Links: Children’s Book Week Roundup—and More!

Here’s a fascinating story about James Sturm’s Birdsong, just published by TOON Books, which is based on the Japanese storytelling art called kamishibai—and is being used by other artists to create their own performances.

The winners of the Children’s Choice Book Awards have been announced, and a graphic novel makes the cut: Judd Winick’s Hilo: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth was the top choice of fifth and sixth graders. Kate Beaton, best known as the creator of Hark! A Vagrant, won the award for best illustrator for her picture book The Princess and the Pony.

Maris Wicks, creator of Human Body Theater and the new Science Comics: Coral Reefs: Cities of the Ocean, discusses her love of science and explains why comics and science go together so well:

“There’s a lot of information to represent,” says Wicks, who is a trained scuba diver. “Comics are incredibly helpful educationally for providing images [as symbols]. For instance, for going back in time, to see what the reefs looked like 2 billion years ago — comics can get across that sense of scale.”

“With comics, there is an engagement that is unique and unlike any other art form,” Wicks emphasizes with the enchanting marriage of words and pictures. “Comics pull you in, in a very different way.”

Can’t get enough Maris Wicks? Travis Jonker interviews her on The Yarn.

Last week was Children’s Book Week, and John Patrick Green, whose Hippopotamister comes out this week from First Second Books, interviewed a number of his fellow creators on different blogs. Here’s the roundup, with links:
Forever YA featuring Gene Luen Yang
Read Write Love featuring Lucas Turnbloom
Kid Lit Frenzy featuring Kory Merritt
Sharp Read featuring Ryan North
Teen Lit Rocks featuring MK Reed
Love is Not a Triangle featuring Chris Schweizer
SLJ Good Comics for Kids featuring Victoria Jamieson
The Book Wars featuring Judd Winick
SLJ Fuse #8 featuring Eric Colossal
SLJ 100 Scope Notes featuring Nathan Hale
The Book Rat featuring Faith Erin Hicks
YA Bibliophile featuring Mike Maihack
Supernatural Snark featuring Sam Bosma
The Roarbots featuring Raina Telgemeier

Meanwhile, ICv2 devoted two weeks to children’s comics, including
Mike Richardson of Dark Horse discusses his company’s graphic novels for children, which include the Avatar the Last Airbender and Plants vs. Zombies titles;
Sarah Gaydos and Rick Gerstein of IDW talk about their kids’ properties, including Powerpuff Girls and Mickey Mouse comics;
Beth Kawasaki of Viz Media discussed their top kids’ properties—Pokemon, Yo-kai Watch, and Legend of Zelda—and revealed that Viz is ending the Perfect Square imprint and folding its kids’ titles back into the main line;
Filip Sablik of BOOM! Studios shared his thoughts on the kids’ graphic novel market as a whole and BOOM!’s most popular kids’ properties, which include the Adventure Time and Steven Universe comics as well as Lumberjanes;
Tokyopop announced three new properties, all Disney tie-ins: Alice in Wonderland: Special Collectors Manga; Finding Nemo: Special Collectors Manga; and Kilala Princess—all five volumes;
Lion Forge announced a new Care Bears story, written by Georgia Ball (Strawberry Shortcake) and illustrated by Melanie Gillman (As the Crow Flies), double-sized editions of its Punky Brewster and Saved by the Bell comics, and a new series, The Three O’Clock Club, from the creators of The Fairly Odd Parents;
BOOM! Studios announced the guest artists for its new Adventure Time Comics series; and
Jim McLauchlin talked to a number of comics retailers about how they market comics to kids and adults.

Travis Jonker asks readers to send in photos of their hold shelves, and what’s interesting about this gallery is that all but one photo includes at least one graphic novel.

Previews

Bone: Coda
The Children of Captain Grant
The Only Living Boy #2: Beyond Sea and Sky
Pig Goat Banana Cricket #1

Reviews

Johanna Draper Carlson on Breaking Cat News (Comics Worth Reading)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Goldie Vance #1 (Comics Worth Reading)
Sarah Stevenson on Human Body Theater (Finding Wonderland)
Book Nut Girls on vols. 2 and 3 of Lumberjanes (Book Nut)
Nick Smith on Poptropica: Mystery of the Map (ICv2)
Megan Walker on Seekers of the Weird, Figment, Big Thunder Mountain, Figment 2, and The Haunted Mansion (Mouseplanet)
Johanna Draper Carlson on Space Battle Lunchtime #1 (Comics Worth Reading)
Jen Hubert on Sweater Weather (Reading Rants)
Andrew Newton on Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #731 (Flickering Myth)

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