Challenged Books, 100 Sherlocks, and Remembering Beverly Cleary: This Week in Book News

Happy Friday writers, and happy first roundup of spring! We enjoyed our much needed long weekend last week and hope you all had a chance to relax and enjoy the ever improving weather as well. Let’s jump into the book news, shall we?

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Starting out on a sad note this week, author of our collective childhoods Beverly Cleary passed away at 104.

Children’s Author Beverly Cleary, Creator Of Ramona Quimby, Dies At 104

Children’s author Beverly Cleary died Thursday in Carmel, Calif., her publisher HarperCollins said. She was 104 years old. Cleary was the creator of some of the most authentic characters in children’s literature – Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and the irascible Ramona Quimby.

HarperCollins is acquiring the trade division of Houghton Mufflin Harcourt.

HarperCollins will acquire the trade division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for $349 million.

Only three months after the high-profile merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, The New York Times reported earlier this morning that HarperCollins, one of publishing’s “Big Five,” will acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books and Media-Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s trade publishing division-for $349 million.

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Scholastic has ceased distribution of a Dav Pilkey book for perpetuating passive racism.

Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants book pulled for ‘passive racism’

A graphic novel for children from the wildly popular Captain Underpants series is being pulled from library and book store shelves after its publisher said it “perpetuates passive racism.” The book under scrutiny is 2010′s The Adventures of Ook and Gluk by Dav Pilkey, who has apologized, saying it “contains harmful racial stereotypes” and is “wrong and harmful to my Asian readers.”

The list of the most challenged and banned books in America for 2020 has been released by the American Library Association, and anti-racism books are all over it.

https://www.theroot.com/anti-racism-titles-are-all-over-the-list-of-10-most-cha-1846634839?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Daily:%20April%208%2C%202021&utm_term=lithub_master_list

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As there’s still no certain end of the pandemic in sight, PRH is extending its temporary eBook and audiobook library terms.

PRH Extends Temporary E-book, Digital Audio Terms for Libraries

Under the terms of its program, which PRH began more than a year ago, libraries have the option to license e-books and digital audio for one-year terms at a 50% prorated price as an alternative to the existing two-year term (for e-books) or perpetual access (for digital audio).

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair will be virtual again this year.

Bologna Children’s Book Fair Will Be Virtual

For a second year in a row, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair will be an exclusively virtual book fair. Organizers had held out hope that the event, scheduled for June 14-17, could be an in-person show, but continuing Covid concerns forced the cancellation of all live plans.

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The Women’s Prize for Fiction have issued a response to the transphobic open letter that was written in response to Torrey Peters’ being included on the award’s longlist.

Women’s prize condemns online attack on trans nominee Torrey Peters

The Women’s prize for fiction has issued a strongly worded statement saying that it “deplores any attempts to malign or bully” authors nominated for the prize, after trans novelist Torrey Peters was targeted in an open letter.

The winners for the PEN Lit awards were announced.

Gay, Wang, Ehrenreich, Hartman Win at 2021 PEN Lit Awards

The PEN Literary Awards, presented this year in a virtual ceremony, awarded poet Ross Gay the $75,000 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Be Holding: A Poem (University of Pittsburgh), a book-length lyrical tribute to the great basketball player Julius Erving and much more. Michael X.

The longlist for the International Booker Prize has been announced.

2021 International Booker Prize Longlist Announced

The longlist for the International Booker Prize, an award for the best translated work of fiction, has been announced, and includes books from 11 languages and 12 countries. The prize offers £50,000, split evenly between author and translator. The shortlist will be announced on April 22, with the winner announced on June 2.

The 2021 Carnegie Medal shortlist has been announced.

Shortlist for Carnegie medal offers locked-down children ‘hope and escapism’

From a picture book about a father and son’s hike into the mountains, to the story of an exhausted lion that captures the majesty of nature, the books in the running for the UK’s oldest children’s book awards this year have been praised for “offering hope and escapism during lockdown”.

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Joye Hummel, the first woman to pen a Wonder Woman comic, has passed away.

Joye Hummel, first woman hired to write Wonder Woman comics, dies at 97

In March 1944, shortly before Joye Hummel graduated from the Katharine Gibbs secretarial school in Manhattan, she was invited to meet with one of her instructors, a charismatic psychologist who had been impressed by her essays on a take-home test.

UCLA’s Archive of Healing, a comprehensive database of medicinal folklore, is now available online.

The Archive of Healing, a Trove of Medicinal Folklore, Is Now Online

The digital archive features hundreds of thousands of entries describing cures, rituals, and healing methods spanning two centuries, with a focus on protecting Indigenous knowledge from for-profit exploitation. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)’s Archive of Healing, one of the most comprehensive databases of medicinal folklore in the world, is now accessible online.

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Mena Suvari is releasing a memoir this summer.

Mena Suvari writes memoir about how she ‘lost herself’

The Great Peace: A Memoir will be published by Hachette Books on July 27. Mena Suvari – who rose to stardom as an actress with roles in films like American Beauty and the American Pie franchise – has written a “harrowing” and “heartbreaking” memoir about coming of age in Hollywood.

Randall Park is directing an adaptation of Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings.

Randall Park is directing a film adaptation of Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings.

The year from hell has turned out to be a hell of a year for Eisner Award-winning cartoonist and New Yorker illustrator Adrian Tomine. First, his graphic memoir, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, got a pretty rapturous critical reception upon its release back in June.

George RR Martin has signed a massive five year deal with HBO.

George RR Martin signs five-year, eight-figure deal for more HBO projects

After the huge success of HBO’s adaptations of his Game of Thrones books, George RR Martin has signed a deal to develop several television series for the network and its streaming arm, HBO Max.

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Anyone who took a Shakespeare class is well versed in iambic pentametre, but this article poses the question: are we reading Shakespeare’s work correctly?

Are We Getting Shakespeare’s Rhythms All Wrong? | JSTOR Daily

Have you ever gone to a performance of one of William Shakespeare’s plays and found yourself confused about what an actor is going on about? Take heart. Mort Paterson is a Shakespearean actor and he writes that even he has the same problem sometimes.

And last but certainly not least: Did you know Sherlock Holmes has appeared on the screen over 250 times?! Wild, I know. Lucky for us, Crime Reads has ranked the top 100 Sherlocks for us (Although I would have put Brent Spiner higher on the list).

The 100 Best, Worst, and Strangest Sherlock Holmes Portrayals of All-Time, Ranked

We’re ranking Sherlock Holmes performances. One hundred of them. Not Sherlock Holmes adaptations, but the representations within them of Sherlock Holmes himself. Now, you might think that you know the best Sherlock Holmes, but as the man himself has said, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Staff Pick

Rachel and Laura, KWL Author Engagement Team

“We both dove into the Grishaverse (after some enthusiastic encouragement from a Kobo team member) and started the Shadow and Bone trilogy this week. We can’t wait to see it come to life on the upcoming Neflix adaptation and we highly recommend reading these books if you’re looking for a story of action and adventure set in a truly magical world.”