Children's book news from the US

 PW

Pew Report: Parents Depend on Libraries to Nurture Reading
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reports, in its latest study, that "fully 94% of parents say libraries are important for their children, with access to books at the the top of library services." The report continues: “Libraries," parents say, “help inculcate their children’s love of reading and books.” 

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neak Peek

First Look: 'Mr. Wuffles!'
In 1993, David Wiesner created cover art for Cricket magazine that depicted the crash landing of aliens in what, at first glance, appeared to be barren desert. Readers who laid the magazine flat to view the wraparound artwork as a whole found two delightful reveals: the aliens were actually really tiny, and they hadn’t put down in the desert; they had landed in a sandbox. Twenty years later, he's expanded the concept of that cover into "a nearly wordless picture book that’s full of dialogue that nobody can read,” says Wiesner's longtime editor, Dinah Stevenson. 
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Q & A with Sara Zarr
In The Lucy Variations, National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr's newly published fifth novel, 16-year-old Lucy Beck-Moreau has stepped away from her blossoming career as a concert pianist, and is struggling to redefine what role music will play in her life. Zarr spoke to Bookshelf about writing, music, and continuing to find joy in one’s art despite the stresses of career expectations.


Q: Did the concept or the characters in The Lucy Variations come to you first?

A: I knew that I wanted to [write about] a complicated but not sordid relationship with an older man and I could picture a girl with a talented younger brother. Most of my characters are from working or middle-class backgrounds, so I thought it would be interesting to put Lucy in a position of privilege and to make her problems more existential, more about self-actualization. 

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