The Lerner Blog

Mary and Domenica asked me, the cofounder of Millbrook Press—of which Twenty-First Century Books (TFCB) became an imprint—to pass along what I know about the history of the imprint, now under the Lerner umbrella. If a new imprint calling itself Twenty-Second Century Books were to be launched today, we would no doubt expect something over-the-top […]Read more "TFCB’s Beginnings—Part I from Jean Reynolds"

How many of you spend a part of your day drawing pictures? I suppose it depends on how old you are and what kind of job you have, but here at Lerner, editors and production editors don’t typically do any drawing apart from a few stray doodles. That all changed when we started working on […]Read more "Ready . . . Set . . ."

As a life-long dog lover, I was quite excited to research and write a series on my four-legged best friends. For years, my dogs have sat faithfully at my side as I write at my computer. Now I had a chance to learn even more about my furry writing companions. What a dream assignment! These […]Read more "Elaine Landau on The Best Dogs Ever"

When something is described as enviable (in this case Steve Brezenoff’s prose) your next question is naturally, who’s doing the envying? Sara Zarr, that’s who. Here’s what she said: Brezenoff’s enviable prose captures four distinct, compelling characters as they struggle through the often heartbreaking work of becoming adults. Readers will identify with Suzanne, Lily, Noah […]Read more "“Enviable”"

It’s pretty clear that kids enjoy reading stories with recurring characters, characters whose histories they can follow over a long, long time. A graphic novel series, especially in manga, can run a half dozen volumes, or 20, or 30, or even hundreds of books, as the characters grow and change and meet more difficult and […]Read more "GU Comics Day: Recurring Characters"

[I asked Sarah Olmanson, one of our production editors, to write a post on how she sees her job.] Have you seen the blank stare in response to an answer you’ve given? I have. Every time I tell someone I’m a production editor. The question remains, “So what do you DO exactly?” While the answer […]Read more "The Answer to the Blank Stare"

In Millbrook’s brand-new picture book, The Clock Struck One: A Time-Telling Tale, Trudy Harris tells her own version of the familiar Hickory Dickory Dock nursery rhyme. Carrie Hartman’s lively pastels bring this story of a 12-hour chase to life.When Carrie Hartman finished the illustrations for The Clock Struck One, she just happened to mention that […]Read more "Inside the Artist’s Studio: Carrie Hartman"

Friday is usually Lerner Imprint Day on our blog, and I have to say, I’m pretty excited to dedicate this week’s Lerner post to one of my favorite new series in the imprint—The Best Dogs Ever. That’s right. Today our blog is going to the dogs. (Sorry. I just couldn’t stop myself.) One of the […]Read more "Going to the Dogs"

The Steel Pan Man of Harlem, Colin Bootman’s latest picture book is about to be out, and we couldn’t be more pleased with how it turned out. He transported the pied piper to Harlem in a magical, captivating way. We just recently completed a trailer for the book, which you can see here and on […]Read more "Rats!"