CaliforniaAuthors - News and notes from America’s largest book market
October 11, 2008

Stories in Children's books:

SoCal book awards, 2008 edition

The Southern California Independent Booksellers Association has just announced the finalists for this year’s book awards. It’s a strong field and the winners will be crowned Oct. 18 at the 2008 Authors Feast in Los Angeles.
Here’s the complete list:
Fiction:

City of Thieves, by David Benioff (Penguin)
Imagine Me and You, by Billy Mernit (Shaye Arehart Books)
The [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, July 29th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Booksellers, Children's books, Fiction, New Release 2008, Nonfiction, Prizes and awards, Southern California

Notebook: fREADom, “real” literacy and black humor

About Uncle Bobby: In Uncle Bobby’s Wedding a niece worries that her uncle’s upcoming wedding will change her relationship with him. P.S. The characters are guinea pigs. P.P.S. Uncle Bobby is gay. One Colorado library patron wrote the local paper to say the children’s picture book was a “slap in [her] face” and urged other [...]

Posted by Kate Cohen, July 28th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Children's books, Freedom to read, Funny, Jobs/labor relations, Libraries, Literacy, Los Angeles, New Release 2008, Newspapers, Sad

A trio of author updates

After I wrote yesterday about Latinos In Lotusland, editor Daniel Olivas shared the backstory of the anthology’s magical cover. He says, “Yes, it is a beautiful cover. Bilingual Press is affiliated with Arizona State University, which has the largest Chicano art collection in the country. So, last year, they flew me out to [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, May 20th, 2008 | Permalink
File under: Anthology, Art, Buzz, Children's books, Fiction, Giveaways, New Release 2008

Sunday shorts

• The LAT’s Maria Russo on Jane Smiley’s new novel, Ten Days in the Hills: “It’s billed as a Hollywood novel, but it’s just as much a novel about sex, and it’s a novel that feels burrowed into Los Angeles’ landscape and real estate.”
• LA Weekly’s Tom Christie on Michele Matheson, an actress-turned-novelist who found [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, February 11th, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Author profile, Booksellers, Children's books, Libraries, Nonfiction

Surprise!

Children’s author Susan Patron, a collections manager at the Los Angeles Public Library, won this year’s prestigious Newbery Medal. From The Washington Post:
Patron won for “The Higher Power of Lucky,” the story of a motherless 10-year-old in a tiny town in the California desert. Her win “was a big surprise to everyone, including me,” [...]

Posted by Donna Wares, January 23rd, 2007 | Permalink
File under: Children's books, Prizes and awards, San Francisco