Some (Many) Spring 2012 Books I Am Eager To See

Just looked at PW’s recent feature on forthcoming spring 2012 books and the following were titles that especially intrigued me for one reason or another.  (This turned out to be very long and I’m sure there are many more I also want to see so…whew!)

• ABRAMS
• Chuck Close: Faces by Chuck Close and Glue + Paper Workshop LLC.  (I have always admired Close’s work and am very intrigued by the potential for interactivity.)
• The Sisters Grimm: Book 9 by Michael Buckley.
• Huff and Puff by Claudia Rueda, “an interactive retelling of the Three Little Pigs”. (I met Claudia years ago at a conference and we’ve stayed friends — mostly online as she is Colombian.  I have always liked her understated and sly style and am very interested to see what she’s done with this familiar tale.)
• BLOOMSBURY
• In Darkness by Nick Lake, (This may be too old for me, but I’m interested in very interested in the L’Ouverture aspect and how the author links it to contemporary Haiti.)
• CANDLEWICK
• Ruby Redfort Look Into My Eyes by Lauren Child. (I’m a big Child fan in general as well as of the middle grade Clarice Bean books so am looking very much forward to this one.)
• What Color Is My World?: How African-American Inventors Have Changed the Way We Live by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld, illus. by Ben Boos and A.G. Ford. (I first heard about this when I sold Africa is My Home to the same publisher and am excited to see it become a reality.)
• CHRONICLE
• Wordles by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, illus. by Serge Bloch. (Just love books featuring word play.)
• The Templeton Twins Have an Idea by Ellis Weiner, illus. by Jeremy Holmes.  (Evidently more word play so…ditto.)
• DISNEY-HYPERION
• The Kane Chronicles, Book Three by Rick Riordan.  (Final book so do I need to say anything?)
• Poems to Learn by Heart, edited by Caroline Kennedy, illus. by Jon J Muth. (I liked the earlier collections and this one, with its focus on memorization, is right up my teacher-heart-alley.)
• EDC/KANE MILLER
• The No. 1 Car Spotter Book 2: The No. 1 Car Spotter and the Firebird by Atinuke. (I’m such a fan of the author of the Anna Hibiscus books and have already seen the first in this series set in a small village.  Having just returned from West Africa I can tell you they ring true.)
• EERDMANS
• I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery by Cynthia Grady, illus. by Michele Wood.  (This anthology “featuring the imagery of quilting and fiber arts” sounds fascinating.)
• ENCHANTED LION
• Little Bird by Germano Zullo, illus. by Albertine. (I just so like what this small press does so am very curious about this award-winning title.)
• GROUNDWOOD BOOKS
• Out of the Way! Out of the Way! by Uma Krishnaswami. (First published in India, some of my students and I participated in a blog tour for it.)
• HARPERCOLLINS
• All the Right Stuff by Walter Dean Myers.
• Cold Cereal by Adam Rex.  (I so liked Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday so can’t wait to see this new middle-grade work from him.)
• Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones, illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky.  (Two children’s lit titans together? — can’t wait to see this one.)
• The Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin.  (“A steampunk reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic horror story” has me intrigued.)
• Big Nate Goes for Broke by Lincoln Peirce  (My fourth graders are big fans so happy to see this on its way.)
• The Fourth Stall Part II by Chris Rylander. (The first in this series was a big hit in my classroom this past year.)
• HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
• Boat! by Dave Roman, illus. by John Green. (“A comic that blends the angst of being a teen with the thrill of being a boat.” This I gotta see.)
• Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship by Russell Freedman.
• Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink by Stephanie Kate Strohn. (Since I teach a unit on the Pilgrms I’m curious about this one even though it is set in Maine and may have nothing to do with the historical folk.)
• The Beatles Were Fab—and They Were Funny: The Story of Beatlemania by Kathleen Krull and Paul Brewer, illus. by Stacey Innerst. (Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.)
• Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery. (An authorized biography by one of my favorite nonfiction writers. I’m in.)
• LEE & LOW BOOKS
• Puffling Patrol by Ted and Betsy Lewin. (Set off Iceland, a place I visited a few years back so I’m intrigued.)
• When Bill Traylor Began to Draw by Don Tate, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. (Love Traylor’s work so eager to see what these two do with him and it.)
• LERNER/CAROLRHODA
• Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball by John Coy, illus. by Joe Morse.
• No Crystal Stair by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. (About the author’s father, a Harlem bookstore owner — can’t wait to see this one.)
• White Duck: A Childhood in China by Andrés Vera Martínez and Na Liu, illus. by Martínez.
• LITTLE, BROWN
• The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart.  (A prequel?  My students and I are all agog.)
• Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, illus. by Maira Kalman. (I’ve the ARC, but I’m eager to see it with the finished art.)
• Riding in My Car by Woody Guthrie, illus. by Scott Menchin.  (“An interactive version of the folksinger’s children’s song, with flaps, tabs, and pop-ups” sounds like great fun.)
• MACMILLAN
•  A Year in the Life of the Moonbird by Phillip Hoose. (I want to see anything Phillip Hoose does.)
• Rebel Fire, Sherlock Holmes: The Legend Begins Book 2 by Andrew Lane. (Big fan of the first in this series so eager to see this one — which was out in paper in the UK, but I figured I’d wait for the US edition.)
• Barnum’s Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World by Tracey Fern, illus. by Boris Kulikov.
• Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle by Claire A. Nivola.  (I’m a fan of other work by Nivola so interested in seeing this one.)
• The Humming Room by Ellen Potter. (“…inspired by The Secret Garden” one of my classical favorites done by an always inventive writer so most curious indeed.)
• Cinder: Book One of the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. (Since I’ve been doing a Cinderella unit since 1990 I’m definitely interested in a “futuristic retelling.”)
• Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier, trans. by Anthea Bell. (Enjoyed Ruby Red and so interested to see where this is all going.)
• Leo Geo and His Miraculous Journey through the Center of the Earth by Jon Chad. (Curious to see this “skinny-format comic.”)
• Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. (Always interested in what Laura’s doing next.)
• MARSHALL CAVENDISH
• The Good Braider: A Novel in Verse by Terry Farish. (Curious because it involves someone coming to the US from Sudan.)
• NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
• Superman vs. the Ku Klux Klan: The True Story of How the Iconic Superhero Battled the Men of Hate by Rick Bowers.
• PENGUIN
• Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore.  (At last!)
• The Fault in Our Stars by  John Green. (Of course.)
• Puppy Bowl: Yearbook by Tracey West.  (Confession: I watch it so I want this.)
• Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman.
• Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street by Peter Abrahams. (Liked some other kid mysteries he did so interested to see this one.)
• RANDOM HOUSE
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, illus. by LeUyen Pham
• Oddfellow’s Orphanage by Emily Martin
• Chomp by Carl Hiaasen (IMHO, he’s getting better with each kid title.)
• The Adventures of the New Cut Gang by Philip Pullman (This is a combination of some books he did way back and I’m thrilled they are coming out here this way.)
• The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis. (About a character from Bud Not Buddy, neat.)
• Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! by Mrs. Bunny, trans. from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath, illus. by Sophie Blackall. (Two favorite creators of mine at work.)
• A Boy Called Dickens by Deborah Hopkinson, illus. by John Hendrix.
• SCHOLASTIC
• Irises by Francisco X. Stork
  
• Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! by Jonah Winter, illus. by Kevin Hawkes
• Dear Cinderella by Mary Jane Kensington and Marion Moore, illus. by Julie Olson
• Here Come the Girl Scouts! by Shana Corey, illus. by Hadley Hooper
• Those Rebels, John & Tom by Barbara Kerley, illus. by Edwin Fotheringham
• The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen  (The buzz on this is amazing. Will it hold up?)
• One Dog and His Boy by Eva Ibbotson. (Saw this in the UK, but figured I could wait.)
• SIMON & SCHUSTER
• Wolf Won’t Bite by Emily Gravett (One of my favorite subversive picture book creators is back with wolves!)
  
• Caddy’s World by Hilary McKay (More Cassons!)
• Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illus. by James E. Ransome

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