The Lerner Blog

Since Graphic Universe is based in New York City, much less on the 72ndfloor of the Empire State Building, I couldn’t help look outside and think about the city’s name and its relationship to the world of comic books. After all, New York is not just the automatic choice for a generic backdrop in all […]Read more "New York City: A Character in Comics"

North American booksellers Barnes & Noble, Indigo Books and Music, and Books-a-Million are waging a “cold war” against Amazon following the announcement that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will publish print editions of Amazon Publishing East Coast titles. The brick-and-mortar stores refuse to stock Amazon’s print titles. Jaime Carey, chief merchandizing officer of Barnes & Noble, said […]Read more "Barnes & Noble Wages Cold War Against Amazon"

I’m just back from Paris, so I have to admit I don’t have much to say on the professional front, other than that RED and all its derivatives–from pink to orange to blood red–are in. Luckily I had packed some orange, and I did buy a new red dress while I was there. That’s me […]Read more "Literary Musings…in Orange!"

Congratulations to Mary Ann and Mommy Reads! Mary Ann has won our new On the Radar: Street Style series and Mommy Reads has won our new On the Radar: Defend and Protect series!This week we’re giving away a set of five new picture books from Carolrhoda Books and Millbrook Press! One lucky winner will receive […]Read more "Free Book Friday!"

Yesterday Kate Hosford, author of the Carolrhoda picture books Big Bouffant and Big Birthday, pointed me to a blog post by Laura Purdie Salas. One of Laura’s daughters shares the name Annabelle with the daringly nonconformist protagonist of Kate’s books, and although the real-world Annabelle is 19, it turns out they also share a fondness […]Read more "Who Says Picture Books Are Just For Kids?"

As readers of Frozen Secrets already know, Antarctica’s subglacial lakes—those bodies of liquid water that lie thousands of feet beneath continental ice sheets—are truly Earth’s unexplored frontiers. They are time capsules containing pristine examples of environments that have been unchanged and uncontaminated since the ice above them formed millions of years ago. In Frozen Secrets, […]Read more "Under the Ice"

We have referred to the book A Leaf Can Be . . . a couple of times on this blog, but I thought I’d spend a little more time on it today. In short, the book is a poetic exploration of the many roles leaves play all throughout the year. The text is by Laura […]Read more "A Leaf Can Be: Three in One Blow"

Congratulations to Wendy, Vividha, and CBarnett! They are the three lucky winners of No Crystal Stair written by Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winner R. Gregory Christie. This week one lucky winner will receive our new On the Radar: Street Style series and another lucky […]Read more "Free Book Friday!"

Last weekend, parts of Minnesota awoke to the beautiful sight of trees tricked out in white crystals.This effect is called hoar frost, but when the frost forms on objects like tree branches, apparently it’s also known as air hoar. In any case, the result was a magical array of trees of every shape and size, […]Read more "Beautiful Hoarfrost and Other Random Thoughts"