It’s Arachnid World Week day #3! Here’s a behind the scenes look at Ticks: Dangerous Hitchhikers with author Sandra Markle: Dr. Tom Mather has discovered that, somehow, 70 percent of all guinea pigs bitten by ticks carrying disease organisms don’t get sick. So he’s now studying what happens at the cellular level inside guinea pigs […]Read more "Arachnid World Week Day #3"

It’s Arachnid World Week day #2! Here’s a behind the scenes look at Harvestmen: Secret Operatives with author Sandra Markle: Dr. William Shear shared that one kind of harvestman called Caddo agilis is super fast. He said, “I’ve tried to catch them and it’s like they disappear and materialize as much as two feet (0.6 […]Read more "Arachnid World Week Day #2"

In the wake of the horrific natural and subsequent nuclear disasters in Japan, I turned to our Japan in Pictures title in the VGS series to remind myself of the geography that makes this island nation so susceptible to natural disasters of this magnitude. The New York Times has posted excellent maps on its website […]Read more "Japan"

Sandra Markle’s new Arachnid World series is so amazing we decided it deserved a full week on the blog! Welcome to Arachnid World Week! Each day this week we will give you a behind the scenes look at the series and if you leave a comment on the blog or tweet “I love @lernerbooks and […]Read more "Arachnid World Week!"

So I have this crazy obsession with reading. Granted, that’s probably not unusual for an editor. But when I say obsession, I do mean obsession. As in, I read the packaging my socks come in. I read the “News that Travels” bulletins my bus driver hands out on my commute to work (and I read […]Read more "True Confessions of an OR (Obsessive Reader)"

Let’s be honest: YA insiders have an uneasy relationship with stock photography. As much as mountains of cheap stock give designers a lot of creative flexibility (does anyone really think covers have gotten worse since the arrival of cheap digital stock?), stock is also perhaps at the root of a lot of pernicious cover group-think. […]Read more "Does a stock photographer actually have something to teach writers?"

Can you tell I’m excited about The Ferret’s a Foot? Colleen gave me these pins, and I will wear them proudly to the New York City release party! If you’re in the neighborhood, I hope you’ll join me there. THE FERRET’S A FOOT Book Release Party & WorkshopMarch 27, 2011, 1:30pmWORD Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY […]Read more "The Ferrets are Coming!"

My colleagues tell me that they’ve had some fun conversations about books with each other as a result of Part 1 of “What Are You Reading?” Here’s Part 2. Domenica I loved learning about the Jacques Tardi graphic novel series (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec) from my co-worker Greg, and while I was on […]Read more "What Are You Reading? (Part 2)"

Editing Brian P. Cleary’s rhyming verse can be hazardous. A particularly catchy stanza can easily get stuck in my head. For some reason, though, the verse that most often gets stuck in my head comes from the first Words Are CATegorical book I edited, Quirky, Jerky, Extra Perky: What Is an Adjective? It is: Adjectives […]Read more "Stuck in My Head"