros Prevo with Lee & Low’s Jason Low (Publisher) and Jessica Echeverria (Editorial Director)

 

  

Deborah Warren, Antoinette Portis, and Neal Porter Books’ Taylor Norman (Executive Editor)

  

Deborah Warren with Carol Hinz (Associate Publisher/Lerner), Ariel Richardson (Senior Editor/Chronicle), Mary Kate Castellani (Publisher Director/Bloomsbury), Sarah Shumway (Associate Publisher/Bloomsbury), Bethany Buck (Editor-in-Chief/Pixel+Ink/HH), Kathleen Merz (Editorial Director/Eerdmans), Christy Ottaviano (VP Publisher/Christy Ottaviano Books/LBBYR)

  

*****


 

 

CELEBRATE WITH E/W TITLES!

  

Unfortunately, more Banned Book madness…

A letter from authors Sarah & Ian Hoffman:

Hi Team Jacob,
Jacob’s Room to Choose just got banned in Malaysia. When it comes to banning books, the Malaysians don’t mess around—just owning a copy can get you prison time. 

When parents write us thank you notes, we know we’re reaching individual kids.
When individual school districts use our books, we know we’re reaching hundreds of kids.

When New Jersey makes our books part of their state wide curriculum, we know we’re reaching thousands of kids.
At that point we’re having societal impact.

When Florida bans our books in K-3 classrooms, we’re still reaching individual kids.
But we know society’s not creating a supportive environment for those kids. 
 
When Malaysia makes owning our book a crime, we see our work being erased.
And our hearts go out to the kids who won’t get the support they need. 

Sarah & Ian

We at East/West Literary read banned books and support their creators.

Sarah & Ian Hoffman were interviewed on KSQD Santa Cruz Public Radio:
What does representation mean to kids?

“Denying schools access to books like ours means the kids who are different do not get the support they need,” said Authors Guild members Sarah and Ian Hoffman, authors of Jacob’s New Dress, which has been banned by districts in Florida and North Carolina. “It also means the kids who are in the mainstream do not learn how to act when they run up against unexpected difference — which they will.” 
 
Authors Guild Statement on Florida Book Bans – The Authors Guild

           
 

 

 

Overheard 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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