Jonathan Stroud's Blog, page 74

Signing after the talks

Signing after the talks

The panel at the Children’s Librarians Dinner

The panel at the Children’s Librarians Dinner

BEA Children's Librarians Dinner

Off to the Princeton Club last night for the Annual BEA Children’s Librarian’s Dinner, where I was honoured to join an amazing line-up of speakers, including no less than three Newbery Medal winners. Kendare Blake reminisced about an inspirational school librarian (who had teeth like Nosferatu), who had set her on the road to becoming a writer; Susan Cooper gave a very beautiful account of how building her house in a Massachusetts salt marsh led her to the writing of Ghost Hawk, her new historical novel; Cynthia Voigt read a highly entertaining sequence from Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things; and Jack Gantos brought the house down with an account of his early misadventures in the world of writing picture books, and his irrational fear of librarians. I pitched in with a talk about how childhood visits to my local library in Bedford had spurred me to start writing at around five years old - and showed a few samples of some VERY early masterpieces to prove it. A terrific beginning to the BEA adventure: next up, my signing at the book fair itself… 

Here’s a friend I made around town.

Here’s a friend I made around town.

To New York for BEA

Left London in torrential rain yesterday and flew across to New York (to be greeted by more torrential rain). Tomorrow I’ll be appearing at Book Expo America 2013, and tonight I’ll be on the panel at the ALA/SLJ Children’s Librarian Dinner, along with Susan Cooper, Kendare Blake, Cynthia Voigt and Jack Gantos. It’s a prestigious line-up to be part of, and I’m very excited. This morning, Central Park outside my window is lush and green and humid, under a lead-grey sky. I’m going to finalise my speech for tonight, then take a walk to the American Museum of Natural History, to have a look at some dinosaurs.

Last night, after I got in, I had a lovely dinner with old friends Alison Morris of Scholastic, and Gareth Hinds, the brilliant graphic novelist, who showed me proofs of his beautiful forthcoming edition of Romeo and Juliet. You can see more of his work (including an incredible Odyssey) at www.garethhinds.com.

So what do you think?

Okay - all the covers are loaded up below! What do you think? Which is your favourite? If you want to let me know directly, I’ll be doing a live Facebook chat on my fan page today, from 18.00 hrs - 19.00 hrs, UK time. Join me here at http://on.fb.me/10bbukS. Or get in touch via Twitter, @JonathanAStroud.

And don’t forget, you can also read the first chapter of The Screaming Staircase now by visiting Entertainment Weekly’s site: http://bit.ly/18tEd80.

Here’s the German cover

Here’s the German cover

And here are all three side by side!

And here are all three side by side!

UK cover

Here’s the UK cover below…

Photo