It's been a really busy month, and we have lots of news to share. First up, the Children's Book Council announced the winners of the third annual Children's Choice Book Awards during a gala held in New York on May 11th. Recipients of the award were selected by over 115,000 online votes by kids across the country through www.BookWeekOnline.com. I was fortunate enough to attend the event with some of our staffers. There were a number of children's and YA authors in the house, and eager children were running around getting their autographs. It was great to see this much enthusiasm going on about…BOOKS! The photo here is of Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series autographing a “standee” of Greg, the protagonist of the series, for my son Cory. The complete list of winners can be found here.

It's been a really busy month, and we have lots of news to share. First up, the Children's Book Council announced the winners of the third annual Children's Choice Book Awards during a gala held in New York on May 11th. Recipients of the award were selected by over 115,000 online votes by kids across the country through www.BookWeekOnline.com. I was fortunate enough to attend the event with some of our staffers. There were a number of children's and YA authors in the house, and eager children were running around getting their autographs. It was great to see this much enthusiasm going on about…BOOKS! The photo here is of Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series autographing a “standee” of Greg, the protagonist of the series, for my son Cory. The complete list of winners can be found here.

It’s my pleasure to welcome you to this special summer issue of GNR. We have a lot going on this week!

First the GNR team will be doing two events at BookExpo America in New York. That’s the annual convention of book trade convention where publishers tout their fall titles. It’s basically one gigantic party celebrating books. Carol is on the Thursday morning panel “Big-Name Authors with Graphic Novels: How Will This Change the Market?” at 9:30. Considering the impact works from the likes of Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer have already made, and with works coming from James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, and Dean Koontz, the topic is one that many publishers have already speculated on --- and I’m curious to see what the panel members will have to say. Later that day, at 2:30, I’ll be moderating the panel “Hot Fall Graphic Novels for Libraries.” I’ll be joined by a panel of great librarians who are all making their picks for what’s going to be of interest to libraries later this year. We'll share their selections with you in the next update.