Tuesday, September 25, 2012

WALKER BOOKS GROUP REVEALS TITLE AND RELEASE DATE FOR NEWBERY AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR KATE DICAMILLO’S NEXT NOVEL


The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses
TO BE ILLUSTRATED BY K. G. CAMPBELL

Somerville, MA – The Walker Books Group, including Candlewick Press, Walker Books UK, and Walker Books Australia, is pleased to announce the highly anticipated new novel from Newbery Award– winning and New York Times best-selling children’s author, Kate DiCamillo, The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses, to be published globally September 26, 2013.

The latest masterpiece from DiCamillo is a hilarious, heartfelt, and utterly original story. When describing the process of writing the book, DiCamillo said, “There is a line from the 13th century poet Rumi that I kept close by as I worked on this novel:
The grief armies assemble, but I'm not going with them.
For me, The Illuminated Adventures of Flora and Ulysses is a book about
joy and laughter, about moving away from grief and turning toward
love. Additionally, it is a book about seal blubber.”

The genre-breaking novel introduces an exciting new format for the
author and is fully illustrated in black-and-white by up-and-coming artist K. G. Campbell.
“Kate continues to amaze us all with her tremendous versatility and capacity to experiment with new forms and formats. Readers will be captivated by this extraordinarily imaginative story, which is both laugh-out-loud funny and unforgettably moving. This new novel embodies Kate’s signature wit, and I cannot wait for Flora and Ulysses to stand side by side with her other beloved characters,” says Karen Lotz, President and Publisher of Candlewick Press, and Managing Director of the Walker Books Group.
Candlewick Press is announcing a first print run of 300,000 for the novel in the U.S., which will be supported by a $250,000 marketing campaign, including a ten-city author tour at the time of publication. The book will also be available as a simultaneous e-book.

KATE DICAMILLO PUBLISHING FACTS & FIGURES
· Winner of the Newbery Award, a Newbery Honor, National Book Award Finalist, and Boston-Globe Horn Book Award Winner
· 11 New York Times Best-selling titles in all editions
· 18.5 million copies combined in print worldwide
· Books have been translated into 39 languages
· Two major feature film adaptations have been made from her books: Because of Winn Dixie and The
Tale of Despereaux

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The theme of hope and belief amid impossible circumstances is a common thread in much of Kate DiCamillo’s writing. In her instant #1 New York Times bestseller The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, a haughty china rabbit undergoes a profound transformation after finding himself face-down on the ocean floor -- lost, and
waiting to be found. The Tale of Despereaux—the Newbery Medal–winning novel that later inspired an
animated adventure from Universal Pictures—stars a tiny mouse with exceptionally large ears who is driven by love to become an unlikely hero.
Kate DiCamillo’s own journey is something of a dream come true. After moving to Minnesota from Florida in her twenties, homesickness and a bitter winter helped inspire Because of Winn-Dixie—her very first published novel, which, remarkably, became a runaway bestseller and snapped up a Newbery Honor. "After the Newbery committee called me, I spent the whole day walking into walls," she says. "I was stunned. And very, very happy."
Her second novel, The Tiger Rising, went on to become a National Book Award Finalist. And since then, the master storyteller has written for a wide range of ages, including a comical early-chapter-book series about Mercy Watson (a "porcine wonder" with an obsession for buttered toast), as well as a luminous holiday picture book, Great Joy.
Born in Philadelphia, the author lives in Minneapolis, where she faithfully writes two pages a day, five days a
week.

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