From Harry Potter-style mega-hits to controversy over banned books to hot competition for literary prizes, there is never a dull moment in the book world. Chapter & Verse keeps readers up-to-date on the latest in literary headlines. Check in with us daily to learn about books and their people - those who write them and those who love them.
The first book in a projected series by "Harry Potter" director Chris Columbus and author Ned Vizzini has a scheduled release date of spring 2013. (Yui Mok/SUB/PA/AP)
'Harry Potter' director Chris Columbus takes on children's books
After creating family-friendly entertainment with such films as the first two "Harry Potter" movies and the 1990 hit “Home Alone,” director-producer-screenwriter Chris Columbus is turning to children’s books.
Columbus, who also directed the 2010 film “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief,” has contracted to write a trilogy of children’s books for publisher HarperCollins, according to Entertainment Weekly. The books will be co-written with author Ned Vizzini, the writer of 2007’s “It’s Kind of a Funny Story.”
The books will be aimed at middle-schoolers, and the series has a working title of "House of Secrets." The books will focus on the Pagett siblings, who, with their parents, move into a house that was once owned by a fantasy author. The Pagetts are forced to go on a mysterious mission to save their parents and find out the truth behind their family. The first book has a planned release date of the spring, 2013.
Columbus told Entertainment Weekly that the transition to a writing process has not been a difficult one for him and that he was inspired to write children’s books after seeing how much the "Harry Potter" series affected young readers.
“You hope for just a section of that in terms of being able to inspire kids to read,” Columbus said. “And that’s really one of the themes of the book – that reading is essential to your development as a child and as an eventual adult. That really has inspired us in moving forward.”
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.
Costa biography prize winner Matthew Hollis is new to the genre with his book "Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas."
Costa Book Awards are dominated by newcomers
The winners of the 2011 Costa Book Awards – one of the United Kingdom's most prestigious literary prizes, awarded to writers based in the UK and Ireland – were announced today and appear to be dominated by newcomers.
The Costa Book Awards, which were titled the Whitbread Literary Awards until 2006, are awarded in five categories: novel, biography, poetry, first novel and children’s book. The winners in each category will now compete for the title of Costa Book of the Year, which will be announced Jan. 24.
Author Andrew Miller won the prize for best novel against writer Julian Barnes, who was awarded the Booker Prize in October for his novel “The Sense of an Ending.” The literary community was surprised when Miller was left off the longlist for the Booker Prize for his book “Pure,” which tells the story of an engineer living in Paris before the French Revolution.
Writer Matthew Hollis won the biography prize for his book “Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas,” the first biography Hollis has written, which focuses on the poet who was inspired to write by his friend Robert Frost and who was later killed in World War I. Moira Young, the winner of the Children’s Book prize, had written her first novel with “Blood Red Road,” the story of a girl who tries to track down her kidnapped twin brother in a mysterious future world.
The winner for the debut novel category, Christie Watson, received the award for her book “Tiny Sunbirds Far Away,” a novel about a girl whose life is thrown into upheaval after her father leaves the family. Watson, who works as a nurse, wrote the novel while on maternity leave, only starting to write five years ago.
“The reasons why I got into nursing and writing are the same,” Watson told the Daily Mail. “It’s about the human condition – life, death, grief, loss. Both professions are interested in the same questions.”
Britain’s poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy won the poetry prize for her work titled “The Bees.” A work of poetry won the title of Costa Book of the Year in 2010 when writer Jo Shapcott snagged the prize for her book “Of Mutability.”
Each Costa winner receives a prize of 5,000 pounds, and the author who wins the Book of the Year award is given an extra 30,000 pounds. There are three judges in each category that evaluate work.
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.
Children's author Walter Dean Myers said of his mission as ambassador, "Children who don't read are, in the main, destined for lesser lives. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to change this."
Walter Dean Myers chosen as new YA literature ambassador
Young adult author Walter Dean Myers was this morning named as the newest National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, a position previously held by authors Jon Scieszka and Katherine Paterson.
Myers’ books are known for their darker content, often including adult language and realistic depictions of young people facing adult-sized challenges like war and involvement with crime. Myers, who has written more than 50 books and is a five-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors, said he thinks his choice of subject matter will help him to bring a different experience to the position than previous ambassadors, though he was quick to praise his predecessors who he says did a great job.
“I think that Jon and Katherine were admirable,” Myers told the School Library Journal. “I think that I can be riskier in what I bring to the position because of who I am, but I don't feel our message is that much different.”
Executive director of the Children’s Book Council Robin Adelson told The New York Times that she thinks the real-life focus in Myers’ books will make kids relate to him.
“I think part of what makes him such a great choice for this post is that his writing is a little bit of everything,” Adelson said. “There’s this interest in history and this deep knowledge of history in Walter’s writing. Then there’s this definite hard-core, hard-edged realism.”
Former ambassador Scieszka says he thinks Myers will have no problem attracting kids’ attention.
“He has such a presence when he speaks, he just commands a room,” the author told Publishers Weekly. “Little kids, big kids, adults – everyone sits up when he starts speaking. He’s like a combination of Darth Vader and Pat the Bunny.”
As ambassador, Myers will travel around America and stop at libraries as well as schools to talk to students and encourage them to read.
"’Reading is not an Option!’ is my platform,” he told the School Library Journal. “As a young man, I saw families prosper without reading because there were always sufficient opportunities for willing workers who could follow simple instructions. This is no longer the case. Children who don't read are, in the main, destined for lesser lives. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to change this.”
A committee chooses an author for the position of ambassador, which was created in 2008. Members of the committee are selected by the Center of the Book in the Library of Congress and an organization associated with the Children’s Book Council titled Every Child a Reader. An author holds the job for two years.
Myers is scheduled to be awarded a medal in Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress next week. During the ceremony, he will officially accept the job of ambassador.
Myers, who dropped out of high school at 17 to join the army, began publishing mystery stories in magazines after he returned home from military service. He then submitted the winning entry for a contest to write a picture book. He is now best known for books including “Sunrise Over Fallujah,” which was released in 2009, and “Monster,” which came out in 2001. He has received the Michael L. Printz Award and was a three-time National Book Award finalists, in addition to having won two Newbery Honors and other awards.
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.
George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fires" series is being adapted into an HBO series in which Sean Bean plays protagonist Eddard Stark. (Nick Briggs/HONS/HBO/AP)
George R. R. Martin releases online excerpt from 'The Winds of Winter'
Fantasy author George R. R. Martin partially appeased fans who are ravenous for Book No. 6 in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by posting an excerpt from his new novel on his website on Dec. 28.
The writer, who was recently selected by USA Today as their author of the year, allowed six years to go by between the release of Book No. 4 and Book No. 5 in the "Song of Ice and Fire" series. Book No. 5, “A Dance With Dragons,” came out this past July and is still number 23 on the New York Times fiction bestseller list, with four of Martin's other books appearing on the paperback mass-market fiction list. Fans, who have been eager for more of the fictional land of Westeros, also depicted in an HBO series based on Martin’s books, have been frustrated by the fact that Martin has not yet committed to a release date for Book No. 6, which is titled “The Winds of Winter.” Martin has said the series will consist of seven books.
The excerpt of “The Winds of Winter” is more than 6,000 words long and consists of a section of the story from the viewpoint of Theon Greyjoy, the former ward of protagonist Eddard Stark. According to Martin’s website on Livejournal, another new sample chapter from Book No. 6 will be included with the paperback version of “A Dance with Dragons,” scheduled to be released in July.
Martin said on his website that the sample chapter told from Theon’s point of view will be at the beginning of “The Winds of Winter” although the events it narrates take place before some of the events in “A Dance with Dragons.”
As of yet, there is no scheduled release date for “Winds.”
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor contributor.
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