Fall Books I’ve Got My Eye On

The following from PW’s Fall 2012 Sneak Previews caught my eye:

• Splintered by A. G. Howard from Abrams. I’ve been mostly unimpressed by creative efforts to go into new directions with Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland (say the recent film by Tim Burton), but there are occasional successes (most notably Neil Gaiman’s Coraline) so I’m curious.
• Hereville Book Two by Barry Deutch also from Abrams.  YAY!!
• The Boxcar Children Beginning: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm by Patricia MacLachlan from Albert Whitman. Like many I have an incredible nostalgic love for the first book, but haven’t read any of the other ones.  But this is Patricia MacLachlan so I’m interested.
• Shannon Hale‘s sequel to Princess Academy has many very, very excited! From Bloomsbury.
• Lawrence Pringle‘s ICE!: The Amazing History of the Ice Business looks fascinating. From Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek. (I have a fond memory of the book and movie, The Mosquito Coast, which involved a crazy plan to bring ice to the rainforest.)
• My heart races just typing this: Laura Amy Schlitz’s Splendors and Glooms, “a comic, Victorian-gothic thriller.”  CANNOT WAIT! Candlewick.
• I’m intrigued by the Chronicle title, Ganesha’s Sweet Tooth by Emily Haynes, illus. by Sanjay Patel, “a picture book account of how Ganesha came to write the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata.” Cool.
• Disney-Hyperion’s got the next Heroes of Olympus on tap, The Mark of Athena. I’m a fan of these, the last one even more than the first in this series. And Athena?  I’m in.
• From Groundwood there is the intriguing-sounding La Malinche: The Princess Who Helped Cortès Conquer an Empire by Luis Barbeytia, illus. by Pablo Serrano,” the story of the woman who became a translator for Cortès during the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.”
• Harper Collins has Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson. Do I need to say anything? No.
• HarperCollin’s Balzer and Bray have The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini, “a YA novel about a boy sent to camp to become a man, but ends up on a fantastical journey.”
• I was shown the F & G for Greenwillow’s Seed by Seed: The Legend and Legacy of John “Appleseed” Chapman by Esme Raji Codell, illus. by Lynne Rae Perkins and it is spectacular.
• From Holiday House there is The Boston Tea Party by Russell Freedman, illus. by Peter Malone, a historical picture book. Sweet.
• HMH’s Clarion’s has What Came from the Stars by Gary D. Schmidt,  a “fantasy in which sixth-grader Tom receives an unusual gift from a besieged civilization across the cosmos” has me very excited. I’m such a Schmidt fan, not only for his well-known realistic and historical fiction books, but for his less known retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, Straw into Gold.
• Also from Clarion the intriguing The Twinning Project by Robert Lipsyte, “in which middle-schooler Tom has an imaginary twin on another planet.” Who, I gather, turns out to be real. I know Lipsyte for his sports books so this seems a very interesting change for him.
• HMH’s Harcourt has Perry’s European Playlist by Joe Schreiber, an “action-packed sequel to Au Revoir Crazy European Chick” (which I enjoyed for being so over-the-top).
• Lerner’s got Infinity and Me by Kate Hosford, illus. by Gabi Swiatkowska, “about a girl contemplating the concept of infinity.” Intriguing topic paired with a wonderful illustrator.
• From Little Brown there is the much hyped title from Glee star Chris Colfer,  The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell  about “… twins who enter the world of fairy tales and have trouble getting out.” I mean, I do love fairy tales. Besides, you never know, do you?
• Also in my CAN’T WAIT category is Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket, the first in the “autobiographical” All the Wrong Questions series. Lucky Little Brown.
• Also from Little Brown comes The Diviners by Libba Bray, “which kicks off a glitzy murder/mystery/occult series set in New York City during the Roaring ’20s.” Fun!
• I’m a fan of Cat Valente’s  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making so am delighted to see that Macmillan’s Feiwel and Friends has The Girl Who Fell beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There “about September’s return to Fairyland and her venture to dark Fairyland Below.”
• I enjoyed the first in the Ruby Red series (along with a number of my students) so am very happy to see that Macmillan/Holt has the second one, Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier, trans. by Anthea Bell due out.  Yay!
• And then there is Macmillan/Roaring Brook’s The Children’s Book-a-Day Almanac by Anita Silvey. “Nuff said.
• Macmillan/Neil Porter Books’s Monsieur Marceau by Leda Schubert has me interested because Leda is a friend, because I saw Marceau perform as a child, and because I think it is time for us oldsters to get over our mime hatred as kids today might find them quite interesting!
• Macmillan/FSG/Ferguson has A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L’Engle, illus. by Hope Larson, a newly illustrated edition of the classic.
• Also from Macmillan/FSG/Feguson is The Quiet Place by Sarah Stewart, illus. by David Small, “in which a girl newly settled in America writes letters to her aunt in Mexico.” Sounds absolutely lovely.
• Macmillan/FSG/Foster is On the Road to Mr. Mineo’s by Barbara O’Connor, “about the excitement a one-legged pigeon brings to a small town in South Carolina.” I’m a big fan of O’Connor’s gentle small town stories so am looking forward to this one.
• Macmillan/Holt/Ottaviano has Potterwookie by Obert Skye, about a creature that’s a mash-up of Chewbacca from Star Wars and Harry Potter.  I mean…whaa…?
• From Penguin/Dutton we’ve got In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz. Having been mad for A Tale Dark & Grimm I eagerly await this one.
• Penguin/Paulsen’s has Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, illus. by E.B. Lewis, “about a girl who learns the importance of friendship and small acts of kindness.” This duo never fails.
• Random House/Delacourt has Enders by Lissa Price, conclusion to the two-part thriller begun with Starters (which I just read so I want to read the conclusion!).
• Random/Wendy Lamb’s got  Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead.  Another that I don’t think I need to say anything more about, do I?
• Random/Knopf has A by David Levithan, “in which a genderless main character ‘A’ inhabits a new person’s body every day and must learn how to navigate it  before moving on.”
• And then there is The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan, “a selkie tale” that I read reviews of already in the U.K. Love Lanagan so can’t wait for this one! From Random/Knopf.
• Random House/Schwarz & Wade has One Year in Coal Harbor by Polly Horvath, a sequel to Everything on a Waffle. I’ve been a fan of Horvath ever since The Trolls. Very, very happy to see this one.
• On the Day I Died by Candace Fleming, “in which nine teenage ghosts in a Chicago cemetery tell the stories of their deaths.” Fascinating. Also from Random/Schwartz & Wade.
• I love me some Jon Agee so am delighted to see The Other Side of Town  “in which a Manhattan cab driver picks up an odd little guy who leads him to a surprising world” coming from Scholastic/Di Capua.
• From Scholastic/Graphix comes Drama by Raina Telgemeier, “about 12-year-old Callie’s experiences onstage and off when she gets involved in the school play.”
• The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda, “a tale of a London-born boy who, on a trip to India, tries to protect his sister from monsters of Hindu myth” from Scholastic/Levine sounds very interesting.
• Super Grammar by Tony Preciado and Rhode Montijo,” which features easy-to-remember tricks from sentence structure superheroes” from Scholastic/Nonfiction tickles my teacher bones.
• From S&S/Beach Lane there’s Boot and Shoe by Marla Frazee, “in which a piece of footwear goes missing and disrupts a comfy schedule.”
• And I adore the work of Petra Mathers so am delighted to see that she has illustrated for S&S/Mcelderry an anthology of favorite rhymes, The McElderry Book of Mother Goose.