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"

Graphic Universe is jazzed about its new release of the long-standing Lerner favorite—The Girl Who Owned A City, written by O.T. Nelson. This time it’s in full graphic novel format in which intense colors and magnificent artwork splash the pages and tell the iconic story of a girl named Lisa Nelson who suddenly finds herself […]Read more "The Girl Who Owned A City: The Graphic Novel"

I just flew in from the Reading Recovery conference, and boy are my arms tired!  Last week in Digital-Readers for Beginners, Part One, I wrote about some digital-reader ownership statistics, and highlighted the typical features of eBook readers and tablet computers. Today, we’ll cover the following topics: 1. iOS vs. Android2. The concept of the […]Read more "Digital-Readers for Beginners, Part Two"

http://bit.ly/oJs4nF/ I heard part of a fascinating interview (link above) with author and book critic Lev Grossman on public radio recently. He talked about the popularity of fantasy fiction and the blurring of genres, and about two of his own fantasy novels (The Magicians and The Magician King). Since I myself don’t read much fantasy, […]Read more "Fantasy Life"

Congratulations to Lillian Hemphill! She is the winner of our brand new Searchlight Books ™ — How Does Government Work? series valued at more than $160.00! This week in honor of Black History Month, three lucky winners will receive No Crystal Stair written by Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and illustrated by […]Read more "Free Book Friday!"

Probably all editors have a special fondness for the very first books they edited. I got thinking the other day about the first books I edited at Lerner, and I have to say, it made me pretty nostalgic. Here’s a self-indulgent peek at a few of the books that launched my Lerner career. Filipinos in […]Read more "First Books"

Pew Research Center recently released eye-opening, if not unexpected, statistics on ownership of tablet computers and eBook reader devices. Following a busy holiday season, 29 percent of American adults own a digital-reader device. Ownership of tablets increased from 9 percent to 19 percent, in large part due to the emergence of the lower-priced Kindle Fire […]Read more "Digital-Readers for Beginners, Part One"

In book publishing, when we talk about dummies, we’re not bad-mouthing our colleagues. No, we’re just talking about a mock-up of a book. The particular dummy I want to feature today is one that designer Danielle Carnito made for the book Not a Buzz to Be Found: Insects in Winter. For many books, we review […]Read more "Dummies Are Useful"

Congratulations to Miss Millie, Bigfoot, and @bmlikdsteens! They are the winners of The Freak Observer, and Catch & Release by Blythe Woolston! With the presidential election right around the corner it’s hard to miss all of the political debates and ads. For many kids this can lead to the question, “How does government work?” Well, […]Read more "Free Book Friday!"