May 3rd 2009

BOOK NEWS!

I know, I know. I once said NO MORE HOT NEWS! But my book news is hectic and I have to share it or burst.

Grand announcement: a new book, Hello Baby! appears in the USA on May 5th, 2009, and in Australia on June 1st 2009. I call it my ‘African’ book as it’s probably the only one I’ll write using my childhood background. It’s about African animals and is, as usual, a very short, rhyming, repetitive, rhythmic picture book in the tried-and-true Mem Fox style. I hope parents and babies will adore it. The story behind the story of Hello Baby! appears elsewhere on this site in the section called—surprise, surprise!—The Stories Behind The Stories.

In Australia it’s published by Penguin, and in the USA by Beach Lane Books, the personal imprint of my magical editor, Allyn Johnston, under the umbrella of Simon and Schuster. It’s Allyn’s first book under her own imprint so it’s a special landmark in our literary lives. The amazing, flamboyant, utterly wonderful cut-paper illustrations are by Steve Jenkins. Three cheers for him!

The cover of Hello Baby! and two major US reviews of it appear below, and after that even MORE new-book-news…

THE FOLLOWING BOOK RECEIVED ITS FIRST STARRED REVIEW IN THE FEBRUARY 2, 2009 ISSUE OF PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
HELLO BABY! Written by Mem Fox; illustrated by Steve Jenkins Beach Lane Books; ISBN 9781416985136; May 2009:

Like her Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Fox’s newest has all the marks of a lap-sit classic. In mellifluous motherese, the narrator poses a series of playful questions to a baby: “Are you a monkey with clever toes?/ Perhaps you’re a porcupine, twitching its nose.” After 11 more such guesses (featuring such animal faves as the gecko, the hippo and the warthog), the narrator finally gets it right: “Wait, let me guess—Are you my treasure? The answer is… Yes!” While Fox is cooing as only she can, Jenkins (What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?) works his usual magic with cut paper. In many of his large-scale close-ups—the images spill across and off the spreads-his subjects’ big, expressive eyes seem locked in a gaze with the reader. Ingeniously stylized shapes (like the coils of gray paper that form an elephant’s trunk) combine with sumptuous detailing that brings alive the parade of scales, fur and feathers.

ITS SECOND STARRED REVIEW APPEARED IN THE APRIL 1, 2009 ISSUE OF KIRKUS REVIEWS:

HELLO, BABY! By Mem Fox. Illustrated by Steve Jenkins.

Beach Lane Books; ISBN 9781416985136; May 2009:

A warm authorial voice asks baby, “Who are you?” and a parade of potential animals follows. Rhyming questions introduce furry and scaly candidates, creating an irresistible call-and-response, conversational reading experience. Young readers will surely answer each erroneous guess with an emphatic, enthusiastic “Noooo…!” Jenkins’s vibrant cut-and torn-paper close-ups of exotic animals appear on double-page spreads of ample white space, giving readers room to thoroughly consider both illustrations and text. Vivid swaths of color and texture capture elephant wrinkles, crinkly gecko skin and even warthog whiskers. A small, full-body silhouette of each animal appears as well, providing a glimpse of the creature in motion. Fox’s original language offers equally strong depictions of wildlife. She all but animates the stellar illustrations: A monkey fidgets with “clever” toes, a crocodile sits “silent and scary” and an owl gives readers a “wicked wink.” Anticipation builds as baby waits for the right answer, which comes as a sweet finish on the final page. This picture book brims with fascinating animals, brilliant words and engaging artwork; it begs for cozy nightly readings. (Picture book. Newborn-5)
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And now to my most recent book, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes (2008), which has been doing very nicely—an understatement, but I’m frightened of sounding too pleased with myself. In the USA it’s been on the New York Times bestseller lists for 18 weeks so far, between October ‘08 and May ‘09. Exciting! I’m sure the sales are due in large part to the blissful pictures in the book, divinely created by Helen Oxenbury. I’m happy to announce that in mid-2009, a board book edition of Ten Little Fingers (Penguin) will be available in bookshops in Australia, to add to the sales.

I have made up a lullaby to Ten Little Fingers which I’ve posted on YouTube, believe it or not. At my age! And soon I’ll be posting the song on the website as well, without any image. Unfortunately I sing it myself and I’m 63 and asthmatic, but at least there’s enough of a recognizable tune for parents to be able to learn it and sing it to their own children beautifully.

I also look forward to ‘speaking’ to you soon. By mid-May 2009 I’ll have a recording of myself reading three more books to add to the others already on the website. The new ones will be Ten Little Fingers; my next book: Hello Baby!; and Where Is The Green Sheep?

Where Is The Green Sheep? (huge thanks again to Judy Horacek for the absolutely apt and amazing illustrations) has become my current bestselling book in Australia, outselling Possum Magic at the moment. Yet another 20,000 copies of the board book edition were reprinted in April 2009. So many people are familiar with Where Is The Green Sheep? that when I read it during presentations many adults in the audience mouth the words with me, involuntarily. They don’t even realize they’re doing it. It’s heart-warming and absolutely hilarious. It’s coming out in a board book edition in the USA in 2009 (Harcourt). Green Sheep and Ten Little Fingers are proving to be wildly popular with young children so the new board book editions are a real plus—I know how much parents appreciate books that can’t be ripped to shreds and are easy to hold with a baby in one arm.

In June 2009, a newly designed and presented, small hardback edition of Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, with its winsome Julie Vivas pictures, will appear in Australia to celebrate its 25th year of publication. It’s published by Omnibus Books in Adelaide. I absolutely adore this book, even though my mother would have said that I shouldn’t say such things about my own work. It’s one of my classics, so if you’ve found me through more recent books like Hunwick’s Egg, or Where Is The Green Sheep? you might like to make Wilfrid’s acquaintance also. It’s for older children, somewhere between a sophisticated three year old up to a child of seven, or a grandparent of 87.

Another new edition of an older book: English Essentials: the wouldn’t-be-without it handbook on writing well, will appear in Australia in June/July. My dear friend and colleague Lyn Wilkinson and I first wrote this book in 1992, in despair at the incorrect and inept writing of some of our university students. It’s been in print ever since which is a feather in its cap since most text books don’t stay in print for long. (Its grammar and spelling are English English, not American English.)

Obviously, English Essentials aims to ensure correct grammar, punctuation and spelling in students’—or anyone’s—writing, but we also explain the elements of effective, lively writing and how to achieve it. It’s aimed at 14 year olds and upwards but Ph.D students, teachers and published writers use it too. We’ve updated it, changed some of the examples, and added, among other things, a new chapter on how to write an essay. The cartoonist, Nik Scott, has drawn a few more of his hysterical cartoons, and the entire book has been re-designed. Every time I re-read it, and I’ve had to do that many times over the last nine months, I’m in fits of giggles over the cartoons and I also find myself saying, in spite of having written it myself: ‘Good grief, this is so USEFUL!’ I know—I can feel my mother slapping me on the wrist. English Essentials is published by Macmillan Education, in Melbourne.

Finally, may I alert you to a new CD of me reading the whole of Reading Magic, my book for parents. I guess I said ‘the whole of …’ (obviously it’s the whole of…!) because recording it seemed to take years off my life. Actually it took only three long sessions on different days but it was all rather harrowing. I now have new respect for all the readers of books on CDs that I enjoy so much. I did my best to read Reading Magic with zest and vitality so I was happy to notice the review on the Audiobooks website which included the fact that it’s an EarPhones Award Winner. The review is below and the CD can be bought through major bookstores in the USA, and Amazon.

Audiobook Reviews
Personal Growth Personal Growth • 3.5 hrs. • Unabridged • ©2008
CD ISBN 9781598594812 $15.99 • Three CDs

AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

READING MAGIC :
Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever
Written by Mem Fox. Read by Mem Fox

In a marvelous example of audio’s power to improve lives, a children’s book author uses her sparkling vocal personality to promote reading aloud to children. “The fire of literacy,” she says, “is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.” The sound of her commitment to this notion and the skillful way she makes her case are only the beginning. Through her appealing vocal skills and the specific techniques she teaches, she persuades listeners that reading aloud to children is not only crucial for the child’s appreciation of language but also immensely satisfying for anyone caring for young children. In this isolating age of electronic addictions, reading aloud is a magical way to imprint in our children the need for connections with real people. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009] TO LISTEN: GO TO the Audiobook Store

That’s it for now…

All the best!

Mem Fox